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Review of Samsung Galaxy S II i9100. Part 1

Live photos of Samsung Galaxy S II

Package:

Phone
Battery Li-Ion 1650 mAh
Wired stereo headset
USB cable
Charger

NB. This is the final version of the review so now you can get a comprehensive look at all the aspects of the phone. Certain parts from the preview remain unaltered some however were supplemented or extended.

Positioning

No one could predict the success of Galaxy S and for such a model it has reached phenomenal sales. The model is undoubtedly a bestseller – it has raised the bar for the Android phones market – but has also posed certain problems for Samsung. No one expected such a huge success and, subsequently, no one expected the demand to soar sky high. The company was let down by the lack of Super AMOLED screens – the deficit could not allow big sales: the demand for the model is high – but on many markets there are just not enough units. One of the Samsung's solutions was to release a cheaper version of Galaxy S – i9003 model that uses SuperClear TFT screen. This screen is worse than SuperAMOLED in every aspect but still is one of the best screens on the market. Besides i9003 with minimal memory costs 100-120 euros less than Galaxy S – the price gap will only grow in time. It is a good solution that will keep exploiting Galaxy S' popularity.

After the CES when Nvidia announced first Tegra2 based models including LG Optimus 2x, Motorola Atrix 4G, Motorola DROID Bionic a question aroused: how will Samsung respond? It seemed like dual core processors are becoming obligatory for top models, a great marketing move, though there is no practical need for them since there is no proper software or games, and performance growth in regular application is insignificant, but during CES Samsung never announced such plans. The reason is – the company wanted to minimize the time gap between the product announcement and actual sales to let the potential buyers receive the product the same time the competitors do.

Is Samsung expecting the new flagship to succeed? Undoubtedly yes, and there are absolutely no reasons to think it will fail. Concerning the sales rates of the previous model it will create its own market. It possesses a few unique features the competitors lack. Firstly, it is the screen race. The new term SuperAMOLED+ stands for an improved variant of the previous one that has not yet become obsolete and the competitors do not have any analogs. I do not see a need for such a race but the screen has become a significant perk of Samsung's flagships, one of the advantages. I like Galaxy S' screen it is not yet as sharp as iPhones screen – the fonts are a bit blurred. The new SuperAMOLED+ is sharper though not yet as good as iPhone but better than Galaxy S.

Another feature that does not have any application in most cases but creates a margin for the future is the dual core processor. For tech geeks such a processor is definitely an advantage – it adds extra luster to the phone. But pragmatics think differently: the processor does not provide any real and immediate gains. But, on the other hand, in due course there will be more and more compatible applications and that is when the phone will shine.

In terms of technology the first Galaxy S raised the bar very high and it was not merely a demo for the sake of technology per se but a demo of how to incorporate all the new tech in a single and attractive product. S II goes even further – it is the first phone with Wi-Fi direct that does not require any special software to sync with any PC, it can transfer files via Wi-Fi and features a number of applications other Androids do not have but which will soon become standard. Enumeration of the technologies used in the phone would take a lot of time (NFC, MHL etc.) there is a multitude of them. Samsung has created a flagship without any compromises. Unfortunately, there is not a single phone with a similar aggregate of specs or features. The closest to Galaxy S II are the phones base on Nvidia Tegra 2 but they have worse cameras and screens and they are bigger. Amazing, but Samsung has created a flagship with an excellent price to quality ratio for its segment. In a year the phone will still have one of the best functionalities, it won't be outclassed by other phones though there will be more interesting offers from other manufacturers. This phone is positioned as a long term flagship i.e. a phone you buy if you want to keep it for a long time. The life span of this phone on most markets and for most users will be outstanding.

At this point we must also take HTC Sensation into consideration which is very much like Galaxy S II (a 1.2 GHz dual-core processor, but the camera is worse, it has less memory and the screen is poorer). The HTC's advantage is the Sense 3.0 interface but at similar price Samsung's hardware is more advanced. Anyway, both phones are very interesting you will have some difficulties deciding which one to buy.

The phone being a flagship defines its future buyer: firstly, it is those who buy the newest and the best – they will certainly be interested in this phone. The second category of buyers are the geeks – those who do care about their phones' performance. For them this phone offers an all included variant – there are simply no other phone that can offer same specs. It will be also interesting for pragmatic buyers – you will rest assured for a long time that your phone is up to date and does not require a replacement.

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Design, Size, Controls

This is where opinions differ. Judging by the picture some said that it looks exactly as the previous model, some of Galaxy owners complained that it has got even wider which is not convenient. Some were just expecting a new look. But Samsung presumed that the design of the first Galaxy S is adequate – the sales confirm it – and decided not to change anything. A rather rational approach.

And since the phone has got a bigger surface it has become thinner – impressive 8.5mm (1/3 in) (the press release states even 8.49mm but we don't really need that precision, do we?), which makes the phone one of the thinnest on the market. It immediately reminds of Sony Ericsson Arc, which is 8.7mm thick and also looks thin – all this changes the perception of the phone – it just looks more impressive. A forgotten trend that was used just four years ago is reborn for smartphones market. Remember Samsung's Ultra line, and before that a phone 9mm (0.35 in) thick was considered to be a breakthrough. The history repeats itself.

Samsung Galaxy S II vs Sony Ericsson Arc:

By the way, Samsung Galaxy S II also reminded me Sony Ericsson Arc' proportions, probably, because of the size of the screen – in both phones it is comparable. Arc has got a 4.2 in screen and Samsung 4.27 – the difference is insignificant. But the Samsung's screen is much better and is more interesting. Galaxy S II uses DNIe+ technology (that gives the plus in the name). it is a processor that renders any graphics e.g. photos, pictures, video to make them look better on a phone's screen. A similar technology is used in all Samsung TV sets. Interestingly enough, a similar solution called BraviaEngine is used in Sony Ericsson Arc. These technologies are not used to render the interface, that is, they do not process the menu.

The phone's size - 125.3 x 66.1 x 8.5mm/4.93 x 2.6 x 0.33in (Galaxy S - 122.4х64.2х9.9mm),weight – 116gr/4.1oz. To my taste, the phone is just a bit too wide – some will find it inconvenient. But you get used to it very quickly, there is no discomfort. It is nice that the phone does not bulge out in the pocket of your pants or shirt.

Samsung Galaxy S II vs Samsung Galaxy S:

If you wonder why the back panel is made of plastic the answer is simple. When you actively use the phone (watch video, download or transfer large files) it significantly heats up. If the back panel were metal you would not be able to touch the phone – it would be burning. The cellular structure of the plastic has its purpose – it is a passive radiator. Though it cannot stop the phone from heating up, it does not burn but you feel the heat. The hottest spot is around the camera.

The back panel is very thin and when you close it you should check the edges and make sure it fits tightly. Sometimes the panel does not close completely and it creates certain inconvenience. If the phone falls the battery kicks the panel out. My phone has fallen a few times but there is no damage done to the panel. Despite the thinness the plastic resists well both impacts and bending.

The phone features a 2MP front camera, a proximity and a light sensors. The home button is mechanical while the menu and the back buttons are sensor. On the left side there is a volume rocker, on the right – the power button. There is still no camera button and you will have to lauch camera from the menu.

At the top side there is a 3.5mm headset jack, the microUSB slot moved to the bottom. On the rear side there is an 8MP camera and a LED flash, below is the loudspeaker.

Galaxy S II has been my primary phone for a few weeks so it has been to hell and back with me. There are no worn off spots on its body besides the rear bumper which gets scratched but the scuffing can only be seen at a certain angle and under bright light and only if you scrutinize the surface.I carried the phone the pocket of my pants and the lining was rubbing against this protruded spot. Anyway, you should expect that a plastic body to have certain pluses (weight, practicality) and few disadvantages.

I must say that i am not one of those people who strongly believe that the phone's body must be metal especially if the phone is a flagship. I think it does not matter whether it is made of plastic, metal or glass. What is important is how fast the body ages and whether the surface wears out. For example, the glass used in the iPhone 4 is relatively fragile and if you drop it on tarmac you are likely to break it. Is this a reason not to buy iPhone? I think not. It is just a peculiarity. Galaxy S II is rather light and wide and this works fine. When I was using HTC Incredible S and Galaxy S II I always preferred Galaxy because of its lightness and thinness.

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Display

Those who believe that SuperAMOLED Plus screen is just a marketing trick should compare it to the picture of the regular SuperAMOLED. It is brighter, sharper even on the bigger screen, but, most importantly, this screen consumes less energy. There is now an energy saving option in the settings – the energy consumption is adjusted depending on the picture on the display (it uses DNIe+). This technology is used in all Samsung TV sets, a special processor analyzes the information and then enhances the picture, makes it look better for us. Now the phone can also analyze the pattern of energy consumption. The wallpapers set also takes into account that AMOLED screens consume energy differently depending on the color they display. A similar technology is used by Sony Ericsson and is called Bravia Engine, but the energy gains on TFT screens is less significant, it rather just visual enhancement of the picture.

Let's have a look at the technology used in the screen. The first Super AMOLED matrix used the PenTile technology and a pixel there consists of two subpixels. For some reason this became an issue of many debates on forums – some people claimed that the actual resolution of any PenTile screen is at least one third lower than quoted – a rather bold and ridiculous statement since the number of pixels was not any different from any other kind of screen and if the manufacturer stated a 800x480 screen this was the exact number of pixels no more no less.

However, there is another issue – in certain aspects the lower number of subpixels created visible distortion which together with high definition was really frustrating for some users. For example, fonts for the first gen SuperAMOLED screens had a very sharp pixelated contour and this , I think, the only serious difference of the PenTile screens from other displays. If you just look at the icon titles on the first Galaxy S to see this effect but if you compare it to Galaxy S II you will see that this issue has been fixed.

Samsung used the Real RGB Stripe technology in SuperAMOLED Plus matrix – now each pixel is formed out of three subpixels. The demo picture from Samsung Displays illustrates the difference – the higher number of subpixels makes the picture softer as well as the fonts – there is no pixilation worth mentioning. I must admit that until this matter has become debated everywhere I did not even notice the difference in the fonts. Then I naturally saw the pixilation but it has not in any way damaged my impressions from the first Galaxy S.

Under sunlight the screen is less legible than the first Galaxy due to the fact that the matric has become bigger while the resolution remains the same, also this is because of a different production technique. The screen is readable at right angle or when the sun is not very bright. As for the rest the screen is pretty much like all the other displays and there is no advantage the first SuperAMOLED had.

Currently the SuperAMOLED technology cannot produce screens with the pixel density of more than 200 ppi – iPhone has a matrix of more than 300 ppi. Samsung is going to enhance the production technique to go past 300 ppi in 2011 already.

I find the SuperAMOLED picture smoother and the brightness is very well adjusted. The big thing is that now the user can select the picture mode (Movie, Standard, Dynamic). These settings allow you to change the color temperature and saturation. If you like bright colors just keep the standard settings. If you prefer less vivid hues than go for the Movie mode.

The screen size is 4.3" (the previous model had 4", but the difference is colossal and catches your eye immediately), the resolution is 800x480 (16 million colors). From a pragmatic point of view the screen is very convenient – it automatically adjusts the brightness depending on the lighting. The cover glass is hardened and finished with a glare free material. The screen is now oleophobic which means that in theory it does not catch fingerprints – a similar solution is used in Apple iPhone. If you are an iPhone user you know that there are still fingerprints only much fewer of them. The same applies to Galaxy S II – there are fingerprints but they are less visible than before.

The Samsung phones also feature the VibeZ technology – you get a vibration response every time you press a key.

The screen can take up to 16 text lines and up to 3 system tray lines, in the reading mode it can take up to 24 lines depending on the font size. In the settings you may adjust the size and the font of the type, but they are all similar. But, unlike, many phones the screen type is gigantic and is easily readable from any distance – it is a big advantage of the phone.

Comparison of the screens with Galaxy S (maximum brightness, same pictures).

Comparison of the screens with Sony Ericsson Arc (maximum brightness, same pictures).

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Battery

The phone uses a 1650mAh Li-Ion battery. It is quoted to last for up to 6.5 hours of talking or 350 hours of standby. Within the Moscow networks the battery's average lifetime was about one day. It takes about 3 hours to fully charge the battery.

The battery can give you about of 8.5 hours of unconverted video playback or up to 30 hours of music playback.

I think that the battery testing was the most complicated and time consuming. There is a zillion of factors and settings that affect the power consumption you can make the phone fit your lifestyle and increase the battery life. This phone will show very different results depending on how you going to use it and depending on hundreds of settings (screen brightness, the number of running applications etc.). So I decided to compare it to the first Galaxy. The both phones had the same carrier SIM cards with PUSH mail, same applications and so on. As a matter of fact I even tried to make calls from the same spots and have the same talk time. The result is impressive – Galaxy II works 1.5-2 times longer. In my case the first Galaxy was active from 9am and dead by lunchtime (yes, I am not an average user) while Galaxy II still had juice.

I am going to briefly enumerate settings that can help you increase the battery life. Firstly, you should check the W-Fi settings and set to active only when the screen is on. This will save a bit of energy especially if you do not use any IM clients and only need the link when you are working with the phone. Secondly, you should consider whether you need PUSH mail if you receive a dozen messages an hour this function will dramatically cut the battery life. You can set the update intervals at 15, 30 or even 60 minutes. This will give you a significant lifetime boost.

I also recommend setting the auto brightness level and the image analysis on (another solution competitors do not have). The latter allows the phone to adjust the brightness level depending on the application and it works just fine. Also, regardless whether the latter setting is on or off the temperature sensor is always active and in case if you are playing a game under sunlight and downloading a large file the phone will decrease the brightness to keep the handset from overheating. I have not seen this nice feature before.

The Power Save Mode allows you to install an energy saving master that will turn the power saving mode when the battery reaches a certain depletion level. You can specify the power saving settings here – a very handy feature that allows you to set you priorities. Once the battery goes lower than 15% the camera is turned off. This feature makes phone calls available as long as possible. Even with only 15% of charge the phone can still work 1.5-2 hours and 15-20 minutes of phone calls.

As amazing as it may seem but the second Galaxy has a significantly longer battery life and this is not because of a slightly better battery but thanks to the new platform – the Exynos processor turns out to be very eco-friendly. In terms of technology Galaxy S II is a very sophisticated device that features a load of settings allowing real power saving without any loss in performance. If you study the ways of energy saving in detail you can increase the battery life up to 50%! And if you are a major geek and know how to tweak stuff you can do even better. So the corollary is, among the latest flagship phones Samsung Galaxy S II offers one of the longest battery lives.

Below you can see screenshots of an Android utility application that shows the working time and power consumption.

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USB, Bluetooth, NFC and connectivity

Bluetooth. Bluetooth 3.0 labeled High Speed employs WiFi 802.11 n with compatible devices with the maximum speed of 24 Mbps. We managed to transfer a 1 GB file at the speed of 12 Mbps and the distance of three meters.

The phone supports different profiles: Headset, Handsfree, Serial Port, Dial Up Networking, File Transfer, Object Push, Basic Printing, SIM Access and A2DP. The operation of headsets is traditional.

USB connection. In the menu you can select one of three available modes: Media Player, Mass Storage and Samsung Kies. As a modem the phone can work well through WiFi Hotspot activating a similar feature for USB.

In USB Mass Storage mode the handset can be found quickly without additional drivers to copy the necessary data. USB 2 offers a speed of 25 Mbps.

When the model is connected to a PC you can't use USB and Bluetooth at the same time. You have to disable Bluetooth no matter what is the current state (if there is a connection and transfer or not), which is inconvenient. USB connection allows charging.

USB on the Go is also supported and with the appropriate connector you can connect flash cards or other external drives to a microUSB jack. In the file manager you will view and copy files.

MicroUSB also works with MHL standard, when a special cable can connect the phone to a TV set (HDMI). In fact this standard involves connecting via microUSB to HDMI. The solution looks more preferable than a separate miniHDMI jack on the body.

GSM networks use EDGE class 12.

WiFi. 802.11 a/b/g/n is supported and the wizard resembles the one for Bluetooth. You can remember selected tags and connect to them automatically. You can customize connection to a router with one touch. Press an appropriate button on the latter and activate a similar key in the phone's menu (WPA SecureEasySetup).

WiFi Direct. This protocol should supersede Bluetooth or start competing with its third version (it also uses WiFi n to transfer large files). In the WiFi settings menu choose WiFi Direct and the phone will look for devices around. Select a necessary device, activate the connection and you are done. Now in the file manager you can view files from another device and transfer them. Alternatively, find devices connected to your router and send to them the files from a gallery or other sections of the phone. The bottom line is that the device must support WiFi Direct.

NFC (Near Field Communication). The handset comes equipped with NFC technology. It allows creating payment systems in some countries. The phone then enables you paying for parking or groceries. Similar systems will be developing more and more, and Samsung included this option to stay abreast of times. In some countries this feature will be absent in the menu (including Russia despite that NFC module is there).

Kies via WiFi. Motorola was the first company to offer operation without installing any software on a computer. Connect to a PC through WiFi and in the browser you can view different sections of the phone. Samsung made one more step forward and opened access to all sections of the phone. Enter in the browser the address provided by the phone and you can easily work with data and download it on PC. Simple and easy! No special software required. SMS can be written on a PC among other things.

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Movement control

Separate features can be controlled by movements. Usually, these movements are not natural. For example, in a gallery you can touch the picture with two fingers and zoom it in or out by tilting the handset. It is not always simple to control the speed of changes and at times it is easier to zoom manually. The only handy option here is unblocking the phone – touch the screen and shake it. There are tutorials in the phone to learn available movements, but it will require extra power.

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Memory and memory cards

The phone boasts 16 GB of internal memory (there are plans for a version with 32 GB) and initially users can access around 14 GB. The memory card is accessible separately. You can view all folders (both from the memory card and internal memory). The file manager helps to copy files to and from the card. Memory cards are not hot swappable. MicroSD cards of up to 32 GB work just fine.

Out of 1 GB of RAM 800 MB are available after the start, which is enough for all apps. It is one of the best models on the market in terms of RAM available to users.

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Performance

This is Samsung's first dual core phone and it uses the Orion processor which has been recently renamed into Exynos 4210. As compared to the prototypes the CPU has been changed – it is still dual core but the maximum clock is now 1.2GHz.

Brief description of Samsung processor

So, how does it perform as compared to NVIDIA Tegra2 which I have tested in Motorola ATRIX 4G and LG Optimus 2x? both phones have been my primary phones for a few weeks and I can assess the performance only from the point of view of a user since there are no benchmarks that could fully assess the performance of this architecture. The Samsung platform is no slower than Motorola or LG phones and they all feel pretty much the same. My impressions of the performance are very positive – it is definitely one of the fastest phones on the market. In many cases Samsung feels faster giving you an impression that it has been better optimized.

Here you can see the results of Quadrant test – the default Galaxy S II firmware demonstrates about 3000 points leaving the competition far behind. I must say that these results are arbitrary and do not really reflect the actual performance of the phone which depends not only on the processor and the memory but also on how well the running applications are optimized and how stable they are.

In Smartbench2011 (optimized for dual-core processors) Galaxy also shows impressive results. As of the time of the test this phone is the only handset which got the maximum score possible as you can see on the screenshot. Right below it you see the results of an overclocked LG Optimus 2x but this comparison is not really valid since you can overclock the Exynos processor to a much higher frequency (1.8GHz). And since we do not yet have commercial samples of HTC Sensation the comparison with Galaxy is not fair and Sensation loses in every benchmark. In our review of Sensation we will be comparing its processor and performance with Galaxy S II.

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Camera

This model features a new 8MPix Samsung module which is one of the best on the market. Let's now compare it to Sony Ericsson Arc camera.

Sony Ericsson Arc uses an EXMOR matrix created by Sony. In the innumerous marketing and advertising campaigns Sony is trying to show how this product is so much superior to all the others and how brilliant it works in insufficient light environment and that this is a near perfect camera. Unfortunately, Sony is not exactly a leader in cell phone cameras moreover their products are much poorer than Samsung solutions which you can easily see on the sample shots.

Look at the flowers – no flash. The shots look similar (Galaxy S II pictures to the left).

Same object with flash on – notice how sharp the Galaxy picture and compare it to the much blurry Arc image. I have made several pictures but Arc's result is all the same.

Now pencils by the window: the object is insufficiently lit from the side – I think in this one the both cameras performed similar – no winners.

Now the bookcase – the conditions are much tougher here – there is very little light. Arc overexposed the picture and the image has a lot of noise while Galaxy made a decent picture.

The laughing Buddha in my office looks great on Galaxy while Arc for some reason raised ISO level to 400 (Galaxy used 250) and the picture looks dark and less sharp.

A similar example – the quality of Galaxy is much higher – the matric is much more sensitive.

With flash Arc performs even worse – it seems like Arc is using random settings. See for yourself – I made a series of shots but the results were always poor.

Same story on the street – the pictures are similar but Arc is still slightly poorer.

Here you can see a rare case when Arc actually outperformed Samsung – but only for a tiny bit.

A picture of billboards demonstrates once again how poor the quality of Arc is.

In bright daylight the both camera perform on the same level however Arc still fails certain scenes – but these are near perfect conditions and both camera look good.

Notice the text on the cosmetics phial – Arc pixelated it making the text illegible while it remains quite legible on Samsung.

Another sample:

I hope that this small test has proven that Sony EXMOR is just a marketing trick. A regular Samsung camera outclasses EXNOR in all respects. I hope this will suffice to stop the avalanche of the marketing rubbish about the excellent quality of Sony Ericsson (by the way, iPhone will be using a Sony camera which will not be available in SE phones due to high costs).

The camera interface of Galaxy S II now has a small but handy feature – it can be either landscape or portrait depending on how you hold the handset.

All settings appear on a semitransparent background, which is nice. I will mention basic settings.

The zoom is digital with up to x4. To turn the zoom on you have to slide two digits across the screen to zoom in or out you need to pinch the image. The zoom quality is rather mediocre as you can see on the pictures.

Flash operation modes – automatic, always on, disabled.

Shooting modes – One Shot (by default), Beauty (this filter hides skin defects), Smile Shot (looking for smiles and reacting to them), Panorama, Action Shot (for moving people or objects) and Cartoon (this filter turns a shot into a graphic image).

Scene Modes: – Portrait, Landscape, Night, Sports, Party/Indoor, Beach/Snow, Sunset, Dawn, Fall color, Firework, Text, Candelight and Backlight.

The exposition ranges from -2 to +2.

Focus – auto, face and macro.

There is a timer for 2, 5 and 10 seconds.

Effects – negative image, black and white, sepia.

Available resolutions – 8М (3264х2448), 6.5W (3264х1968), 7M (3072x2304), 5.7W (3072x1856) and lower.

White balance – Day, Cloudy, Incandescent, Fluorescent.

ISO – auto, 100, 200, 400, 800.

We have to mention measurement on a point or matrix, auto contrast, image stabilization and GPS tags.

Photo samples are available below:

Video. Apart from 1280х720 resolution we now get 1920х1080 (1080p). In files properties we see up to 30 fps, but the resulting picture is jerky a bit. Smaller resolution suffers from the same phenomenon, which could be caused by VBR. You can compare the video quality with Galaxy S (i9003).The autofocus is always on during recording but it cannot always correctly focus on an object (as you can see on the cocktails example). But all in all the quality is either on the same level as the competition or better. See for yourself:

In the next part we will discuss TouchWiz3 interface, preinstalled apps and new software capabilities.

Do you want to talk about this? Please, go to our Forum and let your opinion be known to the author and everybody else.

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Review of Samsung Galaxy S II i9100. Part 1

Live photos of Samsung Galaxy S II

Contents:

Package:

Positioning

Design, Size, Controls

Display

Battery

USB, Bluetooth, NFC and connectivity

Movement control

Memory and memory cards

Performance

Camera

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