The most beautiful Android phone we've seen so far, Samsung S Galaxy II is not only a competitor for the iPhone today. Compete with the iPhone. Galaxy S II of the Android device is the fastest I've ever used, and better display, better camera, and the latest version of the Android software. Makes it easy to cut our lists and Best Cell Phone Android Open. It 'a shame that few people in the U.S. buy it, because it is the only open, without operator assistance, such as $ 799. It is simply too high a price for the nation, where people are accustomed to buying smart phones top-of-the-line for $ 199.
Planning
Galaxy S II is a beautiful phone, but it could be built from the most luxurious materials, given its price. Samsung decided to go thin and light instead of the rich sense here that gives a phone while plastic with a black, textured back, to appeal to the shockingly thin 4.9 by 2.6 by 0.3 inches (HWD) and 4.1 ounces, it is cheap plastic, to be sure, but it does not scream "high end" of how the Apple iPhone 4 ($ 199, 4 stars) and T-Mobile G2X (199 $ 4 stars) doing.
Planning
Galaxy S II is a beautiful phone, but it could be built from the most luxurious materials, given its price. Samsung decided to go thin and light instead of the rich sense here that gives a phone while plastic with a black, textured back, to appeal to the shockingly thin 4.9 by 2.6 by 0.3 inches (HWD) and 4.1 ounces, it is cheap plastic, to be sure, but it does not scream "high end" of how the Apple iPhone 4 ($ 199, 4 stars) and T-Mobile G2X (199 $ 4 stars) doing.
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| Samsung S Galaxy II (Unlocked) |
There is a volume control on the side, but no dedicated camera controls. Below the screen is a large button start menu with physical and virtual buttons again. There is a search button, so strange. The main point is that the pain of the menu buttons and back are disappearing without warning, you have to memorize their positions, but only two of them, not really a problem. As a little annoying, microSD card slot is under the back cover, and must remove the battery to change the map.
Therefore, this is breathtakingly beautiful to the touch. New Super Plus with deep blacks and color AMOLED technology of AMOLED hypersaturated tradition, but is visible even outdoors in full sun. Besides this 4.3-inch screen, the iPhone 4 screen looks sharper, but a little 'faded. Resolution 800 x 480 is the industry standard now, is a high-end phone might be nice to see something closer to 960-by-540 screen, the Motorola Atrix ($ 199, 4 stars), but honestly, the 800-by-480 is good enough.
Telephone calls and Internet
The Galaxy S II is a great phone voice. Reception of AT & T is strong, and the listener is strong and clear. The phone has no side-tone, the echo of your voice that allows you to mourn, but it is a matter of taste. Transmissions on the other end sounded decent, and the phone does a good job of blocking noise. The speaker was a quiet little, however. The phone connected easily with my Bluetooth Headset Aliph Jawbone was ($ 129, 4.5 stars) for voice dialing and voice commands Vlingo.
Shouting over a 4G, HSPA + 21 speeds, is also one of the fastest AT & T Internet phones available. (The phone supports AT & T 3G bands and foreigners, but not T-Mobile). The phone can not match the Samsung 4G Infuse. I Speedtest.net to 4.4Mbps for smooth, broadcast full screen video through the use of SPB TV without any problem. The phone also functions as an access point Wi-Fi, if you have the right service plan, and connects to Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n. There are some more exotic options here, too. Wi-Fi Direct Air and Samsung Kies software lets you share files with a PC via a Wi-Fi, while the Samsung PC Kies lets you synchronize your contacts, calendar and the local media, with Outlook and other PC applications.
The operating system, user interface and applications
The Galaxy S II is the first Samsung phone to use Exynos dual-core processor, a Cortex-A9 equivalent clock speed of 1.2GHz. The clock speed indicates that it is slightly faster than Nvidia's Tegra 2, and our benchmarks are based on many Nvidia chip in the G2X T-Mobile has the best graphics Neocore / test games. I am suspicious of benchmarks, however, because the Galaxy II S works with Android 2.3, so that each device was compared Nvidia is about 2.2, which can affect the results. (AnandTech ran more benchmarks, and found the Tegra 2 to provide better graphics performance and Flash.) This is a high-speed phone anyway. The user interface is generally quick, and the phone is compatible with most of the 125,000 applications for Android.
Speaking of Android, Galaxy II, the S is Gingerbread (2.3.3), Samsung TouchWiz overlap. The square icons and a little widget 'authoritarian TouchWiz is not as elegant as the HTC Sense, or even a minimalist Gingerbread Base IU. But it is functional, so you can do things like combine multiple calendars and contact sources in one easy view.
Samsung has made a number of interface oddities here, but you can skip if you wish. The cover of the phone stops ringing tone - that's great. However, tilting the phone while you touch the screen to zoom in the browser? It's just ridiculous.
Galaxy S II is packed with deleted and, in some cases useless bloatware. It does not seem to slow down performance, but there are lots of icons. BBC iPlayer on my test unit did not even work in the United States. There are Samsung music, e-books and games shops "social center" aggregator of social networks, voice commands Vlingo, two custom app stores (Samsung and Samsung suggests Apps) and more.
Some of the bloating is useful, of course. Thurs Samsung Hub, a shop-based Gameloft has had 11 beautiful "HD" games that showed off the dual-core power. The Hub Music sells albums for $ 5 less than the rate of Amazon. And Social Hub allows you to react on Twitter and Facebook messages to a messaging interface type.
AT & T users can also be good to see that an unlocked phone, S Galaxy II, will allow non-market applications, including applications for purchase on Amazon, GetJar, MiKandi or other alternative outlets.
Multimedia
The Galaxy S II is a fully featured phone for the music of the video capture and playback. Let me count the ways.
No 13.5GB available to the media, plus a microSD card slot that accepts cards up to 32GB. The 8-megapixel camera takes sharp, clear pictures with good color and light balance. In low light the photos get a bit dark but not blurry, and the shutter responds relatively quickly to 0.6 seconds. Video recorded with a resolution up to 1080p looks absolutely fantastic. This is a brilliant outdoors and 24 fps 30 fps inside. There is a 2-megapixel front camera, which also worked very well.
Music and video playback was flawless in all formats I've tried, including XviD, WMV, H.264 up to 1080p HD resolution. Supposedly, the Galaxy II S supports replication by using an HDMI cable with the new standard for manual handling. Unfortunately, I could not find any cable MHL is still in the market.
As mentioned above, includes Samsung Hub Music, a digital music store that sells new motor drives for $ 5. No video store on board, however, and Blockbuster Bitbop and do not appear on the market, making it difficult to find legal movies for your phone.
Conclusions
The Samsung Galaxy S II is Smokin '. It's incredibly powerful, usually well designed, and all of a high-end Android phone should be. The screen can be a little higher-res, and you should be able to remove the bloatware. But this phone slots.
One of the things his way, however, and that's the price of this impressive work unlocked. The Galaxy S II is only available from specialist importers for about $ 800, and is simply too difficult to justify such a high price. Without a contract, the G2X T-Mobile is $ 499, Motorola Atrix (4 stars) is $ 549, and the iPhone is $ 599 4. If price is an issue, the G2X offers much better value for money, even without subsidies. Still, the power of Samsung Galaxy S II, speed and overall performance make it worthy of our Editors Choice Award "in spite of their prices through the roof.
Therefore, this is breathtakingly beautiful to the touch. New Super Plus with deep blacks and color AMOLED technology of AMOLED hypersaturated tradition, but is visible even outdoors in full sun. Besides this 4.3-inch screen, the iPhone 4 screen looks sharper, but a little 'faded. Resolution 800 x 480 is the industry standard now, is a high-end phone might be nice to see something closer to 960-by-540 screen, the Motorola Atrix ($ 199, 4 stars), but honestly, the 800-by-480 is good enough.
 |
| Samsung S Galaxy II (Unlocked) |
Telephone calls and Internet
The Galaxy S II is a great phone voice. Reception of AT & T is strong, and the listener is strong and clear. The phone has no side-tone, the echo of your voice that allows you to mourn, but it is a matter of taste. Transmissions on the other end sounded decent, and the phone does a good job of blocking noise. The speaker was a quiet little, however. The phone connected easily with my Bluetooth Headset Aliph Jawbone was ($ 129, 4.5 stars) for voice dialing and voice commands Vlingo.
Shouting over a 4G, HSPA + 21 speeds, is also one of the fastest AT & T Internet phones available. (The phone supports AT & T 3G bands and foreigners, but not T-Mobile). The phone can not match the Samsung 4G Infuse. I Speedtest.net to 4.4Mbps for smooth, broadcast full screen video through the use of SPB TV without any problem. The phone also functions as an access point Wi-Fi, if you have the right service plan, and connects to Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n. There are some more exotic options here, too. Wi-Fi Direct Air and Samsung Kies software lets you share files with a PC via a Wi-Fi, while the Samsung PC Kies lets you synchronize your contacts, calendar and the local media, with Outlook and other PC applications.
The operating system, user interface and applications
The Galaxy S II is the first Samsung phone to use Exynos dual-core processor, a Cortex-A9 equivalent clock speed of 1.2GHz. The clock speed indicates that it is slightly faster than Nvidia's Tegra 2, and our benchmarks are based on many Nvidia chip in the G2X T-Mobile has the best graphics Neocore / test games. I am suspicious of benchmarks, however, because the Galaxy II S works with Android 2.3, so that each device was compared Nvidia is about 2.2, which can affect the results. (AnandTech ran more benchmarks, and found the Tegra 2 to provide better graphics performance and Flash.) This is a high-speed phone anyway. The user interface is generally quick, and the phone is compatible with most of the 125,000 applications for Android.
Speaking of Android, Galaxy II, the S is Gingerbread (2.3.3), Samsung TouchWiz overlap. The square icons and a little widget 'authoritarian TouchWiz is not as elegant as the HTC Sense, or even a minimalist Gingerbread Base IU. But it is functional, so you can do things like combine multiple calendars and contact sources in one easy view.
Samsung has made a number of interface oddities here, but you can skip if you wish. The cover of the phone stops ringing tone - that's great. However, tilting the phone while you touch the screen to zoom in the browser? It's just ridiculous.
Galaxy S II is packed with deleted and, in some cases useless bloatware. It does not seem to slow down performance, but there are lots of icons. BBC iPlayer on my test unit did not even work in the United States. There are Samsung music, e-books and games shops "social center" aggregator of social networks, voice commands Vlingo, two custom app stores (Samsung and Samsung suggests Apps) and more.
Some of the bloating is useful, of course. Thurs Samsung Hub, a shop-based Gameloft has had 11 beautiful "HD" games that showed off the dual-core power. The Hub Music sells albums for $ 5 less than the rate of Amazon. And Social Hub allows you to react on Twitter and Facebook messages to a messaging interface type.
AT & T users can also be good to see that an unlocked phone, S Galaxy II, will allow non-market applications, including applications for purchase on Amazon, GetJar, MiKandi or other alternative outlets.
Multimedia
The Galaxy S II is a fully featured phone for the music of the video capture and playback. Let me count the ways.
No 13.5GB available to the media, plus a microSD card slot that accepts cards up to 32GB. The 8-megapixel camera takes sharp, clear pictures with good color and light balance. In low light the photos get a bit dark but not blurry, and the shutter responds relatively quickly to 0.6 seconds. Video recorded with a resolution up to 1080p looks absolutely fantastic. This is a brilliant outdoors and 24 fps 30 fps inside. There is a 2-megapixel front camera, which also worked very well.
Music and video playback was flawless in all formats I've tried, including XviD, WMV, H.264 up to 1080p HD resolution. Supposedly, the Galaxy II S supports replication by using an HDMI cable with the new standard for manual handling. Unfortunately, I could not find any cable MHL is still in the market.
As mentioned above, includes Samsung Hub Music, a digital music store that sells new motor drives for $ 5. No video store on board, however, and Blockbuster Bitbop and do not appear on the market, making it difficult to find legal movies for your phone.
Conclusions
The Samsung Galaxy S II is Smokin '. It's incredibly powerful, usually well designed, and all of a high-end Android phone should be. The screen can be a little higher-res, and you should be able to remove the bloatware. But this phone slots.
One of the things his way, however, and that's the price of this impressive work unlocked. The Galaxy S II is only available from specialist importers for about $ 800, and is simply too difficult to justify such a high price. Without a contract, the G2X T-Mobile is $ 499, Motorola Atrix (4 stars) is $ 549, and the iPhone is $ 599 4. If price is an issue, the G2X offers much better value for money, even without subsidies. Still, the power of Samsung Galaxy S II, speed and overall performance make it worthy of our Editors Choice Award "in spite of their prices through the roof.
