At last, the long awaited Samsung Galaxy S II—branded the Epic 4G Touch by Sprint—has arrived in the excited hands of the iFixit crew!

Some key features of the Epic 4G Touch include:

• 1.2 GHz dual-core processor
• 4.52" Super AMOLED Plus display—0.22" bigger than the Galaxy S II
• 1 GB RAM
• 8 MP rear-facing camera able to shoot videos at 1080p paired with a front facing 2 MP camera
• 16 GB onboard memory with a microSD card slot for up to 48 GB total memory
• Android 2.3.4 Gingerbread.

When compared to the T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S 4G, the Micro USB port has been relocated from the top to the bottom of the Epic 4G Touch. Sadly, they also removed the sliding door that keeps it free from lint and micro dust bunnies.

The Epic 4G Touch has slightly more girth than its overseas counterpart, the Galaxy S II. At 9.65 mm and 4.55 ounces, the Epic 4G Touch seems to have gained a millimeter and a half-ounce during its trip to the U.S.

The Galaxy S II that is available overseas features only three buttons on the front, including a physical home button. Our yankee version, however, has four capacitive touch function buttons, like many Android devices sold here.

If the yankee-added search button is the bane of your existence, you may always opt for an unlocked version of the original Galaxy S II.

The user-removable back cover comes off quite easily with some prying.

Unfortunately, Samsung and Sprint decided not to include NFC support in this variant of the Galaxy S II, which means no Google Wallet support either.

• Unsure what an NFC module looks like? Check out the Nexus S teardown.

We love phones with batteries that are easy to replace, and this device fits that mold.

The 1800 mAH Li-ion battery in the Samsung Epic 4G Touch has a claimed battery life of 8.7 hours of continuous talk time and 10.5 days on standby.

Compare this with the Galaxy S II's 1650 mAh battery.

For those of you who prefer real world battery life tests, Engadget's reviewers easily managed 12 hours of moderate usage without any need to charge the battery.

Before diving in any further, we take a brief moment to admire the 8.0 megapixel rear-facing camera and microSD slot.

• Notice that the camera orientation and microSD slot location have been altered from that of the Galaxy S II.

Unfortunately, the Samsung Epic 4G Touch does not come with a microSD card. If 16 GB of internal memory isn't enough for you, you're going to have to spring for your own card.

Break's over! A Phillips #00 screwdriver from our 54 piece bit driver kit and some plastic opening tools allow us to separate the rear case from the display assembly.

• It's a good idea to work gently as you pry around the display glass. Excess force may result in, well, pokey shards of glass.

After freeing a few more Phillips #00 screws, a handful of connectors, and a sticker from the firm grips of the Epic 4G's Touch, off comes the motherboard.

Cool your soldering stations everybody, we are pleased to announce that the device doesn't house a smorgasbord of EMI shields and that its single EMI shield is removable with only a few gentle pries.

With the help of our spudger, we remove a connector to get to the EMI shield.

In an unusual twist, the SD card reader is attached to an EMI shield that requires no desoldering to remove. That made our job easier this time around.

The next thing off the motherboard is the rear-facing camera.

8.0 megapixels and HD video recording, while impressive, are pretty run-of-the-mill for newer Android phones.

What appears to be the image processor is attached to the camera ribbon cable and bears the marking MBG043.