Samsung I9100 Galaxy S II review: Brightest star
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- anonymouse
- t}B
- 14 May 2011
AnonD-5666, 13 May 2011haters gonna hate..we know what this phone is capable of. A... morebe sporty man!!! Samsung has created a plastic monster like this with not so good looks... why is Samsung not even thinking of these 2 aspects??????
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- MdN
- Mtr
- 14 May 2011
It has a wrist strap eyelet? FINALLY someone remembered to include it. Take that, 90% of other smartphones (not to mention one with glass on both sides).
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- Anonymous
- YhZ
- 14 May 2011
oh wait, Apple recently released white version of iPhone 4 to revolutionize the world....again :)
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- Tangent
- tRe
- 14 May 2011
Could GSMArena do a comparison between the standard version of SGS2 and Tegra-2 based SGS2 if you are able to? I would like to see the difference. I heard some Asia countries will be receiving Tegra-2 based SGS2 due to the inability to meet strong demand in short time.
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- M5
- mX$
- 14 May 2011
qwerty man, 14 May 2011we need and want a similar model, which also has a side-sli... moreI agee a QWERTY keyboard would be very good. I have ordered (still waiting)the GS2 as I feel it is the best phone on the market. However I would have liked a QWERTY keyboard phone. In the end, I decided to go with the GS2 becaue all the manufacturers seem to produce their flagship models without QWERTY. I would also like the phone to allow proper pen input (ideally Wacom)- like machines like the Lenoveo x220t tablet that have dual capacitive and Wacom screens (I am a long term Tablet PC user). I would happily pay twice the price (up to £1000) for a phone that combined the GS2 features with these features. I don't care if the phone is not as slim. That being said until a phone with these features is produced, I feel the GS2 is an excellent compromise. PS I made the move from Windows Mobile to Android when they moved to Windows Mobile 7 and dropped stylus input- I know I am a minority.
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- scoopyscoopy
- x$K
- 14 May 2011
Thanks GSMArena. The review is awesome. SGS II rocks!
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- BlingBling
- mDQ
- 14 May 2011
So it has HDMI output for TV via an adaptor which needs a charger. But if the TV does not have HDMI connector, can i use the standard cable (1jack and 3 RCA)in the output jack of the phone ? Or what must i do ?
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- ASK
- LhR
- 14 May 2011
Hey gsm arena thanks for the review.
However I was tempted enought by your preview to go out and buy it.
Excellent phone in all respects.
Just one question though: Do you find any noticable colour banding (like on a 16 bit display) especially in the Nexus live wallpaper or the Windmill wallpaper (Only when its raining and the sky is grey) or the O2 blue startup screen (presume you got an O2 branded phone with custome boot image?)?
Coming from an LCD on the X10, i seem to notice colour banding in this screen albeit only in select case having single colour gradient.
Please reply.
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- LxFx
- mVr
- 14 May 2011
490€ is the cheapest (unlocked) find in the Netherlands.
Not that bad for such a beast.
Allready ordered mine, now let's play the waiting game :D
btw it's the Exynos/SAMOLED+/16GB/noNFC version here
it will probably be june when we will see the 32GB and NFC version(s?)
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- mario polo
- fvZ
- 14 May 2011
Fongy, 14 May 2011OMG! It's sooooooo unfair.... I want this phone, but do I... morei also have a galaxy s and LOoooove that new sgs2. but to be honest i won't take that update. yes it's faster, better screen, with a flash and all the stuff but still it doesn't worth the upgrade. i'd be rather waiting for the next hit from samsung to take in order to have a respectful difference.
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- qwerty man
- pqJ
- 14 May 2011
we need and want a similar model, which also has a side-sliding hardware qwerty keyboard.
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- drawbacks
- pqJ
- 14 May 2011
it's a pitty it doesn't have qHD resolution (960x540) and having only a single led flash and not a dual led one.
and it would have been better if the micro-usb port was at the side and not at the bottom - for docking it horizontally.
and it was better if it had seperate usb and hdmi ports instead of the mhl port, and if no adaptors were needed when using them.
and when will we see phones that have usb3 and not just usb2?
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- Anonymous
- m86
- 14 May 2011
Attn to GSMArena :
what about sound quality while recording video in noisy environment ?
(ie: music group/room, bar, concert, windy place, etc... ?)
I'm asking because i noticed that my 2 last samsung phones had such a problem you didn't mention (Tocco Ultra and Galaxy S) or didn't notice, a bit too much noise and the recorded sound is totally distorted/saturated.
And from my own experience, i didn't meet those problems with some other phones/brands.
If you experience that and you got any contact with samsung, please submit them that problem worthing really to be fixed, thank you.
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- Wesley
- my8
- 14 May 2011
Good review, though quite a lot of features were not dealt with in a lot of detail and one missing item that Gsmarena forgot is the SWYPE KEYBOARD...
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- AnonD-3713
- L4x
- 14 May 2011
AnonD-8044, 14 May 2011There are a few missed points,,at the top is a 3.5mm jack a... moreThe location of both microphones can't provide proper stereo recording.
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- AnonD-8044
- mX7
- 14 May 2011
There are a few missed points,,at the top is a 3.5mm jack and another microphone for video recording ,,there is one at bottom for speech in fone calls so there is reason why a future update could bring the stereo video record.
Also in video player if you press right touch key beside home button you get options to adjust brightness,colour temp,activate repeat mode,activate outdoor visibility mode,send to bluetooth headset,share video,subtitles support.
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- pmyt75
- gIY
- 14 May 2011
After reading GSMArena's review my first thought was "At last a flagship phone that has it all and justifies it's price."
Well done Samsung, you have proven that you have learned from your past mistakes and hence the No 1 spot.
Kudos to GSMArena as well for their(as always)detailed review.
Gotta go and order a Galaxy II for myself now... :-)
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- Anonymous
- 0ET
- 14 May 2011
Great review as usual by gsmarena :-)
But just one point: on the 'Performance' page you should also state that the Exynos 4210 SGS2 is clocked 200MHz higher than the LG 2X, this resulting in a certain advantage over the 1.0GHz Tegra2. Still, your results seem to confirm that, even at same CPU clock speeds, Exynos 4210 is faster than Tegra2 although Tegra2 is by no means slow...
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- nick
- nxw
- 14 May 2011
AnonD-5666, 14 May 2011I give you a couple of very important points to think about... morenot forgetting that, although there was a slight delay, the actual 2.3 gingerbread update was flawless.
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- AnonD-5666
- vGQ
- 14 May 2011
Anonymous, 13 May 2011The best smartphone to date period. There will always be pe... moreI give you a couple of very important points to think about:
1. Locked bootloader in HTC. Galaxy S2 already has been unlocked by devs in XDA. So, very slim chance of custom ROM for HTC Sensation
2. 1 GB internal memory in HTC vs 16 GB in Samsung. So many apps try to run from the internal memory. Makes perfect sense as the internal NAND is so much faster compared to memory cards. External memory cards does not have very fast write speeds (even if you consider Class 10 cards)
3. People talk about Samsung updates. There has already been 2 updates in UK for Samsung for Camera and auto-brightness. Not sure of other things as nobody seems to have the changelogs. And don't forget original Galaxy (international version) was the first to get the 2.3 update, faster than ANY HTC phones.