I got my Samsung Galaxy S II delivered yesterday (perhaps an exaggeration, as I got it only at 10 pm ). Initial impressions of this device are great. So here goes the quick review.
SAMSUNG Galaxy S II inside a Zenus Case
Coming from a Samsung Galaxy S (i9000), the imposing Physical dimensions of Galaxy S2 is the most striking first impression one will get. It is super lite, yet feels very sturdy. The huge screen may prove unwieldy to those with smaller palms, often warranting two handed operations. The buttons are placed similar to that of Original Galaxy S; though one could easily find the Home button a lot more ‘clickier’. The speaker is better than Original Galaxy S; So is Phone call Quality.
Samsung seems to have done their home work well to optimize the software of Galaxy S II (I have a KE2 Build). The TouchWiz 4 Launcher is zippy and a lot customizable to suit everyone’s need. I did install LauncherPro for a while, but that did not stick. TouchWiz launcher seems capable and some of the neater widgets are exclusive to it. Programs open instantly. The scrolling performance of lists are very good. I did notice some lag while scrolling through Market App. Browsing on Galaxy S II is a near – shall I say better than – iPhone 4 experience? Buttery smooth is the word. Galaxy S II seem to gain better signals and I have no complaints on wireless performance. Pruning of the bloatware a.k.a Hubs etc.. are something one will have to do – if they were to expect a decent battery life out of SGS II. I am planning to upgrade to KE7 build which supposedly has better battery life. Those things can wait! – till I evaluate the raw stock performance over the next few days.
So should you get a Galaxy S II ?.. You should – for it’s beautiful vibrant display, excellent native browser and stylish exteriors (nah, i don’t buy the ‘plastic is cheap’ argument). The dual core processors should offer enough ampere for a Gamer. I read, ChainFire3D hack can effectively make all Tegra2 Games run on Galaxy S II. I honestly cannot differentiate the Sound/Music qualities between a Voodoo’d Original Galaxy S and S II. Probably the former is better. I took couple of snaps under fluorescent light with Flash ON, all of them were smiling in natural colors!. I should test the camera more during day light. How can a device be so perfect, one might ask – Yup – If I were to nitpick, it is the touch responsiveness. It is a little worse than the Original Galaxy S. But never a show stopper.
Conclusion: Samsung did the right thing!
Let me know if you have any questions or want to me post some more info on Galaxy S II.
[Update] I’ve had the phone powered on for 6 Hours. With Google, Exchange , Twitter and Facebook Sync all active, the battery is showing 70% now. I made 4 Calls. Demo’d the phone to couple of friends and browsed for nearly 15 minutes during this period.
{ 23 comments }