Think thin. Think dual-core. Think better than Super AMOLED. No wonder then that Samsung has tagged the Galaxy S II its flagship product. Rivals had already launched handsets that were primed to give the Samsung Galaxy S II some serious competition before its launch – Sony Xperia Arc, an attractive rival with a sexy, slim form factor, LG Optimus 2X with its dual-core processor and the Apple iPhone 4 with its Retina Display. Will the Galaxy S II beat ‘em all to the top with all its much-promising specs packed inside?
At a glance
We loved flaunting the super-slim body of the Galaxy S II - one which houses a dual-core ARM Cortex A9 processor - as well as the Super AMOLED Plus display. What is undoubtedly one of the most stunning displays adorning a smartphone today, is laid out across a 4.3-inch screen. High-res photographs and HD videos apart, even Angry Birds has never looked quite so gorgeous on any other handset we've used recently.
We have to add the fact that the Galaxy S II outdid the Nexus S with its glass display that feels like Samsung spread a thin layer of butter between the screen and your thumb. For all the while that we were addicted to the handset, the matte, textured back panel provided a comfortable grip.
Brains and brawns
To test its mettle, we ran the Quandrant Standard test on the Galaxy S II. The smartphone scored a whopping ‘3420' on the Full Benchmark Test, its performance parameters shooting way ahead of the Nexus One and scoring more than four times the original Samsung Galaxy S' mark.
Throughout the span of our review, there wasn't a single occasion where the smartphone looked like it was anywhere close to slowing down or being overpowered by multiple apps running simultaneously. The processor seemed ultra-responsive while surfing the web, downloading apps and playing games on the handset.
User experience
The Galaxy S II comes with Android 2.3 and the proprietary TouchWiz 4.0 from Samsung. The TouchWiz does lend itself to a sleeker-looking user interface. You could glide from one home screen to another by sliding on to the respective numbers at the bottom of the screen.
It also allows for a brand new zoom-in method where you place your thumbs on two sides of the screen and move the handset away or close to yourself to zoom in and out. Pretty impressive, but we wonder why we'd use that when we can just pinch-to-zoom on websites, photographs and the like, although the feature would be really useful if Android/Samsung had games that would recognise that gesture.
Another novel gesture working on the handset is a pan. While rearranging or adding a new widget or app, you can just move the handset to the left or right and place it on any homescreen you want to.
Playing paparzzi
The perfect time to try out the 8-megger was at a garden party over the weekend. We started out with taking night shots with the LED Flash on. The flash came off too strong at times, along with the inevitable red-eye in many snaps. Colours were reproduced well when we took a couple of shots in a fairly well-lit ambience. During the day, with the Flash turned off, the camera tends to underplay the lighting resulting in pictures that look a tad bit under-exposed. The in-built Photo Editor is rather uninspiring and you'd be better off working with PicSay or FxCamera.
You also have an in-built Video Maker app that gives you the option of stitching together a home video, a party video, a video travelogue, a movie and the like. The only difference between the options is the background template and making the video remains a simple drag-and-drop affair. The app is something anyone could have fun with but at the same time it lacks options for those who'd like to try something even slightly more engaging.
Stay connected
The Kies Air app enables the Galaxy S II to be connected to your PC over the same Wi-Fi network. When you log in to the app, it displays the URL of the network that you can connect to from the handset. Once the connection is established, you have access to all files loaded on your smartphone, right on your desktop. You have a list of all your media, and you can either download your stuff from the Galaxy S II on to your PC or upload stuff from your desktop on to the handset. And the same applies to AllShare where you can stream content – videos, music and photographs – on to your DLNA-certified telly. Pretty convenient if you tend to forget where the USB cable is!
Some of the models of the Galaxy S II (in select countries) are slated to be endowed with NFC capabilities. The units available in India do not have NFC capabilities as of now but with this technology we can have credit card transactions, ticket reservations, use the handset as a transit pass or even for electronic door entry and the like. It even allows you to scan ‘smart tags' on posters or billboards to download the details to your phone. However, NFC-enabled units will end up being slightly thicker in order to house the NFC-chip.
App addiction
The new bunch of Samsung apps available on the Galaxy S II target different interests and activities. The Game Hub lets you download high quality games, providing over 20 social network games and premium games. But even with the free games one has to log-in once to download the game and then again to start playing it. It just seemed so much easier to download games from Market and play them on the device. The Readers Hub integrates several websites from where we can access, read and download eBooks, newspapers and magazines. But instead of being showcased in the main collection, every time we downloaded an app we had to go back to our ‘Account' to access the eBook. Virtual socialisers have the Social Hub that integrates Twitter and Facebook into the app. Samsung has already introduced the Music Hub but the service is yet to be launched in India.
The default Video Player on the handset doesn't support a host of formats, so we stick to the usual RockPlayer Lite to test out some fast-action videos and a couple of high-def videos from the Web. Both played brilliantly on the Super AMOLED Plus screen without any stutter.
Talking and texting
We had no qualms about the call quality on the handset. We could scroll through our contacts on the semi-transparent alphabets on the right. Once you end a call, the handset gives you the option of texting or calling the person back immediately after. The virtual keyboard was also quite a breeze to use.
The Galaxy S II comes with a 1,650 mAh battery under the hood so it wasn't surprising that it gave us enough juice for more than a working day, with a handful of calls and texts, app-addictive behaviour and the Wi-Fi turned on.
And the verdict is…
“Vivid. Fast. Slim” Samsung couldn't have defined its latest smartphone more accurately. In an unimaginably fragmented market of smartphones around the world, the Samsung Galaxy S II is packed with potential to beat them all. And when it's being offered with a rather reasonable price tag, there's no reason why you can't get your hands on what might reign the ‘smartest smartphone' throne for some time to come!
Love: Excellent display, powerful processor, thin yet sturdy design
Hate: Mixed results with camera
Rs 32,890