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Posted 30 August 2011 - 10:39 AM
Well, I had an awfully hard deciding between HTC Sensation and the Galaxy S II (they are both at the same price). After some recommendations and last-minute research, I've decided on the S II. Let me now have my view on it. All images are from the web and belong to their respective owners.
In this review I will separate it to these sections:
- Hardware
- Vivid?
- Fast?
- Slim?
- Others
- Final Verdict
The Galaxy S II generally feels nice on the hand. Samsung knew that the ultra-slim design would make for some discomfort, hence they made the S II have a rougher backing; allowing for easier grip. Unlike the Galaxy S, the phone doesn't exactly feel cheap. It looks sleek and elegant. However, in order to cut down on costs, the Galaxy S II is blessed with an all-plastic body. It just doesn't seem right for such a classy phone to feel so 'plasticky' - if you know what I mean. Other than that, the S II isn't too large for your hands (despite the huge 4.27" screen). Nicely done.
Many Samsung phones have been known for one thing - their AMOLED displays. The Galaxy S II is one of the phones which feature it. It doesn't just feature ordinary AMOLED, but rather an improved Super AMOLED Plus; which improves display under bright conditions and possibly add on to vibrancy thanks to the higher number of sub-pixels.
The Galaxy S II has a display of 4.3 inches (it's huge at first look) at 800 X 480 resolution. When I compare it to phones like HTC Sensation or Motorola Atrix which have a resolution of qHD (960 X 540), yeah, the difference is quite noticeable especially when using the web browser (the words on the S II look more pixelated). But thanks to Super AMOLED Plus, the colors displayed on the S II are simply magnificent and even better when compared to these phones. The AMOLED focuses greatly on the colors, making them to have a much more vibrant 'feel'.
Don't believe me? Samsung has payable games for you to download in order to prove the 'vividness' of the system. GT racing in my opinion is the best in showing the pure vivid display. Don't ask me how I got the game though. 
So, does the Samsung Galaxy S II live up to the Vividness? I would say yes.
The Samsung Galaxy S II boasts a dual-core 1.2GHz ARM Cortex-A9 proccessor with Mali-400MP GPU, Exynos chipset. Sounds sophisticated, isn't it? But does all these dual-core cortex A9 make it really fast as how it is being advertised? Well, it depends.
I must say though, browsing the web and using the built-in YouTube application on the Galaxy S II is simply brilliant. Loading times are much faster then I've expected. The time taken for it to load the GBAtemp home page (NOT mobile site) takes about 3 seconds, compared to about 8 seconds on the iPhone 4. It took me only 5 minutes to download and install about 10 of my favorite games from the Android Market (each about 10 MB or more). Videos on YouTube only take a few seconds to load using low signal Wi-Fi (mine is 10 Mbps) on High Quality. It's simply amazing.
BUT, in some areas, the S II isn't really that fast. It sometimes isn't really as responsive when I push the center button (at times only responds only after 2 seconds). Also, some games catered for the Galaxy S II also tend to lag. In Modern Combat 2 Black Pegasus, the loading time is seriously long; maybe we should blame Gameloft for that. Still, the Galaxy S II isn't a dedicated gaming device. Hence we shouldn't look too much into this.
Fast? Well, it passed with flying colors.
Now, the Galaxy S II is slim, very slim; but there's just a slight catch. The bottom of the S II where the speakers are is significantly thicker than the upper 8.49mm (in fact it feels doubly thick). The above photo shows the bottom just bulging a little, but in actual fact the bottom is much thicker. Well, anything to cover that up? Actually yes.
The Samsung Galaxy S II is not only slim, but also really light. For a phone with 4.27" screen and dual core ARM, it's seriously really light. To be more specific, it's only 116g. Still, it isn't the lightest phone out there; the LG Optimus Black is even lighter (to the extent that it's feather-light).
The slim design of the S II has it's flaws too though. For people like me with large hands, holding the phone while snapping a photo is pretty... erm... 'scary'. You'll often feel the phone about to slide out of your hand while trying to take a horizontal photo. Holding it vertically, on the other hand, feels nice. The S II has a rough backing which gives users a better grip. It would be nice if the S II had a dedicated camera key though.
The largest problem with the Galaxy S you'd ask me? The phone has no camera flash! How am I supposed to take a photo in the dark? (My house is awfully dark by the way). Anyway, Samsung rectified this problem. Not only that, they improved the camera to a 8 megapixel one. Well, photo quality... to be frank I'm not as impressed. Most images doesn't really seem 8 megapixels (one of my images looks stunning though). But again, this is a phone. Not a dedicated digital cam. The S II also features 1080P video recording at 30fps, haven't exactly tried it out yet; but it sounds good.
The Galaxy S II has preloaded 16GB of memory (in Singapore, I believe there's a 32GB version in other places) and even can store additional memory thru a MicroSD up to 32GB. One very funny thing though, most phones require you to take out the battery before removing the SIM card and the MicroSD slot is by the side. Well, for the S II it's the exact opposite. You need to remove the battery before inserting/removing the MicroSD and the SIM slot is by the side.
Yeah, see that huge battery? I bet it lasts very long.... No wait, dual-core 1.2 Ghz... NAH. Probably 5 minutes. Well, how long is the battery anyway?
The Galaxy S II's battery life sorta impresses me. Having frequent gaming sessions of Let's Golf 2 HD and web browsing, the battery only turns 30% from full after a full day. Compared to many of my other mobile devices, the battery life of this monster is really quite impressive. Of course, if it's not enough for ya there's Juice Defender in the Android Market; my telco's staff told me that her Galaxy S II lasted three full days with the help of that app before it turned complete zero.
The organisation of the menus on the S II is very much decent. Galaxy S II runs on default Android 2.3.3 Gingerbread with Samsung's TouchWiz 4.0 interface. It's really neat and nice. Organizing your files on the phone is also quick and easy, thanks to Gingerbread. (It took me forever to assemble on Froyo)
Other stuff on the S II? It has Kies Wi-Fi sync, which lets you sync to Kies on your PC without any cables. Bluetooth (obviously), FM radio (requires an earpiece/headset), voice controls (it works fine, but requires an internet connection. You might also need to tweak your voice a little), and swype messaging which was already available on the Galaxy S and possibly most other Galaxy sets.
The S II also has a front facing cam at 2 megapixels, great for video calls.
The Galaxy S II is an impressive piece of work by Samsung. It fulfills all 3 - Vivid, Fast and Slim as advertised. It also has improvements from its previous, the Galaxy S. The phone is considered pretty expensive and it is being sold at S$498 here with a 2-year contract. Despite the price, is this phone worth it? If you want a phone which is ultimately fast and you can do a ton of things with it from flash games to YouTube playback, then this phone is seriously worth the price.
Overall rating for Samsung Galaxy S II: 9/10
Edited by chris888222, 31 August 2011 - 03:00 PM.
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