Review of the Galaxy S II

[Briggs]

Review of the Galaxy S II. Most of us here have a good understanding of Android 2.2+ So I'm reviewing the Galaxy S2 from the point of view as a current SGS owner and/or Android user. So I'll skip or the boring stuff like default android applications etc.

I would like to thank Chris at Clove UK from whom I order my Galaxy S II, their service was outstanding and I received my SGS2 here in Spain only a few days after the Official UK release. I can't recommend them enough.

Samsung has built on their successful Galaxy S mobile releasing the Galaxy S II. Now I wasn't sure if it was worth upgrading from the Galaxy S as I'm very happy with the last gen phone. However my opinion defiantly changed once my Galaxy S II arrived.

Samsung has taken note it seems where the Galaxy S lacked and improved it in their next model. Its like the first Galaxy S, only lighter, thinner (8.49mm) and the SAMOLED plus screen in 4.3” is just amazing! The overall design is just about perfect. The mobile packs a powerhouse dual core Exynos CPU @ 1.2 Ghz with a huge 1GB of SDRAM. The new cpu is stunningly quick and silky smooth. There is absolutely no slowdown on this phone. No lagfix's required here! No RFS to EXT4 file system converting either. Samsung run with ext4 this time round Vs the SGS with rfs.

With this CPU, the SGS2 can play a MKV 1080p video flie smoother and quicker than my PC can. Gallery loads very quick with over 200 photos. It doesn't seem to even work up a sweat. Nothing phases this phone. Samsung have really outdone themselves on the hardware here.

One of the biggest issues was the Galaxy S had no flash, while it records 720p at 30fps we were left a bit disappointed when it came to low light photography. No flash really limits this. *Cough* Kills it. Samsung addressed this issue by adding a 8mp snapper with an LED flash. And 1080p video at 30fps. Top of the class HD video is now one of the leading sales features for the SGS2.

GPS was another issue, the GPS chip-set in the last gen was a bit off at times. Lock times could be slow and accuracy hit or miss. This too has improved.



Touch Wiz 4.0


Gone is Touchwiz 3.0, in its place Touchwiz 4.0 which is sleeker and much more refined. Transitions are smoother and quick than Touchwiz 3 or launcher Pro (A popular Touchwiz replacement). Widget placement and variety is much improved. There seems to be almost two versions of every widget now. We can now add folders and its easier to edit the application menu.

New features on the phone like a gyroscope add to the experience, allowing users to touch the phone with two fingers and moving it forward or backwards you can zoom both in and out.

The music player is great too, new auto play lists like Most Played and Recently added are handy. The qaulity the the audio is like the SGS, A+. When you hear a 320 kbps Mp3 over some decent headphones your ears tell you that the quality is very decent. The included ones in the box aren't bad neither are they the best.

So the negatives of the phone? There aren't many and they certainly aren't deal breakers. For example the SGS2 has no dust cover over the usb multi port. This could be an issue in the future. Maybe not? But if your phones going to live in your pocket for the next year or so it might fill with dust. The phone also gets quite hot when gaming. I haven't had any heat warnings as such. But if your gaming or using the GPS and charging it starts to heat up somewhat. I was disappointed too to see that there was no usb multi port to HDMI cable. For the premium we pay for this phone it should be included.


Review sections:

• Galaxy S II Initial impression
• Galaxy S II Battery life
• Galaxy S II GPS Performance
• Galaxy S II Benchmark & App Performance
• Galaxy S II Camera & Photo samples
• Galaxy S II Video samples
• Galaxy S II Gaming

Pros:

• Latest Android 2.3.3 Gingerbread
• No signal issues / No "Death grip"
• Music playback quality is superb
• Very quick mobile, no slowdown what-so-ever.
• Smooth 30fps 1080p video recording. Best seen yet.
• Will handle any 3d intense game or application with ease
• Play's 1080p video files (DivX, MKV, AVI) easy
• 4.3" SAMOLED Plus screen is a step up from the SAMOLED. A beauty of a screen
• Good battery for a large high powered mobile

Cons:

• No dust cover on the multi USB port or 3.5 mm stereo jack
• Can get quite hot when gaming or using GPS
• No shutter lens or lens protector on the camera
• No usb to hdmi cable included for such a premium mobile.
• Voice commands is a bit of gimmick, unless you have perfect American? accent (Or it doesn't work on New Zealand accents?)

Final Words:

This is certainly phone of the year or the best phone there is at the moment. SGS owners: It is worth upgrading to the SGS II from the last model. 100% in my mind. Once the mod and rom scene kicks of it will only get better! So keep that in mind...


Rating: 9/10
*Best phone of 2011*

[Briggs]

Ok while I want to do a few discharge and recharge cycles to get a better Idea of the battery I can say its pretty good. Better than the SGS. Below is my moderate to heavy usage battery stat's a lot of wifi (aprox 7 hours) sending and receiving emails via gmail. Gameloft HD games like real football and GT racing.

Also some GPS use (7-10 mins), Camera (about 12 photos) and 1080p video recording (5 minutes) and watching (15 mins?). Almost 11 and a half hours isn't bad at all!

I will update this thread as I use the phone more after a few recharges more to see if it improves.

Proof:

[Briggs]

I can confirm that the GPS is improved over the SGS. Lock times are faster. Accuracy seems better too.

Using My tracks by Google I found it very accurate. GPS Test reports the accuracy being 50-80 meters at times but find that with Aura GPS and My Tracks this isn't the case. Perhaps is a bug with GPS Test that doesn't report it correctly? In the real world it doesn't skip a beat or think im 1 mile from where I should be.



With the SAMOLED+ Screen and 4.3" of it, stand alone GPS programs like Aura I tested run very well and look better than most dedicated GPS units..dare I say.

Below is a quick accelerated demo of SGSII in action using Aura by Sygic which I recommend. (They have a 7 day free trial on Android Market)

[Briggs]

Not much to comment on here. I phone is the fastest I have ever used. No slow down / lag anywhere. 3828 quadrant points on a stock rom is nothing short of impressive.

[Briggs]

Galaxy S II Camera & Photo samples

[Briggs]

1080p video recorded on the SGS2 is very good. 30 fps at a bitrate of around 18Mbps. 1080p video has sttereo sound (VLC player reports this) and a fixed zoom. 720p video has various levels of zoom up to 4x. the LED light can be used for videos in low light or at night by turning it on.

Galaxy S2 / SII 1080p video samples here on a separate page due to their size.

[Briggs]

Gaming on the Galaxy S2 is just like the Galaxy S. But even better due to that bigger screen and samoled+ tech. While the SGS is no slouch when it games to raw GPU gaming power the SGSII just feels a bit smoother and loads a little faster. Samsung included a Gamers Hub application which lets you downlaod some free social games and trial some Gameloft HD games.

Here are some gaming demo videos of the SGS2 in action. I will update this with more videos when I have time too.

[Doomed]

Reserved because you always need more

And I thought you was from the uk.

Do you have problems playing movie files as I do with the SGS 0n 2.3 software

[SNAK3ATER]

I'll reserve this part to review the SGSII Tegra2 model if samsung ever decided to sell that model in my region...

Also I made a reply to Sora's thread but I'll post it here again since I feel it's the appropriate thing to do :
"
It seems that i'm the only founding member of this forum who still hasn't upgraded his galaxy s yet; Congrats to all the veterans such as Briggs, Sora, tonic, NZtechfreak and the other founding members I forgot mentioning their name on owning this beast I hope I'll join you soon

Similarly I hope that all of new members who got this phone to contribute to this great forum and I hope I'll do my best once I get this phone too

on another note Samsung's MEA had delayed the launch of SGSII in our region to june because they decided to give us the inferior version of this phone; Tegra2 chip, probably 1GHz of processor power and S-LCD screen (not sure about that part but hey if you gonna give us an inferior chip and processor why not take the SAMOLED+ and replace it with a S-LCD, Samsung?!)...

The reason I still haven't bought this phone is because i'm waiting for the 32GB version since the current 16GB has only 11GB of free space; there is no way i'm gonna upgrade my phone to a new phone that has less HDD than my old phone..
"

[Briggs]

Reserved because you always need more

And I thought you was from the uk.

Do you have problems playing movie files as I do with the SGS 0n 2.3 software

Nope, I have lived in the UK. But I'm from Auckland, NZ No movie file issues. I've tried a demo 1080p file (MKV) Avi files DivX and Xvid plus others, which all worked.

I'll reserve this part to review the SGSII Tegra2 model if samsung ever decided to sell that model in my region...

Also I made a reply to Sora's thread but I'll post it here again since I feel it's the appropriate thing to do :
"
It seems that i'm the only founding member of this forum who still hasn't upgraded his galaxy s yet; Congrats to all the veterans such as Briggs, Sora, tonic, NZtechfreak and the other founding members I forgot mentioning their name on owning this beast I hope I'll join you soon

Similarly I hope that all of new members who got this phone to contribute to this great forum and I hope I'll do my best once I get this phone too

on another note Samsung's MEA had delayed the launch of SGSII in our region to june because they decided to give us the inferior version of this phone; Tegra2 chip, probably 1GHz of processor power and S-LCD screen (not sure about that part but hey if you gonna give us an inferior chip and processor why not take the SAMOLED+ and replace it with a S-LCD, Samsung?!)...

The reason I still haven't bought this phone is because i'm waiting for the 32GB version since the current 16GB has only 11GB of free space; there is no way i'm gonna upgrade my phone to a new phone that has less HDD than my old phone..
"

UAE isn't going to get the better spec one ?!!?!. Damn, I would be more worried about loosing that the screen. The Tegra2 isn't that bad but the screen, swapping it for a SLCD OK will I look forward to our Tegra2, SLCD review when ou get it. But I hope you get the better spec one.