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Just test drove a Galaxy S II

I had a somewhat mixed feeling about the Galaxy S II. Having owned the earlier generation Galaxy S Vibrant, there just wasn't much change from the previous model. Sure the display is a bit better, but no higher resolution than the older model.

Instead, I picked up the HTC Sensation. Not only was it a dual core monster of a phone with a 4.3" display, HTC went the extra mile moving up to qHD resolution with a true 16:9 aspect ratio. Side by side with my current generation iPod touch with the wider screen, some pixels were lost in comparison but barely noticeable.

The Sensation has a 540x960 Sony Super LCD and not sure who is the supplier for the retina displays for the iPod touch (far worse display quality than the iPhone 4) and it's more of a 3:2 aspect ratio as images from my Canon DSLR fit the iPod display 1:1.

Back to the Sensation, it features visual voice mail (T-Mobile app) and wifi calling which is priceless to me. Browsing speeds are faster than my iPod and original wifi iPad as well. Full flash support with hardware acceleration.

I even double dipped on some games to compare and one that pushed both well was N.O.V.A. 2, some areas on the Android "HD" port showed bump mapping and more particle effects while my iPod Touch did not (nor my iPad for that matter) lighting and textures were very much the same.

I can say to be fair, I know my phone is newer than my iPad and perhaps the 256MB RAM vs 512 in the iPhone 4 may have different results. On the other hand, Infinity Blade looked much better on my iPod than my iPad with superior lighting. I'd love to see an Android port!

Gameloft has become a wonderful developer for mobile games on multiple platforms. What got me into this comparison was my experience with both iOS devices and the Android OS.

The largest issue at hand of your Android phone really falls into the carrier/manufacturer of your phone. I disliked the cheap feel of my old Samsung Vibrant and upgrading to the Sensation was huge. A wonderful unibody chassis and I love the Sense 3.0 UI but still one thing bothers me.

Android phones across the board (every one that I tested) had horrible battery life. My old iPhone 3G did quite well getting through the day but when it comes to the best battery life on a smartphone, you can't beat a BlackBerry and the most die hard fanboy of any other platform can't deny that aside from using a feature phone.
 
drjsway said:
I've had a galaxy s2 all summer (bought an unlocked international version because I thought I'd give android a chance since there was no new iPhone for summer). The scrolling is SO annoying and almost makes the phone unusable! If not unusable, then extremely frustrating.

Also, the resolution of the screen was WAY too low and there was LESS screen real estate than iPhone 4. all the fonts and icons looked ridiculously big with no way of making them smaller.

Why are people complaining about the screen size of iPhone 4S when it has more screen real estate than ANY phone out there now? A 4.3" screen at 800x480 is like a 17" laptop with 1280x800 screen.

Open up a website in portrait mode on both iPhone 4 and Galaxy S2 without zooming in. iPhone 4 is always readable while I can't make out anything on galaxy s2. Portrait web browsing without zooming is unusable on Android.

I figured since so many people were buying it, Android was worth giving a chance,but it is inferior in every way to iOS and UI is ugly as hell! And no, I don't want to spend my days tweaking the UI, I want it to be beautiful out of the box.

I do like that it is lighter but build quality is also really cheap. The black is already coming off the ear piece area and turning grey. This is with about 3 months of use.

I'd understand if it were cheaper but who in their right mind would choose Android over iPhone if same price? Keyboard still sucks after 3 months, downloading iPhone keyboard made it better but the autocorrect, auto predict is pretty poor. Again, I don't want to try 10 different keyboards and find the best one. I want to have the best one out of the box.

Can't wait to get the 4S and sell this piece of garbage.
Click to expand...
You are getting rid of a garbage to get another garbage? Have fun with your garbage 4s.
 
I currently have the Galaxy S II Epic 4G Touch on Sprint and I was thinking about exchanging it for the iphone 4s. But, I'm not sure if it's a good idea. I've owned the Motorola Droid, Evo 4G, Evo Shift, Epic 4G, Evo 3D, Nexus S 4G and currently the Epic 4G Touch.

Some of the things I like on the Epic Touch is the FFC its 2MP. My wife and I went to Lambeau Field this pass Sunday for the Packers Game and it took excellent pics to be a FFc. The weight of the phone is extremely light weight and the phone fits comfortably in my pockets. The GPS locks quick and accurate, the customization that Android OS offers is amazing. It has removable storage and battery. And speaking of battery, I know iphones excel in that area, however, for this to be an Android phone, I get great battery life imo. Yesterday I got 14 hours on one charge. Another reason I was thinking about keeping my Epic Touch is because of Google Maps. I haven't found not one navigation app to compare and that's free for that matter. Google Maps have a lot of features, like transit times for the city buses and trains, routes and a lot more other features that I have yet to find in any other navigation app.

On the flip side, some of the reason I'm interested in getting a iphone 4 or 4s is because there's no fragmentation. Apple releases great updates. Battery life is the best of any phone..imo. And there's a lot of accessories available for the iphone family that is interchangable. Plus, I wanted to try something different. Another thing, unlike Android where it's best to wait a week or two after a device release for bugs to be worked out etc., I haven't known that to be the case for iphones. They always work great out the box and if there is an issue, Apple is quick to release a fix...which comes straight from Apple themselves.


I don't know....I may just go ahead and open a new line and grab the iPhone 4 as I see the new ip4s is not really a bigger advantage over the ip4 model. Nevertheless, I will grab one or the other though...

One quick question...I haven't been following Apple/iphone for some while now. I know that Android plays flash content, is that something that the iphone is able to do now...or not?
 
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I think many people failed to realize iPhone's integration with other Apple products. They only comparing at hardware level. It is something Android system needs couple years, or never catch up. Top of line hardware product doesn't always guaranteed it's good for consumers.

Galaxy S2 might have better hardware or OS if you preferred Android, but the cloud concept that Steve proposed in 1998 and finally included in his products just worked flawlessly between each devices.

If I only need a phone and don't have iPad or Mac, then I might go for the copycats. ;)
 
pirarre said:
One quick question...I haven't been following Apple/iphone for some while now. I know that Android plays flash content, is that something that the iphone is able to do now...or not?
Click to expand...


No, iPhone doesn't support Flash. And personally I think Flash is going down hill as HTML5 is getting more grounds. I'm not too worry about Flash contents because most of the websites have mobile version that works great on iPhone too. In fact, the next version of Windows will not include Flash!
 
wowotoe said:
No, iPhone doesn't support Flash. And personally I think Flash is going down hill as HTML5 is getting more grounds. I'm not too worry about Flash contents because most of the websites have mobile version that works great on iPhone too. In fact, the next version of Windows will not include Flash!
Click to expand...

What about a navigation app? What's a good 3rd party navigation app for the iPhone?
 
pirarre said:
What about a navigation app? What's a good 3rd party navigation app for the iPhone?
Click to expand...

MotionX is awesome.

I tried the Galaxy S II and returned it in about 3 hours. Yeah, great, the screen's bigger. That's about the only spec it has on the iPhone. Well, that and HSPA+.

Here's what I realized about bigger screens. A 4.3" versus a 3.5" does not change at all what I use the phone for. It's still too small for extended browsing or media viewing. The truth is, the next class is not a phone with 1 inch more diagonal space, it's a tablet with at least a 7" screen. I learned this the hard way, but now I'm even more a believer in the current iPhone. Keep it compact, if I need to do things that need a bigger screen, I'll pull out my laptop.
 
It is true - if you never touched an iPhone, the SG2 is very interesting due to the size, weight, and screen quality (being SAMOLED). You would think it's the next best thing to be invented.

If you are coming from an iPhone 4 - the first thing want to notice is that the damn phone despite the dual core, blah blah and blah, it still struggles with basic animations and zooming, etc. It's definitely not the same smoothness as iOS. Sorry, you are truly in denial if you think or claim it is. Android just doesn't have that iOS UI smoothness at all.

The keyboard does suck as well. Sure you can download 10 different keyboards but seriously, that's why people buy these devices as they did the old windows mobile 5/6 devices back in the day because you can switch out the keyboard, replace this and that. That's all great if you like that but I'm older now started a family and hell no do I have the time to dick with my phone all day and night. Reminds me of the old windows 95/NT/XP days I would sit there all night reformatting my HD so that my system would be clean enough to run quickly.

Android is just like windows mobile; in fact, it's a windows mobile replacement. It gets really old fast searching for custom roms and tweaks just so that you can believe your android device is running fast and that it's actually utilizing the hardware specs people drool over. Sad part is even the SG2, there aren't apps that use the dual core...the system probably uses one core to animate the wallpapers :roll eyes: /s

Bottom line is if you ever go from an iPhone 4 to an SG2, you will come back when you realize you actually don't have a stable phone when you need it. Damn thing can't even end calls properly and I'd have to always worry about killing tasks so my battery will last enough during the day. There's nothing wrong with owning another phone but the iOS ecosystem is just too good. If you can't understand that, you are just a spec monkey chasing endless specs. I love youtube videos of the SG2 (there's one in particular) that runs synthetic benchmarks on the SG2 - I had to LOL.

You know how I benchmark the iPhone 4? I use it and it runs awesome with ALL THE APPS available. I don't concern myself with what's under the hood - I use the camera to snap pics, record video and it all works great and not once do I feel as if I need to upgrade the phone because my cpu is outdated.

There's an SG2 now, but in a few months, there's an SG3. It never stops and you android nerds will never stop trying to justify why you bought your phone over an iPhone. Apple owners don't have to justify anything. We just understand it works great and performance under the hood is fully optimized at all times.
 
iPadThai said:
It is true - if you never touched an iPhone, the SG2 is very interesting due to the size, weight, and screen quality (being SAMOLED). You would think it's the next best thing to be invented.

If you are coming from an iPhone 4 - the first thing want to notice is that the damn phone despite the dual core, blah blah and blah, it still struggles with basic animations and zooming, etc. It's definitely not the same smoothness as iOS. Sorry, you are truly in denial if you think or claim it is. Android just doesn't have that iOS UI smoothness at all.

The keyboard does suck as well. Sure you can download 10 different keyboards but seriously, that's why people buy these devices as they did the old windows mobile 5/6 devices back in the day because you can switch out the keyboard, replace this and that. That's all great if you like that but I'm older now started a family and hell no do I have the time to dick with my phone all day and night. Reminds me of the old windows 95/NT/XP days I would sit there all night reformatting my HD so that my system would be clean enough to run quickly.

Android is just like windows mobile; in fact, it's a windows mobile replacement. It gets really old fast searching for custom roms and tweaks just so that you can believe your android device is running fast and that it's actually utilizing the hardware specs people drool over. Sad part is even the SG2, there aren't apps that use the dual core...the system probably uses one core to animate the wallpapers :roll eyes: /s

Bottom line is if you ever go from an iPhone 4 to an SG2, you will come back when you realize you actually don't have a stable phone when you need it. Damn thing can't even end calls properly and I'd have to always worry about killing tasks so my battery will last enough during the day. There's nothing wrong with owning another phone but the iOS ecosystem is just too good. If you can't understand that, you are just a spec monkey chasing endless specs. I love youtube videos of the SG2 (there's one in particular) that runs synthetic benchmarks on the SG2 - I had to LOL.

You know how I benchmark the iPhone 4? I use it and it runs awesome with ALL THE APPS available. I don't concern myself with what's under the hood - I use the camera to snap pics, record video and it all works great and not once do I feel as if I need to upgrade the phone because my cpu is outdated.

There's an SG2 now, but in a few months, there's an SG3. It never stops and you android nerds will never stop trying to justify why you bought your phone over an iPhone. Apple owners don't have to justify anything. We just understand it works great and performance under the hood is fully optimized at all times.
Click to expand...

no time to dick around with a phone, but enough time to post long winded, misinformed, childish rants on an internet forum?

right on bro
 
Lest we not forget:

The Samsung Galaxy S2, which came out at the start of this year, is Samsung s competitor to the old? iPhone 4

The Samsung Galaxy S3 which comes out next spring will be what the iPhone 4s is going to be up against.

You cannot fairly compare the almost year old Samsung phone against the, not yet for sale yet Apple phone.

Let's do a comparison when the new Samsung is out for a fair side by side test.
 
Putting aside the functionality of the phone, I gotta say the white S2 (the international version) might be the best looking phone out there. I imagined the iPhone 5 woulda looked something like it had it been released.
 
I don't think he test drove it much. I have a iPhone 4 and a Sprint SGS2 and it does everything he said it did not do.

----------
mikethebigo said:
MotionX is awesome.

I tried the Galaxy S II and returned it in about 3 hours. Yeah, great, the screen's bigger. That's about the only spec it has on the iPhone. Well, that and HSPA+.

Here's what I realized about bigger screens. A 4.3" versus a 3.5" does not change at all what I use the phone for. It's still too small for extended browsing or media viewing. The truth is, the next class is not a phone with 1 inch more diagonal space, it's a tablet with at least a 7" screen. I learned this the hard way, but now I'm even more a believer in the current iPhone. Keep it compact, if I need to do things that need a bigger screen, I'll pull out my laptop.
Click to expand...

LOL must be the AT&T SGS2. I know they cripple their android phones.
 
Galaxy S II is much, much better than the first one... but it's still not the same.. I dont like how android works... I got lucky to play with windows phone... and surprisingly I really liked it... not sure how long will it take to get used to UI, but overall it was very smooth ... just like an iPhone.
 
Zeonmx said:
Galaxy S3 won't be going for iphone 4s. Too easy. Bring on iphone 5, THEN we talk.
Click to expand...

But by the time iPhone5 is out (late 2012) the Galaxy S3 will have been out possibly 8 months and we'll be looking forward to the next one.

Apple had dropped behind due to their 16 month wait for a spec only upgrade at a time when they really needed to keep on the ball.

Nokia and Msoft should be up and running by then also.
 
Piggie said:
But by the time iPhone5 is out (late 2012) the Galaxy S3 will have been out possibly 8 months and we'll be looking forward to the next one.

Apple had dropped behind due to their 16 month wait for a spec only upgrade at a time when they really needed to keep on the ball.

Nokia and Msoft should be up and running by then also.
Click to expand...
And you know this exactly how? For all we know, Samsung could push the date for Galaxy S3, because Nexus Prime is coming out in a month, Galaxy Note is scheduled to be released in November/December. Samsung can take their sweet time for their final debut of their S3. For all we know, Samsung won't even release the phone until apple pulls the trigger on iphone5.
 
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Zeonmx said:
And you know this exactly how? For all we know, Samsung could push the date for Galaxy S3, because Nexus Prime is coming out in a month, Galaxy Note is scheduled to be released in November/December. Samsung can take their sweet time for their final debut of their S3.
Click to expand...

You could well be right.

Now they've seen that Apple don't have anything major new they may well take a little more time before they feel they need to bring out the next model.

I'd suspect that as they are now "on a roll" so to speak they'd probably not want to slow down the momentum unless they really have to.

That's the one thing I like about Android, we're not restricted to the pace of one company, you may feel it's a little messy, but it's the same way we got the desktops we all enjoy today. By everyone trying to outdo everyone else.

If Apple were the only computer maker we'd still be in the stone age without anyone for them to have to compete against.
 
brig2221 said:
I spent about 15 minutes with the phone and couldn't get the pinch and zoom to work on the few websites I was on. Maybe the websites I was on did not enable pinch and zoom? Anyhow, it's good to know at least that it's an option. Thanks for the correction.
Click to expand...

Then whoever's phone you "test drove" had the gyro crap enabled.

First time I switched on the S2 it asked if I wanted to use gyro, I clicked no. Been using the regular pinch, swipe, etc gestures ever since. It's not complicated at all. And if you do use a phone that has it enabled you can very quickly disable it from the settings. It is not enabled by default, you are prompted about whether you want it enabled the first time you start the device. At least for the normal version of the phone, the I9100. Can't speak for all the screwed up carrier-specific versions that the messed up U.S. cell market gets.

The only thing in the bad that is correct is that the keyboard is pretty awful. I wholeheartedly agree with that. But the fluidity is perfect, no stuttering/lag at all like the previous Galaxy, and the gestures work exactly the same.
 
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