Samsung Galaxy S II Reviews

[dpodblood]

Actually, you're the one who doesn't seem to know much about smartphones.

American versions of the Galaxy S have had comically bad delays, but the international Galaxy S has gotten new firmware releases every month and is quite ahead of HTC in getting official Gingerbread.

As far as releasing with Froyo, I think only Sony has all their new stuff on Gingerbread. The Incredible 2 is Froyo, even (see Anand post).

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I was referring to North American customers. Who we're stuck on 2.1 forever if not for 3rd party roms.

 

[you2]

It is not clear if this is a samsung issue or an end retailer. I get a funky feeling the problem is that the american companies are trying to add 'lock in' features and are not tech savy that this is likely not a samsung issue. The only real issue I remember in the S was a weaker antenna and gps than the competition but from what little I've read so far it seems that samsung has addressed these issues in the S II. Unfortunately it feels like it will be 3 to 6 months until these phone show up in usa (with the exception perhaps of t-mobile; who seems to have a more vanilla experience and tends to bring phones to market faster).

I was referring to North American customers. Who we're stuck on 2.1 forever if not for 3rd party roms.

 

[pookguy88]

versus sensation...

the Galaxy S II lacks LED notifications, and has a lower res screen.
SAMOLED+ would be nice to see in person, but the current SAMOLED screens are so blue it's ridiculous. I think after staring one for 10 minutes and even going back to an average uncalibrated monitor, you'd think "HOLY CRAP RED SHIFT" but in fact it's the SAMOLED screen being so far off.

For me it's HTC Sensation over this phone. Unfortunately, it looks like it will take 6 months for Canada to get their hands on the phone or something, so no 850/1900 for a while. Yuck.

The Sensation has a LED notification light? Source?

 

[Fire&Blood]

The Sensation has a LED notification light? Source?

I can't cite a source off the bat but I was watching hands on videos, it's in the left corner of the speaker grill, where HTC always places them.

 

[Strk]

The Sensation has a LED notification light? Source?

I wouldn't worry much about it, since you can just install BLN. There's also noLED for AMOLEDs.

 

[zoiks]

I wouldn't worry much about it, since you can just install BLN. There's also noLED for AMOLEDs.

I have BLN installed on my Nexus S. I tried noLED but that utility simply sucks the life out of the battery. I was about to tear my hair off trying to figure out why my phone was dying in a few hours until I uninstalled this bastard. Things became normal right after and now the battery in my phone lasts the entire day.

 

[mammador]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g1aKCvG7SCo

Seems well received, not sure if to get this or wait for the iPhone 5.

The phone's not the only nice looking thing in the video though,

 

[Fire&Blood]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g1aKCvG7SCo

Seems well received, not sure if to get this or wait for the iPhone 5.

The phone's not the only nice looking thing in the video though,

I would disagree, she's not attractive and has a beer belly showing as well as a very poor posture.

If you are considering waiting for the iphone 5 might as well and find out whether this is true or not:

http://pocketnow.com/android/samsung-galaxy-s-iii-tipped-for-fall-launch

 

[cheezy321]

I would disagree, she's not attractive and has a beer belly showing as well as a very poor posture.

If you are considering waiting for the iphone 5 might as well and find out whether this is true or not:

http://pocketnow.com/android/samsung-galaxy-s-iii-tipped-for-fall-launch

Her elbows are really pointy too

But i agree, shes not that good looking.

 

[kubani1]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g1aKCvG7SCo

Seems well received, not sure if to get this or wait for the iPhone 5.

The phone's not the only nice looking thing in the video though,

dude, the phone was definitely the only nice looking thing in that video.

the battery life sounds amazing, i'm curious to see how well it holds up or if that was just a crazy fluke.

 

[s44]

http://pocketnow.com/android/samsung-galaxy-s-iii-tipped-for-fall-launch

Not sure this helps us US folks though... Even if Samsung *does* release some sort of quad-core monster SGS3 this fall, that's probably when we'll start seeing American carrier-bloated versions of the SGS2 starting to appear.

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[Monster_Munch]

Well I just ordered one. Should get it tuesday next week. Hooray for Europe

 

[sciwizam]

Looks like the Galaxy S2 plays 1080P MKV files natively.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y4d-wWCf4CQ&

Scroll to 6:50.

Also,

http://www.gsmarena.com/samsung_i9100_galaxy_s_ii-review-588p4.php

The video player had absolutely no trouble with any of the files we threw at it – starting with .WMV, through .AVI (DivX and XviD) and .MP4 to .MKV (H.264). Resolution wasn’t a problem either – the Samsung Galaxy S II played FullHD files. Large files of over 2GB worked as well.

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

Not sure this helps us US folks though... Even if Samsung *does* release some sort of quad-core monster SGS3 this fall, that's probably when we'll start seeing American carrier-bloated versions of the SGS2 starting to appear.

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SGS2 should be enough to compete with iPhone 5. iP5 is just gonna go dual core... What they really needed on the SGS2 was to upgrade the screen. That's what they really messed up on.

 

[sciwizam]

Looks like Samsung is offering phones with and without NFC. The UK version doesn't have it right now, but the South Korean version has it. One downside, if we are nitpicking, the thickness of NFC enabled SGS2 is 8.9mm compared to the NFC-free 8.5mm.

http://news.softpedia.com/news/Sams...in-Other-Countries-by-Early-June-197259.shtml

 

[DivideBYZero]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g1aKCvG7SCo

Seems well received, not sure if to get this or wait for the iPhone 5.

The phone's not the only nice looking thing in the video though,

Dial-a-phone sell phones, so of course the review is going to be glowing.

 

[Rottie]

Samsung #NeverAgain

I'm going G2X.

After ATT raped tmobile the 3G network on G2X will not work with ATT

 

[ponyo]

Looks like the Galaxy S2 plays 1080P MKV files natively.

Very impressive. This is the ultimate multimedia phone of this generation. Just like the prior Galaxy S.

SGS2 should be enough to compete with iPhone 5. iP5 is just gonna go dual core... What they really needed on the SGS2 was to upgrade the screen. That's what they really messed up on.

Messed up on the screen? Are you crazy? The awesome screen is the #1 reason to buy this phone. Without this incredible screen, this phone would be another boring dual core Android phone with nothing to distinguish from others.

They did upgrade the screen. They got rid of PenTile and improved S-AMOLED which was already the best cutting edge screen tech. This screen is a big upgrade. Samsung went to 4.3 inch display and current resolution because of the technology limitation S-AMOLED PLUS. If Samsung could have done this on 4 inch screen right now, they would have. Higher resolution and smaller screens are coming in the future but this is the very best tech ATM.

 

[s44]

And... unlocked bootloader is confirmed for real (by flashing a kernel ).

 

[abaez]

Engadget's review was glowing.

Anyone have a site that lists the bands on the European version? NM: 850, 900, 1900 and 2100 MHZ HSDPA bands.

$700 to import though.

 

[StepUp]

Who are the confirmed carriers for this phone? Just AT&T?

 

[s44]

Who are the confirmed carriers for this phone? Just AT&T?

There aren't any. US carriers don't want a superphone that they don't own totally (or jeopardize their suckup to Jobs).

I bet it'll come in some form to AT&T, but... who can tell when? They might want to waste time with the Infuse (a nice midrange phone, but utterly pointless for us) instead.

 

[Demo24]

I'm hoping this comes to Verizon, I'm liking what I am seeing so far. touchwiz 4.0 doesn't look as bad as previous versions, I could live with it.

 

[ponyo]

Engadget's review was glowing.

Anyone have a site that lists the bands on the European version? NM: 850, 900, 1900 and 2100 MHZ HSDPA bands.

$700 to import though.

I was thinking of leaving Android for iPhone5 but after reading that review, I think I'll stay. It seems like Samsung learned and corrected everything wrong with the first phone. Only thing I dont know is the driving GPS. Standby location lock means nothing. The key is holding that lock during driving and I havent seen any review regarding that. Still EXT4, S-AMOLED Plus, and open bootloader = major win. Great battery and native 1080p mkv support. Awesome.

 

[Fire&Blood]

I don't see why the SGS2 shouldn't be released in the same manner as the original, minor differentiations and carrier specific naming.

Without the die shrink to 28nm and next gen SoC's, I don't think phones we already know about can be improved upon enough to warrant a purchase and it looks like that won't happen before Q1 2012.