back to article Samsung Galaxy S II dual core Android smartphone

Sometimes the Mark II versions of phones feel like they’ve had little more than a light skim with the update brush. Yet with the Samsung Galaxy S II, this is certainly not the case. While, the original Galaxy S was a fine handset, this latest refit includes dual core processor, stunning AMOLED screen, a fine 8Mp camera, over-air …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Unhappy

    huh? no HDMI?

    NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!! that was the deal breaker right there for me. i was almost tempted to get my upgrade today and that was the phone for me :(

    i was sure i saw it in a spec sheet somewhere. oh well.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      oh, actually...

      the galaxy S2 has HDMI over micro USB. so.... might want to write that into your article Mr El. Reg.

      1. Danny 14
        Stop

        indeed

        I was about to post this. A couple of other review sites updated their reviews as apparantly they didnt get a "dongle" in their review sample either.

        1. Monty Burns
          WTF?

          Pretty poor El Reg

          Everyone with half a braincell would research something before/whilst they review it right? Its been common knowledge since before this phone was released that it supports HDMI.

          Also, my heavy use of this phone as a web portal and with two Push connections has shown me a diferent verdict on battery. Frankly i'm astounded that I can use it all day and easily have half a battery left ..... My HD2 running 2.3.3 failed misreably at this.

          1. Geoff Campbell Silver badge
            Thumb Up

            @Monty

            Yes, same here - battery life in normal use is way better than the old Galaxy S, I suspect it would go two days without a charge with my usage. Although it can still be flattened in three or four hours using critical business applications, for example Tower Raiders. That really hammers the CPU, though.

            I think this is the nicest phone I've ever owned or used.

            GJC

    2. N13L5

      It does have HDMI

      It does have HDMI, it just goes out through a combo micro USB connector, that can detect which type of cable you've plugged in.

      Personally, I'm pretty happy with having just one socket for both things, cause multiple sockets around the edges of a phone kinda suck

    3. natfguest

      Micro USB/HDMI adapter

      The official Samsung HDMI adapter doesn't look to be out for quite a while yet but there's one by BizLite over at Mobile Fun that should be in over the next fortnight http://www.mobilefun.co.uk/bizlink-m...ack-p29839.htm

      Quite annoying having no TV-out on the 3.5mm jack though!

  2. Anonymous Coward
    FAIL

    Social notworking

    Quote

    The social hub pulls all your networking updates (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn) together into a single feed – something no smartphone can do without these days, and it does a perfectly good job of it too

    Can't do without eh? Yes you can. Unless you want to risk getting your identity stolen or worse still telling the world when you are going to do some Number 2's. As for linkedIn, my (now deleted) details attracted crap from all over the world that mostly said 'Hi do you remember me? I worked with you at xxxx in yyyy.' Naturally they wanted me to sponsor them for their green cards despite the fact that my profile clearly stated that I Was in the UK.

    Utter Tosh the whole lot.

    Fail.

    1. Some Beggar
      Thumb Down

      I read this twice

      and all I could decipher was "I have no friends so social networking must be EVIL"

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        @Some Beggar

        On the contrary, people with friends tend to socialise with them rather than right some shit in an app that gets broadcast around their pretend posse.

        1. Some Beggar
          FAIL

          "write"

          I suppose illiteracy is a pretty good reason to avoid online social networks.

          1. TeeCee Gold badge
            FAIL

            @Some Beggar

            Doesn't seem to stop any of those who actually use 'em regularly.

            The standard of literacy on FaceWank and Tw@ter is piss-poor even when compared to the worst of the worst around here.

            1. N13L5
              Pint

              oh you gotta check this out, Beggar

              Josh Groban sings Kayne West Tweets

              http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Axzxe1a78E

              Its positively hilarious!!

              "Includes 752 original songs"

              "on 48 CD's"

          2. Mark 65

            Re:"Write"

            Oh yes, pick holes in a point based merely on a spelling mistake. Do you also believe louder is right-er?

      2. N13L5
        Coffee/keyboard

        lol

        Well, lets see, Facebook offers you many ways to waste time and gossip, while making use of your data to make money by selling its use to whoever pays for it.

        Its a smash hit...

        Google Wave was a social productivity tool, giving people a useful, sophisticated interface for collaboration, who's contacts would make sense to integrate into your phone.

        It flopped miserably...

        So, we see, it doesn't mean you have no friends if you don't like facebook, it just means you don't feel like wasting a load of time on playing bejewelled and doing pointless quizzes to bolster some scheisters bottom line.

        And we see, if you prefer being productive, you're in the minority.

        1. Some Beggar

          @N13L5

          Oh I'm not arguing that facebook isn't a complete waste of time peopled by functionally illiterate skivers. I was just teasing the original poster. Facebook is probably one of the harbingers of the digital apocalypse.

          (Although a small amount of pipl'ing suggests that you are also one of the feckless majority with a facebook account ... apologies for internet stalking)

  3. lazygamer
    Headmaster

    Pedant Ahoy!

    The Galaxy SII does not come with 8Gb of internal storage, it comes with 16Gb (of which approx 12Gb is available to the user as 'USB Storage', 2Gb for applications, the remainder is not accessible). As such there is no included Micro SD card (but up to 32Gb is supported). There is also a model in the works with 32Gb of internal storage.

    Also, the phone does support a HDMI connection via the MicroUSB port using the MHL standard http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_High-definition_Link

    The MHL cable is not included in the retail box (and mine's still awaiting shipment)

    1. Some Beggar
      Thumb Up

      I vote

      that the author give lazygamer a cut of the fee for the original article.

      What do you mean this isn't a democracy?

  4. Danny 14
    Happy

    85%?

    Seems a little low for a review without negative points. what did you not like about it?

    1. Matt Siddall
      Joke

      Re 85%

      You lose 20% for having no apple logo, so it's actually a really really good phone :p

    2. Marky W
      Unhappy

      Agreed

      Especially when you consider the unfinished and underwhelming Playbook got 75%....

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Stop

      10% Apple tax

      Anything that does not have an Apple logo, however good it is, is subject to an Apple review tax of 10%

      For non-Apple products, add 10% to the real score

      For Apple products, subtrace 10% to get the real score.

  5. Anonymous Coward
    WTF?

    So what...

    Dual core processing but still no DVB-T reciever chip on any of these 'modern' phones?! Or is it down to our TV licencing these things dont appear on hardcore modern smartphones???

    HD capable pico projector when on a charger? NO.... So many features still missing Samsung!

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Grenade

      Re: So what...

      Do you want the 'Moon on a Stick' too?

    2. handle

      NO DVB-T because no aerial

      You wouldn't get any signal without a relatively large external, preferably directional, aerial.

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      title

      And why would you want it when you can stream TV via tvcatchup.com?

  6. caffeine addict

    UMA

    Any ideas if this thing does UMA?

  7. JDX Gold badge

    re:Social notworking

    Sorry I think he was talking about normal people who actually buy the phone, not self-styled internet guardians who make up 0.01% of the market.

  8. Ben Rosenthal

    missing features?

    it does HDMI via Micro-USB/MHL while also taking a charge as far as I know, and mine has video calling available (although as nobody I'd want to video call has a capable handset, I've not used it yet).

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZtwTcnR0hqA

  9. Wazzamatazz

    A couple of other things

    I've had one for a couple of weeks now and there are a few inaccuracies in the review:

    First off, as pointed out elsewhere, it does support HDMI out.

    Also, while it doesn't have a contextual search button the way some other devices do, you can start up contextual search by holding down the menu button.

    Finally, every review seems to omit the fact that the phone is incapable of reading metadata from AAC files. It can play them perfectly well, but the media scanner appears to have been customised from the vanilla Android version (which scanned AAC files perfectly well). As a result, AAC tracks are just organised by file name in the music player instead of by artist/album/genre.

  10. aj87

    Great phone, but missing a trick

    Samsung originally said that they were working with Cisco to put an AnyConnect VPN client onto the S2, (a major failing of Android for business use) but my S2 has no such capability.

    Still a good phone, but this would have been great.

  11. mdava

    Battteries (again)

    Battery life on smartphones is ridiculous. I have a (lowly) Wildfire, and am staggered at what it can do, but the idea that less-than-a-day of heavy(ish) use is acceptable is just stupid. I'd rather it was 2mm thicker and had a battery twice the size.

    On a related note, can anyone put to rest for me the question of whether killing applications with task managers actually has an impact (as comments seem to be evenly split)?

    1. James Whale

      No task killers from Froyo onwards

      The general consensus seems to be that task killers are not required from Froyo onwards, due to the OS's much-improved memory and application handling. I've used ATK since Donut, but recently uninstalled it on Froyo after reading a very convincing article (http://www.droid-den.com/android-guides/android-guide-should-i-use-a-task-killer) - it seems to have had a positive impact not only on the battery life but the general usage and reliability of HTC Desire.

      I'd say with the further improvements in Gingerbread, Task Killers are very quickly becoming redundant.

      1. mdava

        Ta very much

        Very lucid article.

    2. Opethian
      Alert

      Task Managers / Task Killers

      A general consensus is that from Android 2.1, you shouldn't really use task killers as a background app. The 2.1 version onwards should be intelligent enough to kill apps who are wrecking the system. Also, killing apps and having itself launch again in the background uses CPU cycles causing battery life use. Hope this was helpful.

  12. Dave Fox
    Unhappy

    CPU obsession!

    What is it with smartphone manufacturers obsession with faster/dual core CPUs?

    As far as I'm concerned, the CPU is my original HTC Desire was more than adequate for anything that can be thrown at it today. What we really, really, need now is better batteries, not more processing power!

    I've since replaced my Desire with a Desire HD, which has a "better" processor, but an even smaller battery capacity than the Desire. I'd swap it out tomorrow for a similar device that gave me a *full* day of heavy use on a single charge, without loss of functionality.

    As far as I'm concerned, dual core is pretty much just a marketing gimmick on phones right now.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      True

      "It can record HD video too at up to 1920 x 1080, which you’ll only find on dual core handsets, which looks crisp and generally smooth."

      Not for long.

      I've got a phone here with a single core < 1Ghz CPU, but a very good GPU and that is capable of 1080P encoding/playback, large resolution camera support, >PS2 3d support etc etc. Battery life in days, not hours. You don't need twin ARM cores for HD record/playback - that is almost always done by the GPU core. In fact, mobile GPU's use *much* less power for encoding than doing the same job on a multipurpose CPU.

      Probably the best reasons for noticeably better app performance is the extra memory, not the extra CPU, which just soaks up battery life, for a few percent improvement in performance.

      Twin cores or more will eventually take over however, as the power management gets better, so you only use two when needed etc.

      1. ppp.an

        which one

        "I've got a phone here with a single core "

        Which 'phone? Care to name it?

    2. Monty Burns

      who needs more than 640k?

      Anyone remember that sentence? (That I don't think was actually said!)

    3. Piro Silver badge

      Agreed

      I have a Desire HD, and it's rooted/custom ROM installed and so on, and I'm more than happy with the speed of it. I never have once thought I needed more power from it. But battery life? Yes, I want a lot more. I'd rather they stuck with the processor that's in the Desire HD and kept making the process smaller and smaller and sticking a proper size battery on the back.

  13. Delenn

    Making and receiving telephone calls

    As this device would be my main busines telephone contact, what I want to know if how good a phone is it? Good aerial? Decent call quality? I am sold on the Android bits. Thanks

  14. druck Silver badge

    Camera Flash

    Any word on how effective the LED flash is on this model? It's one of the only things lacking on my orginal S and might tempt me to upgrade.

    1. James Hughes 1

      LED flash is...

      on the whole, a bit pants. Still, I suppose it's better than nothing. But xenon is much better in every photographic way. It's just more expensive to build in, and a bit more expensive in battery life.

  15. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    the specs says it has 16GB of internal memory

    or 32gb - Where did you get the 8GB from?

  16. This post has been deleted by its author

  17. technohead95
    WTF?

    85%? Really?

    The review was simply glowing with very few negative points (of which they were all relatively minor). I really don't understand why it has gotten 85%. I would expect a review of such positive light would receive 95% or higher.

    Negative points you raise:

    1. Rather flimsy plastic back panel.

    2. There’s no hard camera shutter button.

    3. The Game Hub needs a bit of development to mark it out as an improvement on what you can get from the standard Android Market.

    4. [Camera] Colours can look a little over-emphasised on screen

    5A. I never managed to get a full day of, admittedly, heavy use out of it [battery]

    5B. the battery life isn't the greatest

    Replies to post:

    1. However, it's completely sturdy when attached to the phone so I feel this point is fairly irrelevant.

    2. This is a personal choice so the negativeness of this is down to your own preference. For me it's a non-issue.

    3. The Samsung Gamehub is a waste of time. It was the first thing I uninstalled. Most users will also be uninstalling this or simply ignoring it. I would say it's a stronger negative point that Samsung chose to include the bloatware in the first place.

    4. It's subjective how big of an issue this is. Probably ok for most people as a camera phone isn't a replacement for a dedicated camera. I hadn't really noticed this issue but accept that this is a valid minor negative point if it genuinely is an issue.

    5A and 5B. I personally think the battery of this phone has been amazing. I don't think there is any other *comparable smartphone out there that has better battery life. Therefore, by definition it is close to being the greatest (if not the greatest).

    * It's no good comparing battery life of this phone against a non-smartphone feature phone. Likewise, comparing this against a similar smartphone using an extended battery is not fair either. A good comparison would be against a similar spec smartphone with a battery capacity of around ~1650mAh (same as SGS2).

  18. Eponymous Bastard
    Coat

    Atrix better

    I'm liking my Atrix which I got from Orange and as an upgrader I got a free dock and bluetooth gubbins. It's super quick and came with all the cables which enable me to connect it to my Samsung (doh) screen via the dock and its "included" HDMI cable. I had a Tocco - yeah I know - which had a great capacity to suck dust from my pocket under its screen, which put me off the brand rather. My ZTE Blade has done the same; I hope that this irritating phenomenon becomes history.

    Sorry I'm boring you.

  19. TheReverendT

    Purposeful

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ErXqnQKs-tA

    Watch this video and then tell me if you think the materials are still 'flimsy' or 'sub-par'. I just cannot understand the obsession with making phones out of glass and metal as if they were 300 year-old compasses. It's retarded - but it is at least amusing when you meet an iPhone owner relieved that only the back of their phone has smashed to pieces.

  20. Martin
    Unhappy

    I was seriously considering this....

    but when I got my hands on it - it's flippin' huge. Not sure whether it wants to be a phone or a cut-down tablet...

    1. Jedit Silver badge
      Paris Hilton

      Huge?

      Good grief, man, how small are your hands? Because mine ain't big by any means, and my SGS2 rests comfortably in my hand with my thumb on the top left corner and my little finger at bottom right (I'm a leftie).

      To the previous poster who was asking if the phone can be rooted - yes, it was successfully rooted within a week of release.

      (Paris, because she seems to have trouble keeping HD video recording devices in her hands too.)

      1. Martin
        Happy

        Seemed huge to me...

        Well, it still seemed big to me - I guess I do have small hands.

        Got a desire S in the end - even that seems a bit big. I tend to hold a phone in my left hand (even though I'm right-handed) and I can only just reach the top right of the screen with my thumb. If I'd got a Galaxy SII, it would have needed two-handed use a lot of the time.

        A lovely phone, I admit. But I'm happy with what I have, and I'm paying a fair bit less a month too.

  21. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Rootable?

    Is it? Presume so. I might be interested.

    1. ppp.an
      Thumb Up

      rooted

      Rooted (took a week) and custom kernels are available. The Voodoo Project (supercurio) is working on a similar Voodoo Colour and Voodoo Sound kernel mod for the S2. Please refer to the xda-developers forum.

      As I write there are no proper custom ROMs available, but it has only been out for 19 days (in the UK).

  22. Stimmo

    About to take delivery....

    As an Android app developer, I spent some time pouring over the spec's and reviews and after then actually playing with one of these phones decided to definitely get one (I am also a fan of HTC and it was a close call between this and the latest HTC Sensation). The display is amazing. The photo quality is also amazing (and I am a DSLR user). The video - very good considering its a phone.

    HDMI out - as indicated its the new MHL standard. The only pity is that they do not include an adapter - and that the current price of one (when they ship) is £25 inc VAT - quite pricey for what it does.

    My only current grumble is the decision not to include an NFC chip in the UK models. This is a little short sighted considering the widespread promotion of this technology in the UK - especially in the run up to the Olympics. As a developer I was rather hoping this would have been included.

    I hope to have one in my hands today - as well as an Asus Eee Pad (Android 3.0 tablet) so the proof of the pudding will be in the eating....

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Well check your display too

      A mate bought a new S2 and found dark bands along the screen. Searching the xda-developers forums reveals a number of people with similar display problems including 'burnt in' home screen images after just a couple of weeks (individual OLEDs wear out unevenly across RGB eventually causing a latent image effect). He has obtained a refund and is monitoring the situation.

    2. ppp.an

      NFC available in the 32Gb i9100

      NFC was omitted from the i9100 16Gb EU (yes this includes the UK) version. The last Samsung press release mentioned that the 32Gb i9100 would have the NFC devil's prongs on it. However, I noticed that some vendors still note the lack of the NFC on the 'phone, but this was based on old information.

  23. Goat Jam
    Flame

    Samsung Kies

    Windows-only

    Fucktards

    1. Geoff Campbell Silver badge
      Pirate

      Believe me when I say....

      ....that being Windows-only is the *least* of Kies many, many problems. Samsung make gorgeous, wonderful, stunning phones, but can't write client software worth shit.

      GJC

  24. bexley

    battery life

    android 2.3 really helps with battery life on the old galaxy, in fact it's a much better operating system and far less buggy, my phone does not lock up when someone call's me anymore, making answering calls actually possible.

    What these reviews fail to consider is that android phones suffer a major performance drop the longer you have them.

    I have a freind who litterally cant answer calls on his and the interface crashes when somebody calls him

  25. TheBully
    Boffin

    I got the Galaxy S a couple of weeks ago

    I got the original Galaxy S a couple of weeks ago and found that the OS was really flakey (wifi crashing every 2 mins) and the battery was lasting less than a day. I found a guide and flashed it with a third party rom (Darky's Rom) which is based on Gingerbread and now I am really happy with the phone and get a couple of days out of the battery. I can only imagine that the SGS2 will have similar issues on the stock firmware but think it will be a while before the bugs are ironed out. Samsung released Gingerbread a few weeks ago for the SGS but then retracted the update from their Kies software a week or so later because it was causing problems, so there was no official upgrade to solve the issues I was having with the official Froyo. So even after a year of the phone being supported I had to risk bricking a brand new phone installing unofficial firmware to get it to work properly :P

    1. N13L5
      Megaphone

      yeah, samsung sucks at software and support

      They sure do consistently have the best specs.

      As long as you buy one of their really popular phones, you should be ok with 3rd party roms

      If you're thinking of choosing a less popular phone that won't have very high sales, you're better off picking a different Brand.

      The S II reviewed here is probably gonna be the highest selling smarphone from Sammy for this year, so it should make a fine choice for being able to get your own updates and basically treat it like it was one of Google's Nexus models.

      Lastly, it seems like the Reviewer is unaware that dual core phones actually use less power than single core models, due to the fact that they mostly run clocked way down from the 1.2Ghz max clock speed.

      So, for general usage, you can expect longer battery life on this, especially with the 1650 MA battery and the Amoled screen. (remember not to use any wallpaper with a lot of white in it, that causes the Amoled screen to use more power)

      However, when you're playing 3D games, or recording / playing back 1080p video, your battery IS gonna go down faster than on single core phones. But then, on single core phones, 1080p video isn't even an option, and for movies you bring for entertainment, you're probably not bringing 10GB 1080p Blueray versions of your movies on a phone anyway.

      And 480p videos that are a decent match for the screen are not going to require both cores nor anything near full clock speed to run.

  26. Tom 64
    Pint

    Bettery

    2.3.3 Sucked the life out of my N1, but improved a lot with 2.3.4.

    When this handset gets 2.3.4, I expect the battery to perform better

  27. dotdavid
    FAIL

    The point of Kies?

    Kies is just silly.

    The fact that you have to plug your little computer into a bigger computer to update it strikes me as very odd. That's my main reservation with Samsung software.

    What exactly is wrong with Google's OTA mechanism? Is it just "well Apple make you do it, so maybe we should too"?

    1. Geoff Campbell Silver badge
      Pirate

      OTA updates are supported on the S2

      But they seem to lag behind those offered via Kies, sadly.

      GJC

  28. ppp.an

    2Ghz car crash dummy: 1.5Ghz stable

    Someone has successfully overclocked the i9100 dual core to 2Ghz. See xda-developers forum. However it was unstable. Stability was shown at 1.5Ghz.

  29. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Only one question

    Can we root it?

    That is the only thing I want to know about any new Android handset.

    1. Jedit Silver badge
      FAIL

      No, two questions.

      Can you read?

      Because this question has been answered twice already in the comments.

  30. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Up

    Only 85%?

    I've managed to get over 3 days on a battery after a few weeks of "normal" use. The power saving mode is excellent.

    Only things I miss from my HD2 are a blinking LED light telling me of notifications and easy access to MicroSD. You have to take out the battery to get to it. Why do they make it so hard?

  31. Mark Zip

    Notifiacation LED? Bands

    First:

    I love the coloured LED notification light on my Nexus 1 (it it also the trackball)

    Can the folks who have one tell us, does the GS2 have any sort of notification light?

    Second:

    El Reg, being a UK based site, does not have to worry about the various radios and frequencies that a mobile phone can address, but it is very important for those of us elsewhere in the world, especially the USA. I think I am correct in saying that this phone cannot address the USA T_mobile 3G bands, right?

    TIA for info.

    1. Geoff Campbell Silver badge

      No notification light that I've noticed.

      You have to hit the power button, and the notifications show on the screen lock page. All the normal audio/vibrate notifications, of course.

      GJC

  32. natfguest

    hdmi adapter available soon

    The official Samsung HDMI adapter doesn't look to be out for quite a while yet but there's one by BizLite over at Mobile Fun that should be in over the next fortnight http://www.mobilefun.co.uk/bizlink-m...ack-p29839.htm

    Quite annoying having no TV-out on the 3.5mm jack though!

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