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Samsung Galaxy S 2 (International) Review
Staggering review, Anandtech analyses every aspect of this phone, and the smartphone industry comprehensively and scientifically.
Samsung have really impressed with this phone, in terms of how much effort they have invested in the hardware and software. One thing still stands out for me, the battery life. While good, it still doesn't hold a candle to the iPhone 4, as shown on the charts.
- Synaesthesia 15y agoStaggering review, Anandtech analyses every aspect of this phone, and the smartphone industry comprehensively and scientifically. Summary: Great phone. Samsung have really impressed with this phone, in terms of how much effort they have invested in the hardware and software. One thing still stands out for me, the battery life. While good, it still doesn't hold a candle to the iPhone 4, as shown on the charts. There's so to discuss in this article. Another interesting point was the section on web browser scrolling - Anandtech shows how it all works behind the scenes, and how Samsung have matched iOS' scrolling smoothness.
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- hnsmurf 15y agoFor my Epic 4g I was able to buy 2 batteries and a charger for less than $8 on Amazon. The charger even has a USB port on the bottom so you can charge an external battery and your phone at the same time. I find it not too inconvenient to just keep a couple backup batteries around at all times.
- Zakuzaa 15y agoI have both iPhone 4 and S2, and no the scrolling smoothness is not even comparable. Either that or there is sonething wrong with my S2.
- Synaesthesia 15y agoSmooth for Android is still jerky for iOS, ha.
- bryanlarsen 15y agoYou must have the American S2. The review was of the 'international' model, which is much better, supposedly.
- scorpioxy 15y agoI am considering getting this as my next Android phone, upgrading from an HTC Hero running VillainRom. What do folks around here who own it think? Or should I wait for the next Nexus or whatever Motorola-Google produces. I specifically use my phone for some reading while mobile(thus need its big screen) and web use including navigation using Google maps (so battery life is important). Other than it being responsive, I don't particularly care about the performance.
- bookwormAT 15y agoI found this was a very good review. I liked that they kept the part where the browser was buggy (I never had that bug on my SGS2 btw.), and that they explained how the browser uses the GPU.
- CoffeeDregs 15y agoVery nice review. Despite being a tech guy in the Valley for a long time, I've never been a gadget guy... But the progress of Android OS and Samsung's phone have got me going a bit gadget/phone crazy. I really wanted an SGS2 until the rumors of the Droid Prime started to circulate. But, whichever variant of the SGS2 or Droid Prime (sounds as though it could be a monster phone) comes to Verizon, I can't wait to upgrade.
- raptrex 15y agoSGS2 isnt coming to Verizon. http://www.mobiledia.com/news/104872.html http://www.mobiledia.com/news/104872.html
- mrich 15y agoWhy is the S2 only available in US now? I can definitely recommend it, although I don't like the stock Samsung software/Touchviz that much. I put MIUI on it, which in my opinion makes it the best phone on the market (best hardware by far/software nearly matches the iPhone).
- ConstantineXVI 15y agoI'm willing to bet a large part of it is that essentially, Samsung lets the carriers talk them into each getting their own custom build of the phone. Both Sprint and T-Mobile US are getting a variant with a 4.5" screen, and there's rumbling that the T-Mobile variant is using a Snapdragon instead of Exynos to take full advantage of T-Mobile's DC-HSPA+ network. And for some reason, Samsung insists on using a different button layout on their US models (flat home/menu/back/search in US vs. menu/raised home/back on the Euro model).
- pkulak 15y agoLet Samsung ruin the international version with that silly iPhone-wannabe button layout, but I appreciate T-Mobile and the other US carriers not letting them get away with it here.
- nextparadigms 15y agoWhat do you mean only in US? It's been in Europe and Asia for months now (since May).
- aristidb 15y agoI think what he means is that its launch has been delayed in the USA, so it is available "only" now.
- syeren 15y agoI believe he meant to say something along the lines of "Why is the S2 only just become available in the US now"? Which is obviously because your Government lets the Telecom Providers bribe them in order to screw the US public just that little bit extra :p
- Xuzz 15y agoSingle page (print) view for Instapaper, Readability, etc: http://www.anandtech.com/print/4686/samsung-galaxy-s-2-international-review-the-best-redefined http://www.anandtech.com/print/4686/samsung-galaxy-s-2-inter...
- unreal37 15y agoI will say, I have this phone. And I love it. I am not surprised by the glowing reviews for it. Best phone I've ever owned.
- kungfooey 15y agoI'm glad to hear it's better than the SGS1 model (especially GPS). However, having been burnt once (I own the SGS1), I'm certainly not going to let it happen again. My next phone will not be a Samsung handset.
- moe 15y agoSame here. I'm not trusting rave reviews about samsung devices anymore. The SGS1 was praised in the exact same terms ("it's fast!"). Fool me once...
- kingofspain 15y agoI got one to start doing Android dev properly and I concur. I still have my iPhone 4 but it's looking a little bit older now. It will take quite something from the iPhone 5 to make me consider upgrading again.
- Synaesthesia 15y agoIt's not better in battery life, audio quality, display resolution and sharpness, or the many ways that iOS is better (AirPlay, app selection AND quality), immediate OS updates, etc). So there's still a good reason to choose iPhones.
- marcocampos 15y agoApp selection (and polish) is still the reason why I keep using an iPhone.
- kingofspain 15y agoI agree with the app quality (or at least polish) - that's the most noticeable difference. As for other points, I really haven't noticed enough a drop in quality sufficient for me to have any problems with it (I've never used AirPlay so have no comment on that one).
- ivanbernat 15y agoThis phone is awesome. The screen is amazing, fits great in (my) hand, it's very light and TouchViz 4 isn't that bad.
- mistermann 15y agoI think he meant"only now".
- mistermann 15y agoSorry, somehow this comment is on the wrong parent.
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- kittxkat 15y agoincredible review, they just covered about EVERY GODDAMN ASPECT. hell, they even took out the motherboard! i am impressed. from now on i will only read reviews from anandtech.com
- Synaesthesia 15y agoI love his reviews and technical articles. You have to be a hardcore geek to read them, but if your are ...
- Symmetry 15y agoThey seriously know their stuff there. Back when SSDs were first becoming popular they had this expose on the problems that the SSDs of the time had with random write sometimes taking 100s of milliseconds, leading to manufacturers to change their firmware.[1] I'm not sure how many review sites can claim to have uncovered new problems and gotten them fixed. http://www.anandtech.com/show/2614/8 http://www.anandtech.com/show/2614/8
- veeti 15y ago> I have to be honest that continuing to shun the search button confuses me. Not just because not having it means we can’t run kwaak3 and get to console without lots of work, but because not having it made me realize how much I use it. Thankfully almost everywhere that I’d use the search button there’s a contextual shortcut - menu, then search. It’s just an added button press in the occasional spot, which can be alien if you’re used to having that button. You can actually hold the menu button and it will function as the search button instead. > The TouchWiz task manager also is snappy and has some nice - kill everything - buttons to free up all RAM. This really bothers me. There is absolutely no need for such a thing and Samsung is basically advertising the misleading idea that you need to "kill apps".
- rodh257 15y agoIf it's anything like my Galaxy S in recent firmware updates, it doesn't act in the same way that the unnecessary task killing apps do, it only lets you close things that are actually active and using CPU, not ones that have been suspended in the background by android. It's come in handy on a number of occasions, mainly because it shows when an app has gone nuts and lets you kill it.
- Synaesthesia 15y agoInteresting also that the physical design now exactly mirrors the iPhone now - a single real button in the middle.
- polshaw 15y agoIt's no different from the SGS (1); physical button flanked by a capacitive button each side, with physical power and volume buttons on the sides.
- Synaesthesia 15y agoPardon, I was actually spouting what Gruber said!
- pazimzadeh 15y agoThat's ok, the Galaxy was also ripping off of the iPhone.
- inuhj 15y agoI've always thought this was something of a joke. An iPhone doesn't have 1 button. It has a power button, two volume buttons, and a home button. Personally I think the 'home' button on the iPhone is unintuitive and confusing and would be glad if Apple did away with it.
- omaranto 15y agoThe home button is perfectly straightforward to use, as explained in this chart: http://m.flickr.com/#/photos/adurdin/4944720731/ http://m.flickr.com/#/photos/adurdin/4944720731/
- pkulak 15y agoI'm glad I finally know why the iOS browser is so much smoother than Android devices. I've been trying to figure that out for years. Good to hear that Google and the device makers are making headway. That scrolling looked very smooth on the GS2.
- 51Cards 15y ago> "To start, home screen one is the far left, not the center." That's a little disappointing. That can leave you up to 6 swipes away from the screen you're trying to get to. As a user who shortcuts everything on one of the screens I would find this annoying. Very minor though in the light of everything else, just a surprising decision.
- johnnycooch 15y ago> "To start, home screen one is the far left, not the center. Switching between these is accomplished either by swiping back and forth or dragging on the dots at the bottom. This animation is extremely fluid" They thought of that.
- mistermann 15y agoOr, pinch, which zooms out so you see all six at once. So, just two actions (pinch + pick screen)- and, it's instantaneous. Very nice.
- pkulak 15y agoIt's dead simple to install Launcher Pro if you don't like it.
- swah 15y agoWhat browser is that running? Also, I thought pinching was patented by Apple?
- Synaesthesia 15y agoI think it is, but everyone's been using pinching, from the original Palm Pre to most Android phones past 2.1. Apple also have a patent on two finger scrolling for inside forms and tables. I don't think anyone else does that.
- latch 15y agoFunny, despite all the glowing reviews, I have a Samsung Galaxy S (the original), and I hate it. I swore I'd never buy another Samsung product, nor another Android-based phone because of it. The only way to get any decent performance out of it (and I mean, basic performance like mp3s not skipping) was to root it and format the file system. Then remove a bunch of crap samsung and my carrier put on it (Smartone actually put a porn app on there). They were extremely slow to make Android releases available for it (2.3 came out like 6+ months later). Now some apps won't install because the Market limit was raised to 50mg, but this phone only supports 25mb download. And, while trying to upgrade the phone twice, using the official (crap) software, it's bricked (At least the local samsung office was quick/effective at repairing it). My point? To both Samsung and Android, the market is too hot, and there's someone too successful (Apple) to be messing around with your brands. It's a commodity market, there's simply too much choice not to have a solid product.
- ajtaylor 15y agoI had a Galaxy S 1 and the lag was horrible. HORRIBLE! I resorted to rooting and using a custom firmware (Darky's ROM, which was like getting a new phone). With my S2, the lag is no where to be seen. I've had it for almost 2 months now, and I love it! Everything just works, and as a result I haven't even considered rooting it. Samsung has historically had great hardware products, and crappy software products. But at least with the SGS 2 they seem to have gotten it right. Time will tell if they are more responsive about Android releases, but to be honest I'm not that worried because it works so well out of the box.
- zobzu 15y agothe lag fix had little to do with the rom, its voodoo lag fix (aka ext4) and then 8 month later or so, samsung finally fixed it in their rom (it was a bug with their file system, RFS) so any rom based on anything post gingerbread is now fixed (including samsung stock)
- zobzu 15y agoI'd like to inform Anandtech that the SGS2 Intl is available since april 2010 and they're 5 month late. ;-) (and yes I own one since april and no the USA is not the center of the world)
- regularfry 15y agoMy only complaint about this phone is that it is so thin and lightweight that it's difficult to believe it'll survive being sat on without snapping in half. And yet it has survived being landed on quite a few times when I've forgotten it's in my pocket before flomping onto the sofa.