The Samsung Galaxy S 2 has a tough act to follow. The South Korean gadget giant has managed to sell more than 10 million original Galaxy S Android phones worldwide – can a thinner sequel with a dual-core CPU get people to shell out all over again? Let’s take a look.
Verdict
The Samsung Galaxy S 2 is an astonishingly thin, astonishingly fast smartphone. There are very few reasons this shouldn’t be in your pocket.
We love
Android 2.3, blazing speed, beautiful screen and sterling media support
We hate
Camera can’t quite match the Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc for stills
Specs:
Screen: 4.3in, 480×800
Connectivity: HSDPA, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, USB, HDMI via adaptor
Camera: 8MP, LED flash
Storage: 16/32GB plus microSD
Battery: 1650mAh
Size/Weight: 125.3×66.1×8.5mm/116g
Design and build quality
While the original 2010 Galaxy S looked remarkably like an iPhone 3G, the Samsung Galaxy S 2 looks and feels more like a Samsung Omnia 7 sliced in half. You can see the influence of the original Galaxy S in the buttons below the screen, in particular in the clacky physical home key, its only exterior flaw, but otherwise the Galaxy S 2 provides its own fresh, angular stylings.
All the ports are sensibly placed, with a power/lock button on the top right, volume on the left hand side, 3.5mm audio on the top and micro USB on the bottom. At just 8.49mm, it’s very thin, yet its width and build quality make it perfectly easy to handle.
It doesn’t feel as high end as the handset actually is, due to the smudge resistant plastics used, and the back panel which has to be popped out with a fingernail, but don’t be fooled by its looks. If you’re after a phone with a premium finish, like the Dieter Rams stylings and metal finish of the iPhone 4, or the aluminium shell of the HTC Desire S, the Samsung Galaxy S 2 isn’t for you. However, the rest of its features more than make up for its slim, middle of the pack build.
Screen
The Samsung Galaxy S 2′s display is a Super AMOLED Plus number, the company’s latest iteration of its AMOLED technology. As you’d expect, it’s even more betterer than the Super AMOLED screen on the original Galaxy S (And with a Gorilla Glass coating, just as tough), giving the impression of improved sharpness even while pixel density is technically lower. The colours are bold, the viewing angles are broad and the blacks suitably void-like.
As for the screen size itself (a whopping 4.3-inches diagonally), we must admit that it’s not for everyone. Those with small digits or a penchant for BlackBerry keyboards may still struggle to make the switch to a huge touchscreen, but we think that number is a smaller minority than it realises: now that smartphones are so thin, you won’t notice the extra size carrying them around.
Key features
Samsung knows it has a winner on its hands with the Galaxy S 2′s display, but it’s hoping the combination of Android 2.3 with extra apps and tweaks, and its own in-house dual-core 1.2GHz silicon and hefty 1GB of RAM all combine to make something very special indeed. And it does: Android absolutely flies on the phone. 3D games never looked so good, HD video doesn’t stutter, the browser doesn’t stall. It’s an unbelievably smooth experience, the likes of which we’ve only really seen on the iPhone before.
Usability
Beyond the sheer speed of the CPU housed inside the Samsung Galaxy S 2′s slender frame, Samsung has made some “adjustments” to Android 2.3, and they’er almost all for the better, helping you navigate quicker and connect to your friends online.
While Samsung’s Android homescreen looks slightly different to your typical Android layout, the changes are mostly cosmetic. We’re more taken with the improvements to the notification bar that pulls down from the top: you can toggle Wi-Fi, GPS, sound and even music track controls straight from it instead of having to dive into settings.
The Galaxy S 2 also takes care of joining up your Facebook friends to your Google contacts (Which is for all intents and purposes your phone book on Android), so you can see status updates when go to call them, and have their Facebook profile pic appear when they’re hollering at you. We’re not so keen on Samsung’s on screen keyboard, which is responsive but rather unpredictable in its word prediction. The thing is, it’s Android: if you don’t like it, go download another keyboard. For free. Samsung even includes an alternative, Swype, preloaded.
Connectivity
As you’d expect from a new Android phone, you can hop on Wi-Fi, track via GPS and even use your phone’s 3G connection as an impromptu mobile Wi-Fi hotspot.
More unusually though, you can also connect the phone to your TV through an HDMI cable (The required MHL connector is sold separately), and easily transfer files to the Samsung Galaxy S 2 via Wi-Fi. Fire up the included Kies air app and you can simply log on and see your handset’s storage from your browser, and move files to and fro. It’s not speedy, but it is handy for just sending the odd picture without cables.
Video and camera
The eight megapixel camera on the back of the Samsung Galaxy S 2 certainly won’t disappoint. We found that in daylight, stills came out incredibly sharp and crammed with detail, and the phone only fell behind the current Android leader in this area, the
Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc, in low light. It does at least sport a flash this time though, something that the original Galaxy S curiously omitted.
Video on the other hand is a major step up on the Arc’s shooting skills. That’s likely down to the twin cores at the heart of the Samsung Galaxy S 2: they’re able to easily grab smooth full HD 1080p video, not just 720p like most phones. Clips we grabbed were stunningly smooth and only let down on occasion by overly aggressive auto focusing. But rather that than no auto focusing, right?
Media playback
We saw this one coming, given Samsung’s comprehensive media format support on the original Galaxy S. We’re happy to report that the Samsung Galaxy S 2 plays absolutely everything you throw at it. There are already plenty of Android apps for opening any audio file, but this handset’s native video player opens every and any file your throw at it: every major format opened without a hitch, even at 1080p resolution.
Add to that Flash 10.2 video streaming support and the HDMI-out option, and you’ve got one must have mobile for music and video.
Apps
We’ve touched on a few of Samsung’s included custom apps already, but there are a couple more beyond Kies air. Once again, allShare makes an appearance, letting you stream media easily over your DLNA network, and this time, surprisingly flexible photo and video editors have come along for the ride too. There’s also a reasonably handy instant messaging app, which combines your Google Talk, Yahoo! and Windows Live chats in one place – though of course you could always grab Nimbuzz for free on the Android Market for them and more.
To our surprise though, Samsung’s exclusive hubs have turned out to be neither interesting, nor particularly exclusive. A music hub lets you buy tracks from 7digital just like you can on any other Android phone, a game hub has precisely nothing worth playing and the Reader hub is just a link to the free Kobo ereader app. Still, it’s not like you have to use these, and when the experience is so stellar in every other respect, we can’t grumble too much.
Call quality/battery life
Once again, a super thin smartphone has surprised us with decent acoustics and comfortable speakerphone chat. Just as important to note is that battery life is on a par with what we’ve come to expect from most Android phones these days: you can just clear a day of normal usage with Wi-Fi and sync turned on.
A new HTC flagship Android phone has been leaked online. Harking back to early 2010, the HTC Desire 2 looks a lot like the HTC-made Google Nexus One.
