More than just a yearly upgrade, the Samsung Galaxy S II boasts a feature set and polished design that should have Apple peering hesistantly over their shoulders.
By Rob Gleeson
There are so many manufacturers producing remakes of popular handsets in order to milk their success these days: Apple with the iPhone 4, HTC with the Desire S (even the Incredible S) and Blackberry with many of their models, so we wondered aloud if Samsung were going to add to this list with the Galaxy S II.
Thankfully, Samsung hasn’t – as we discovered there’s so much more behind the Galaxy S II than just a revamped Galaxy S.
While some might say that there are obvious similarities between this model and its predecessor we argue that it has an identity of its own. With a 1.2GHz processor, super lightweight body and the fact the handset is the thinnest smart phone to hit the market ever; we think you might agree.
Overall, the Galaxy S II weighs a mere 106g, which is astonishing considering what’s packed inside. It houses a 4.3 inch Super AMOLED Plus capacitive touch screen with a Gorilla Glass display. The screen is itself so sharp that it makes the Galaxy S screen look like a HTC Smart screen.
No phone can beat that level of motion blur
Below the screen there are three touch capacitive buttons that allow a nice and smooth transition for navigating. On the left is the menu button, to the right the back button and stuck in the middle is the home button. Samsung have also decided to lose the glossy and somewhat cheap looking back cover and have replaced it with a lovely, no longer OTT, textured cover.
Original Galaxy S lovers will also notice the inclusion of an 8 mega-pixel camera with LED flash and auto focus but still no dedicated capture button. This does annoy us ever so slightly but we can’t always get what we want. The camera also has geo-tagging, touch focus, face and smile detection as well as image stabilisation features. Not only this but the Galaxy S II also captures high quality HD videos.
BATTERY: Up to 8 hours talk time and 750 hours on standby. The battery can only be classed as average but that’s not too surprising considering what’s happening under the hood.
CONNECTIVITY: Bluetooth, WiFi and a micro USB connection all standard on the Galaxy S II and it also has DLNA connectivity.
MEDIA: A whopping 8 mega-pixel camera with a LED flash and auto focus along with HD video recording. This is probably one of the best cameras on the market at the moment. Pictures are clean and crisp and also have motion controls for viewing pictures as apposed to pinch to zoom.
STORAGE: The Galaxy S II has 16GB built-in storage and can be expanded up to 32 GB whichwill probably be needed if you’re recording a lot of HD videos.
PROCESSOR: A dual-core 1.2GHz ARM Cortex-A9 processor ensures that the phone will perform exceptionally well, regardless how many apps you have running at the same time.
OPERATING SYSTEM: There’s so much to cover we almost forgot about the operating system. The Galaxy S II will be running Google’s Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) and makes everyday use effortless. While I’ve said before that HTC are the only manufacturer to really utilise Android, Samsung aren’t too far away.
So is the Galaxy S II just a revamped version of its predecessor or is it a stand out, top notch smart phone? I suppose you’ll decide that but for us it’s definitely the latter.
Impressive, sleek, lightweight and bursting with high quality specifications, the Galaxy S II isn’t just another smart phone; it’s a new generation of smart phone. We love it and we think you guys will too. Apple be warned – there’s a new kid in town.
Rob Gleeson is co-founder of Smartphone Republic
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