IFA 2011: Galaxy Tab 8.9 Comes with LTE Support for T-Mobile

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Verizon may have a huge lead when it comes to LTE deployment in the USA, with AT&T just starting to launch LTE devices, but in Europe that’s a different story. Carriers have not started selling 4G LTE smartphone yet and they’re still shy about Long Term Evolution.

But it looks like T-Mobile (the German version) has LTE plans of its own. According to Engadget the carrier has an LTE-ready device at its IFA booth this year, the Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9. The picture below clearly shows the LTE logo painted on the back of the 8.9-inch Android Honeycomb tablet. The carrier is said to have been “showing off” its “blazing” LTE speeds, and that the device could be launched at some point in the fourth quarter of the year although no pricing details have been mentioned at this time.

This Galaxy Tab 8.9 LTE unit is said to offer a 1.5GHz dual-core processor, 32GB of memory and Android 3.2 under the hood and the fact that it was spotted at IFA 2011 shouldn’t surprise anyone. After all just a few days ahead of the launch of the trade show Samsung made the Galaxy S II LTE and the Galaxy Tab 8.9 LTE official.

It’s also interesting to note, from a different point of view, that the German carrier has chosen to demo its LTE capabilities, among other devices, a Samsung product that hasn’t been banned by German courts of law. The Galaxy Tab 10.1 (also available with LTE support) has been temporarily banned from selling in Germany, or in Europe by German subsidiaries of Samsung. That battle though is not yet over although so far Apple has been scoring several victories against the South Korean carrier in countries like Germany, The Netherlands and Australia.

Let’s hear it from our German, and European readers, are you going to buy an LTE device as soon as it’s available from your local carriers?