Samsung Galaxy S II T-Mobile review: A dragon's heir

Google Maps is essential

Google Maps is a standard part of the Android package and we’ve covered it many times before. It offers voice-guided navigation in certain countries and falls back to a list of instructions elsewhere. You can plan routes, search for nearby POI and go into the always cool Street View.

Google Maps

The latest version uses vector maps, which are very data efficient and easy to cache. The app will reroute you if you get off course, even without a data connection.

Android Market has it all

With a 1.5GHz dual-core CPU and a powerful GPU, the Galaxy S II for T-Mobile can run every Android app designed for phones. The OS version is 2.3.5 so you won’t have any problems on that account either.

After its recent major overhaul, the Android Market has become the place to go not only for apps and media, but also book, movies, etc. Its interface is simple and intuitive. The search function at the bottom right corner will assist you in finding anything you can possibly need.

The Android Market keeps evolving

We must note that, in the case of the T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy II, the wireless provider has gone out of its way in putting all kinds of proprietary apps, whose usability hovers around the absolute zero. Having them on board clutters the phone’s launcher and takes away from its resources for no good reason.

Kies Air turns your phone into a web server

The Samsung Galaxy S II for T-Mobile comes with Kies Air preloaded. The app connects to the local Wi-Fi network (or it can create a Wi-Fi hotspot) and gives you a URL to type into your computer’s web browser.

From there you can manage just about anything on the phone – from contacts, messages (including composing messages), to browsing images, videos and other files straight in your desktop browser. You can grant or reject access to computers and see who’s connected to the phone at any moment.

The cool thing is you can stream music with handy playback controls. It works for videos too.

Note: You’ll need a reasonably modern browser with Java and some video plug-in (QuickTime worked for us).

Kies Air in Google Chrome