My first hand impressions with the AT&T Samsung Galaxy S2.

[samcraig]

Have fun with your knock-off phone that will never touch the original. Different phones for different folks. Good to know that you took time out of your day to troll a Mac forum with your BS story. As far as paid shills go, you're numberone.

Relax there... As you said - different phones for different folks. Just because someone loves Android doesn't mean they aren't Apple fans. You realize that someone could own a mac, an iPad, etc AND an Android phone, right? And that just because they post about their phone and/or preferences - that doesn't MAKE them a troll or a paid shill. Right?

Your post is not only unwarranted. It's obnoxious.

 

[ped]

Apple is suing for their intellectual property, which was being copied by several different companies. If they are falling, why are so many people trying to copy them?

I think his point is that, historically, when companies begin to lose their edge or profit in an area, they begin to try to monetize their patents. Apple is beginning to try to monetize their patents (or prevent country access to competitors via them) so that makes it appear they may be losing their edge/lead and are trying to fill in the gap with patent litigation.

 

[Juan007]

I think his point is that, historically, when companies begin to lose their edge or profit in an area, they begin to try to monetize their patents. Apple is beginning to try to monetize their patents (ore prevent country access to competitors via them) so that makes it appear they may be losing their edge/lead and are trying to fill in the gap with patent litigation.

Historically, when companies come out with products that are xerox copies of their competitor's products, they get sued.

Apple losing their edge while profits grow double digit every quarter, makes sense to me.

 

[auxsend]

I've been synching for 3 months to two Exchange environments. Mail,.tasks and calendar work flawlessly. Can't comment on contacts though I don't sync them.

I support several models of android phones in an exchange environment, and none of them are very reliable.

Contacts especially never seem to work well.

This includes the Droid 2, Incredible 2, Charge, and Droid X2.

None of them handle exchange quite the same way either which is a hole pther headache unto itself.

So far, the iPhone is the only phone that allows connecting to our company address book as well.

 

[theperipheral]

Idk how many times I have to say it...

IT'S NOT THE PHONE- IT'S ANDROID.

The SGS2 is a great piece of kit. But the Android OS is what brings the phone experience into marginal territory.

I guess your opinion is different than the reviewers. The reviewers aren't just reviewing the PHONE. They turned it on...which means they are reviewing it's working functionality...which is happening because of the Android operating system. If the professional reviewers are using the phone, on Android, and they are enjoying the experience, then there clearly isn't much of an issue with the OS.

 

[Zeonmx]

Have fun with your knock-off phone that will never touch the original. Different phones for different folks. Good to know that you took time out of your day to troll a Mac forum with your BS story. As far as paid shills go, you're numberone.

Go take a chill pill, fanboy.

 

[Dmunjal]

If you use Exchange, an Android app called Touchdown runs circles around the iOS implementation. So many more features than iOS I can't mention them all. But here are some that I've come to depend on.

- Offline reading
- Download all email content, not just headers
- Respond with attachment
- Respond to calendar invite with text

There are more but these features make it easy to download all your email, get on a plane, and process them offline, and sync when you land. Can't do this with iOS.

 

[PhoneI]

If you use Exchange, an Android app called Touchdown runs circles around the iOS implementation. So many more features than iOS I can't mention them all. But here are some that I've come to depend on.

- Offline reading
- Download all email content, not just headers
- Respond with attachment
- Respond to calendar invite with text

There are more but these features make it easy to download all your email, get on a plane, and process them offline, and sync when you land. Can't do this with iOS.

Great, every Android user needs to now go out and buy a 3rd party app to have an acceptable email client. We have over 7000 iPhones in use at my company. If we replaced them with Android devices, we would need to buy 7,000 copies of Touchdown.

 

[BamaATL]

If you use Exchange, an Android app called Touchdown runs circles around the iOS implementation. So many more features than iOS I can't mention them all. But here are some that I've come to depend on.

- Offline reading
- Download all email content, not just headers
- Respond with attachment
- Respond to calendar invite with text

There are more but these features make it easy to download all your email, get on a plane, and process them offline, and sync when you land. Can't do this with iOS.

Regarding Touchdown.... Is this OTA syncing?

In other words, are you syncing with Exchange or syncing with Outlook via a computer?

 

[BigBeast]

I guess your opinion is different than the reviewers. The reviewers aren't just reviewing the PHONE. They turned it on...which means they are reviewing it's working functionality...which is happening because of the Android operating system. If the professional reviewers are using the phone, on Android, and they are enjoying the experience, then there clearly isn't much of an issue with the OS.

Actually, my impressions were for those people on a mac-centric site wondering if they should switch. It wasn't meant for people already surviving on Android. So for the reviewers who already use android, I wouldn't be surprised that they give the SGS2 high marks. As I've said, its a great phone. But for those who wonder if they should move to android when they are happy with iOS- I'd say, the great phone doesn't pull Android out of mediocre OS territory.

 

[Dmunjal]

OTA. And I'm sure they have volume licensing.

 

[Tarzanman]

Great, every Android user needs to now go out and buy a 3rd party app to have an acceptable email client. We have over 7000 iPhones in use at my company. If we replaced them with Android devices, we would need to buy 7,000 copies of Touchdown.

Sounds about right. If you had 7,000 PCs or Macs then you'd need 7,000 copies of MS Office to read word documents.

If you're complaining about having to buy a single app that solves your problems then you're either:
1. Not really in IT support
2. Very bad at your job

I won't bore you with stories about networking Windows 3.11 machines with DOS boxes using 3rd party software and no native IP stacks... BEFORE the web (and the support you can get from a google search) was around. Suffice it to say that IT pros actually used to have to work for a living.

 

[OneMike]

Agreed ^

 

[ped]

So many haters have the absent mind problem. Did you forget when the HTC EVO came out for Sprint, everyone was so quick to judge. That didn't do jack sht against the iPhone 4 at all - this is with the antenna gate fiasco too.

It will be the exact same thing tomorrow when you witness what apple has in store for the iPhone 5. Remember, this is apple's bread & butter and there's absolutely no way apple will let some droid phone top it.

If the iPhone 5 doesn't have an OLED screen it's still behind.

----------

bulls***

You are either in a state of denial or lying.

Choose one.

Exactly - the Samsung Galaxy S2's screen is amazing... here's a video of it being used outdoors:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q2_ZsZsAoOQ

----------

Historically, when companies come out with products that are xerox copies of their competitor's products, they get sued.

Apple losing their edge while profits grow double digit every quarter, makes sense to me.

Cell phones are all rectangular objects with screens and buttons. The Samsung phones are nothing like Apple's phones, so spare me that tired nonsense. Apple didn't sue over the Galaxy S but suddenly now they're convinced the S2 is a copy (coincidentally when the S2 is breaking sales records)? Right.

----------

Sounds about right. If you had 7,000 PCs or Macs then you'd need 7,000 copies of MS Office to read word documents.

If you're complaining about having to buy a single app that solves your problems then you're either:
1. Not really in IT support
2. Very bad at your job

I won't bore you with stories about networking Windows 3.11 machines with DOS boxes using 3rd party software and no native IP stacks... BEFORE the web (and the support you can get from a google search) was around. Suffice it to say that IT pros actually used to have to work for a living.

Ah, good old Trumpet Winsock... I remember it fondly.

 

[ANTAWNM26]

bulls***

You are either in a state of denial or lying.

Choose one.

Lmao. I totally agree. I played with it as well at at&t and the samsung galaxy s2 is amazing hands down

 

[Dmunjal]

Has anyone used the SGS2 in a corporate Exchange configuration?

Do you get flawless email, contacts, and calendar syncing (without using Google calendar/contacts). I have read about other versions of the SGS2 having Exchange syncing problems.

Use Touchdown. Better than native email client and much better than the iOS email client for Exchange.

 

[SurferMan]

Great, every Android user needs to now go out and buy a 3rd party app to have an acceptable email client. We have over 7000 iPhones in use at my company. If we replaced them with Android devices, we would need to buy 7,000 copies of Touchdown.

That is a moronic statement.... like mentioned if your at a company with 7K employees, then it's assumable you pry have thousands of computers. Let's see, whether Mac or PC... you do realize that you don't exactly buy one software for the most part and share over thousands of computers. Let's say your company is using Microsoft Office for Mac or PC... they'd have to buy a separately licensed and registered copy for every single computer in which they do get volume pricing.

According to your statement, your company is dumb b/c they have to pay for all these copies to solve a problem . See the flawed thinking there....and btw we have an 3GS and iPhone4, and Touchdown on the Droids blows away email setup on the iPhones. I love jaded Apple fanboys lol.

 

[theturtle]

hate to revive a dead topic but

to the people who were saying "yeah. iphone the next iphone isn't a redesign. im def going android" etc etc.

what phone did you end up getting?

 

[wellok]

Touchdown really did the job for my work e-mail on Android, but man is it ugly. It pained me to use it because it was such an eyesore to me. I guess it really wasn't that bad, it just suffered from the mismatch that all the Android apps do.

 

[Cicatrix]

I just switched carriers from T-Mobile to AT&T. I was comparing the iphone 4, and the Galaxy S2 at AT&T. I was able to play around with them on consecutive days. I am inexperienced with both the iphone, and Galaxy model phones, but I will tell you what I thought about the screens of both. Too put it in a nutshell, GSII> big, bright, not as sharp.
iphone> not as vivid, a little smaller, extremely sharp. On the second day the sharpness of the iphone stood out even more so. Each time I put down the iphone to pick up the GSII the sharpness of the iphone became more and more apparent to me. I would much rather have a screen that's a little bit smaller with alot more sharpness than a bigger screen that's less sharp. And once the iphone 5 comes out I'll probably be able to have my cake and eat it too. I'm sticking with my iphone.

 

[wordoflife]

I played with some Android phones at the AT&T kiosk (one was probably the GS 2) and I was baffled at how large the text is. I'm so much used to the retina display that seeing the large text was rather unpleasant.

 

[Roofy.]

5. Weight
- Even with the bigger screen and footprint, and WITH a case, it's STILL lighter than the iP4.

this really blows my mind. Why do people care about the lightness of a phone?! Its a freakin PHONE not a car! How weak can a person possibly be to pick up a phone and say "oh boy is this thing heavy, I can't possibly hold this thing up for more than 5 minutes"

The obsession with lightness in tech gadgets is so incredibly stupid. Id RATHER it be heavier, that way it feels like its a solid device, not some cheap plastic pos.

 

[RtodaAV]

hate to revive a dead topic but

to the people who were saying "yeah. iphone the next iphone isn't a redesign. im def going android" etc etc.

what phone did you end up getting?

went back to the iphone 4

 

[AlohaMaui]

I much prefer the lightness of the Samsung phone.
Samsung phone is also more ergonomic to hold than the iphone 4.
Actually I prefer the curved back of the iphone 3g to the iphone 4 too.

Lightweight is good.
I put the phone in my pockets(jeans/coat) and with a heavy phone, I can really feel the drag there.
With a lightweight phone, the phone doesnt feel as obtrusive and when holding it, it is easier as well.

If u want a heavy phone, good for u.
Most people prefer a lighter phone.

this really blows my mind. Why do people care about the lightness of a phone?! Its a freakin PHONE not a car! How weak can a person possibly be to pick up a phone and say "oh boy is this thing heavy, I can't possibly hold this thing up for more than 5 minutes"

The obsession with lightness in tech gadgets is so incredibly stupid. Id RATHER it be heavier, that way it feels like its a solid device, not some cheap plastic pos.

 

[Vegastouch]

this really blows my mind. Why do people care about the lightness of a phone?! Its a freakin PHONE not a car! How weak can a person possibly be to pick up a phone and say "oh boy is this thing heavy, I can't possibly hold this thing up for more than 5 minutes"

The obsession with lightness in tech gadgets is so incredibly stupid. Id RATHER it be heavier, that way it feels like its a solid device, not some cheap plastic pos.

I guess the same way you say you rather it be heavier.

I have my wallet and phone on the same side of my shorts/pants. That side tends to sag down and im tugging at my pants all the time with a heavy phone.
My old iPhone is really heavy compared to my Vibrant so i like the lightness of it. And again, heavier does not mean more solid. Lets drop our phones and see which one goes into a thousand pieces.
Ive dropped mine several times on concrete and asphalt and thought for use my screen would be broke but hasnt had anything happen to it so far and my screen protector is damaged with divits from it. Screen is fine.