Samsung i9100 Galaxy S II 16GB

I finally upgraded my phone plan and was faced with a choice of iphone or galaxy or something else. On the advice of TS the phone guru, I went for the Galaxy S2 (upgrading from a Palm Treo 650).

Hard to fault the screen - its big and handles daylight pretty well when set appropriately.

The camera takes quite decent pix for basic family happy snaps and stuff like that. Video works well.
Camera on front and back. 8Mp out the back, the front camera is not so high res!?
There is the standard gripe about the soft button on the screen being a little clumsy to operate - which often causes movement when taking a photo which causes blur.

Seems like soft keys or hard keys are very much what you get used to. Still getting used to soft keys (compared to what I thought was a pretty good keypad on the treo). I expect soft keys will reduce the failure rate with less moving parts.
I've also resorted to a stylus when taking lots of notes which seems to reduce the fat finger syndrome.

I read a bit of bad press about the battery life. I typically go 3 days between recharges but thats because I'm not a heavy phone user, and a nazi when it comes to turning things off unless I'm using it (wifi, GPS, bluetooth, and switching off any background apps that like to start themselves).

There are a lot of apps that like to start themselves, which is a bit of a pain, but you can tweak it to sort those things out.

GPS seems to work quite well. Takes a while to get its bearings (fixes on satellites) when you first fire it up.
I've downloaded the free "gps status" app which I'm still getting acquainted with - but for nothing seems pretty decent.
I'm still figuring out if the GPS needs a network connection to work - but from what I read it doesnt however having a network connection may help speed up the process.

Seems almost unlimited in the number of tweaks you can make to the settings and lots of apps at the android market (now called google play). If you dont like something - the ball is pretty much in your court to do something about it. Theres also app brain and a host of other places to get android apps.

As far as the phone goes - it makes calls and receives em ok.
It is quite a big unit to be holding to your ear so the large size (due to the screen) is not necessarily always a good thing.
I usually use it on speaker which works quite well for me.

When you get it included in a plan - its hard to fault because the cost doesn't seem so outrageous.

Time will tell how well it ages.

I'm more than happy with it and in the 6 months I've had it i've not had a problem that wasn't self inflicted.

The one hiccup I had was when I let it run down to a flat battery and left it uncharged for 2 days. Powered up and all of the screen shortcuts had disappeared. I didnt lose any data just the shortcuts. Thankfully they reinstated themselves a couple of hours after recharging. Not what I expected and minor in the end but looked ominous for a while there.

All in all, not bad.
(Posted on 21/03/12)

Buy it without a doubt!!!! (Posted on 1/11/11)

I have owned a S2 since the day they were released in Australia and it is easily the best phone I have ever owned. The phone works very well in poor reception areas and Android is just brilliant. (Posted on 27/10/11)

Galaxy S2 is the brightest star on the earth outshining it's neighbour. Classified as a red supergiant, currently in a late stage of evolution, expected to explode as a type 3 suppernova within the next fev years. No wonder Apple is scared!! I did own both now i have only one, the better, smarter, thinner ... The future supernova , Galaxy..

And a message to APPLE they can not stop us buying the product what we want!!
(Posted on 25/10/11)

the best smarphone (Posted on 17/10/11)

I have been using the SGS2 for 2 months and dont know how i got by before. The screen is amazing and it is much faster than other phones I have used. (Posted on 5/10/11)

I've had mine for 2 months now and It continues to astonish me. Even on low brightness, the SII Simply is brighter than anything I've seen. Couple this with awesome performance, and a large but practical size and most importantly Gorilla Glass to evade those odd drops and bumps, this is one true Goliath of a phone! I've noticed that initially the Battery Life is average but if you let run dry the first 5 times to recharge to full, this problem seems to be allayed, Also the Ap "Battery Life and Juice Defender" when running in tandem seems to increase the battery life even more! I would definitely recommend this phone to anyone!....and performance & spec wise, it will be on par with the Iphone5.......... beckons me that Apple would Sue Samsung.....when they could just halt making the parts they need for their phones lol. (Posted on 27/09/11)

AMAAAAAZZZIIINGGGG LIKE A UNICORN ! (Posted on 2/09/11)

This phone is amazing. Display is best I've seen on a mobile. Performance is great. Samsung have done a great job. (Posted on 19/08/11)

I purchased 3 of these now for our business. One of the first and noticeable features is the AMOLED screen, there is just nothing to compare. Without having to use LED back lighting the colours are stunning, vivid and clear. At night a perfect clock as there is no back light to give a dim grey light, just a perfect clear screen. The iPhone 4 comes nowhere near this for clarity or ease of reading, even with high res it still looks fuzzy next to the S2
Functionality is amazing, the Android market being full of good suites,even the ability to send an SMS from your PC.
Unlike control freak apple there are no real restrictions on use, no having to plug in to iTunes to transfer media, no apple sync software to crash your PC and it works really well as a phone. Having replaced 4 x iphone 4's in the space of 9 months for call drop outs and screen failure I've never looked back.
The only downside to this phone is the high battery consumption, but I guess when you are running dual core high speed processors that has to be expected. When Apple stop trying to control what owners do with their phones and attempt to stop completion with lawyers and concentrate on making a better phone, the market can only get better
(Posted on 12/08/11)

Don't get me wrong I really love this phone it's the best but there are some things that really annoy me, now it might be that I haven't found out how to do them. which brings me to my first point.
1. Every other phone I have ever purchased has come with a very good manual with this phone it is missing.
2. the ring tone for alerts is too short in a noisy street or when I am busy I have missed it only to find an important message an hour to late, now it might be me but I can find no way to extend the alert tone ring.
3. it would make it a better business phone if it was possible to have separate alert tones for emails and sms. my old phone had it and it was a very useful feature.
4. the voice recognition is fantastic I love it and now no longer use the keyboard to send sms or email it is also great in the calendar. However it would be 100% perfect if you could dial a phone number by saying the numbers, again it was possible with my old duppod and it is a great hands free feature especially when you are driving.
Those 4 point aside it really is a great phone perhaps it can do some of these things and I haven't yet found out how to do it . if anyone has a solution to the above please add your comments.
(Posted on 8/08/11)

Well what can I Say about this phone, guys just get it, its so simple, fast like nothing i have ever seen, please put it next to any other phone and compare the screens.. OMG nothing comes close, and the quality of photo & video..SOLD. (Posted on 7/08/11)

i got this phone a week ago
never had problem
just need your finger always clean
always keep glass cleaning cloth on your pocket (Posted on 22/07/11)

Forget about iPhone
Forget about BB
Cone with Android !!!
Then forget about HTC
forget about Motorola
dont even think about Sony

Come with Samsung Galaxy SII

its just perfect !!!! (Posted on 17/07/11)

This is just a copy of an iPhone. Come on Samsung try and design something yourself instead of mirroring Apple. I can see why Apple are suing Samsung, it's near identical. I am thankful I have a Blackberry who choose to design their own products and software rather than just copy a successful formula. Yes it may be a good phone, but so is the iPhone they are copying. (Posted on 17/07/11)

For anyone wanting to make a transition to Android especially away from Apple, I would say this is the best phone to achieve this on. With the combination of both Android and Samsung's Touchwiz skin this phone is just easy to use. Have a HTC Hero in the past and dealing with the Sense skin that HTC created I did often find it a little counter intuitive when trying to preform a task and it was only with trial and error that I eventually worked out what I was trying to achieve. But with this phone I find it easy from the get go. Having a gf and a family using iphones and apple items I often found it a little flat with little to change except for the cover you buy to protect it. And the mutitasking functionality of apple feels very much thought of as a last minute idea but with android it's been there from the beginning and it very effective.

So the good,

-The hardware and software work very effective together, and I have yet to have and slowing down, stalls or even the need to take the battery out to restart the phone (use to have that a lot with my HTC).
-The screen is amazing to look at and often gets responses from people when they see it for the first time and 4.3 my good does it make everything look small, 3.5 is so so small now.
-Sound from external speaker, and headphones is great and the media software is top notch. The sound on calls is amazing too, no drop outs or issues with static or people been able to hear me.
-Camera, well camera I should say are great, 8mp on the back and 2mp on the front. Makes achieving group short very simple and they actually look quiet sharp for a 2mp camera.
-Battery, wow I will never complain about the battery on this phone. I once used it at work for 10hrs strait playing words with friends and it still had alot of charge at the end of my shift at work. (about 35-40%)
-Size and weight is amazing for what this phone can do, its so light and so thin it feels like it will break but its actuall quiet touch, gorilla glass on the front and i watch a video of someone once taking the back cover and bending it with no issues at all.

And now the bad,

-Keis, Samsung this program needs so much work. What is it with mobile phone computer software and recognition problems for the device. Apple has it, iriver has it, LG has it, nokia and the list goes on. I use doubletwist mostly because it works and it free, so its not the end of the world if keis dosn't work and I use Keis when I can get it to work. But I am one of those people that want the right software to work with the device it was intended for.

-The keyboard, after going from a HTC with there brilliant keyboard thats so intuitive to Samsung, I'm a little disappointed. Not that Samsung's isn't bad it works well, and again going from apple to this will not offend if anything it will probably be a bit of fresh air (my gf love the Samsung keyboard compared to her 3GS). HTC's sense keyboard is just better i'm afraid but Samsung isn't far behind.

-The back gets hot when the phone is being used with a program that uses the processor abit, i.e games. (it won't burn you, just makes you feel a little concerned your going to break something).

Besides those three issues, I love this phone. In fact its annoying people how much I like it. My father just purchursed a HTC Sensation and wow, I'm so glad I didn't continue down the HTC path, while its a great phone and looks good, the S2 just is better and offers alot more bang for your buck, saying that HTC look screen is awesome, going to an app straight away i.e the camera. Such a good idea. And again as I said above HTC's keyboard is superb works so well and so intuitive when you type. Don't you wish these companies put these bits on the market so you can totally customize your phone to they way you want it. I so have the lock screen and the keyboard from the HTC on this beast, be a perfect union.

Anyway I'm getting off the point, which is this is an amazing phone that's well worth the price and when put in the ring with its competitors wins by my views.

(Posted on 9/07/11)

Love this phone! Already getting hounded by the apple bunnies ( family & friends ) who claim nothing beats an iphone. Well I got news for those sheep! Baaaaa-ugger off! (Posted on 4/07/11)

I upgraded from the Galaxy 1, which I really liked. Most noticeable differences are the speed that the G2 executes, the slim, light design, and the 8mp cam with FLASH! Yay!

I love the Live wallpaper that gives you a viual display of your local weather (EG; raindrops on your screen)

Even though the battery life is better, I still find it drops reasonably quick with moderate/high usage. A common problem with Smartphones. Tip, by a spare battery.

I love this phone! (Posted on 2/07/11)

The best cell phone ever! (Posted on 1/07/11)

This is a great phone as most of the reviews say.
There is just a negative point (totally with all Android phones and not just Galaxy SII) which I personally didn't read about in any review before buying this phone and facing the problem. If you receive posts (in facebook, ...) and emails in your language first make sure Android supports the font or there are packages available to install. For me, as Android does not support "Persian (Farsi)" fonts all the email and facebook apps are useless and I have to use mobile firefox to check every thing. If I knew before hand I would have probably switched to iPhone.
(Posted on 26/06/11)

The Review by CVD titled Nearly There is reviewing the Galaxy S and not this phone the Galaxy S II so irrelevant here.

So what can I say about my SGS2 well about the same as the other reviews. It's a top of the line smartphone and in my opinion beats the competition (iphone). It's thinner, a lot lighter and I haven't had one drop call yet :)

One down side is that it doesn't come with NFC but I bought it anyway knowing that Australia would be a bit behind in getting NFC payments in place. I'd imagine that Samsung would have the galaxy S III out by then anyway.
(Posted on 24/06/11)

excellent great cant go wrong (Posted on 20/06/11)

excellent (Posted on 20/06/11)

This phone has to be the MOST "future proved" smart phone you can buy today. I've been installing HD video's via the micro USB port and they look stunning on the Super AMOLED plus display. Streaming 1080p taken on the 8MP camera up to Youtube (or dropbox, or Picassa etc) couldn't be easier.

Couple this with the amazing Customer Service I've received from Mobicity, and you can't go wrong! (Posted on 7/06/11)

In the past I have used HTC HD2, for a year, then I got IPhone 4, used it for 8 months, but Samsung Galaxy S2, is no match to any of these, it’s in a totally new era, good battery life, sleek, sexy screen, you will hardly notice when you are holding it, excellent call reception ( Not like IPhone 4), well in two words if i have to describe this phone its a "Kick #$$" Phone :-) would recommend it to anyone. (Posted on 6/06/11)

The Samsung Galaxy S-2 is great performance-wise. It's too big to carry around though. When in my pocket i'm unable to sit down out of fear of snapping it. So need to carry it around in my hand and risk losing it.

Not a problem if you carry a hand bag. (Posted on 3/06/11)

It weighs less then the bundle of $20 notes I had to hand over to get it....
Seriously its soooooooo light. (Posted on 2/06/11)

I recently got jack of my iPhone and decided to make the switch to Android.

Boy did I choose the right phone to make the switch with!! This thing will take anything you throw at it (except rocks).

Android Honeycomb is a powerful operating system which compliments the S2's processing power.

So glad I made the switch. Excuse me while I go manage my media without iTunes! (Posted on 31/05/11)

The Samsung Galaxy S2 is the best mobile phone in the history of the world, until Samsung bring out something better. Any phone that doesn't have the Super AMOLED Plus screen is just competing for second place. The blacks are black, not just a dark-ish shade of grey. The colours are brilliant.

I had my phone for about a week, then I installed the SPB Shell 3D app, from spb.com. That turns what is a brialliant phone into a stunningly brilliant phone. The 3D effects are beautiful. I've converted a number of my favorite DVDs to windows media files, and they look brilliant on the Galaxy S2. You can't do that on an I-Phone. ( At least I don't think you can, can you? ).

I was thinking about waiting for the HTC Sensation. I'm glad I didn't. The 16 Gig of storage on the Galaxy S2 is great. I think the HTC only has 1 Gig.

If you are thinking about buying a Galaxy S2, I would strongly recommend that you do. ( I don't work for Samsung! ) (Posted on 30/05/11)

Best of the Best (Posted on 28/05/11)

This phone is just awesome.

Anyone who is still trying to decide which of the newly released smartphones they should get would be stupid to go past the SGS2.

I know it costs more but it's not wasted money.

(Posted on 24/05/11)

What is there not to like about this phone! Its fast, crisp, clear graphics and display, high performance and functions on all Australian networks including Telstra Next G! A gem of a phone and a happy purchase from Mobicity! Thank you! (Posted on 23/05/11)

I just sold my iP4 and got this today. What can I say, after maybe 3 iPhones this is the most amazing gadget I have had in years. Awesome build quality whilst being very light. the first thing that you notice is the screen. Believe the hype. It better than they say in the reviews! The actual UI is so silky smooth and the email is amazing!! it slike on a PC and even has auto rotate so you can read the message next to the message list like on the iPad! camera - amazing. Andorid - amazing. Sorry I just cant believe what i have been missing to good too strong SGS2 FTW big time.

never been happier.. (Posted on 23/05/11)

Simply amazing (Posted on 22/05/11)

Best Phone on the market! All is great! 4.3" Super AMOLED Plus, with Gorilla Glass, makes the display look wonderful, and big! It's 1.2 GHz Dual-Core Processor is amazingly speedy in loading! And it is currently the world's thinnest smartphone! Unbelievably light in weight! 8MP Camera/2MP Front Facing Camera, 1080p video recording & comes with lots of storage! But also consider some disadvantages.
MobiCity lets you get this phone first and fast. I got mine here!
Thank You!
(Posted on 20/05/11)

Very fast.
Incredible screen.
Best phone by a long mile. (Posted on 19/05/11)

The Amoled screen is amazing. Having no traditional back lighting removes that grey washed out look at night for clock apps etc, and during the day is crisp, crystal clear and viewable from wide angles.
The GUI is really good, the only area iphone beats this is in the graphics animation for apps. The S2 has all the functions you would want and does not need "jailbreaking" to get the most out of the device. Highly customisable, light weight and a pleasure to use. Touch screen seems much better than others including iphone.
Well done, all we need now is a comprehensive video showing all the tricks and tips as this device has many not so obvious features. Having upgraded from an iPhone4 I'm finding this phone is far more capable and takes up where the iphone left off and at last, flash on the phone
10/10 (Posted on 13/05/11)

copied iphone a bit :) but still really good! (Posted on 13/05/11)

I have had many smartphones over the years going back to the good old PDA days with my original Palm III.
Anyway all I can say is that of all the phones I have got over the years that is the first I have been extremely happy with straight away.
Firstly the 4.3" AMOLED screen is, well amazing. Best screen I have ever used. Much better than the Galaxy S screen - which is pretty good!
Very nice design and slim to boot. I like power button on the side as well - much better than on the top as with most phones.
The camera is good so far although I old take a few shots. Havent used video yet.
Performance is quick! 3300 on Quadrant. And that is quick! Dual-Core 1.2GHz FTW!
But what is bad about it. Well these are a few minor issues. I think is easier to say whats wrong than whats good.
- rear case is a bit fiddly to get off I found for my big hands
- the screen is so big that I need to streatch when using one hand sometimes so people with small hands might find it a bit annoying to operate everything one handed
- cost, well its not cheap - but neither is a Bugatti! Doesnt mean you dont want one!
- the email app for exchange I dont find as good as the HTC app for browsing email folders etc
- still havent gotten use to swype but will get there eventually
- have to purchase the USB-MDL? cable for viewing via HDMI
So as you can see I am just trying to think of what could be done to make this perfect!
Very, very happy. (Posted on 13/05/11)

This phone is perfect ive been playing with it for 2.5 hours know and it has not shown me any sine of lag yet, and not to mention it scores over 3000 in quadrant (Posted on 9/05/11)

4,3 AMOLED plus awesome, (Posted on 6/05/11)

Best and latest touch screen phone in the market...!
Performance - $#%*$# Fast.
Value - 4/5 smiliar value to iphone...!
Design - Thiner and has larger screen than iphone which is a point to be noted...!
Features - it's up to android lover's, has produce super cool effects in it...! (Posted on 4/05/11)

The Galaxy S is fantastic phone and a top flight smartphone. It is a wonderful Android based alternative to the iPhone.
The Super Amoled screen is ridiculously good. It's vivid, bright and sharp as a razor. The 4.0" screen makes great viewing. Easily beats anything I've seen before.
It's fast, easy to use and looks brilliant with the TouchWiz overlay on top of Eclair (although I now have a Froyo update).
Lacks some speed and smoothness in the general use, but I will admit, it is still faster than the iPhone 4. Loads web pages faster too.
Obviously the lack of flash on the 5MP camera was a fault of Samsungs but the image quality is still fantastic.
The text input is easy to use and has something for everyone. It has an alphanumeric keypad for people just upgrading to smartphones, a very good qwerty or the choice to use Samsung Swype which makes writing text a breeze.
Overall fantastic phone and the only improvements I can think of are very trivial except the music player quality, it isn't very good, even compared to my old iPhone 3GS, which wasn't very good to begin with.
Can't wait to see the improvements on the Samsung Galaxy S II, it's hard to beat the Galaxy S so this S II will be special. (Posted on 2/05/11)