

Samsung Galaxy S 2 (International) Review - Synaesthesia
http://www.anandtech.com/show/4686/samsung-galaxy-s-2-international-review-the-best-redefined
Staggering review, Anandtech analyses every aspect of this phone, and the smartphone industry comprehensively and scientifically.<p>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.
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Synaesthesia
Staggering 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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Zakuzaa
I 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
Smooth for Android is still jerky for iOS, ha.

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unreal37
I 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.

~~~
Zakuzaa
1\. Have you ever owned an iOS device?

2\. If answer of 1. is yes the how do you find the touch interface of S2 and
android devices in general? (I find it broken).

~~~
kayoone
i find the overall UI experience not as consistent and thought out on android,
but its still very good. That said the screen, speed, weight & size of the S2
are amazing!

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veeti
> 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".

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rodh257
If 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.

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latch
Funny, 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.

~~~
zobzu
The SGS2 has nothing in common with the SGS1 except the name. They fixed
everything. Seriously.

~~~
berkut
Except the audio quality - which they made worse...

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Xuzz
Single page (print) view for Instapaper, Readability, etc:
[http://www.anandtech.com/print/4686/samsung-
galaxy-s-2-inter...](http://www.anandtech.com/print/4686/samsung-
galaxy-s-2-international-review-the-best-redefined)

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ajtaylor
I 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
the 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)

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kittxkat
incredible 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

~~~
Symmetry
They 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>

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CoffeeDregs
Very 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.

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raptrex
SGS2 isnt coming to Verizon. <http://www.mobiledia.com/news/104872.html>

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mrich
Why 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).

~~~
nextparadigms
What do you mean only in US? It's been in Europe and Asia for months now
(since May).

~~~
smogzer
Maybe they use Europe for testing. Maybe because it's a huge market that
request must be filled all at once. Imagine there was a problem and they had
to return the devices to factory.

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EwanToo
Europe is a bigger market than the USA, and a much more complicated one to get
right - each country has it's own regulations, language, different stores to
deal with, etc.

I can only assume it's the American carriers that caused the delay.

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bookwormAT
I 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.

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51Cards
> "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.

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johnnycooch
> "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.

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mistermann
Or, pinch, which zooms out so you see all six at once.

So, just two actions (pinch + pick screen)- and, it's instantaneous. Very
nice.

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pkulak
I'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.

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ivanbernat
This phone is awesome. The screen is amazing, fits great in (my) hand, it's
very light and TouchViz 4 isn't _that_ bad.

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mistermann
I think he meant"only now".

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mistermann
Sorry, somehow this comment is on the wrong parent.

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swah
What browser is that running? Also, I thought pinching was patented by Apple?

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Synaesthesia
I 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.

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regularfry
My 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.

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zobzu
I'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)

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Synaesthesia
Interesting also that the physical design now exactly mirrors the iPhone now -
a single real button in the middle.

~~~
polshaw
It'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.

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Synaesthesia
Pardon, I was actually spouting what Gruber said!

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pazimzadeh
That's ok, the Galaxy was also ripping off of the iPhone.

