Galaxy S II – a users review

Background

There are plenty of reviews out there of the Samsung Galaxy S II  that focus on specs. Instead I’m going to review it based on my own use of the smartphone in the past few months.

First impressions

The Samsung Galaxy S II feels lightweight and thin. The back panel is a bit slippery so one of the first things I did was to acquire a silicone case to get a better grip of the phone. I was concerned about the size of the phone as I had never owned one with a 4.3 inch display but after carrying the phone around in the front pocket of my pants for the last few months I can confidently say that its not a problem at all.

The very first evening of using the device left me with a feeling that I had really gotten more than what I had expected:

• No unpleasant tingling in the hand! You probably don’t see this mentioned in many smartphone reviews but for me none of the smart features are of much use if the smartphone produces so much radiation and heat that I want to put the phone down after only a few minutes of use. This has been the case with previous smartphones I have owned and is also very much a problem with my wifes iPhone 4. The Galaxy S II does in fact get slightly warm to the touch when for instance streaming stuff from YouTube over my home WiFi for a while but its not enough to the cause the unpleasant tingling I experience with other phones – RESPECT
• Very responsive. Starting apps, scrolling lists etc. all feels very responsive. After a few weeks of use I did start to notice that when you use the back button to exit an application you get a 1-2 second delay where nothing happens – no visual or audible feedback to tell you the button was pressed. Apart from this one issue my initial impression still holds. It is a very responsive smartphone.
• Impeccably robust.  I installed quite a few apps but nothing was able to bring down the device. In fact a few months down the line I still haven’t witnessed any crashes with the software on the device itself but of course there 100K+ apps out there so you mileage may vary. The same cannot be said about the synch software for PCs – more about that later.
• Excellent display. The display is crisp and sharp, colours are beautiful, viewing angles is a non-issue.

If I were to rate the device only based on my initial impressions I would have given it 5 out of 5 stars, but over time I did notice some issues that is going to cost a few stars.

Location, location, location

Quite a few applications such as Google Maps and Google Places are location aware. Based on a reading from the GPS Google Maps will show me where I am and when I press the Google Places button I can see the restaurants and shops in the neighbourhood. I can read reviews of places posted by other users and share my own reviews.  I gave my local optician 5 stars on Google Places for finding the perfect set of contact lenses for a difficult customer. My local fast food joint on the other hand took quite a beating in my review because of their greasy door handles!  I try to be fair – but having all this power is intoxicating

Another cool location aware application is Layar. Hold the camera in any direction and Layar will superimpose icons on top of the scene that tell you which shops and other types of places you will find in that direction – its called augmented reality.

From Googles Market you can also download Google Navigation, a free application for GPS navigation. Its not ready to replace my TomTom yet but it looks promising.

But … take your Galaxy S II across the border and this is where the fun stops. Using internet abroad can incur a hefty bill (at least in Europe). To be safe I switch off internet access when I cross the national border. Unfortunately the GPS in Samsung Galaxy S II depends on internet access. Some applications that cache data such as navigation maps should be able to get by without internet access as long as the GPS is operating – however with the Galaxy S II all I’m left with when I go abroad is a dumbphone. Pretty disappointing. This is where Galaxy S II looses it first star.

Messaging and Calendar

A notification panel on the top of the screen can be pulled down to reveal a list of applications that have notifications such as incoming SMS, GMail and Twitter messages. Press the notification and the application opens and displays the message – very intuitive and fast. The panel also plays a little sound when new notifications are created. In other words I’m always very accessible even when I’m on the road. Excellent stuff. The only issue I have encountered is that meeting requests opened with the GMail app cannot be approved and synched with the calendar the way it can in the GMail web app.

Communication issues

Talking to you phone to set a destination, transcribing a message etc. has huge potential. But as long as only english is supported it remains only a potential for me. I can’t even trick it by giving the instructions in english and only the destination in my native tongue. “Directions to” – Google Voice with get the destination name all wrong. A pitty really.

Utility

I listen to very esoteric radio channels from around the world using the application TuneIn while i ride the train to work. At the same time I catch up with the latest gossip in my profession using Twitter and the Web. I’m very accessible to my family and business relations all day long because the built in messaging just works. I backup stuff on the device as if it was a USB key. This is the first smartphone I have allowed myself to become deeply dependent on.

Synching with your PC

There are three ways to sync files with your PC provided by either Samsung or Google.

1. A Samsung application called KIES Air starts a web server on the device. It shows a URL that you can use to access the device from a browser on your PC over the air. Through the browser you can now up and download files.
2. A Samsung Windows application also called KIES that you download from their web site and install on your PC to synch files with the device while its connected to the PC using a USB cable.
3. Hidden on the device under Settings->Wireless and network->USB utilities->USB mass storage you can open up access to the device as a normal disk drive on you PC while the device is connected using a USB cable.

The KIES Windows application is the only way to update Samsungs firmware. Updates are posted regularly. The application is very crashprone. Backup before updating the firmware doesn’t work for me. The error messages I get are gibberish. I have managed to update the firmware in the past but as of this writing I cannot apply the latest update. All in all the KIES application is rubbish. This is where Samsung Galaxy S II looses its second star.

Summa Summarum

All in all I’m very happy to own the Galaxy S II but because of two problems with features essential to the device it is not THE smartphone. I give it 3 of 5 stars

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