Samsung Galaxy S II the best smartphone in the world ?

[Draconian Guppy]

As per usual, a lot of it comes down to Market for Android paling compared to iOS's App Store, so it doesn't matter how good the hardware is, it will never truly compete until they have a much wider range of quality software available (which is why iOS devices are selling so much better and making so much more money for phone companies and app developers). For example, the hardware in the Galaxy S II is very nice indeed but the games available for Android suck and those games that push the hardware are few and far between as not many people own high-end Android devices (so it's not worth the developers making apps for such a small amount of users).

+1

No matter how much people say, android market is really lacking...

[AJerman]

The best Android phone - Maybe ... coz their are numerous factors people don't think about when drooling over stupid specifications .. here's my view on the phone :

1. Dual Core + Android -> no use right now, only certain apps will make use of the dual core. Plus the entire Android UI is still CPU driven, so the more effects u put in the interface, the quicker u drain the battery.

2. Future proof hardware -> sure, but the kind of support Samsung provides this point is just a joke :p

3. Premium pricing -> and yet the phone looks el'cheap'o :p

4. Usability -> Well that depends entirely on the user; some prefer iOS, some prefer Android, some prefer Symbian, so i cannot judge it for all. Personally the only OS that i've ever used that has unified features throughout its entire interface is Bada.

5. Camera -> Not the best in the market, no xenon flash = poor indoor photos ..

The only thing i'm drooling about the SGSII is the 4.3 sAMOLED+ screen :p .. for everything else i'd prefer my good ole Nokia N8 .. sure i don't have the bling bling GUI, but i prefer the ease of use + camera + good music quality + awesome battery life + premium build .. Qt is on a good track, and anyone wondering how boring the UI of Symbian is please check the latest Qt apps; now imagine an entire Qt based UI coming to Symbian ...

Galaxy SII will be another in line for the bling bling factor. I myself once considered getting one, but then i sat back and thought about the entire package and the biggest turnoff was the appearance :p .. a Samsung Wave looks hundred times better than the Galaxy models ... i mean, this phone looks almost same as the Galaxy Ace, which costs about 1/2 the SII in my country lol ..

PS : Sony Ericson Xperia Arc is a much better alternative if you ask me ..

To reply to your points:

1. This isn't very accurate. Android runs on the Linux kernel, and the Linux kernel has had SMP support for quite a while. While applications that can utilize both cores at once may be uncommon at the moment still, multiple applications can still span multiple cores, meaning dual core is still useful. It will be further optimized in the next release of Android.

2. This is old thinking that isn't true either. The original Galaxy S got Froyo shortly after release, and also has Gingerbread now. Now that Samsung has a flagship device like the Galaxy S, and even more so in the Galaxy S II, support has been pretty good. Not to mention you can always go to XDA and get further optimized ROMs for it.

3. Well, that's a matter of opinion. I can't argue that, but the phone looks fine to me.

4. Not really a point, it of course is up to the user to choose the right phone. The new version of Touchwiz is actually pretty nice. I've been using it on my Captivate. I may still prefer Launcher Pro after playing with it for a while, but it's certain not bad.

5. The only phone cameras worth a damn are the Nokia and iPhone 4 cameras. Regardless of if you carried around the best lighting photography can offer, it's still going to be a cheap camera phone camera for quick pics on the fly. For anything else, you shouldn't even be trying to use a phone's camera.

[mrk Reviews]

Fine i give you the job pointing out everything that i have said wrong and i'll accept you are 'technically' more sound than me .. and if u can't provide solid proof then please don't try to spread your technical skills around here ..

PS : unless u can't defend ur point don't post useless stuff ... Galaxy SII is not the best smartphone in the market ..

Sorry but I don't put any value or consideration into people who try to come out as smart and witty but post using text speak and don't bother with GCSE level grammar and punctuation.

You have shown a complete lack of knowledge yet you are preaching your opinion as if it's based around solid grounded knowledge of how phones like the SGS II fit into the market and how things are evolving in the technology it presents.

And the Galaxy S II "is" the best and most powerful consumer smartphone out right now. You might not think so for some invalid reason but on paper and in practice it is in all aspects it is.

[Jason Smally]

The Samsung Galaxy S II Looks amazing. It appears to be super slim and fast.

Best Android phone? Yes, so far.

[instant.human]

That is HTC's fault not Android's. If you want to be constantly up to date then get a Nexus class phone or get a phone that has Root and follow the XDA forums who will out the latest on all supported phones.

Is that your argument? Seriously? So... in order to be up to date, I need to buy a special phone that runs the same software as another (HTC Legend, in this case), well at least sort of runs the same software. And it's sort of my fault for not being up to date because I did not buy that special phone, which may not even be available in some parts of the world (in germany at least it's not yet available. And the Nexus One never was, officially, so I would have to import that special phone, even)? Seriously? Oh yeah right, I could always visit some webforums and look through hundreds of posts and threats to find some ROM which I can install that is not quite vanilla Android but well, it should be more up to date than what the carriers offer? And not to mention, not everyone really dares to root, may it be harmless or seamless or whatever, it's still not really user friendly... Really? Try explaining THAT to Joe Average.

You know, that would all be alright, if the phone that did not recieve updates was some cheapo pay-as-you-go phone. But the phone in question here is the HTC Legend. And iirc the HTC Desire aswell. And the Samsung Galaxy. And the Motorola Droid. And others. Those were all not cheap phones, those were even great phones and they still are. But well, they are no Nexus. So I'm out of luck.

That's pretty hilarious.

I like Android. The concept, that is. I really like it, used it a lot and loved most of the phones I played with or even owned that ran Android. That's not it. I was too disappointed by the quality of the apps. I wanted to love Android. But the execution is not even remotely close to the concept. Which is a shame. Android could kick iOSes arse, never to be seen again. But if that above is what the average user should go through in order to get the most recent update for an a year old phone... It just doesn't sound right. It just IS not right.

Sure thing, iOS 4 does not run full fledged on an iPhone 3G. But the iPhone 3G is more than 2 years old. It runs on the 3GS, doesn't it? Well yes, it does. Will iOS 5 run on the iPhone 3G? No it won't. But by the time iOS 5 comes out, the 3G would be 3 years old. Most contracts should have run out by that time, so it's not a big deal.

But on a phone that's not even a year old?

Aww geez, sorry. I am not in a good mood today. ;) No hard feelings, here!

[mrk Reviews]

The Desire IS getting Gingerbread, HTC have confirmed this. I think the timing was June/July.

Google do release the latest updates to the Nexus first but it's down to the manufacturer to add the updates to their customised phones. This isn't an Android issue it is a manufacturer being slow issue. I think you'll find a lot of vendors are the same and it's not just on phones.

[instant.human]

The Desire IS getting Gingerbread, HTC have confirmed this. I think the timing was June/July.

Google do release the latest updates to the Nexus first but it's down to the manufacturer to add the updates to their customised phones. This isn't an Android issue it is a manufacturer being slow issue. I think you'll find a lot of vendors are the same and it's not just on phones.

But June/July is like what, half a year after the release?

But then it is indeed an Android-issue. Because with some phones you can get the latest updates in time, with others you can't. Those all run Android but some are more equal than others. Which in the end is an Android-issue.

I do understand what this should be - the Nexus phones are like... tech demos. Look what we got, now it's up to the manufacturers to take it and use it as they wish.

That is great in theory. But obviously it does not work so well in practice. I hate to quote MG Siegler but he postet something on Twitter, I don't even think he made it up by himself though... It took Apple one week to roll out an update to all supported phones. The latest Android is still on it's way. That's just not that great, seriously.

As I said, no hard feelings, I'm just saying, in my view, it's not the best way to go. And the XDA-developers argument is no argument. Because by those standarts, iOS is not closed aswell, you just need to jailbreak it. ;)

But well... I mean it wouldn't hurt Google to put just a tiny little bit of preassure here and there... Sure thing, that would be against the total openness but if it comes down to the carriers and manufatureres eventually anyways (and some of them even decide that some apps are not accessible or something) why not giving out deadlines or something?

[mrk Reviews]

That's the problem (or non problem?). Apple only have one hardware set to update, they don't have hundreds of phones with hundreds of different specs to administer.

Again, this goes back to the open vs closed debate. With a closed system you take control of that ecosystem and its users, you say what they can and can't do. In an open system you provide the utensils and let the crowd do the cooking.

Both systems work but the crowd will have masses that don't like either for their own reasons which is to be expected.

Even jailbroken iPhones are still closed, there's only so much you can do. It doesn't open up the world to your phone like it does by rooting and Android.

Like I said earlier, it's not hard to get a phone that's well supported either by Google directly or by the user community and the Android XDA community spans many many handsets over the world. I got my Desire and instead of waiting for HTC I rooted it and for months have been enjoying Gingerbread and more recently, Android 2.3.4. None of this is hard any more, just a few clicks and a very basic understanding of how the ecosystem works and some very basic technical knowledge.

[instant.human]

Again, this is all nice and well in theory but for the average user, which is the majority, this doesn't look good and does result in being unstatisfied with their purchase a few months later. Even .Neo is, and he has the technical knowledge to root and install some ROM on his device, I would assume.

I totally see what you say, I simply don't agree that it's not a big deal. ;)

Plus, most of what you can't do with a jailbroken iPhone is what only very, very few people would really need to do with their mobile phone. But I also see what's nice about being able to do that anyways. ;)

Sure thing, Android runs on a plethora of different devices with different specs with different whatevers. Still, even on well selling, pretty recent phones, the update did not work so well and was not even close to being in time.

The thing is, it's no better with WM7, for instance. And those devices are all more or less alike. Sure, the range of devices may not be as closed as with iOS devices but they also have some generations of iPod Touches, some gens and two different versions of iPhones and two iPads.

I remember being pretty ****ed, when my Droid didn't get... what was it, 2.1 or something? Back then? And it took like forever because the ones that ran on O2 Austria got it first and then UK and then later Germany or something. Yes, that looks like a carriers problem but it comes down to being a problem with Android.

But let's just agree to disagree. ;) This discussion was held for years and in the end, I did the only right thing: chosing the mobile OS and device that suits my needs best. Which is what everyone should do.

[LiquidSolstice]

4. Usability -> Well that depends entirely on the user; some prefer iOS, some prefer Android, some prefer Symbian, so i cannot judge it for all. Personally the only OS that i've ever used that has unified features throughout its entire interface is Bada.

*chokes on soda* I'm sorry, did you just say you'd prefer Bada over Android? That's....pretty funny, I must say. For those who want to see how "awesome" and "unified" Bada is, please proceed to watch this "Hands on" video of it.

"Revolutionary and unified" highlights from the video:

"These are your widgets. You can add them. Or you can remove them."

"The [photo app] works in portrait OR landscape [*gasp*] and has multi-touch"

The only good thing about that video is you get to see a mildly entertaining racing game (that my 2 year old Zune HD can run).

There's nothing remotely interesting about Bada. It's another "me-too" OS without a userbase, a developer's interest, or anything special.

[alexalex]

The Desire IS getting Gingerbread, HTC have confirmed this. I think the timing was June/July.

Google do release the latest updates to the Nexus first but it's down to the manufacturer to add the updates to their customised phones. This isn't an Android issue it is a manufacturer being slow issue. I think you'll find a lot of vendors are the same and it's not just on phones.

Would you agree to same treatment to your Windows 7 PC where Lenovo, HP.. owners will get the latest SP while owners of Dell, Asus.. will have to wait months for the update ?

I don't think so, and you pay for the privilege to use a smartphone 10x times that of a PC.

[Hollow.Droid]

Troll? How is fairly stating an opinion that isn't "Samsung Galaxy S II the best smartphone in the world?" being a troll? Software is more important than hardware for phones these days, I thought Apple made that clear in their popularity and sales. Nokia have the hardware - yet they're failing big time. Android is selling well but only because it's available on a lot of low-end handsets too, which makes up the majority of Android sales. If Android was only available on high-end handsets like iOS is, sales figures would be drastically lower.

Android handsets are selling, both high and low end products. The market is increasing with apps at a much higher rate than Apples and if you used Android for the past couple of years as I have then you would have noted the increase in quality as well. I didn't state that the Android marketplace is better than Apples, but it is most definitely not as far behind in quality or quantity as you and others would have people believe. Yes, improvements need to be made to the market and yes quality of apps does need to increase, but simply choosing your device on the marketplace alone is retarded. If everyone followed that train of thought then WP7 would have been dead in the water even before it released.

Yeah he sure is a troll - just cause he has an opinion.

That's clearly not what I meant. This was a discussion about the S2, but I called troll due to the obvious attempt at devolving this conversation into a typical Apple vs Google debate. It's been the same for a long time. Previously Apple fans could simply call on their huge library of apps and marketshare, now that the latter argument is gone and the former is quickly diminishing we'll see more arguments about 'Quality'. While relevant the gap between apps is no where near as wide as many have us believe.

All I have stated above are facts. If you still consider my a troll, maybe you should be less of a fan boy and accept all of the camps.

Firstly, please do share the source of ALL of your statistics please. Including the one stating the low-end Android phones make up the large majority of sales. Oh and also the one that states that if it was high-end devices only then sales would be drastically lower. Again I would like the sources for these 'Facts' and not your opinion. Secondly I'm far from a fanboy. I do use Android but that doesn't mean that I'll crap on everything iOS, hell I've even defended it on numerous occasions on this forum. As I mentioned previously your original comment is much closer to that of a fanboy and calls upon speculation and opinion rather than facts.

Oh and a troll is defined as 'An e-mail message or posting on the Internet intended to provoke an indignant response in the reader'. If your original comment didn't aim at starting a typical Apple vs Google argument then what was it's aim? That is why I called troll, not for dissing the S2 or simply stating that it may not be the perfect smartphone.

[Nashy]

TLDR.

No. It's not. It's a nice looking phone, but Android ruins it.

[alexalex]

Android handsets are selling, both high and low end products. The market is increasing with apps at a much higher rate than Apples and if you used Android for the past couple of years as I have then you would have noted the increase in quality as well. I didn't state that the Android marketplace is better than Apples, but it is most definitely not as far behind in quality or quantity as you and others would have people believe. Yes, improvements need to be made to the market and yes quality of apps does need to increase, but simply choosing your device on the marketplace alone is retarded. If everyone followed that train of thought then WP7 would have been dead in the water even before it released.

That's clearly not what I meant. This was a discussion about the S2, but I called troll due to the obvious attempt at devolving this conversation into a typical Apple vs Google debate. It's been the same for a long time. Previously Apple fans could simply call on their huge library of apps and marketshare, now that the latter argument is gone and the former is quickly diminishing we'll see more arguments about 'Quality'. While relevant the gap between apps is no where near as wide as many have us believe.

Firstly, please do share the source of ALL of your statistics please. Including the one stating the low-end Android phones make up the large majority of sales. Oh and also the one that states that if it was high-end devices only then sales would be drastically lower. Again I would like the sources for these 'Facts' and not your opinion. Secondly I'm far from a fanboy. I do use Android but that doesn't mean that I'll crap on everything iOS, hell I've even defended it on numerous occasions on this forum. As I mentioned previously your original comment is much closer to that of a fanboy and calls upon speculation and opinion rather than facts.

Oh and a troll is defined as 'An e-mail message or posting on the Internet intended to provoke an indignant response in the reader'. If your original comment didn't aim at starting a typical Apple vs Google argument then what was it's aim? That is why I called troll, not for dissing the S2 or simply stating that it may not be the perfect smartphone.

"Including the one stating the low-end Android phones make up the large majority of sales."

I think that he is right and Google's Androids are no different from Nokia's Symbian, both flooding the marker with low-end smartphones. According to last quarter revenue reports, average price for Nokia's smartphone was $87 ($9B revenue / 101M smartphones), while Apple's average price was $600.

You can find 100 versions of Chinese Android "iPhones" on eBay for $30-$40 .

Low-end Android devices are about take over the world - http://androidandme.com/2011/04/news/digitimes-low-end-android-devices-are-about-take-over-the-world/

[ManMountain]

The SGS 2 is fantastic, a stunning phone :)

[Raa]

Sounds plausible. But it won't be in 12 months!

[tsupersonic]

It's a great phone, but the Samsung brand ruins it. Their mobile division is everywhere, and they are not consistent. Why promote all WP7 and Android when they have their own in house smartphone OS Bada? Why use other CPU's besides their own Hummingbird or Exynos?

[eilegz]

now if only samsung can add a slide qwerty keyboard that would be great

[Raa]

now if only samsung can add a slide qwerty keyboard that would be great

Amen to that, i've been waiting for a new (good) model with keyboard for a while!

[Hardcore Til I Die]

As per usual, a lot of it comes down to Market for Android paling compared to iOS's App Store, so it doesn't matter how good the hardware is, it will never truly compete until they have a much wider range of quality software available (which is why iOS devices are selling so much better and making so much more money for phone companies and app developers). For example, the hardware in the Galaxy S II is very nice indeed but the games available for Android suck and those games that push the hardware are few and far between as not many people own high-end Android devices (so it's not worth the developers making apps for such a small amount of users).

Android Market has most of the major apps that the App Store has. The only real advantage of the App Store is a much larger selection of games. For everything else.. it doesn't really make a difference which store you have access to.

[(Spork)]

anyone have system dump from the SGSII please :D

[hjf288]

Picture was taken in pitch black, so the flash is pretty effective

I got mine yesterday and loving it more than iphone4... and i've had every iphone since the 3G