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| Samsung Galaxy S II |
The Galaxy S II builds on Samsung's successful line of Galaxy Android phones with new display technology, a dual-core processor, and 4G speeds. The Galaxy S II is available in Europe and Asia, but Samsung has not yet announced a U.S. carrier nor details about pricing and availability. How does the Galaxy S II stack up against the other 4G dual-core beasts we've seen this year?
Design
The Galaxy S II is thin and light, less plasticky than some of the previous-generation Galaxy S phones. Overall, the phone has an attractive, minimalist look, but it doesn't feel as well-constructed as the HTC Thunderbolt 4G or the upcoming HTC Sensation on T-Mobile. One nice feature is that the face is made of Gorilla Glass, which is the same scratch-resistant glass that the Apple iPhone 4. Glossy black plastic covers the edges of the phone, while the battery cover is a somewhat flimsy textured plastic.
Measuring 4.9 inches tall by 2.6 inches wide by 0.3 inch thick, the Galaxy S II is remarkably svelte. But given that it has a 4.3-inch display, it still takes up a lot of space in your pocket or handbag. Nevertheless, at 4 ounces, it's comfortable to hold for long periods of time.
The button layout is a bit strange on the Galaxy S II with the Google Search button missing and Touch-sensitive Menu and Back buttons flanking a physical Home button. The volume rocker is on the left spine of the phone and the Power button on the right. The micro-USB port sits at the bottom of the phone while a 3.5mm headphone jack is at the top. Noticeably absent are an HDMI port (for connecting your phone to your HDTV) and a physical camera shutter button
Display
The Galaxy S II's display is gorgeous--one of the best we've ever seen. It uses Samsung's Super AMOLED Plus display technology, which we first saw at CES. According to Samsung, Super AMOLED Plus displays have 50 percent more subpixels than the first-generation Super AMOLED displays and perform even better that their predecessors in bright light. With a 4.3-inch display, the newest Galaxy's screen is 0.3 inch longer diagonally than the screens on the older-gen phones.
Colors looked bright, details were crisp, and the viewing angles were very good. Blacks were deep and colors were richly saturated without being overdone. Even when held in direct sunlight, the Galaxy S II's display remained incredibly visible.
Revamped TouchWiz 4.0 With Gingerbread
With the latest version of Android--version 2.3 (aka Gingerbread), the Galaxy S II though runs a Samsung-built overlay, TouchWiz 4.0, most of the new features in Gingerbread are untouched.
The Galaxy S II's keyboard isn't the native Android one, but it retains the multitouch key-chording feature (you can simultaneously press Shift and a letter to get a symbol or number--no need to switch between modes) and the ability to use your voice to correct words as you type. The copy-and-paste feature behaves more-or-less the same as in the standard Android setup, but it looks slightly different. You can quickly select text just by pressing and holding a word. Then you can adjust the chunk of text that you want to select by dragging the arrows that appear around the text. The Samsung's keyboard keys are slightly longer and more widely spaced than the stock Gingerbread keyboard keys, and the font is a bit larger on the keys. The Samsung keyboard replaces the emoticon key on the Android keyboard with a return key, which is a more useful function. And Swype fanatics can rejoice: The Galaxy S II comes with everybody's favorite keyboard app preinstalled.
The user interface for the cameras differs from the stock Gingerbread version, but you can still switch between the front-facing camera and the back-facing one via a consistent icon at the top of the camera viewer. Google introduced this small but useful feature in Gingerbread in anticipation of an onslaught of smartphones with front-facing cameras due out this year.
Multimedia
The new version of TouchWiz comes with new Music, Game, and Readers Hubs that join the Social and Media Hubs. Powered by 7Digital, the Music Hub is essentially an Amazon MP3 alternative. You can also use the Music Hub to organize your own library of music. I preferred using the built-in TouchWiz music player, which gets a nice facelift in this version of the software.
The Game Hub, powered by Gameloft, organizes games for purchase by social games and HD games. The Readers Hub is broken into three services: Kobo (for Books), Zinio (for Magazines), and Press Display (for News).
Like all Galaxy phones, the S II provides the Media Hub for your movie and TV-watching pleasure. Video looked fantastic on the handset's display and played back smoothly. Even if you don't like Samsung's Media Hub, you're going to want to watch a lot of movies and TV shows on this phone.
Camera
The Galaxy S II has an 8-megapixel camera plus a front-facing camera for video calls. Impressive with the image quality of photos, both indoor shots and outdoor ones. The shutter speed on the camera is fast enough to capture photos of sports, kids, and other quick-moving subjects.
Performance
The Samsung Galaxy S II is branded as a 4G phone and Samsung sent it to us with a T-Mobile SIM card. According to Samsung, the Galaxy S II can achieve HSPA+ download speeds of 21 megabits per second and HSUPA upload speeds of 5.76 mbps.
The Galaxy S 4G speed is averaged at 3.38 mbps for downloads and 1.13 mbps for uploads and it did outperform both AT&T's HSPA+ network and Sprint's WiMax network.
The Galaxy S II is powered by a dual-core processor, and the dual-core power was apparent in just about every aspect of the phone's performance. Scrolling was fluid in apps and Web pages, video played back smoothly, and I zipped speedily through the phone's menus.
Bottom Line
If you're in the market for a new phone this spring, you're going to have some tough decisions to make. A lot of hot phones have arrived or will debit soon, including the HTC Thunderbolt, the T-Mobile G2X, the Motorola Atrix 4G, and the upcoming HTC Sensation and HTC EVO 3D. But when it comes to performance and display quality, the Galaxy S II is pretty much unbeatable.
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