The In-Depth Samsung Galaxy S2 Review
The Galaxy S was a runaway success for Samsung, infact they couldn’t make enough of them. It went off the shelves for a little while and only returned with a Super LCD display, Samsung clearly wanted to concentrate somewhere else and the only thing that would make a company divert its attention from its most successful smartphone ever, would be its successor. 
That’s exactly what the Samsung Galaxy S2 is, Sammy’s new superphone that aims to rule them all, if the original Galaxy S sold 10 million units, they want to sell even more of these. So does the Galaxy S2 live up all the expectations? We find out in our review.
Lets start with a quick unboxing and overview to give you an idea of the box contents of the S2, it comes with a pretty nice leather case that doesn’t add to the bulk too much, check it out in the video below. The device also comes with a microUSB cable and stereo in-ear headphones which will suffice for casual playback.
HARDWARE
The Galaxy S2 is Samsung’s premium smartphone, their most expensive and most powerful, so you would expect they would want to cram in everything under the sun. A 4.3” Super AMOLED Plus display, a dual core Exynos 1.2 Ghz processor, 1 GB RAM, 16 GB of inbuilt storage with a microSD card slot, an 8 Megapixel Camera with an LED flash along with the usual set of connectivity options like WIFI, GPS, Bluetooth and so on. When announced, the Galaxy S2 was supposed to have NFC chips as well, but that’s been left out from the current batch of Galaxy S2 i9100 models that have hit shelves the world over.
Building on such great hardware means that Samsung could add a bunch of features most other Android manufacturers haven’t incorporated. Things like 1080p HD video recording at 30 frames per second, WIFI Direct, support for USB on the go, Bluetooth peripherals like mice, and DLNA support that’s continued from the original model. To keep all the above humming along nicely, Samsung’s put in a 1650 mAh battery.
DESIGN
The Galaxy S line of phones from Samsung is focused on making fast, elegant and slim smartphones and the S2 has started from where the original left off. The device is slightly larger on account of the bigger 4.3” screen as compared to the 4” on the original, but is surprisingly even slimmer at just 8.5mm, compared to the 9.9mm on the S1, making it the thinnest and most powerful smartphone on the market today.
The design language is still very similar, a front occupied mostly by the screen with a physical home button at the bottom, flanked by the menu and back keys. No place for the search key means that the menu key doubles up to perform those functions as well, a long press on the menu touch sensitive key and it begins to work like the search button, working across all applications. Personally I like this setup as that makes for a cleaner design, and you won’t accidentally press any keys as the touch sensitive keys are separated by the physical home button.
The sides have minimalist buttons with the left packing the volume rocker and the right holding power/lock key, there is no camera key. The positioning of the power button is perfect, it is much easier to hit, immaterial of whether you are left handed or right, compared to a position on the top of the device where you’d generally find the power button. Reaching across a 4.3” display won’t have been a joy if it had been placed on top. Speaking of the top, all that it carries is a 3.5mm jack for plugging in your favourite headphones, while the bottom of the device holds a solitary microUSB port, which can also be used with the HDMI connector to connect to an HDTV.
The back of the device holds an ever so slightly protruding 8 Megapixel camera with an LED flash. The bottom of the device bulges out towards the back and holds a mono loudspeaker. As you can imagine, keeping the device faceup blocks the loudspeaker and can cause you to miss calls, this problem is however mostly evident on soft surfaces.
SOFTWARE
The S2 runs the Gingerbread 2.3.3 release out of the box, with Samsung’s proprietary TouchWiz 4 overlay. The latest version of Gingerbread is 2.3.4, and the Galaxy S2 is expected to receive the update in the coming weeks, even otherwise 2.3.4 isn’t something you would miss dearly.
TouchWiz 4: What deserves special mention is the TouchWiz 4 interface that adds a lot of value to stock Android. A lot of people prefer a stock UI, but TouchWiz 4 really makes you reconsider that stand. It brings quick WIFI, GPS, Rotation and Bluetooth toggles to the pull down notification bar. Also present there are forward, back and pause buttons while the music is playing, you can even control music from the lockscreen without having to unlock the device.
Next, it gives you upto 7 homescreens and plenty of widgets to play around with including agenda widgets with month and today views along with a bunch of clocks etc. Some widgets are resizable, so you can decide how much of the screen should say the weather widget occupy, or if you want to make the today view larger. You can quickly jump between homescreens by pinching out or dragging your finger across the dots on the bottom to glide between homescreens.
The apps are presented in a page based format, much like iOS and I am personally a huge fan of this approach. No need to keep scrolling up and down, and you can organize your apps by moving them across pages or within folders. You can glide between pages in the same way as homescreens. TouchWiz also has bunch of other tricks up its sleeve with a brightness control that can be activated to holding the pull down notification bar for a second and then dragging right to increase and left to decrease.
TouchWiz 4 also introduces motion based gestures, for example you can move widgets between pages by holding them and then moving the phone left or right to jump pages, or holding down two points on the screen to zoom in and out of the browser, pictures and so on. These things are more for fun than actually helping you save time, but nevertheless make for a great way to show off your new device to friends.
All in all, I’m a huge fan of the TouchWiz 4 interface and as surprising as it may sound to some of the Android purists, it adds a lot of value to the device. If you don’t like it, you always have the option to choosing a new launcher from the Android Market and forget about TouchWiz completely. Here is a video that takes you though some of the lesser know tips & tricks that are available of the Galaxy S2.
The one things that I don’t like about Samsung’s software is that they want to control how I use my battery once it is running low. Beyond a certain point, the camera kicks you out because the phone is running low on battery, or the music player shuts down and so on. Samsung does it to protect the basic function of the phone i.e. make and receive calls, but if I want to take a picture, the phone can simply warm me and then let me take the shot instead of blocking me completely. Fortunately, there are workarounds to this problem. A camera app from the Market solves the purpose, so does a third party music player.
Flashing: But if that’s not enough, you will be pleased to know that the SGS2 comes with an unlocked bootloader and is one of the most mod friendly Android devices on the market. There are already custom ROMS and hacks available, so if you ever feel something is amiss or you that would like to try something new, the modding community will keep you satisfied.
Some custom ROMs and hacks also let you get rid of the battery limitations I described earlier.
On the software front, as I mentioned earlier, the S2 brings new functionality such as USB on-the-go, so that you can plus in flash drives, portable hard disks etc to copy data across without needing a PC. There is also support for WIFI Direct, a technology that lets you copy data wirelessly, much like Bluetooth but at much faster speeds using an adhoc WIFI connection. Find a detailed write up here, and following is a video showing it in action:
PERFORMANCE
Considering it runs on a dual core processor and a gig of RAM, you would expect this thing to fly, and fly it does. Despite the days of rigorous tests, app installs and non-stop use, the SGS 2 has performed with flying colours. Everything is fast, there are no lags whatsoever, and even after days of use you do not need to reboot. The booting time for SGS 2 is a breath of fresh air and it takes about 10 seconds to get upto speed from a cold boot. The annoying Android file keeping on boot is also a matter of seconds.
The device has about 833 MB of RAM available and on a fresh boot you will generally find that around 650MB is free, more than enough for anything you might want to throw at the phone.
If you had worries about TouchWiz slowing things down, you can get rid of them. The browser is fast, most apps load almost instantly, the camera takes 2 seconds to get ready to shoot, the scrolling is smooth and you don’t see jerks.
The browser despite being blazing fast to load pages, does manage to show a few check boxes while scrolling, this is a software bug and I would think that Samsung would be working to get it fixed with subsequent firmwares. Otherwise it handles flash just fine and that doesn’t really affect the overall smoothness of the phone. The Gallery app sometimes take a second to load, but once inside, flicking though pictures is instant.
But if you really cut to the chase, I’m yet to come across a single app that actually needs a dual core processor to show its true potential, the dual core chip is more for about being future proof than being a requirement for today. Still you feel good knowing its there.
CAMERA
The auto focus camera on the S2 is an improvement from the 5MP shooter on the original, and possibly one of the better ones across all Android devices. The S2 does not have a physical camera button, so all the controls are on the screen itself. You can touch a particular area to focus or use the camera key and let the phone take that into its own hands.
With stills, there are a lot of options available, right from taking panoramas, to an action mode for fast shutter speeds and even a cartoon mode. Also present is a macro (close-up) mode, a Face Detention mode and the usual auto mode. For most documents scans and closeups, the auto focus mode is enough and you are saved from the bother of having to switch to macro each time. When you exit, the camera remembers your settings.
The UI of the camera app is clean and simple, you can select which controls to show on the left hand side while the right holds the toggle for switching to video, taking a picture and jumping into the Gallery.
The S2 also has a 2 Megapixel front facing camera that is a very welcome improvement from the VGA shooters that we see on most smartphones. It is passable for portrait shots and will help improve video call quality if our networks and apps are upto it.
ISSUES?
When the Galaxy S2 launched there were quite a few rumors surrounding the screen, heating and WIFI performance, so its best to put those to rest as well.
First the screen, the alleged problem being that there is a slight yellow effect on the left hand side of the display. I have played with two Galaxy S2 devices and on both occasions I had a very hard time locating the yellow batch, sometimes I see it, sometimes I don’t. It is allegedly visible in low brightness with a solid grey colour in the background. But for me it is not a problem, the screen looks great, even better than the original Super AMOLED display on the S1 and I am yet to see any the issue in any real world scenario.
Next is talk that the Galaxy S2 gets excessively hot. In peak of the Indian summer, my device has held up well, it does get a little warm at times, specially when you are charging it and using it at the same time, but this is no deal breaker and expected to an extent. Bottomline, don’t worry about it.
Next, some people are having problems with WIFI reception. In my tests using the default India firmware, the SGS2 performed well enough. My N8 and the the iPad 2 had better reception at the edge of my router’s range, but the SGS2’s performance is still passable. You’ll only have problems if you try and leech off your neighbour’s WIFI.
Last, the original Galaxy S had problems with GPS performance and it looks as if Samsung has gone to great lengths to make sure that the GPS performance on the S2 is stellar. Infact after the using the device as my primary smartphone for the last 4 weeks, I am yet to see a show stopping bug, or even something that is a minor annoyance.
Battery Life: Finally lets talk battery life. After a few recharge cycles, the Galaxy S2 possibly has the best battery life of any similar device in its class. With 4 email accounts, WhatsApp, Gtalk and Tweetdeck running continuously in addition to a few calls, a bunch of texts, moderate browsing and 20 minutes of light games I still get a day’s usage from the device.
So if you leave the house at 8am with a full battery, you should still have some juice left over when you get back at 8 in the evening, it might even get you through the after work parties unless you really hammer it. Considering the S2 has a 4.3” display, it manages to last for an impressive amount of time.
GALAXY S v GALAXY S2
At this point a lot of original Galaxy S owners are wondering if it is worth it to update to the successor, here is what I think:
CONCLUSION
The good: While the S2 excels in most aspects, the following stand out:
- Screen, the colours really pop out and the blacks are seriously impressive.
- Size, super thin and very light.
- Blazing fast, with a useful TouchWiz overlay.
- Great call quality, one of the loudest in, in-call volume.
The bad: There’s hardly anything bad, but the following things would have been better:
- The camera while being one of the best ones on an Android device, still doesn’t match up to the likes of Nokia’s N8. The single LED flash could have been brighter as well.
- Some people would have preferred a more metallic finish, but Samsung’s compromised on that front to keep the weight and antenna performance better.
- A loud enough mono speaker, let down by the placement on the bottom where it gets muted easily. The same plastic bottom is also prone to scratches if you aren’t careful.
- The TouchWiz overlay will mean that updates come to the SGS2 a little later than the Nexus series of smartphones, but Samsung’s been stepping up its game recently with their speed of updates and judging by how popular the S2 will be, you can rest assured about getting the updates sooner, than later.
One the whole the Samsung Galaxy S2 is a superphone, to call it a mere smartphone would be an understatement. It has its niggles, but they are far outnumbered by the overwhelming positives in its favour. It is without a doubt the best Android smartphone on the market and depending on how you feel about Android, perhaps even the best smartphone today, certainly the most powerful.
So if you were in the market for a high-end smartphone, would I recommend the Galaxy S2? Definitely.
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This is the best review I’ve read so far! Took me ages to read it, up very detailed. Thanks, you’ve made my purchase decision much easier!
Great set of tips – any chance of posting a written set of notes?
Sure, here you go. http://thehandheldblog.com/2011/06/14/galaxy-s2-tips-tricks/
the French model comes in a much smaller case, without the leather case.
no cd in the box, no docs explaining that the software has to be downloaded from Samsung’s web site
the weather was pretty fine today, it was not too hot outside, near 26° and the S2, with the Samsung genuine silicone case, heat…
My battery was exhausted at 18:00
Hello, Mr. Sharma. I purchased the Galaxy S 2 in Korea and really appreciate the tips and tricks video.
However, I noticed that sometimes the Home Key stops functioning where it doesn’t pull up the Task Manager for multitasking if you hold it down. I found that a hard reset of the device corrects the problem with the Home Key, so it seems to be a software issue and not a hardware issue with the Home Key itself. Have you experienced this problem?
I haven’t witnessed the problem myself, nor have come across any reports mentioning it. May be you have a faulty piece, its probably best to get it checked at a service center.
I got my galaxy S2 one week back, i do see that when i click the picture from camera the brightness of the picture reduces on the saved picture, can any one let me know how this can be fixed.
I did reset the camera settings but still no use.
I’m not sure what you mean, is the exposure messed up? Did you try putting it on the computer to see if the picture came out fine?
hi awesome review just wanted to know what is your opinion of the sensation vs galaxy 2 and i hear there is a rumour that there is a model coming out sporting Mobile 7 ?? is this tru ?
Nope, Exposure is set at 0 only,
Before taking the picture i see really good quality every thing is fine, once i take the picture and open that picture from galary the picture looks dull, looks like it lost the brightness which was present before taking the picture.
I did copy the same file to PC and on PC also it looks dull.
I have the SG2 and recently noticed an issue with email forwarding. I have my accounts set up as ‘premium’ accounts (I like the push mail), the ones where you get a little gold star with a P next to the account name. However, when I forward an email message the recipient just gets a blank email…no attachment, nothing. I tried with a regular account, setting up without checking the ‘premium’ account box and forwarding worked fine. The problem with the regular account set up is I don’t get true push mail, I can only set up the frequency that accounts are checked. I love the phone, and agree with the author regarding a lot of the talked about issues, but I just can’t seem to find a fix for this one. Have you, or anyone else, experienced this same problem regarding forwarding of emails?
got the same kind of trouble, even with not a premium account, by default attached files are not forwarded, you have to enable it in the options
I bought 2 of these (one to myselves and one to my wife).
My wife became the most happiest. My phone randomly shuts off, suddenly getting warm next to the camera (even no program is running) and shuts off becaus of that after 2-3 hours. I did factory reset, installed whe newest software update. The phone have been better, but its still have that problem. Any ideas? Have no programs installed that should cause this problem
Its also shuts off, randomly also when the battery i fully loaded. Is this a known problem?
Looks like you might have a faulty piece, I haven’t come across any such issues.
@LTH
No problems forwarding with the regular accounts only with the premium. Problem is, in the Premium accounts there is no option showing for forwarding in the settings. I’ve checked around and it seems like a common problem for the premium accounts. Hopefully an upgrade will address the issue.
Mukesh Kumar Singh says:
I think majority of web reviews of S2 is stage managed….
There is no doubt that its speed is remarkable. But during one month of using this much hyped device I found the following incompatency in S2:
1. Start from the shop… Samsung is unable to provide you a Screen Protector! Its a must accessory costing a meagre amount, but available, even if you are ready to pay. Why can’t a Protector be supplied by the company in the initial packaging itself?
2. The S2 mobile case is the next one! Some idiots has designed it and even damn fools of Samsung has approved it..! They all have absolutely ignored that it is not a use friendly design. I can’t afford it to use for even a minute! It annoyed me deeply when I saw it first.
3. Now, move to operational part of S2…
Samsung is not providing the Hindi Compatibility. Why? One can see the following link and it’s page, which is clearly saying that Android 2.3.3 is very much supportive of Hindi, which is the national language of 121 billion Indians!
»» I’m not getting a reasonable response from the Samsung in this regard, in spite of my several attempts. There is no support available of this issue at the Android Market also. Its remarkable to note that Android 2.2 was capable to handle Hindi but Samsung failed to carry it in advanced version of OS 2.3.3…!
»» Can this problem of Hindi Compatibility be solved in this top end Samsung mobile?
Detail of my handset is as under:
Samsung Galaxy SII
Model No: GT-I9100 (Version: 11.05.20.01).
Browser: Google.com
Baseband Version: I9100DDKE4.
Kernel Version: 2.6.35.7-I91100XWKF3-CL276555 root@DELL101#2
Build Number: GINGERBREAD.XWKF3.
Current Firmware Version: PDA: KF3 / PHONE: KE4 / CSC: KF3 (INU).
http://www.talkandroid.com/22956-android-2-3-gingerbread-doubles-language-support-from-2-2-froyo/
…we bring you a complete list of all the language support available on the newly released Android 2.3. While Froyo (2.2) only had 26 languages, Gingerbread comes in with a whopping 57 languages. Included in this list is the long awaited Arabic support, among many others. Be sure to hit the break for a complete list, and be sure to let us know your thoughts in the comments!
Arabic, Egypt (ar_EG)
Arabic, Israel (ar_IL)
Bulgarian, Bulgaria (bg_BG)
Catalan, Spain (ca_ES)
Czech, Czech Republic (cs_CZ)
Danish, Denmark(da_DK)
German, Austria (de_AT)
German, Switzerland (de_CH)
German, Germany (de_DE)
German, Liechtenstein (de_LI)
Greek, Greece (el_GR)
English, Australia (en_AU)
English, Canada (en_CA)
English, Britain (en_GB)
English, Ireland (en_IE)
English, India (en_IN)
English, New Zealand (en_NZ)
English, Singapore(en_SG)
English, US (en_US)
English, Zimbabwe (en_ZA)
Spanish (es_ES)
Spanish, US (es_US)
Finnish, Finland (fi_FI)
French, Belgium (fr_BE)
French, Canada (fr_CA)
French, Switzerland (fr_CH)
French, France (fr_FR)
Hebrew, Israel (he_IL)
Hindi, India (hi_IN)
Croatian, Croatia (hr_HR)
Hungarian, Hungary (hu_HU)
Indonesian, Indonesia (id_ID)
Italian, Switzerland (it_CH)
Italian, Italy (it_IT)
Japanese (ja_JP)
Korean (ko_KR)
Lithuanian, Lithuania (lt_LT)
Latvian, Latvia (lv_LV)
Norwegian-Bokmol, Norway(nb_NO)
Dutch, Belgium (nl_BE)
Dutch, Netherlands (nl_NL)
Polish (pl_PL)
Portuguese, Brazil (pt_BR)
Portuguese, Portugal (pt_PT)
Romanian, Romania (ro_RO)
Russian (ru_RU)
Slovak, Slovakia (sk_SK)
Slovenian, Slovenia (sl_SI)
Serbian (sr_RS)
Swedish, Sweden (sv_SE)
Thai, Thailand (th_TH)
Tagalog, Philippines (tl_PH)
Turkish, Turkey (tr_TR)
Ukrainian, Ukraine (uk_UA)
Vietnamese, Vietnam (vi_VN)
Chinese, PRC (zh_CN)
Chinese, Taiwan (zh_TW)
4. Samsung Galaxy S2′s ”Copy/Paste” tool is not fit (or, responsive) for all type of texts which are being used on websites and emails. Samsung needs to find out a remedy of it.
Take an example: suppose you want to send two or more contact numbers of one person from your address book to some body else through SMS. Then you can’t do this without copying each contact number independently to the note pad and then to clip board of your SMS protocol. This is quite tedious route for such top end smart phone from Samsung.
5. In the SMS protocol of S2, there are few bugs also… If you get a long SMS from some one. It will show full text in your mobile. But if you want to forward this lengthy SMS to some one else, then the whole text of SMS will first convert into a Multi Media Massage and after this will be sent to the recipient as an MMS. Your SMS thread will Show it as ‘Sent’ and but the reciever will NOT get this SMS. Because, MMS can not land in the SMS’ In-box of recipient. This problem needs to be solved on priority.
6. Its note worthy that the iPhone can send a SMS of unlimited characters. And when the limit of an SMS exceeds, the remaining text moves to the second or third or fourth or fifth packets. The Charges for long SMS will be decided on the basis of these packets by the service provider. This is desired in the S2 also.
7. There is one more issue with regard to forwarding of the SMSs. Suppose you have five SMSs in one Thread. And you wanted to forward Two or Three of them to some body else. Then you can not select these Two/Three SMSs to be copied to your Clip board in one stroke and then send it. This feature is also available in the iPhone but not in S2. In S2, your have to copy these selected SMSs one by one.
Samsung should try to develop these features and update the phone as soon as possible.
8. Location of USB port for charging the S2 is also not designed at the user friendly place. Its top location like Galaxy S is perfect. That gives us perfect grip to work on the with device while keeping in hand and charging.
9. FM Radio is a good feature of S2, but its unable to work without the headphones attached with it. It mean that one should always carry the headphones. If you missed it at your home or in office or in car and after a while wants to listen the Radio then you can’t do it.
Samsung should have fixed an internal antenna to facilitate the wider and convenient use of this feature..!
10. Lastly on the above counts, I found that iPhone is more user friendly device! Why can’t Samsung made its S2 better then that!
Regards,
Mukesh Kumar Singh
Assistant Editor, Zee News, India.
M +91 9811207745.
Posted on July 8th, 2011
@@@@@ Mukesh Kumar Singh
Well lets start with the obvious mistake shall we. There are approximatley 6 billion people in the world. so how there can be 121 BILLION Indians in India i am not sure, unless the are hiding. But i guess you mean 121 Million right? So for an edditor this is kind off an ameture mistake, by not reading and EDDITING your own post.
1. No screen protector? oh nooooo not going to buy it now! On a serious note: i think that including a screen protector is not necessary at all. you can buy one in the shop for less than 3 bucks… Personally i dont use a protector, just a case to put the phone in when it goes in my pocket. I also think that putting a protector on the screen only makes you more vulnurable to damaging your phone. the reason i think is because of false security you get. Do you really think that a peice of plastic will stop your screen getting scratched then you apply 2/3 pounds of pressure on it with a coin? i very much doubt it. Also you should get a case for the phone and not a protector.
2. buy a case of your choice. at first you complain that there is not screen protector and then you complain that the case does not suit you….. So its not Samsungs fault that you dont like it. But honestly they provided the protection for your phone, so not a reason to complain.
3. Agreed
4. Agreed
5. Agreed
6. Agreed
7. Agreed
(Note: these are all OS issues that can be iorned out at the least. and Nothing stated in those points will discourage the user, or at least is should not. I have NEVER needed to forward 3 SMS from my phone to anyone. and if i did i would simply Copy Paste and send an Email. Agree that SMS turning into MMS is annoying, but somewhat avoidable by simply sending 1 SMS and then another afterwards.
8. A matter of preferance. I personaly would have put the miniUSB on the Side of the phone. However I charge it at night when i sleep so somewhat a nitpicking problem.
9. This is mad. the phone gives you soooo many fantastic features, Wierless, GPS, 3G, HSPA+ so on. And you complain that it does not have an inbuilt antena? thats absurd. Also i think that MOST mobiles require headphones to recieve radio signal. Note: you can plug in a headphones jack and the radio will work, even when you have the actuall wires and headphone missing.
Overall I am personally very pleased with the phone, and simply can not ask for much more. My only issue is the battery life. Understandably for such a powerhouse phone you need a nuclear reactor to run it, and we are not there just yet. But i generaly get 16 hours of push email on 2 accounts, a lot of yahoo messenger, roughly 1 hour music and 40 mins apps with 30 mins web browsing, 3G and no wierless and many calls. This is my only complaint, on my BB i could do all these features and yet have 60% battery at the end of 24 hours. However I expect that samsung will provide an upgraded battery sooner rather than later. And i dont mean one of those case batteries. but an actuall battery like the standard one but with more juice. Lets hope!
Awesome phone, quite expensive however, packed full of features, thousands of appas and most of all looks better than the iCrap.
Can Samsung Galaxy S 2 update facebook status using “via Samsung Galaxy S 2″?
I am Planning to Buy this phone. But it seems that there is no NFC for the Indian Version of the phone ……………
Nexus S has got NFC chip in it .
great phone I’m getting one tomorrow! this is a well in depth article ty
Hey I was just wondering what the selling price of the Samsung Galaxy s2 is in India at the moment ?
Cheers
HI Vaibhav,
Thanks for a nice quick review and specially the S2 tips & tricks video. I purchased a Galaxy S2 about a ten days back and while using I have realised the following. Appreciate your feedback and support on how to fix these.
First Issue
The WIFI access deteriorates significantly as I move into areas about 20 -30 feet away from the router. Did you notice the same issue.
Second Issue
The Marketplace widget takes a lot of time to load the default content and when you search for any app/widget the search results also take long time. (10-15 seconds at times. Note : I am working using a Wifi which is very fast).
Strangely the other apps which I have loaded like BBC news, AP Mobile Widget are very fast when trying to access / refresh feeds or content.
Third Issue
The default google page loads as the mobile version and takes ever to load compared to the classic version. Similarly the search using the mobile version of google is very slow compared to the classic version.
Any other web page when accessed using the browser loads slick fast.
Fourth Issue
While using the Music Player App, I have not noticed any close option in the menu options. I am forced to close this player app through a widget called “Active Applications”, which allows me to notice all open applications and exit them.
I am first time user of a smart phone and not very familiar with their functioning. I would much appreciate your support.
Many Thanks & Cheers
Snapdragon
this is a nice piece, the post says it all
Can it do FM recording?
What about recording phone conversations?
Hello,
I am quite disappointed with the sound quality i get during phone calls (i.e. not listening to audio) on my new samsung galaxy s2.
My feeling is that I had a much clearer sound using my old and simple Nokia 6300.
Are there some advanced settings I can safely change on my sgs2 ?
Could someone please assist me ?
Thank you in advance.
Robert
the box in this vid is not retail version, or if it is, in your country,. its not in ours,. we also DO NOT get a leather pouch in the box, no case at all,. samsung retails this pouch for $60 Aus
bTw my galaxyS2 kills my iphone 4 to bits,
HI Vaibhav,
Thanks for a nice quick review and specially the S2 tips & tricks video. I purchased a Galaxy S2 about a week ago, i want to know about GPS settings
Thanks in advance……
Hi Guys,
I am using Sony Arc from last 3 months and was quite happy with all the stuff, but recently I saw S2 and couldn’t believe, its so amazing and fast, sony Arc is just shit when it comes to performance.
Now what I what I would like to know here is, is it a good idea to change my almost new Arc to S2? Are we getting some new technology/phone soon or say in 2/3 months? Since am a big sms user, I do forward and receive 100′s of messages in a day, so the problem in forwarding the sms as above, is it possible to solve if we use 3rd party software, for eg. ‘Go Sms Pro’? Its a great application from Android market with hell lots of options, makes your life easier if you are fond of sms’s. Please do let me know here. Also it would be great if anybody can let me know the best price of S2 in Delhi.
Cheers!
hi, this is a very good review
loving this phone, but the only issue for me (and ALOT of SGS2 users) is the camera sound.. (apparently its dependent on region?)
- how do you disable camera sound (without rooting to not void warranty)? or will this issue be addressed with 2.3.4 update?
theres no option in camera settings, tried system/media vol off, silent mode…
Many thanks,
Vince
Can’t decide between SGS2 or IPhone 4???? Galaxy 2 looks complicated, anyone used both and can help?
Hi,
Really nice review, i simply love this problem but as i came yo know form the comment that there are some problems in forwarding a txt. is that true? i send sms a lot sometimes 200 a day and mostly of them are forward text, i am buying this phone because it has a very responsive screen so i could text easily but if the problem cant be fixed then i don’t want this cell.
please tell me whether should i buy it or not?
2. my old Samsung Gst5233a became slow after a year, will that be the case here too?
3. should i buy htc sensation for txting?
thank u
Hi Vaibhav,
Good day. Great review by the way! More power to your blog site! It made me love this Samsung SGS2 more. If it would be okay, can you do also an in-depth review of the other dual core rivals of SGS 2? Particularly love to see the review of the HTC sensation and if its not to much to ask the LG optimus 2x as well. Head to head comparison will with three will be awesome Vaibhav.
Thanks in advance!
Cheers!
Guys, when you go into the >> about phone setting and >> click on status, does the my phone number field show as ‘Unknown’ or does it populate?
nice review.:)
take a look at samsung galaxy s2 vs iPhone4
http://www.techzags.com/2011/08/samsung-galaxy-s2-vs-iphone-4.html
I have a WinXP netbook with WiFi and this phone, I wanted to link the two together without a router, but hasn’t figured out how to do it. Can anyone show me the step-by-step procedure, please?
Hey,
this is a realy nice review! its realy amazing
Great Work!
HiVaibhav,
I have purchased a new galaxy s2 and have few queries regarding the same.
1.Is there a code to fime serial/IMEI no, acctual call duration like nokia phones.
2.Since i am having vodafone 3g services postpaid, they don’t have any sms or dedicated number to track internet usage. How can track the same using my phone.
3.Has the Ginger Bread 2.3.4 released for samsung galaxy s2. If yes, if i upgrade from 2.3.3 will i loose my data installed ?
4.When the sms used to come previously it used to tell the name of the sender. After i reset my phone that option is gone. Is there a setting for it, if so please lead me..!!!
5.What is the backup of the phone if just use the phone for calling and messaging on 3G.
6.how to change the storage option from phone memory to either internal usb memomry or external card memory for installing appliction from android market. when ever i install an application it will be installed on 1.97GB phone memory.
same is the question for camera as well…!!!
waiting for your relpy.
Regards,
Sujith Bhaktha
iPhone 5 preorder begins in Germany http://www.techzags.com/2011/09/iphone-5-preorder-begins-in-germany.html
Hi
Nice informative review but I think you have been too kind on the wifi performance. It is not good, it just does not get good signal strength. It repeatedly tries to obtain an IP address but fails when other devices (tested against my old milestone in numerous locations) succeed. It also tends to stick with it’s 3G connection when it should switch over to wifi. My last gripe is that it was particularly bad with a wifi N network – never consistently connecting.
Oh and why can’t we have a home screen and scroll up/down and left/right. The Milestone had many faults but I had just assumed all android phones did this, having to scroll continually right for 6 screens from home is not “cutting edge”.
Nice blog.
Pete
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Droid bionic v/s Galaxy S2-Take a look http://www.techzags.com/2011/09/droid-bionic-vs-galaxy-s2-take-look.html
Galaxy s2 is till a winner..:)
Hello Folks,
What about the Email features of S2… !! It has quite a few snags.
While it seems to work OK with Gmail acct, other domain email accts
are difficult to set up.
The one feature which is very irritating is that it does NOT allow
you to EDIT an email with reply or forward (except gmail acct).
Any solutions or ideas or apps or add-ons for this problem… ?
Thanx in advance.
Its a great gadget from Samsung. Its best in terms of web browsing, camera, battery back up and everything else. I just love it.
recently i bought new Samsung Galaxy S2 recently.after three days of using it i face problems.i took my phone to samsung service center because it still under warranty.as promised they say my phone will be ready in a day because of the microphone problem.and when i call them the next day they told my phone is not ready,wil be ready in a week cause of mother board problem.is this is how the quality control has been controlled?…im not satisfy…..
Hi,the tips you give are great. This has made it so I able to use my smart phone… I do have one problem with the video and one tip you gave…. I live in Alaska and my account is with GCI, when I want to change my defaults in the about;useragent, this doesn’t work… Can you please tell me how I will able to change this information????? Thanks for getting back to me….
One more question for you about the tips and video, I set up my phone to have a security key lock. When I am viewing a video you stated you can lock the screen by pushing the power button. I do that and it locks my phone and stop playing the video… Then I have to go back in to put my passcode in and push play again… when you have a key lock on the phone and your playing a video how do you lock the screen????? Thanks!
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good day Vaibhav,
my SGS 2 gets hot while taliking or using internet.
good day Vaibhav,
i am using SGS 2 and it gets very hot while talking or using internet.
any idea why is it doing that.
thanks
adnan
Hey anyone knows what the first notification is when you start up voice talk for the first time/ because i accidentally pressed skip instead of next and reading the whole damn thing
@ james – I m enjoying My SGS2 , only 2 complainys–
1. Gets hot on calling and using 3g
2. Internet browser does not opens page on 3g, only opera mini can open the pages. Even opera mobile says no connectivity while i m on 3g. Works fine on wifi.
Hi
I am having trouble finding out how to extend the ring time on the Galaxy S2, it only rings for about 10-15 seconds which is not long enough for me to get it out of my bag or run downstairs if I am upstairs!
Can you help?
Thanks
Does the Indian version galaxy s2 have NFC?if yes,how do i check it or use it?
pls help me out.
@James
Screen prtector, yes. Essential but I agree $3 from the guy on market selling cases, support a small businessman.
As for if you need it. I would argue yes, having hit the screen quite hard on a sharp edge of the door handle when drunk.
I have a small (size of pencil tip) dent on my screen, but no cracks and no pixel damage.
If anyone wants to test their phone against a door handle and prove me wrong I’ll give the kudos to Samsung.
For now I thank the guy on the market for saving my $400 phone.
@Meg -used both Samsung wins hands down even against 4GS
@MM -is about:useragent not about;useragent
Does the Indian version galaxy s2 have NFC?If yes,how do i check it or use it??
pls help me out.
Quick Calls & Texts:
Hi
My swipe right to enter a text on contacts is not working. how to fix? thanks!
Hi, I had a quick question for eithee the author or the readers. Is there a way to access the camera from the lock screen of the SGS2? I find it rather annoying to unlock the screen, choose the camera app and then click. It would be a lot easier to get the perfect shot of my daughters if I could just click from the lock screen. Thanks.
Does anyone know why my buddy things keep resetting on my home screen?
I grabbed a screen protector from mine here http://xoskins.com/cell-phone-skin-protectors/samsung-skin-protectors/samsung-galaxy-s-2-Epic-Touch-4G-screen-protector You should review their stuff, its so cool
I just bought Galaxy S2 from Tmobile and it’s fantastic, I am completely satisfied. I was going to go with iPhone 4S but couldn’t get use to the small lcd screen after getting use to my son’s htc sensation. My son even likes Galaxy S2 better then his new HTC Sensation. LOL
I am facing the same issue as mentioned by Chidananda in his comments about picture quality. Wondering if you found any solution to that issue.
Hey there… Great review.
I have had an overheating problem, but tracked it to a cracked Micro-SD card.
Others having similar issues can try removing the card and see if it still happens.
Well I bought samsung S 2 and callers are not ablet ot hear after i reset the phone to factory reset.
Can you suggest me waht to
Tried below steps
increased volume
Mic is not covered while talking
signal strength is full.
Awaiting reply as soon as possible please help me fix the issue
THE TALK TO TEXT IS USELESS
I just bought this phone and I am retuning it. The talk to text is USELESS. I put an iphone next the GAlaxy and talked into both at the same time. The I phone understood my speech almost perfectly. And instantly.
The galaxy s2 took 20 seconds to interpret my speech and it was so wrong that it made no sense at all.
The way I look at this phone is that it really has no talk to text. Yes it is pretty and flashy but in the end bad talk to text is NO talk to text.
This is just in 3 days of owner ship.
I am returning if for that reason alone.
Which is best now iphone 4GS or Samsung galaxy s2
in my s2 i have a problem with my camera, it say a/f failed..is there anyway to fix it?
Since yesterday, I’ve had a problem calling one of our family plan mobile phone numbers. When I use my own old samsung flip phone to call my husband’s new samsung galaxy S2 phone, it rings once and then I get a busy signal and can’t get through to him (convenient for him..!!), yet I can get through to all other numbers I call. When he calls me, he goes straight to my message centre. I’m worried we inadvertantly set a call barring/call filtering mode (my daughter plays with the 2 phones…). My carrier Bell in Toronto couldn’t figure it out and then we got disconnected while talking to their technical department. Wondering if it is something that is set on the Samsung Galaxy phone. Can’t find out on the internet how to trouble shoot. Any help would be great! Thanks
I see a lot of complaints, but how many are silly! All of the issues can be resolved via correct use or other than defahlt software. I’m not able to read “bad design pouch” or “no built in fm aerial” without laughing. How hard is it to plug in a 3.5 jack ? No screen protector? That is because it has gorilla glass and unless you are a clumsy muthafuka, and keeping it in your jeans with keys in the same pocket – there is not much you can do to it. This phone is a beast, and if you kno Java you can make it chew & spit out any other mobile. I have no issues with my phone at all after using iShit and several nokias and htc handsets. All your silly issues are easily solvable, but if ud like perfect mobile – make one. And make it thin while having octacore processor 16 gb ram and 160gb ssd, plus of course your damn fm antenna f1.4 lens sensor with full frame and 32 point autofocus. I want it all still under 9mm thin and in a metal case that doesnt get hot. Make it so it comes with screen protector that you could return as a part of warranty if some senseless idiod would not be able to apply ot the first time, so instead developing new touchwiz or galaxy model we could get flooded with complaints and returns of your idiotic screen protector which is not needed anyway. Please do that, or just be quiet.
Very nicely said Hebi. I just wanted to ask a few questions, hopefully someone gets back to me :-s
1. I didnt get a CD with the mobile in the box so i connected the s2 via usb and it doesnt install anything just ask if i want to import anything and let me view the memory, should i buy a cd or download something?
2. My battery life is pretty poor really. Have had the Phone for a few days and it only lasts 8 hours and im lucky for it to last that much if i dont use GPS. I hardly make any calls just text and Whatsapp to people so i leave Wifi or 3g on, use facebook and normal sites for about couple of hours. i let the battery rundown completely and Charge it to full with the phone, it has helped because on my first usage battery only lasted 5 hours and that was on saturday today it last a whooping 8 hours which is still pretty poor
3. Does Wifi or 3g take up power? i want to continously keep one on for my whatsapp which one should i choose
4. I cant seem to Upgrade software from the settings option it keeps saying failed network or something like that
Please Help i love the phone otherwise it is too good better than the Iphone
hi, does anyone know how to disable foreign languages, especially when in SMS mode? I am not a fast touch screen typer but am finally getting better, except when I accidently hit the language button next to the space bar (quite often!!)
thanks
Hi, am really enjoying the S2, especially the challenges of learning how to use it. I have just come upon something I can’t do and that is hide my own number sending. Any help?
hi,how r u,i wana ask about a probleme i have it in my phone,samsung s2…baseband xxkf1 and kernel jpkg5 … my phone write arabic,and read arabic,but when i wana send an sms,it delivired by (??? ????? ???? ????? ???? ) interrogation marks…i have install a plugin arabic,and i tried many things , and now it give me message cant delivired ( failed ) , i dont know what should i do to make my phone send and receive arabic sms ?, and 10x for ur reply
..
Hello Sharma,
I have bought a new galaxy s2 and a cover too about 2 weeks ago every things goes okay.
But today one of my friend toke it from to see it and he try to uncovered it, he pressed the screen a little more and also the corners to uncover it.
after it get a little warm on the screen and also on the camera lower left.
I don’t know whether he have done any thing wrong or its normal because of application and system process.
how do i increase voloume on speaker mode
NO CD in the box!! how to download the software.. i have a MAC.
i want to move all installed games to a folder name “Games”, please help.
Thanks
Sharat
Looks like Galaxy s2 lost the crown…
http://www.phone-vs-phone.org/2011/12/13/best-android-phones-2012-2/
I bought a galaxy s2 on the 1st of october, and rooted the phone after about a month. I installed alot of apps and tried many tweeks which will prevent the phone from starting unwanted app at boot. But most of the time it does not work, and it still boots. But recently my phone is acting really slow at times, like when browsing with dolphin browser, the phone will all of a sudden shut off the screen andpressing the home button will bring up the lock screen. This happened quiet a few times. I guess it hapoens when the ram is over loaded, though I didnt expect this. One more thing I noticed is, when I uninstall an app, some data still remains in the storage. And its hard to find and delete them, can u recomend me and app that can find these data and delete them?
Thanks in advance.
Hey People,
I got the phone recently in Canada though its International version and have been trying to figure out since then, if I have NFC supported in this device or not. I haven’t found anything in the settings menu so far.
Thanks for helping me figure out.
i just got my s2 last week…what is the best apps for my phone?ist go launher apps?or i just using normal app that samsung gave?
I was wondering if there is a way that the flash can be activated at the same time as the self portrait option on the Galaxy S2 phone I have tried but the flash keeps going off it remains only when taking normal pictures thank you for your assistance.
Hi, I have purchased my phone in the US from tmobile. Is it anyway to gt the lcd to work? I have to keep turning on the screen to see if it have any miss calls or text messages or does this phone not have an lcd Light
Please, please can someone recommend an affordable pair of media earphones that work with the Android OS Galaxy S2.
I want to be able to move between tracks and alter volume.
I purchased a pair of Logitech Ultimate Ears 200VI Noise-Isolating Earphones ( 3 button controlled ) but they were not compatible.
Help please
I have a gmail acct for email and am getting it in another language(arabic,farsi?) JUST to my Galaxy S II. When it goes to my home or on the server, it is in English.
I have checked language settings on my Galaxy S II and it says Canadian English but, when I view it on my phone, it comes out as this other language??
Any ideas? I have had the phone for a few months and this only happened starting yesterday and continues today??
Thanx,Lynn
Hi, I have noticed that there is a dead pixel in my screen on my SGS2 White phone. It is a very tiny black dot. What can be done about this please?
That is super cute blog, we will definitely add this information in the our blog list.
hi
i have the samsung galaxy s2 now for one week and it looks like my messages dont have the message skins options where do i get or downlaod it?
thanks
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Amazing phone. Super, super fast – will run anything you can throw at it without breaking sweat. Great camera, 1080p video recording, very fast GPS pick-up, over the air updates of firmware and great flexibility. Swype keyboard is a joy to use and is quicker and more accurate than a physical keyboard.Display is very bright and accurate, as is the touch screen experience. Browsing the web is very near desktop speed.
Vaibhav…..
Nice to read ur post and its excellent…still can u compare HTC Sensation XE with SGS2…..bcoz i want to buy a best phone and plz comment abt headphone strategies plz…
How do you move a picture from a message so it can be used as a contact photo.
How can i copy and paste a post from facebook on my Samsung Galaxy 11?
My phone looses reception. IT gives no waring so you don’t actually know this has happened. My friends does the same? You will get someone say don’t you answer your phone and you will get it out and oh its on but there’s no reception. Yet you are in an aea that you know gets perfect reception. Is there something wrong in the settings that makes it do this?
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I couldn’t make conference call .suggest me on this regards .
Is there a way to increase the volume on the s2 also?
This could be, This photo has gone viral.a
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great work done guys…Galaxy S2 is a great phone i would say, not because of i own it but also on the basis of users comments and reviews. i have read n numbers of reviews and comments of people who have ever used this tremendous device, and you know what everyone has said its an excellent phone. i would also like to add one universal method for Galaxy S2, the method which resolves thousands of issues solely. yest you are tight i am talking about Hard reset, how to hard reset GALAXY S2. Let me share few of my experiences with you guys, I had some sort of problem on my Galaxy S2, it used to freeze quite often, initially I did nothing and felt its just a normal thing and will be all right on its own. But I was totally wrong because the phone became more drastic only after a week. This was the time when i started searching for a remedy, searched a ton on internet and finally came across a solution; I would say the best solution rather. Something that helped me to get rid of the problems was this http://howmobile.net/samsung/2150-how-hard-reset-samsung-galaxy-s2.html I got a strong feeling while I was reading your Blog and thought of contributing a little to help people like me. I mean those who are having problems on their phones like I have mentioned above.
fаntastіc post, νery informativе.
Ӏ wonder why thе opposіte eхрerts оf thіs
sectoг don’t notice this. You should proceed your writing. I’m соnfident, you’ve a great readers’ base already!
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