Samsung Galaxy S2 Smartphone

Review: Samsung Galaxy S2 Smartphone

Samsung Galaxy S II RM 2,099 Price Updated 22 Jun 2011

There seems to be many "highly anticipated" smartphones of late as the general public wait with bated breath for the latest and greatest from the rivalling factions that race to out-perform each other.

From the brand that started the "i-volution" to Korean innovators and even the Chinese upstarts, there are just too many upcoming models and brands in the market to keep up.

One of the latest to come out of the woodwork and had attracted loads of attention was the Samsung Galaxy S2 smartphone. Besides a more powerful dual-core processor, higher memory space and RAM, larger AMOLED Plus screen, and an overall bigger yet slimmer chassis, the S2 takes the perfect benchmarks of the original Galaxy S and catapulted it to greater heights.

Having faster processing speeds and improved RAM and memory management gave the S2 the operating prowess it needed to process anything and everything HD. From pictures to movies and everything in between (this includes raw HD), the Super AMOLED Plus touch-screen displays it all in amazing colours and detail, giving users a great reason to stare at the S2 all day.

Complementing the great display and HD rendering abilities of the S2 is its audio-playback capabilities. In this case, this new device from Samsung is able to recognise and process lossless formats as well, which includes AAC+ and FLAC. This is to ensure that the Full HD videos being played on the S2 also have the best sound quality.

The S2’s basic features were excellent and showed no sign of performance lag even when multiple apps were used. Incoming calls were crisp and clear while the loudspeaker, which was located on the bottom underside, did not disappoint as it is able to produce exceptional sound clarity. Apps, both light- and heavy-weights, loaded on the fly with no problems whatsoever.

Messaging on the S2 was a pretty interesting affair, after taking some time to get used to the soft-keyboard, as it offers a variety of messaging features and writing options. While it is easy for anyone to quickly adapt to the soft-keys of the S2, the keyboard layout could definitely be better in terms of spacing and location of common punctuations. The location and need for extra steps to access certain punctuations slightly hampered the overall usability of the soft-keyboard.

In terms of multimedia capabilities, the S2 has it all in spades! Besides its HD-playback and recording capabilities, Samsung’s most powerful smartphone yet (not including the powerful devices that are being introduced at an upcoming mobile expo) has a very capable camera with LED flash, enhanced web-multimedia capabilities, innovative integrated app hubs, and improved in-built apps that come pre-installed in the device.

The 8MP camera with LED flash is a personal favourite and did no wrong throughout its rigorous tests, producing decent results overall for macro, dark, and day-time shoots. As for the integrated app hubs, which are divided into four categories: music, social, readers, and games, work best for those who need a simple yet intuitive app management system.

The in-built apps were a dream to use, such as the integrated task manager and wireless connectivity suite that the S2 utilises. However, the frequently used apps bar at the bottom of the Home area tends to disappear if a few heavy apps are left running for too long. It could be a bug as it is only this S2 review unit that seems to be experiencing such a problem.

Like all smartphones, the S2 runs very hot, very quickly. Thankfully, the mesh back-plate and super-slim chassis helps with dissipating heat pretty quickly. If this was not implemented in the design, many would have dropped it like a real hot-potato!

Whatever faults it has, the Samsung Galaxy S2 is still one smartphone that can, and has many times over, taken on the market´s current best. This, of course, includes the brand that uses an i-prefix on its devices. In fact, it is safe to declare this device as the one to beat in terms of performance, offerings, and capabilities...for now.

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