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Samsung I9100 Galaxy S II review: Brightest star

13 May 2011 | Read the review | Post your comment
Samsung I9100 Galaxy S II review: Brightest star - read the full textIt looks like the point where it all ends. A galaxy outgrowing its own limits. An explosion of energy and speed. An overdose of smartphone power. A phone that makes you love the smell of Android in the morning. The likes of Samsung I9100. Update: Samsung Dive overview added...

 

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I'm glad gsmarena doesn't recommend the iphone 4 as other sites do, still comparing old tech with the SGS II which is in another league. Sorry to say but iphone 4 is mid range now.

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  • 2011-05-14 22:00
  • LBrm

> In reply to klear @ 2011-05-14 16:53 from vGuD - click to readThat's completely baseless and lame excuse dude......
Even if human eyes can't distinguish more fps, having it is very beneficial.
More fps makes game play much more smoother, responsive and helps in eliminating artifacts.

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  • 2011-05-14 21:11
  • uva7

the phone has a 60 hertz screen refresh rate, just like every other phone.

showing more than 60fps is a complete waste of time. why cant some of you understand that?!

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  • 2011-05-14 20:45
  • nxwR

I would like clarification on the below statement by GSMArena please:

"Little about the Gallery should surprise you – aside from displaying full-res images and the addition of the two-finger tilt zoom, there’s nothing new really. And don’t you worry, the double tap and pinch zoom are still there." (FROM PAGE 7)

Since when did the Stock Gallery app stop displaying Low Res images?

Are you saying that the gallery app now displays the full res pics??


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  • 2011-05-14 20:43
  • b%L6

Forgot to add: hopefully the SGS II will indeed be future proof for EVERYONE! Global OTA updates and please get rid of KIES!

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  • 2011-05-14 20:39
  • 05qk

Regarding the Samsung OS updates: the updates for the original SGS were horrific for some European countries, not one announced date was respected, Belgian users had to wait 3 months (THREE!) before they could enjoy the update that was available for the rest of Europe. The updates through KIES where also painfull: update was pushed only to be pulled again because of "some issues". And when the first update finally came trough, some apps stopped working (Samsung's Facebook app for example). Overall, the "Samsung Android experience" left a bad taste in my mouth.

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  • 2011-05-14 20:36
  • 05qk

The review is in tone with other major websites reviews- they all say it`s the ultimate smartphone right now and it`s future proof.
Like always Gsm arena made the most in depth review and covered all the datails.
Now i only hope that the Galaxy S2 will come to Romania with this exact specifications in the reviewed phone ( Super AMOLED plus, exynos procesor) because the Nexus S is currently available at Vodafone with a S LCD screen.
Right now the Galaxy SII is the king of the hill in the smartphone world, and it`s being confirmed by all major websites.
Can`t wait to buy one.

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  • 2011-05-14 20:21
  • 0Um0

> In reply to [deleted post]I think GSM Arena's hype comes from being able to hold the best phone in the market which is actually quite far ahead from the second best. When benchmarks, smoothness of the UI, and the raw power is compared, no other phone in the market comes close to SGSII. I think the hype is justified.

I don't think GSM Arena is "outshining" this one over other phones. Simply, there isn't a phone that is... better than this one overall. They are truly amazed at its capability and I would be too. 1.5 GHz is probably not that useful daily, but it is pretty freaking amazing breaking the 4k benchmark scores. They even said it themselves though that they don't see it being useful to ordinary users.

O3D's 3D augmented reality browser, in my opinion, is purely eye candy. Please explain how much better the 3D browser would be than a regular 2D browser in terms of usability and productivity.

I don't get a sense that the phone is perfect reading their review. Their review only confirms my opinion that SGSII is the most powerful, have-most-feature "ultimate" phone out in the market right now. No one said it's perfect.

Don't think of me as a biased person either. I'm totally ready to jump the wagon soon as another company makes the "best phone in the market".

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  • 2011-05-14 20:02
  • qbYL

Would have been nice if the review commented on typing on the Galaxy S2. Typing on the Nexus S is not all that great compared to the Iphone 4. Was wondering how typing is on this new galaxy S2 compared to the Nexus S..

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  • 2011-05-14 19:28
  • PUCd

> In reply to [deleted post]comment from klear:
haters gonna hate . . we know what this phone is capable of . All HTC/ SE / Apple fanboys, please move to your own forums. Just look at the review and the conclusions: " We just cannot see beyond the new Samsung flagship if we’ re to name the ultimate smartphone . " - gsmarena " if you ' re asking us what smartphone to buy today , unconstrained by such externalities , the Galaxy S II would be the clear choice. Sometimes it' s just as simple as that . " - engadget ( 9 / 10 ) " The Samsung Galaxy S 2 has not only set a new bar for smartphones in 2011 ; it ' s smashed the bar , recreated it in its own image and put it out of reach of the competition . " - techradar " But if you ' re after a one- word summary of the Samsung Galaxy S2 : awesome . " techradar ( 5 / 5 ) " Verdict - Of course you should buy this phone " - Electricpig ( 5 / 5 ) " . . . we’re running out of reasons not to buy the Galaxy S II. Samsung has upped not only its game but the benchmark for smartphones in general. " - Slashgear Not all these sites can be wrong, is it ? Take it or leave it. punk !

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  • 2011-05-14 19:18
  • PS6j

> In reply to [deleted post]Wow you really are a moron. So a reviewer gives a phone a good review and that makes them biased? What are you doing on this forum? its like you are on a mission to discredit gsmarena and this phone! Go and waste your time on the iphone forum and kiss backside there please

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  • 2011-05-14 19:06
  • SgvH

> In reply to [deleted post]Wow you really are a moron. Just because a phone gets an excellent review the reviewer is biased for liking it? Bottom line is the original galaxy s and now this phone both received excellent reviews througout the world because they deserved it end of. I don,t know why u hang out in this forum to be honest you should go and wax lyrical about the iphone and bog off.

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  • 2011-05-14 18:45
  • SgvH

> In reply to [deleted post]Have you even tried/used Galaxy S2?
Nokia N8 have only 360x640 so that screen can not be compared to the one on sgs2!
SE Arc I think is the ugliest phone ever, and really bad design with the 3.5 mm on the side!
IPhone is "ok" but have too many Apple-limitations.
LG 2X is also "ok" but sgs2 is a little bit better on everything!

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  • 2011-05-14 18:38
  • 0TqG

> In reply to Myself @ 2011-05-14 17:21 from N7$D - click to readgsm arena have made comparison on nokia and samsung's (and other manufacturer's) screen. try to read previous news/ posts..

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  • 2011-05-14 18:35
  • vaNH

CONS

- Battery life is below average (can be rectified by overriding automatic brightness)
- Screen resolution is only WVGA
- Annoying "charge complete" sound can't be turned off
- TouchWiz 4.0 feels slower than stock Android
- Email app doesn't allow for multi-select

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  • 2011-05-14 18:34
  • HBC9

£400 plus, for a plastic phone. No thank you.

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  • 2011-05-14 17:24
  • 0paX

itz funny how GSMarena never directly compares Nokia's CBD with any of the Samsung Super AMOLEDs

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  • 2011-05-14 17:21
  • N7$D

> In reply to Bricked @ 2011-05-14 16:01 from nFcL - click to readas least we didn't worry about flat battery. haha

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  • 2011-05-14 17:04
  • vjqb

Many people are complaining about 60fps. First off, this itself is the display frequency of the screen. Typical screens use 60fps refresh rate. So pushing this higher won't be of any practical use, rather use of more battery. Anything higher than the screen refresh rate is a waste of battery used to calculate non-displayed images. Some may even argue that our eyes can't distinguish beyond 60fps (subjective opinion and there are various peculiar scenarios). This is called vsync in Android or you might see this in some normal PC games too. The only "advantage" gained by bypassing this 60fps vsync is higher benchmark scores. LG G2X exactly does that. The software "cheats" to gain more points in graphic benchmarks. In reality it is still showing 60fps only as the screen itself has it's physical limitations. Sometimes the graphic benchmarks would be limited because of that. But that are only benchmark number, this has nothing to do with actual performance.
Figure this, HD movie fps is like 24/25 or at max 30 for very high profile. Do they look bad to you? For games, in major cases, you might not see any significant difference till fps drops below 30. And beyond 60, you might not even be able to distinguish it.

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  • 2011-05-14 16:53
  • vGuD
  • The Ex-Nokia Fanboy
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> In reply to I love to argue @ 2011-05-14 16:08 from vGAu - click to readNow those fools who claims this excellent device have very poor battery has been debunked for good. 2 days of moderate to heavy use without a battery saving app like Juice Defender is pretty good.

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  • 2011-05-14 16:50
  • IDkH
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