Samsung Galaxy 2S or iPhone 4s?

[christianbale]

I got the iPhone 4S on launch day and I'm a huge apple geek and love everything apple. I have an iPad and MacBook also.

My little brother that's 12 just got the galaxy s2 and I'm not going to lie it's made me think a little. I'm still within my 30 days so I could take it back and get the samsung. I just don't want to regret it. I love the iPhone I really do but the samsung galaxy is pretty sweet! The screen is so vibrant and big. I loved it! I was just wanting some thoughts and opinions.

 

[dgree03]

For more function in the OS and if you use gmail get android. For more polish and better selection of app get iOS

 

[mariotr87]

I prefer the iPhone 4S myself (that's why I got one).
The OS work so much better and the apps are much nicer too. Android is cool too but I find its apps to be very bad often, and the huge fragmentation doesn't help to change that. This is the biggest difference to my mind.

Another reason why I picked the iPhone 4s is because of its iPod capabilities and iTunes integration. I wanted both a MP3 player and a phone to not to carry two different devices around. I hate android player, it's pretty bad.

If you have a mac, it'll play nicely with the iPhone (photostream, iCal and iPhoto integration, FaceTime, etc).

I'd say the only thing that could make me think of the GS2 instead is the screen size but I find it to be too big (and the resolution worse, so what's the point).

 

[mysterioustko]

Aside from you being an "apple geek", you need to decide what it is that you want in a phone. Maybe you should lay out the reasons you'd choose an iphone over the gs2, and then lay out the reasons you'd choose a gs2 over the iphone. Then decide which list of reasons has the most important things to you and go with that phone.

 

[Pink∆Floyd]

iPhone 4S no doubt

Especially if you're already in the Apple eco system

 

[TM WAZZA]

You already have the 4S and S2 in your hand, decide for yourself.

 

[ChazUK]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; U; Android 4.0.1; en-gb; Galaxy Nexus Build/ITL41D) AppleWebKit/534.30 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile Safari/534.30)

There are only 2 flagship phones from Apple and Google worth considering now IMO.

The Galaxy Nexus and the iPhone 4s. If you've invested heavily in the iOS ecosystem I'd see little reason to swap from 4s to SGSII at this time.

 

[Picka]

You already have the 4S and S2 in your hand, decide for yourself.

This pretty much, it's incredible that people actually need to go on a forum to ask when they already have access to both products. Sheeple.

Right, rant out of the way, both good phones, ICS on track for S2 in Jan.

 

[Stealthipad]

Do not forget the new Nexus. I just got one and the OS is like from the future.

WARNING: If you do get a decent Android phone like the SG2 or Nexus, you will NEVER feel the same about the iPhone and iOS.

 

[digitard]

It's all preference.

I mean if you're asking about specs, and things that you may not understand... that'd be one thing.

You're just asking which one people think you should get. I'd stop right there, and go by what you prefer. Honestly it doesn't matter which one has X feature or Y feature. It's all about your user experience, and what phone has what YOU want.

I do agree with others, though, that say if you're going to consider Android. Look at the Galaxy Nexus as it's really the direct competitor. Every review I've read for any other phone have huge issues compared to the same feature on the iPhone (minus LTE but that's another issue all together). The Nexus seems to be the best "direct competitor".

I, personally, started out with a Droid, then got my iPhone and loved it. As I love new tech I did try out a different Android phone (Droid RAZR) and found MY experience with Android to be underwhelming after using it for an extended period so I'm back to Apple again with a 4S. Though I have a friend who went the opposite route recently as he preferred some pieces of Android.

So just go with what you like. You can't go wrong if you like the experience.

 

[LoloBond]

Get a pure google phone like the nexus otherwise stay iPhone and this is coming from someone who spent 3yrs using android and just got his first iPhone. Oem and carries put to much garbage on their phones...

 

[nizmoz]

Do not forget the new Nexus. I just got one and the OS is like from the future.

WARNING: If you do get a decent Android phone like the SG2 or Nexus, you will NEVER feel the same about the iPhone and iOS.

I had the Skyrocket, and really liked the OS. It worked well, very easy to customize, but I returned it after 3 weeks. As all Android devices have a huge flaw. It's their battery life. Light-Moderate use required me to charge it 2-3 times a day. No thanks. While my iphone only uses 20% of it's battery with the same use.

 

[jca24]

If you want a cheap feeling plastic phone running a donkeyed up os get the s2.

 

[zelaya]

My co-worker currently have a Samsung S2 and that thing is HUGE and he is returning it for the Iphone(sprint) for me personaly there's no way I'll be carrying that brick. lol

 

[n00basaur]

You should be considering the Galaxy Nexus not Galaxy SII as far as android phones go.

Can't go wrong with either the Galaxy Nexus or the 4S.

 

[Neverbepeace]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; U; Android 4.0.1; en-gb; Galaxy Nexus Build/ITL41D) AppleWebKit/534.30 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile Safari/534.30)

There are only 2 flagship phones from Apple and Google worth considering now IMO.

The Galaxy Nexus and the iPhone 4s. If you've invested heavily in the iOS ecosystem I'd see little reason to swap from 4s to SGSII at this time.

The iPhone 4S doesn't even beat the Galaxy S II….

Do not forget the new Nexus. I just got one and the OS is like from the future.

WARNING: If you do get a decent Android phone like the SG2 or Nexus, you will NEVER feel the same about the iPhone and iOS.

Your right about that

My co-worker currently have a Samsung S2 and that thing is HUGE and he is returning it for the Iphone(sprint) for me personaly there's no way I'll be carrying that brick. lol

Yet, if apple comes out with a 4.3 inch device, you'll be all over it

You should be considering the Galaxy Nexus not Galaxy SII as far as android phones go.

Can't go wrong with either the Galaxy Nexus or the 4S.

Again, the iPhone 4S doesn't even stack up to the Galaxy S II. Also, if ice cream is what people are drooling over, it will hit the galaxy S in Jan……I think 4.6 is huge……4-4.3 is the limit.

 

[The Great Boony]

WARNING: If you do get a decent Android phone like the SG2 or Nexus, you will NEVER feel the same about the iPhone and iOS.

You're right there, I played with a SG2 for the day, and never again will I touch another one... It's an awful phone/OS.

iPhone 4s > Everything else.

----------

The iPhone 4S doesn't even beat the Galaxy S II….

.

Really? in what? it pisses over the Galaxy S II on benchmarks alone.

Unless you mean in terms of: Feels cheap and plastic, or rubbish build quality? - The Galaxy S II would 'beat' the iphone here

 

[SurferMan]

Do not forget the new Nexus. I just got one and the OS is like from the future.

WARNING: If you do get a decent Android phone like the SG2 or Nexus, you will NEVER feel the same about the iPhone and iOS.

Agree, the SGII or Nexus are the ones to get if your going Droid. I just bought an SGII, at&t which is the smaller one at 4.3", and it's not big at all, other phones are bigger and bulkier but this one is thin and easier to use and no problem fitting in pockets. Anybody thinking it's too big is on crack lol. Now the bigger 4.5"+ and bulkier phones I agree I don't like the size, but the AT&T version of the SGII is awesome.

Benchmarks don't mean anything to me, I mean seriously what the phones are used for you'll barely bat an eye to see a difference as both are extremely fast and responsive... I mean it's not like your going to be designing and modeling 3D graphics on either phone lol. Plus you can root and ram the SGII for way faster performance and battery life, and unlock the true potential of Android on a good phone. Plus I don't know why people complain about batt life, they pry have every setting on which like on the 4S drains the batt... SGII last longer then our 3GS and about the same as our 4 which I consider to be about the best around, and I use my phones a lot durring the day (though the 4 still wins in standby time but that means nothing to me as my phones never go more then a day w/o a charge). Previous Droids had bad batt life, but at least on the SGII I'm impressed with it's usage once you have it set up right and go through the settings. And that's when the 4 wasn't on iOS 5.1 which now causes bad batt life even with locations, and anything else turned off that would cause drain.

I've always had iPhone's and loved jailbreaking and doing full customization, and I'm impressed with Android now. Where as before I didn't really care for it.

 

[SuprUsrStan]

Pretty much if you get an android phone, it has to be a nexus. That way, you'll always get the updates. God I hated my droid so much.

 

[heyloo]

It's a hard choice to decide between the Galaxy Nexus Prime and an iPhone 4S. However I'd say iPhone 4S has the upper hand over the S2.

In the end, the choice between Galaxy S2, iPhone 4S and Nexus will end up being a personal preference really. You really can't go wrong with choosing any of the above.

 

[jmhays]

If you decide on the S2, I will gladly trade you a brand new S2 for your iPhone 4s. I am eligble for a upgrade at T-mobile where I can buy the S2 and swap you for your iPhone 4s.

 

[ahfu25]

I own both. iPhone 4S and Samsung Galaxy S2. In my opinion the only feature I find is much more advanced on the Samsung is the GPS. That the screen is bigger on the Samsung is just a matter of personal opinion. I like the size of the SG2 Screen but the phone is just too big for me. Why do I have it? It was given to me as a gift and I don't pay for the line. I use it only for its GPS!! The iPhone is the perfect size phone for me.

 

[silverblack]

OP, my situation is very similar to yours, being 'everything apple'. But I actually went and bought an SGS 2 and used it for 3 weeks before I gave up and went back to a 4S.

Assuming you already knew about what's great about SGS 2 from your little brother, I'm going to skip this, and go right into what I DIDN'T like about it.

- Poor integration with iCal and contacts on your Macs. First, you need to give up iCloud, and have iCal and Contacts sync to Google calendar and contacts. It did work to some degree, but not 100%. You'll face error like iCal cannot delete events on gcal; contacts messing up and creating duplicate contacts for same person.

- Instability. I need to restart my phone last least a couple times a week, or it will crash and restart itself.

- No full system backup. No in-app data backup out of the box. Unlike iPhone, you cannot backup EVERYTHING to your computer (let alone to the cloud). You'll have to root the system to do this. But to restore to new phone, you'll need to root that first. Also, I don't know if you can restore data to a different model (SGS vs SGS 2)/OS (ginger bread vs. ICS) of phones.

- Find my phone is available but only via Samsung, and it feels like beta. For example, there's no easy to delete a device from the feature. I sold the phone, and it still remained in the account.

- No need to re-enter password in Android Market to buy apps. Once you entered it once, it stays there. To remove the info, you need to do that in checkout.google.com every single time after you're done buying apps. If not, anyone can pick up your phone and buyapps for you. You get 15 minutes to get a refund, after that you are stuck. (You can do that to your brother's phone to annoy him)

- Android Facebook app does not allow you to upload more than 1 photo at a time.

- Calendar alert does not clear itself from notification, you have to remove it every single time. In iOS, it disappears by itself after the event is over.

- As far as I know your backup, contacts, calendar and app purchase are all tied to one gmail account. I don't know if you can share app purchase with family member. With iOS, Apple decoupled iTunes store account from iCloud account to support app sharing within family.

- the Social App, which Android is proud of, put all your email, G+, FB and twitter in one place. But it won't allow you to have more than one of the same account. i.e., won't allow 2 FB accounts (one work, one home).

 

[ChazUK]

I've seen this posted a few times so I'll try to address what I can.

- Instability. I need to restart my phone last least a couple times a week, or it will crash and restart itself.
I wouldn't say this is a universal problem to the SGS II as stability on mime as fine on the stock firmware (Euro, unlocked i9100

- No full system backup. No in-app data backup out of the box. Unlike iPhone, you cannot backup EVERYTHING to your computer (let alone to the cloud). You'll have to root the system to do this. But to restore to new phone, you'll need to root that first. Also, I don't know if you can restore data to a different model (SGS vs SGS 2)/OS (ginger bread vs. ICS) of phones.
Music: Google Music. Pictures/videos: Picasa Web via Google+ Apps: If an app supports the backup API, all of the data is backed up to your Google account. Restore works across devices when you login to your Google account

- Find my phone is available but only via Samsung, and it feels like beta. For example, there's no easy to delete a device from the feature. I sold the phone, and it still remained in the account.
There are plenty of alternative applications available that do the same thing available in the Market. You are not limited to Samsung's solution excluseivly

- No need to re-enter password in Android Market to buy apps. Once you entered it once, it stays there. To remove the info, you need to do that in checkout.google.com every single time after you're done buying apps. If not, anyone can pick up your phone and buyapps for you. You get 15 minutes to get a refund, after that you are stuck. (You can do that to your brother's phone to annoy him)
Create a pin no in Android Market settings and tick "use pin for purchases"

- the Social App, which Android is proud of, put all your email, G+, FB and twitter in one place. But it won't allow you to have more than one of the same account. i.e., won't allow 2 FB accounts (one work, one home).
Social hub is a Samsung feature and not an Android feature sadly so it's Samsung's issue to fix.

Hopefully this will help some of your problems!

 

[ThatsMeRight]

You are forgetting that you are asking this on an Apple minded forum.

I have an iPhone 4, and for me personally, as much as I love the device, the current Samsung Galaxy S2 is just much more awesome with it's 16:9 screen with high-contrast and it's bigger size (but yet, the phone itself isn't really bigger than the iPhone 4).

My contract will end this summer, and as much as I love Apple and the App Store, I will seriously consider switching devices (perhaps than to the Samsung Galaxy S3): especially the screen is so nice with a great viewing angle and again a huge contrast. And the Samsung Galaxy S is barely bigger than the iPhone 4, only slightly.

Apple must add some great, new hardware in 2012 with the sixth generation iPhone because otherwise they will lose me (a Samsung Galaxy S is much cheaper on contract).

The iPad 2, however, is still the best tablet available - I believe.