Got it for $685... Very excited. I will post my own little review once I have my grubby paws on it. Wooohooo
Ok here goes... I'll try to tell the tale as far as I've experienced it so far... bear in mind I don't have the ATT service setup, so I've only been using it with a prepaid T-mobile SIM I happen to have, and the WIFI in the hotel here.
First of all:
I've been using the Samsung Galaxy S (Fascinate) since it was released last year, and I've always been a fan of Android. I've always felt that the Android phones never seem to put it ALL together into the killer phones they should be. The original Galaxy S was the same way... it had some of the elements.. the beautiful screen, snappy processor... but completely lacked in others no forward camera, cheap plastic back, not enough RAM not enough storage, stuck on 2.1 for eternity. It's always been a case of pick the features that matter most, and decide what you can live without. Enter the Samsung Galaxy S II. On paper.. there doesn't seem to be anything missing.
Hardware:
This phone is dead sexy physically. It's a 4.3" display so I was a bit concerned that it would be a larger footprint than my Fascinate, and I really didn't want to be too much bigger. Amazingly the phone manages to pack the 4.3" screen into approx the same space as the old Galaxy S. It just makes better use of the space allotted to it. The screen goes closer to all edges of the screen left right top bottom.
In terms of design, certainly noone can accuse this phone of being an iPhone clone... I love the physical home button with the capacitive back and settings buttons flanking either side. It feels very very clean. The build seems very solid, there's no "loose" feeling like I felt on the Fascinate... where if you shook the phone you can hear the buttons rattling around. However the phone definitely lacks the substance that I've seen on HTC phones... no solid heft, no metal. It's all plastic and glass... which does make the phone unbelievably light, but also a bit fragile.
The rear of the phone features a battery cover that I really like... nicely textured, effectively curing the phone of the fascinates miles of gleaming plastic and fingerprints problem. Theres never more than a centimeter or two of continuous plastic, making the phone feel MUCH better than it's predecessors. The plastic still, being honest is the most negative aspect of the phone thus far.
The display on this phone is MIND blowing. Deep rich colors, bright screen, and excellent viewing angles. One of the biggest challenges when leaving the Fascinate was I was spoiled by the Super Amoled... every other screen I compared it to seemed so inferior... The SII is significantly better than the Fascinate. I can't tell you how much I love the richness of this display. There's absolutely no other phone on the market that compares to this display.
Software:
It was a sad day getting my Fascinate... here was a glorious piece of hardware saddled with horrific bloat ware, eclair and BING(sigh). The SII ships with Gingerbread... that ALONE is a massive improvement in the area Samsung has truly sucked at. Updates. Galaxy S original shipped with Eclair when everyone else was running Froyo... remember? Now we have a Samsung phone being released ahead of the curve for once.
The SII has a terrific bootime... comes up lickety split. With. Touchwiz. BLEH. I'm sorry I don't like Touchwiz, I don't like it's look, I don't like it's feel, hell I don't even like it's widgets. But at least this time... it's just the look that I don't like. Unlike the Fascinate... the phone isn't slowed down by the skin. It hums along like a rocket ship... menus open with ease, apps pop open fast, homescreens and widgets slip by with polished smoothness. I will be switching over to good old LauncherPro in short order.
Did I mention there's no signed bootloader? Did I mention that Samsung gave one of these babies to Cyanogen's team already?
Summary:
This phone has it all with one exception... still too much plastic.
In my mind the killer combo is:
Super Amoled plus Screen
16GB Internal storage (before an SD card)
Dual core 1.2 GHZ zippy ziiiiiiipy
1GB RAM
Physically stunning phone.
Dual Camera
Unlocked Bootloader w/ future Cyanogen support
No other phone combines all of these features. You can get some of them... but not all of them.
I still need to play with the phone more... get a feel for the battery life, the camera, AT&Ts service... but I am VERY excited about this phone. And I highly recommend it to anyone considering one.
Update:
Holy crap! I love this phone! I've been using it for about a month now, and it's absolutely light years ahead of my experience with the previous generation Galaxy S (Fascinate). I can't keep my hands off the phone... it's such a pleasure to hold and use that I find myself looking for excuses to use it. i.e. I do things like read emails on the phone even when I have my laptop open to email right in front of me.
TouchWiz:
I've been using Launcher Pro on top of TouchWiz and am very happy with it, the two launchers actually combine quite nicely. TW actually adds some value with the toggle buttons in the notification bar, and I actually really like the TW Browser.. it's fast responsive and generally pretty well put together.
GPS:
There doesn't seem to be any sign of the previous generation's issues with GPS. Lock is fast and accurate.
AT&T:
I was pretty apprehensive about making the switch to AT&T from Verizon, but I'm actually pretty happy with the change. In the Washington Metro area I haven't experienced any dropped calls yet, although I have experienced a few occasions while driving where I could hear the signal start to break up. But overall the voice service of AT&T has been just fine here, and in California. In terms of Data I'm very very pleased, HSPA+ is WAY faster than Verizon's 3G, and while it's not as fast as Verizon's LTE it's plenty fast enough for almost everything I've wanted to do so far. The exception will probably be video chat, because of HSPA+'s upload speeds not being stellar all the time.
With Speedtest.net the best speeds I've tested were 6.11Mbps/2.00Mbps and the worst I've seen was 1.56Mbps/0.54Mbps. Average seems to be in the 2.5-3Mbps/.5-1Mbps range.
I didn't think I'd care about the ability to talk and browse at the same time... but actually it's really useful. Browsing during boring con-calls, or having access to data for navigation while on a call is great.
Battery Life:
WAAAAY better than my Fascinate! I'm a very heavy user of my phone... I typically spend at least 3 hours a day on calls... lots of browsing, gaming, email etc etc. It's usually about 14-16 Hours between when I unplug til when I plug back in at the end of the day. Typically I have about 25-30% battery remaining. For me, thats extremely good.
There does seem to be a weird issue going on where I see Android OS accounting for 18-20% of battery usage. This seems to be some kind of issue, and there's lots of discussion about it over at XDA. This is something Samsung really needs to fix, because there's no way that process should be leaching so much out of the battery. Nonetheless even with this weird leak, I'm very very happy with the battery life.
Accessories:
I ended up buying 3 different cases... the first was a generic velvet-ish pocket. I used this initially to protect the phone while waiting for the other two cases I ordered to arrive. Obviously this isn't a great option... but it worked ok as a stop gap.
I also got the PDAir 3BSSGXVX1 http://www.pdair.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=10100000_10000000_11001206&products_id=32476
and
the Case-mate BarelyThere http://www.case-mate.com/Samsung-Ga...te-Samsung-Galaxy-S-II-Barely-There-Cases.asp
At first I really liked the feel of the Casemate, and was using that for the first 3 weeks, but it quickly became apparent that it stole a good bit of the beauty of the phone and it didn't do a great job protecting the top and bottom edges of the phone. So in the last week or so I switched over to the PDair. Love it so far, I get to show the phone off in it's naked glory, and still feel comfortable keeping it in my pocket next to change and keys. I am terrified that I'm going to drop the thing while it's outside of the case.
I've got a Skinomi Techskin on the screen, I much prefer the Skinomi's wet application. It's easier to get everything on perfectly, and unlike Zagg it doesn't feel like rubber to the touch. It gets a little greasy from my fingers by the end of the day, but it does self heal well, and it protects the screen very well. Other negatives of the skinomi, it collects some lint at the edges of the protector... but I think thats a universal problem with screen protectors.
Bluetooth... I picked up the Jawbone Era... which works perfectly with the phone. The Jawbone companion app works perfectly as well, even though the SGSII is not on the list of compatible devices.
Update Conclusion:
LOVE this phone... by far the best phone I've ever owned.
Pics:
https://www.filesanywhere.com/FS/M.aspx?v=8a6a648a6167a77ba36e
https://www.filesanywhere.com/FS/M.aspx?v=8a6a648a60a3a9a7af96
https://www.filesanywhere.com/FS/M.aspx?v=8a6a648a5f63b67ca068
Ok here goes... I'll try to tell the tale as far as I've experienced it so far... bear in mind I don't have the ATT service setup, so I've only been using it with a prepaid T-mobile SIM I happen to have, and the WIFI in the hotel here.
First of all:
I've been using the Samsung Galaxy S (Fascinate) since it was released last year, and I've always been a fan of Android. I've always felt that the Android phones never seem to put it ALL together into the killer phones they should be. The original Galaxy S was the same way... it had some of the elements.. the beautiful screen, snappy processor... but completely lacked in others no forward camera, cheap plastic back, not enough RAM not enough storage, stuck on 2.1 for eternity. It's always been a case of pick the features that matter most, and decide what you can live without. Enter the Samsung Galaxy S II. On paper.. there doesn't seem to be anything missing.
Hardware:
This phone is dead sexy physically. It's a 4.3" display so I was a bit concerned that it would be a larger footprint than my Fascinate, and I really didn't want to be too much bigger. Amazingly the phone manages to pack the 4.3" screen into approx the same space as the old Galaxy S. It just makes better use of the space allotted to it. The screen goes closer to all edges of the screen left right top bottom.
In terms of design, certainly noone can accuse this phone of being an iPhone clone... I love the physical home button with the capacitive back and settings buttons flanking either side. It feels very very clean. The build seems very solid, there's no "loose" feeling like I felt on the Fascinate... where if you shook the phone you can hear the buttons rattling around. However the phone definitely lacks the substance that I've seen on HTC phones... no solid heft, no metal. It's all plastic and glass... which does make the phone unbelievably light, but also a bit fragile.
The rear of the phone features a battery cover that I really like... nicely textured, effectively curing the phone of the fascinates miles of gleaming plastic and fingerprints problem. Theres never more than a centimeter or two of continuous plastic, making the phone feel MUCH better than it's predecessors. The plastic still, being honest is the most negative aspect of the phone thus far.
The display on this phone is MIND blowing. Deep rich colors, bright screen, and excellent viewing angles. One of the biggest challenges when leaving the Fascinate was I was spoiled by the Super Amoled... every other screen I compared it to seemed so inferior... The SII is significantly better than the Fascinate. I can't tell you how much I love the richness of this display. There's absolutely no other phone on the market that compares to this display.
Software:
It was a sad day getting my Fascinate... here was a glorious piece of hardware saddled with horrific bloat ware, eclair and BING(sigh). The SII ships with Gingerbread... that ALONE is a massive improvement in the area Samsung has truly sucked at. Updates. Galaxy S original shipped with Eclair when everyone else was running Froyo... remember? Now we have a Samsung phone being released ahead of the curve for once.
The SII has a terrific bootime... comes up lickety split. With. Touchwiz. BLEH. I'm sorry I don't like Touchwiz, I don't like it's look, I don't like it's feel, hell I don't even like it's widgets. But at least this time... it's just the look that I don't like. Unlike the Fascinate... the phone isn't slowed down by the skin. It hums along like a rocket ship... menus open with ease, apps pop open fast, homescreens and widgets slip by with polished smoothness. I will be switching over to good old LauncherPro in short order.
Did I mention there's no signed bootloader? Did I mention that Samsung gave one of these babies to Cyanogen's team already?
Summary:
This phone has it all with one exception... still too much plastic.
In my mind the killer combo is:
Super Amoled plus Screen
16GB Internal storage (before an SD card)
Dual core 1.2 GHZ zippy ziiiiiiipy
1GB RAM
Physically stunning phone.
Dual Camera
Unlocked Bootloader w/ future Cyanogen support
No other phone combines all of these features. You can get some of them... but not all of them.
I still need to play with the phone more... get a feel for the battery life, the camera, AT&Ts service... but I am VERY excited about this phone. And I highly recommend it to anyone considering one.
Update:
Holy crap! I love this phone! I've been using it for about a month now, and it's absolutely light years ahead of my experience with the previous generation Galaxy S (Fascinate). I can't keep my hands off the phone... it's such a pleasure to hold and use that I find myself looking for excuses to use it. i.e. I do things like read emails on the phone even when I have my laptop open to email right in front of me.
TouchWiz:
I've been using Launcher Pro on top of TouchWiz and am very happy with it, the two launchers actually combine quite nicely. TW actually adds some value with the toggle buttons in the notification bar, and I actually really like the TW Browser.. it's fast responsive and generally pretty well put together.
GPS:
There doesn't seem to be any sign of the previous generation's issues with GPS. Lock is fast and accurate.
AT&T:
I was pretty apprehensive about making the switch to AT&T from Verizon, but I'm actually pretty happy with the change. In the Washington Metro area I haven't experienced any dropped calls yet, although I have experienced a few occasions while driving where I could hear the signal start to break up. But overall the voice service of AT&T has been just fine here, and in California. In terms of Data I'm very very pleased, HSPA+ is WAY faster than Verizon's 3G, and while it's not as fast as Verizon's LTE it's plenty fast enough for almost everything I've wanted to do so far. The exception will probably be video chat, because of HSPA+'s upload speeds not being stellar all the time.
With Speedtest.net the best speeds I've tested were 6.11Mbps/2.00Mbps and the worst I've seen was 1.56Mbps/0.54Mbps. Average seems to be in the 2.5-3Mbps/.5-1Mbps range.
I didn't think I'd care about the ability to talk and browse at the same time... but actually it's really useful. Browsing during boring con-calls, or having access to data for navigation while on a call is great.
Battery Life:
WAAAAY better than my Fascinate! I'm a very heavy user of my phone... I typically spend at least 3 hours a day on calls... lots of browsing, gaming, email etc etc. It's usually about 14-16 Hours between when I unplug til when I plug back in at the end of the day. Typically I have about 25-30% battery remaining. For me, thats extremely good.
There does seem to be a weird issue going on where I see Android OS accounting for 18-20% of battery usage. This seems to be some kind of issue, and there's lots of discussion about it over at XDA. This is something Samsung really needs to fix, because there's no way that process should be leaching so much out of the battery. Nonetheless even with this weird leak, I'm very very happy with the battery life.
Accessories:
I ended up buying 3 different cases... the first was a generic velvet-ish pocket. I used this initially to protect the phone while waiting for the other two cases I ordered to arrive. Obviously this isn't a great option... but it worked ok as a stop gap.
I also got the PDAir 3BSSGXVX1 http://www.pdair.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=10100000_10000000_11001206&products_id=32476
and
the Case-mate BarelyThere http://www.case-mate.com/Samsung-Ga...te-Samsung-Galaxy-S-II-Barely-There-Cases.asp
At first I really liked the feel of the Casemate, and was using that for the first 3 weeks, but it quickly became apparent that it stole a good bit of the beauty of the phone and it didn't do a great job protecting the top and bottom edges of the phone. So in the last week or so I switched over to the PDair. Love it so far, I get to show the phone off in it's naked glory, and still feel comfortable keeping it in my pocket next to change and keys. I am terrified that I'm going to drop the thing while it's outside of the case.
I've got a Skinomi Techskin on the screen, I much prefer the Skinomi's wet application. It's easier to get everything on perfectly, and unlike Zagg it doesn't feel like rubber to the touch. It gets a little greasy from my fingers by the end of the day, but it does self heal well, and it protects the screen very well. Other negatives of the skinomi, it collects some lint at the edges of the protector... but I think thats a universal problem with screen protectors.
Bluetooth... I picked up the Jawbone Era... which works perfectly with the phone. The Jawbone companion app works perfectly as well, even though the SGSII is not on the list of compatible devices.
Update Conclusion:
LOVE this phone... by far the best phone I've ever owned.
Pics:
https://www.filesanywhere.com/FS/M.aspx?v=8a6a648a6167a77ba36e
https://www.filesanywhere.com/FS/M.aspx?v=8a6a648a60a3a9a7af96
https://www.filesanywhere.com/FS/M.aspx?v=8a6a648a5f63b67ca068
Last edited:
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