Jump to content
The mkiv Supra Owners Club

Samsung Galaxy S2 - A mini review, Tips, Tricks, Q&A, etc..


Scott

Recommended Posts

As some of you may know I got this phone over the HTC Sensation. Reason being that T-mobile were taking their sweet time releasing it and I got fed up. It was really a toss up between the phones regardless and the thing that swung me towards the Sensation was HTC Sense 3.0. The hardware spec of the Samsung was always the more impressive so it wasn't a tough decision to drop the HTC for it.

 

The phone is absolutely lightening, there's no getting away from it. The dual core CPU is fantastic and blew me away having come from the desire. Touchwiz is nowhere near as bad as I had been reading, I guess the people moaning are just too set in their ways. There are some fantastic features of the front end, but there are also some serious drawbacks.

 

Positives:

 

If it's not the highest spec on the general Market it's right up there. I certainly couldnt see anything better.

The screen is fantastic, lots of colour and amazing contrast. Gorilla glass too so should take just about anything you can throw at it.

It's as thin as a smartphone gets and weighs next to nothing. I hardly notice this thing in my pocket.

Almost everything layout wise is customisable.

Very intuitive and user friendly.

Social Hub is fantastic but the name is shocking lol.

Resizing compatible widgets is great.

Allshare app works fantastic, allowing streaming over wireless with next to no setup.

Insane amount of storage space.

 

 

Drawbacks:

 

Sending and receiving MMS requires you to turn data on. Every phone I have had has turned it on and off automatically.

Sending and receiving MMS messages is a bit ropey. Especially auto retrieval.

No scrolling phonebook widget or the ability to install one without first installing a custom launcher.

No camera button.

Wallpaper can be set to scrolling but main home is the far left screen rather than the centre meaning your background is way off centre depending on number of screens (I'm using 4).

Synchronising your phonebook with your Facebook is a bit of a chore compared to on sense.

Not a great deal of useful apps and widgets built in.

 

 

There will be loads I have missed out so I'll update as I think of things. The drawbacks are really just niggles, other than the MMS data thing. I've overcome most issues by installing better apps, such as SMS go.

 

Overall the phone is fantastic, it really makes my desire feel dated. I would highly recommend it to anyone.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 229
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

I was in two minds about whether to get this or the HTC Sensation. I ordered the HTC Sensation because I was after a HTC to start with and I like the look of HTC Sense. Plus the Sensation, I have been told, is a much more developer friendly phone.

 

The Galaxy S2 is top notch in my books though.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Nice ain't it? :)

 

Sure is

 

Nice right up mate i just got one to replace my iPhone 4 its taking a while to work things out , can you recommend and apps ?

 

What sort of things are you looking at? My favourite apps at the moment are....

 

ES File Explorer - I used astro previousy but the network shares are buggy. ES.has been fine, streaming even works.

Sikipedia - Should need no intro

UPnPlay - Connects directly to PS3 media server

VPlayer - Plays everything through UPnPlay, including HD, MKV, etc. Great video player.

Facebook - Don't sync the contacts though, I installed it for photo sharing. Use the add account in phonebook to sync facebook (sns or something like that) to have better quality pics.

GO SMS pro - fantastic SMS app. Infinitely customisable. Also helps with the auto retrieve MMS issue.

Go weather - HTC sense style clock thing available.

Tapatalk pro - Forum app, easier to browse with a phone.

3G watchdog - Monitors your 3G usage, you can set your limits etc.

Calculator widget - exactly as it says.

 

 

Some fun games are:

 

ILG

Robo Defense

Impossible

Moron Test

Hungry shark1/2

 

 

A few tricks I've found....

 

Pinch zoom on home to arrange pages, can also remove and add pages.

Press menu then edit in apps folder. You can move apps around and also change 3 of the 4 main buttons from here.

Add contact shortcuts to a page, rather than using a contacts widget, they update the pics etc automatically.

Use social hub for everything, remove the messages/email/Facebook icons and just use it on it's own.

 

 

I'll post some pics of my current setup, it's been 2 days in the making with various trial and error.

 

 

I was in two minds about whether to get this or the HTC Sensation. I ordered the HTC Sensation because I was after a HTC to start with and I like the look of HTC Sense. Plus the Sensation, I have been told, is a much more developer friendly phone.

 

The Galaxy S2 is top notch in my books though.

 

There shouldn't be any development issues as the android Market is the same for both phones, as is the android build so someone's sold you there ;)

 

I had the same thinking with sense vs touchwiz but I'm very pleasantly surprised. I haven't had a shot of a sensation yet but the bar is set very very high by the galaxy. The galaxy was always the more superior phone but it originally came down to touchwiz vs sense for me. Sense won initially, glad I went with the galaxy for now though.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

thanks Scott ill take a look at them , The only thing bugging me at the moment is im used to the iPhone app like eBay and tapa talk and on the Samsung they layed out different and not as nice looking or as easy to use . but ill get used to it , I just don't get why the same app is so different between phones?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

About as good as it gets for a smartphone. I get a whole day on 1 charge and that's pounding it.

 

 

Screenshots

 

http://tapatalk.com/mu/5ceb2228-dc9c-abd2.jpg

http://tapatalk.com/mu/5ceb2228-dcd5-0a4b.jpg

http://tapatalk.com/mu/5ceb2228-dd06-ab44.jpg

http://tapatalk.com/mu/5ceb2228-dd25-d100.jpg

http://tapatalk.com/mu/5ceb2228-dcba-f6e5.jpg

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Forgot to mention the taskmanager. This is one of the best additions. Simply hold the home button to see recent apps, hit task manager to view open programs and kill them if you choose. Also able to view downloads etc. I use it constantly.

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I got one of these too! Fantastic phone, So glad you found a way of changing the 3/4 bottom buttons. I had an iPhone and had it all set out nice. I've got this to almost where I like it now, thanks dude! Only thing, I hate the keyboard layout! I am forever hitting full stop instead of space. That is the only thing i'd say an iPhone is better for.. Do any apps give it a iPhone style keyboard? I can type twice as quick on a smaller iPhone than this thing!

 

Still quite worried i'm gonna snap it in my pocket when i sit down! Thanks for the heads up of some interesting bits!

 

As Matt has said, Have you tried the voice command? The one where you double tap the phone then talk! Thats proper acurate! Works ever time for me!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

There shouldn't be any development issues as the android Market is the same for both phones, as is the android build so someone's sold you there ;)

 

I read this somewhere but I can't seem to find it again. I'm sure if I had a proper look, I could. I know they both run on the Android platform. I'm talking from a developers perspective here, as I am interesting in building some commercial apps for the platform. What I believe I read was that the HTC Sensation is a better phone to be developing apps directly with rather than using S2. From what I can see, up until now HTC has been the leading brand in the Android market and have always been the choice of phone to develop apps on. It's a phone that can be used to preview apps easily and in the most friendly environment.

 

This however could be all down to someones opinion being that the HTC is a platform that people are currently used to developing on. So it could be that an Samsung phone (for example) running the Android platform could be something that people are not used to yet. It may be something to do with the software running alongside the platform (HTC Sense or TouchWiz). I don't know. But I'm about to find out when my phone arrives! :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

About as good as it gets for a smartphone. I get a whole day on 1 charge and that's pounding it.

 

 

Screenshots

 

http://tapatalk.com/mu/5ceb2228-dc9c-abd2.jpg

http://tapatalk.com/mu/5ceb2228-dcd5-0a4b.jpg

http://tapatalk.com/mu/5ceb2228-dd06-ab44.jpg

http://tapatalk.com/mu/5ceb2228-dd25-d100.jpg

http://tapatalk.com/mu/5ceb2228-dcba-f6e5.jpg

 

/QUOTE]

 

Honestly you guys like these?? I think hardware on this is very good but what about battery life? Duel cores suck at battery life n the worst bit of all on this phone is the android OS (it is the old win mobile with a bit more apps + multitouch). Been seeing then for almost 10 years on various mobile platforms - grids of icons + a taskbar to kill the various unnecessary tasks + file explorer! When will these OS go from data/file level + app centric level to information/intelligence level with out app boundaries. This is the new paradigm for the current and next generation. Apple got a head start but WP7 will let you all realise and achieve this level.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I read this somewhere but I can't seem to find it again. I'm sure if I had a proper look, I could. I know they both run on the Android platform. I'm talking from a developers perspective here, as I am interesting in building some commercial apps for the platform. What I believe I read was that the HTC Sensation is a better phone to be developing apps directly with rather than using S2. From what I can see, up until now HTC has been the leading brand in the Android market and have always been the choice of phone to develop apps on. It's a phone that can be used to preview apps easily and in the most friendly environment.

 

This however could be all down to someones opinion being that the HTC is a platform that people are currently used to developing on. So it could be that an Samsung phone (for example) running the Android platform could be something that people are not used to yet. It may be something to do with the software running alongside the platform (HTC Sense or TouchWiz). I don't know. But I'm about to find out when my phone arrives! :)

 

It can't be anything to do with that though bud. As I said, the market is the same.. the apps are the same. The Sensation and the Galaxy SII are running the same version of Android. It's like 2 different spec PCs running Windows 7, the software for them both is exactly the same as the operating system is the same.

 

There can be no difference in developing apps and commercial things for the phones. The difference lies in creating hacks, roots and cracks for either phone as there will be slight driver differences. That's not what you're on about though :)

 

Honestly you guys like these?? I think hardware on this is very good but what about battery life? Duel cores suck at battery life n the worst bit of all on this phone is the android OS (it is the old win mobile with a bit more apps + multitouch). Been seeing then for almost 10 years on various mobile platforms - grids of icons + a taskbar to kill the various unnecessary tasks + file explorer! When will these OS go from data/file level + app centric level to information/intelligence level with out app boundaries. This is the new paradigm for the current and next generation. Apple got a head start but WP7 will let you all realise and achieve this level.

 

Dual (duel is a fight) cores use less battery life than single cores so where exactly are you getting your information from?

 

What on earth are you on about? The windows mobiles? They are absolutely terrible, my Mother in Law had one and got rid of it after a month. It had some nice touches to it but overall it was just ghastly. Here we go with the M$ rules expo again.

 

Let me put something to you bud. If you are right, why does every review in the world disagree with you? Why are millions of users turning to Android every single day? Much more than are turning to Windows and actually more now than turn to IOS. You are completely dillusional, honestly.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I couldn't decide between this phone and the Sony Ericsson Arc... Glad I went for the GS2, really impressed with its features and speed. Still keep my IPhone in my pocket too though :D, just getting used to all this Android stuff..

 

Will check those apps later on, thanks for sharing :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

What you want is an iPhone.

 

*runs and hides*

 

When my favourite beverage turns to espresso, my going out trousers become chinos and I start to putt from the rough I might think about it.

 

Of course I would have to hold it in my hand constantly so that everyone could see it ;)

 

The Iphone is miles behind the SG2. For flexibility it was even miles behind my desire, but it was a nicer phone with better tech than the desire.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Restore formatting

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue. You might also be interested in our Guidelines, Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.