October 9, 2011

first review on Samsung Galaxy S2

For more than 3 years, I was an Apple user..but yesterday I was a proud user of Android OS.

I bought Samsung Galaxy S2 yesterday. I didn't really plan to buy the phone until last week, when Apple failed to announced the new iPhone 5, but instead release an iPhone 4S. I can't bear to wait another year, for iPhone 5, so I decided to give Android a try.

But I am not an Apple hater, I've been using them for 3 years. Maybe it is time to try something else and totally new. So here is my own review about Samsung Galaxy S2, which you can look up on Google or go to mobile88.com for more info.

For those that hates going through all the lengthy specs of a phone, here's a summarize version for Galaxy S2.  I will also compare them to iPhone 4 and 4S.

Galaxy S2 has 4.3 inch of screen, bigger than iPhone 4 and 4S (3.5inch). I know some of you would go "why we need so big of a screen?!" You are right, we can just zoom in to read or search something. However, a bigger screen means a wider vision when we go through email, or internet, so we don't have to scroll that much to read them. Plus, the awesome look when you played games in a bigger screen is not a bad thing.

Galaxy S2 also uses Super Amoled screen. Where it looks incredible! I'm not being bias or anything, you can look it up on Google about Super Amoled. What it does, is that when you're outside on a scorching hot day, you're screen won't have that glare, where you can't view the phone's screen, due to the bright sun. Super Amoled won't have that problem, it works superb on low light, and even better on bright day. Now, as far as I know, only Samsung has this kind of technology, but I think some of them will catch up eventually.

One of worse part of iPhone for me, is the inability to change the memory space. With Galaxy S2, you get 16Gb of internal memory, but if you want, you can add your own SD memory card. Just think about when buying iPhone, where the price vary according to the space its providing.

iPhone 4S and Galaxy S2 both has 8MP of camera, however, only 5MP for iPhone 4. Some of you won't mind having 5MP, I don't too, since 5MP is a essential enough to take great photos. But if you're a photographing junkies, you might one the 8MP camera, just because. Both Galaxy S2 and iPhone 4S take 1080p HD video, but iPhone 4 still takes 720p HD video. You can fully appreciate 1080p HD video, when you played it back on laptop or TV that has HD capability.

The phone has 1.2Ghz of dual-core processor, which is faster than iPhone 4S (1Ghz), however, some said, this is a small trivial matter, since there are NO apps in the world, both on Android's and Apple's platform that can push the processor up to 1 Ghz.

The internal RAM for Galaxy S2 is 1GB, same with iPhone 4S, and 512MB for iPhone 4. RAM is basically the same thing in your laptop or computer, where you need more memory to run more apps, and to run app simultaneously without hiccup. This is great for those of you that love to run several apps at the same time, and makes the phone run smoothly.

Another upset from iPhone is their inability to run Java from their web surfer, mainly the Safari. There are ways to get them running on iPhone, but it's a complicated way, and has the potential of getting the iPhone stuck. I don't get it why they won't allow Java, maybe the developers are a bunch of egoistic pride people.

The USB port on the bottom of the Galaxy S2, act also as a HDMI port, which is convenient if you want to play back your video on HD format. Somethinng iPhone is lacking.
Also, Galaxy S2 uses HSPA+ which is a much better version than HSDPA to surf the net from your mobile carrier, I believe, iPhone still using HSDPA. This gives you about 14mbps of internet surfing, although, this also depends on the availability of the coverage.

Now, here the bad side of using Samsung Galaxy S2, apparently, if you have thousands of contacts on Outlook, you can't sync it with Samsung. This has to be done manually by putting all you contact on Gmail (yes, you have to have a Gmail account), and then sync from Samsung's phone using the Gmail account. This is one of the bullshit you have to endure, since Android (a Google's OS) wants people to have Gmail account. You can Google about it, on the how-to transfer your contact from Outlook to Gmail.
Another weird thing about Android, is when you surf the web, it automatically view the mobile version of the website, with no buttons to change to normal view. There is a long complicated way to change it though, but it revert to default once you out of the internet. Another way to handle this is by using another websurfer, like Firefox.

Another issue (that I yet to encounter) is the battery life. I've read about it countless times that Galaxy S2, has a battery life problems. I can't know for sure, but from what I read is that the battery life drain faster when you start downloading widget or apps that runs on the background, which means the apps is constantly running. I have to get back on you with this. 

So there you go, I have yet to master the way of the Android. I will keep posting for different pros and cons of the Galaxy S2. 

In the meantime, if you're thinking of buying an Android's phone, I suggest the Galaxy S Plus, it has almost the same specs as Galaxy S2, with different in RAM (512MB) and Processor (1.4Ghz). Also, they only come with 8GB of internal memory, but you can add your own SD card to boost the memory. They came with 5MP camera with 720p HD video, but they are newer than Galaxy S2.

The best part of Galaxy S Plus is its price, around RM1300..way way cheaper than Galaxy S2 and iPhone 4 now. With luck, you could probably get it for RM1200.

Good luck in finding your new phone.

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