I bought Galaxy S2 after a thorough review of the phone and continuously monitoring feedback given. I must say, I am not disappointed but truly amazed how intuitive and well designed. I would agree with most of the reviews before and will try to cover some aspects not so far covered in reviews in the hope that it will help other prospective buyers in making a decision to buy a smart phone, after all you would be paying more than for a 42″ HD TV.
I have been a iPhone 4 and Blackberry user and use the phone for e-mails and browsing a lot. Before deciding to purchase this phone (now have used it for about a week)I considered Blackberry Torch and iPhone4 and very much aware of capabilities and limitations of these.
e-mail, contacts, calander: you can set up multiple e-mail accounts (I have set up and using 3 accounts: gmail, hotmail and MS Exchange server). All work very well. You can synchronize e-mail, contacts, and calendar of all these accounts on the phone and they appear on the the respective application colour coded making it possible to see from what account it came from. Further you can access e-mails separately on different accounts on the same e-mail app.
Browser is very good and reliable. Yes, flash content can be viewed. Browsing is much faster and smoother than iPhone4. Apps: Yes, it is not as extensive as the iTunes but there are enough Apps available (some preloaded, available from Samsung, and from Android market). Most Apps are free compared to iTunes. I did not have any problem with the Apps I downloaded so far. Music Hub: It is primarily for you to download music from 7digital. The player there is not great. But there is a separate App for music which works fine with your downloaded music. Social Hub: for e-mails, integrates well with Facebook, my space, twitter, LinkedIn etc. Games Hub: There are free games for you to download and play as well as premium games for you to purchase. Kies: provides the interface management App when connected to the computer (same as iTunes for iPhone). This is possibly one of the weakest. It is very slow to update. Having said that it works fine if you are bit patient. But to add music or download/upload photos or movies you really do not need it. You can use widows explorer to do that job directly accessing the phone and placing or taking content you need directly from or the the folder concerned. Kies Air: this is one the good things. You can access all your content from the phone on a web browser by pointing the browser to the IP address given by Kies Air. For this you need to get connected on the your home wireless network. It works fine, and you can play music, view photos or videos wirelessly on any other device that is connected to your network and which has a browser. If you have a TV with a browser (Smart TV or other)or laptop you can play content fro the phone on it without any wired connection. I connected my Galaxy S2 to a friends iPad this way wireless and could view photos but could not play music as iPad do not support flash. Good for the Galaxy S2 and shame for iPad/iPhone.
Maps, navigator, Google earth and similar Apps work fine. The Navigator works fine and is very responsive. It consumes the battery power and if you want to use it for long needs to be charged through the car charger. You would require a USB car charger and the supplied micro USB cable. It has FM radio, treat on the move compared to iPhone. Comes with great set of high quality headphones with additional ear pieces. The notification system is very good with all notifications iconised on a bar top of the screen which can be pulled down whenever you want to see the notifications. Yes, with all these facilities battery life is low and you need to charge every day if you are a heavy user of these all functions. One way to improve battery life is to limit pushing of e-mails. These can easily be done on the settings menu. Camera rear(8MP)works really well. The front camera at 3MP is also very good. Managed to get few very good quality photos. The quality of photos is better than iPhone. Screen quality is equal or better than iPhone. Comparing the screen size the iPhone4 now seems like a distant toy much smaller. There are many Apps available on the Android market (most as free downloads) which can integrate all your photos in (for example Facebook, Picasa etc.) one App. Office & Pdf Documents: The Polaris App is pre-loaded in the phone. It can read and edit all office documents such as Excel, Word and PowerPoint. Voice commands: Works fine. You can easily dictate your e-mails and all is then converted to text. I could get over 90% accuracy even with my first attempt. It is a treat to use. I am using the Sunny Savers gel/Silicone hybrid cover (£3.95) which nicely fit in to the Galaxy S2. A perfect companion. All in all a very good phone and I am very pleased…
As a man who gets bored very easily I decided to upgrade from an iPhone 3Gs to the HTC Desire HD…I took to android very well claiming it was the best thing since sliced bread (or should I say gingerbread )..once again a little bored I decided to bite the bullet and spent a little more money on the Galaxy S2 a decision that I promise you will not be one you regret. I’m sure almost every user scouring these reviews is looking for a definitive answer to the question “Is it better than the iPhone 4S”… Im afraid it all depends on taste, I personally believe it is a lot better, I do not fall easily for gimmicks such as “Siri” or use many apps (The main reason most people send their hard earned cash on an iPhone) although the android app store is full of pretty much the same stuff as the Apple one, just this morning I picked up an excellent little keyboard app for 10p called “SwiftKey X Keyboard” which I assure you is a sound purchase. I like a nice big screen, where I can send lots of texts, easily make calls and check my various social network accounts from time to time and this is something that the Galaxy S2 delivers for a much cheaper price than the iPhone. Do not think that I am out just to slate Apple, i am writing this on an iMac and just last week purchased a Macbook Air. I just don’t think they can justify charging that much when the the Galaxy S2 is just as good if not better, cheaper, lighter and dare I say…better looking. What you should really do go to a phone shop and try both phones, or even a different smartphone (just not a blackberry that would be silly). however If you are like me and enjoy the comforts of your room/media hub then please take a chance on this phone, you will not be disappointed…I bought the one from amazon just to make sure it was genuine, It works with my Vodafone sim card which is part way through a contract. Hoped this helped. Tyer100.
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As an iPhone 4 user since last year I had the chance to try out my first Android phone, the current top of the line Samsung Galaxy S II (i9100) thanks to TRND. COM And I have to say I am really impressed with what I saw and experienced with this Samsung phone.
—- Hardware (general build and feel) —- Extremely lightweight, very nicely balanced. The handset size seems very good (perfect for a man’s hand although my wife also likes it very much), actually hides its actual size due to its thinness and weight. Materials used have a good haptic touch, although it feels slightly less expensive then the iPhone 4 (probably because it uses more plastic and less glass/ metal). The back cover is slightly difficult to remove because it initially feels flimsier then it actually is but unproblematic once you get used to it and no problem at all if you need to insert a microSD card, replace the SIM or change the battery. A very high quality in-ear headset is included which I massively prefer instead of the Apple headsets – but this may be a personal decision. -> Conclusion: In all the Samsung is on par with the iPhone 4, each has its own merits.
—- Screen —- Large (4.3″), very crisp and sharp display, great colors (better then the iPhone4 Retina display in this regard but also a bit darker). The screen (using an enhanced AMOLED technology which Samsung coined “Super AMOLED Plus” is probably the best stand-out feature of the Samsung and puts it over the top of all current smartphones. -> Conclusion: In all slightly better then the iPhone 4 due to size and colours.
—- Operating System —- Uses Andoid 2.3.3 (named Gingerbread), the most current smartphone version of Google’s Android OS. With many great and useful Android features (notification), but others like Apple are catching up fast to we need continued progress. And this is good for the consumer! I had no crashes or reboots using the Samsung during the last four weeks, only once the Facebook app needed to be restarted but I guess that was the app itself and not the OS. -> Conclusion: Probably just as good as IOS 4, I prefer the Apple although this may very much depend on the personal preference so I will call it a draw. (3:2)
—- Samsung OS Add-ins —- Samsung added its own refinement (“TouchWiz 4.0”) on top of Gingerbread to enhance the experience. I loved the fast access to settings like turning on/off Bluetooth, GPS, WiFi etc and some scalable widgets seems useful. I am not too sure about the hubs concept – I personally rather like to use specific or native apps for specific media types. Samsung also included a DLNA compliant server application, which enables the phone to wirelessly “send” pictures, videos and music from the handset to a number of devices like modern TVs, Playstation 3, Xbox360 or even to a Windows 7 PC. I personally like the optional Swype keyboard which Samsung provides – this enables you to type words without lifting your fingers. After using it once on the Galaxy, I missed such a feature on the iPhone. The Samsung also has a remote management feature (“Samsung Dive”), which enables finding or disabling the phone if it lost, similar to the “Find my iPhone” service of Apple. Samsung provides an own software suite for Windows and OSX PCs called Samsung KIES, which even enables a wireless sync to the PC. Media management of KIES is good but not as good as Apple’s iTunes. There are a few sellers for Android music (most prominently Amazon) but Video content does not seem to be available anywhere. -> Conclusion: Better then IOS 4, although this may really depend on the personal preference, especially if do not like to “bring your own media”.
—- Speed —- The Samsung has a 1.2GHz dual core processor and it shows in general responsiveness – I never had the feeling of lag while using the touchscreen or apps. Of course measuring and comparing speed within apps is difficult (for example Angry Birds game seemed slower – lower FPS – then on the iPhone4) but the web load rendering on WiFi and 3G is noticeably faster than the current iPhone generation. Also a reloading of web pages was rarely required, possibly also be a due to increased memory (1GB RAM). The problem with speed within graphic intense games may be a general issue with Android OS, not anything Samsung can directly improve. -> Conclusion: Slight preference of Samsung, but YMMV because this may depend on the apps used. Will probably be no difference for most users.
—- Battery —- My own requirements are that any phone should last at least 36-40 hours with my normal usage pattern. 40 hours would be perfect. Take a fully charged phone from the bedside, use it normally during the day and only require charging again the evening of the NEXT day, when you go to sleep. This way you know you’ll have enough…
A super excellent smart phone,
I bought Galaxy S2 after a thorough review of the phone and continuously monitoring feedback given. I must say, I am not disappointed but truly amazed how intuitive and well designed. I would agree with most of the reviews before and will try to cover some aspects not so far covered in reviews in the hope that it will help other prospective buyers in making a decision to buy a smart phone, after all you would be paying more than for a 42″ HD TV.
I have been a iPhone 4 and Blackberry user and use the phone for e-mails and browsing a lot. Before deciding to purchase this phone (now have used it for about a week)I considered Blackberry Torch and iPhone4 and very much aware of capabilities and limitations of these.
e-mail, contacts, calander: you can set up multiple e-mail accounts (I have set up and using 3 accounts: gmail, hotmail and MS Exchange server). All work very well. You can synchronize e-mail, contacts, and calendar of all these accounts on the phone and they appear on the the respective application colour coded making it possible to see from what account it came from. Further you can access e-mails separately on different accounts on the same e-mail app.
Browser is very good and reliable. Yes, flash content can be viewed. Browsing is much faster and smoother than iPhone4.
Apps: Yes, it is not as extensive as the iTunes but there are enough Apps available (some preloaded, available from Samsung, and from Android market). Most Apps are free compared to iTunes. I did not have any problem with the Apps I downloaded so far.
Music Hub: It is primarily for you to download music from 7digital. The player there is not great. But there is a separate App for music which works fine with your downloaded music.
Social Hub: for e-mails, integrates well with Facebook, my space, twitter, LinkedIn etc.
Games Hub: There are free games for you to download and play as well as premium games for you to purchase.
Kies: provides the interface management App when connected to the computer (same as iTunes for iPhone). This is possibly one of the weakest. It is very slow to update. Having said that it works fine if you are bit patient. But to add music or download/upload photos or movies you really do not need it. You can use widows explorer to do that job directly accessing the phone and placing or taking content you need directly from or the the folder concerned.
Kies Air: this is one the good things. You can access all your content from the phone on a web browser by pointing the browser to the IP address given by Kies Air. For this you need to get connected on the your home wireless network. It works fine, and you can play music, view photos or videos wirelessly on any other device that is connected to your network and which has a browser. If you have a TV with a browser (Smart TV or other)or laptop you can play content fro the phone on it without any wired connection.
I connected my Galaxy S2 to a friends iPad this way wireless and could view photos but could not play music as iPad do not support flash. Good for the Galaxy S2 and shame for iPad/iPhone.
Maps, navigator, Google earth and similar Apps work fine. The Navigator works fine and is very responsive. It consumes the battery power and if you want to use it for long needs to be charged through the car charger. You would require a USB car charger and the supplied micro USB cable.
It has FM radio, treat on the move compared to iPhone. Comes with great set of high quality headphones with additional ear pieces.
The notification system is very good with all notifications iconised on a bar top of the screen which can be pulled down whenever you want to see the notifications.
Yes, with all these facilities battery life is low and you need to charge every day if you are a heavy user of these all functions. One way to improve battery life is to limit pushing of e-mails. These can easily be done on the settings menu.
Camera rear(8MP)works really well. The front camera at 3MP is also very good. Managed to get few very good quality photos. The quality of photos is better than iPhone. Screen quality is equal or better than iPhone. Comparing the screen size the iPhone4 now seems like a distant toy much smaller. There are many Apps available on the Android market (most as free downloads) which can integrate all your photos in (for example Facebook, Picasa etc.) one App.
Office & Pdf Documents: The Polaris App is pre-loaded in the phone. It can read and edit all office documents such as Excel, Word and PowerPoint.
Voice commands: Works fine. You can easily dictate your e-mails and all is then converted to text. I could get over 90% accuracy even with my first attempt. It is a treat to use.
I am using the Sunny Savers gel/Silicone hybrid cover (£3.95) which nicely fit in to the Galaxy S2. A perfect companion.
All in all a very good phone and I am very pleased…
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|You only reading this to find out if its better than an iPhone 4S…I can tell you now it is.,
As a man who gets bored very easily I decided to upgrade from an iPhone 3Gs to the HTC Desire HD…I took to android very well claiming it was the best thing since sliced bread (or should I say gingerbread )..once again a little bored I decided to bite the bullet and spent a little more money on the Galaxy S2 a decision that I promise you will not be one you regret. I’m sure almost every user scouring these reviews is looking for a definitive answer to the question “Is it better than the iPhone 4S”… Im afraid it all depends on taste, I personally believe it is a lot better, I do not fall easily for gimmicks such as “Siri” or use many apps (The main reason most people send their hard earned cash on an iPhone) although the android app store is full of pretty much the same stuff as the Apple one, just this morning I picked up an excellent little keyboard app for 10p called “SwiftKey X Keyboard” which I assure you is a sound purchase. I like a nice big screen, where I can send lots of texts, easily make calls and check my various social network accounts from time to time and this is something that the Galaxy S2 delivers for a much cheaper price than the iPhone. Do not think that I am out just to slate Apple, i am writing this on an iMac and just last week purchased a Macbook Air. I just don’t think they can justify charging that much when the the Galaxy S2 is just as good if not better, cheaper, lighter and dare I say…better looking. What you should really do go to a phone shop and try both phones, or even a different smartphone (just not a blackberry that would be silly). however If you are like me and enjoy the comforts of your room/media hub then please take a chance on this phone, you will not be disappointed…I bought the one from amazon just to make sure it was genuine, It works with my Vodafone sim card which is part way through a contract. Hoped this helped. Tyer100.
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|Samsung Galaxy S II vs. Apple iPhone 4,
As an iPhone 4 user since last year I had the chance to try out my first Android phone, the current top of the line Samsung Galaxy S II (i9100) thanks to TRND. COM
And I have to say I am really impressed with what I saw and experienced with this Samsung phone.
—- Hardware (general build and feel) —-
Extremely lightweight, very nicely balanced. The handset size seems very good (perfect for a man’s hand although my wife also likes it very much), actually hides its actual size due to its thinness and weight.
Materials used have a good haptic touch, although it feels slightly less expensive then the iPhone 4 (probably because it uses more plastic and less glass/ metal).
The back cover is slightly difficult to remove because it initially feels flimsier then it actually is but unproblematic once you get used to it and no problem at all if you need to insert a microSD card, replace the SIM or change the battery.
A very high quality in-ear headset is included which I massively prefer instead of the Apple headsets – but this may be a personal decision.
-> Conclusion: In all the Samsung is on par with the iPhone 4, each has its own merits.
—- Screen —-
Large (4.3″), very crisp and sharp display, great colors (better then the iPhone4 Retina display in this regard but also a bit darker).
The screen (using an enhanced AMOLED technology which Samsung coined “Super AMOLED Plus” is probably the best stand-out feature of the Samsung and puts it over the top of all current smartphones.
-> Conclusion: In all slightly better then the iPhone 4 due to size and colours.
—- Operating System —-
Uses Andoid 2.3.3 (named Gingerbread), the most current smartphone version of Google’s Android OS. With many great and useful Android features (notification), but others like Apple are catching up fast to we need continued progress. And this is good for the consumer!
I had no crashes or reboots using the Samsung during the last four weeks, only once the Facebook app needed to be restarted but I guess that was the app itself and not the OS.
-> Conclusion: Probably just as good as IOS 4, I prefer the Apple although this may very much depend on the personal preference so I will call it a draw. (3:2)
—- Samsung OS Add-ins —-
Samsung added its own refinement (“TouchWiz 4.0”) on top of Gingerbread to enhance the experience.
I loved the fast access to settings like turning on/off Bluetooth, GPS, WiFi etc and some scalable widgets seems useful.
I am not too sure about the hubs concept – I personally rather like to use specific or native apps for specific media types.
Samsung also included a DLNA compliant server application, which enables the phone to wirelessly “send” pictures, videos and music from the handset to a number of devices like modern TVs, Playstation 3, Xbox360 or even to a Windows 7 PC.
I personally like the optional Swype keyboard which Samsung provides – this enables you to type words without lifting your fingers. After using it once on the Galaxy, I missed such a feature on the iPhone.
The Samsung also has a remote management feature (“Samsung Dive”), which enables finding or disabling the phone if it lost, similar to the “Find my iPhone” service of Apple.
Samsung provides an own software suite for Windows and OSX PCs called Samsung KIES, which even enables a wireless sync to the PC. Media management of KIES is good but not as good as Apple’s iTunes. There are a few sellers for Android music (most prominently Amazon) but Video content does not seem to be available anywhere.
-> Conclusion: Better then IOS 4, although this may really depend on the personal preference, especially if do not like to “bring your own media”.
—- Speed —-
The Samsung has a 1.2GHz dual core processor and it shows in general responsiveness – I never had the feeling of lag while using the touchscreen or apps. Of course measuring and comparing speed within apps is difficult (for example Angry Birds game seemed slower – lower FPS – then on the iPhone4) but the web load rendering on WiFi and 3G is noticeably faster than the current iPhone generation. Also a reloading of web pages was rarely required, possibly also be a due to increased memory (1GB RAM). The problem with speed within graphic intense games may be a general issue with Android OS, not anything Samsung can directly improve.
-> Conclusion: Slight preference of Samsung, but YMMV because this may depend on the apps used. Will probably be no difference for most users.
—- Battery —-
My own requirements are that any phone should last at least 36-40 hours with my normal usage pattern. 40 hours would be perfect. Take a fully charged phone from the bedside, use it normally during the day and only require charging again the evening of the NEXT day, when you go to sleep. This way you know you’ll have enough…
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|