Summary: The Galaxy S II is a high end phone, and quite easily the best Android phone available on the market right now. It remains to be seen how well it will stack up with other android phones to be released later this year with qHD screens or with the next version of the iPhone. Though given the speed of the phone, the screen quality, the camera and the battery life the competition will have to fight hard.
Though, it won’t be to everybody’s liking. Some will find the phone to be too big, whilst others may dislike the cheap build quality of the back cover, or the poor keyboard or even the fact that it runs the Android operating system. However, I think much like the previous version of this handset, this phone will prove to be quite successful among the masses.
The original Galaxy S made quite a few waves when it was first released, and created high expectations both from Samsung and for other high end smartphones. Unsurprisingly, big things were to be expected from the next high end android iteration from Samsung. Enter the Galaxy S II, read on to find out if it delivers.
Hardware
With a 4.3 inch screen boasting super AMOLED plus technology, WVGA resolution of 800 x 480 and a dual-core processor the phone is certainly a beast – both on the outside and in. Thankfully it seems that Samsung thought about this during the design process, because as soon as you pick up the phone it’s hard to believe how impossible thing it is.
Boasting dimensions of 125.3 x 66.1 x 8.49mm (it’s the thinnest phone available in the market right now), weighing just 116g and the screen covered with the toughened gorilla glass it feels great in your hands. The only negatives here are how thin and low quality the plastic rear cover feels, which also makes the phone slightly slippery to hold in the hands.
Surprisingly the first thing you notice when you pick up the phone is not how big it is, or how thin is or even the flimsy back cover – instead the first thing you will notice and admire is the superbly vibrant and crisp screen.
The screen is so bright and colourful with images so realistic and the viewing angles so wide that you’ll be forgiven if you mistook it for a display model. Even though screen doesn’t pack the pixel density of some of the upcoming phones with qHD screens (with resolutions of 960 x 540), personally I prefer it to the LCD screens, as it proves to be quite readable even in bright sunlight.
Under the display lies the physical home button, with two touch-sensitive keys on either side (menu on the left and back on the right) and though the phone is lacking the search key most android users might be used to, holding the menu key will invoke the same function. On the leff edge rests a thin, slim volume rocker and on the right edge lives the power/lock button – this again may take some getting used to depending on your previous handset.
On the top edge lives the standard 3.5mm headphone jack, and on the base is a microUSB port which doubles up as a HDMI out assuming you have the correct cable.
On the front lives a 2 mega-pixel camera for video calling and vanity shots, and on the back lives the 8 mega-pixel camera with neighbouring single LED flash. Along with all this there are the usual accelerometer, digital compass, g-sensor and GPS / A-GPS; connectivity is provided by quad band GSM and HSPA, Bluetooth 3.0 and WiFi a/b/g/n. Keeping everything running is a 1.2GHz dual-core processor, 1GB of RAM and 2GB of ROM – there is also 16GB of internal memory (11GB available) and can be extended with with up to 32GB of microSDHC memory card.
Software
Samsung, thankfully, has loaded the latest version of Android 2.3.3 (Gingerbread) – this is dulled slightly with the presence of TouchWiz 4.0.
TouchWiz is OK, but if you’re used to the stock version of Android (as I am), it feeling a little bit lacking. Though with a little bit of practice and patience one can easily get used to it. Nevertheless, TouchWiz does have it’s advantages for example the selection of widgets.
There are other more useful features too, best of which are the shortcuts in the notification areas which allows you to quickly activate/deactivate WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS, Sound and auto-rotation. In addition you get seven home-screens, the various hubs (social, music, reader’s & game) and some interesting redesigns some which you will love, and some you will hate.
I love the calendar redesign which is not only more useful, but also looks rather better. However I hate the keyboard Samsung has chosen over the stock keyboard. It tends to lend itself to a lot more mistakes than the stock, and also sucks at auto-correction, such as auto-capitalization and inserting apostrophes and other punctuation.
Quite honestly fast text entry is pretty much out of the question using the stock keyboard. Thoughtfully, it seems Samsung foresaw this problem and has included Swype keyboard. I would recommend that you change the default to Swype or another keyboard (I personally prefer Swift Key) as soon as you get the phone.
There is also a variety of other apps included, such as photo and video editors, Polaris office, an IM client and several diary and memo apps, none of which I have used even once since getting the phone, but others might find useful.
Then there are a couple of additions under the Motion settings, which utilizes the accelerometer to zoom in-and-out of images and web pages and to navigate between [home and app] screens by tilting left and right. Neither of these features I found of my use. The turn over feature is quite useful, which allows you to mute incoming calls and sounds by turn your phone over.
One of the most useful app included is Kies air. Running Kies air on your phone will give you an IP address which you simply enter into your browser, this then allows you to browse multimedia files, contacts music and messages over the wireless connection. The obvious limitation is that your computer must be connected on the same WiFi network as the phone. If Samsung could bring 3G support for this it would be an even more awesome app.
Performance
The with the latest version of Android, a hearty 1.2GHz dual-core processor and an astonishing screen using the phone is a very pleasant experience. The phone just flies, and does not slow down a bit no matter what you throw at it.
I experience no lag whatsoever while fighting off an onslaught of zombies in Plants vs Zombies or while jumping up and down in the world of Corby. Similarly watching HD videos or browsing the web is a smooth experience.
However do note that since the device doesn’t carry a Tegra 2 chip, you wouldn’t be able to download and play the games specifically designed for this – which, to be completely honest, is not such a big deal.
Similarly performance is extremely speedy when browsing maps, with Google maps pinpointing my location extremely quickly with zooming in out of maps was lag free. The combination of the speedy rendering and the big screen makes the phone a very good substitute for a sat-nav.
Galaxy S II scored 3367 in Quadrant standard edition.
Camera and multimedia
The main camera holds it own at a very respectable 8 megapixels, and shooting full HD 1080p video making the phone a well rounded multimedia device. The photos that are captured are very natural looking with accurate portrayal of colours; unfortunately the same can’t be said for photos taken in the dark, however the single LED flash helps a little here.
Similarly the videos recorded give an accurate depiction of the subjects being shot, with the focus working well most of the time. The focusing seems to struggle when recording fast moving objects or when there are huge contrasts in lighting.
The 2 megapixels camera on the front is only really good for video chat, other than that I would only really use it for vanity shots you there is no other option.
Within the camera app, surprisingly, there is a bucket load of customisation options allowing you to change ISO, white balance, resolution, metering and a whole lot more. In the video mode, you can change the resolution from 1920 x 1080 to the MMS friendly of 176 x 144.
Multimedia playback is well supported with a long list of codes included. Video can be in MPEG4, H.264, H.263, WMV, DivX, Xvid and VC-1. Audio can be in MP3, OGG, AAC, AAC+, eAAC+, AMR-NB
AMR-WB, WMA, WAV, MID, AC3, IMY, FLAC and XMF; in addition there is support for 5.1 channel pseudo-surround sound when you plug in your headphones.
Calling and messaging
Call quality is well handled thanks to noise reduction feature, similarly the sound quality is excellent over the earpiece and loud speaker.
Video calling is also quite well integrated into the system, however I was only able to use it once due to the lack of my contacts that possess the ability.
One of the best features when it comes to the phone application is when you finish a call, you are given a brief option to re-dial the same person (audio or video call) or send a text message – especially useful if you forgot something.
Messaging is standard business. There is a plethora of messaging options, how many of these you use will depend on the number of networks your subscribe to – there is options for POP/IMAP emails, exchange support, Gmail, Google Talk and support for various other IM client. Samsung’s social hub does well to collate messages from all these sources to one location.
Battery
With so much included in the phone, including the big bright screen, a screaming fast dual-core processor and so much wireless connectivity you’d be forgiven to think that the Galaxy S II battery life would be equivalent to a sprinter than a endurance runner.
In this case you’d be wrong. I was pleasantly surprised to see how well the standard 1,650 mAh battery coped during day-to-day use.
The battery lasted through a full day of constant use which included some gaming, internet browsing, shooting some pictures and videos and navigating using Google maps – all of this with wireless and push email switched on resulted in the battery lasting for a miraculous 28 hours!
Pricing
Since the release the price of the phone has gone down slightly from the original £509 ($899) for the SIM-free and unlocked 16GB version to a little more reasonable £498.84 ($799) (amazon.co.uk and amazon.com link). Or you could get it for free on 24 months contract from as little as £29 per month. The pricing may seem high but in reality it is priced quite competitively other among other high-end smart phones including the iPhone 4.
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Tags: android, Reviews, Technology