Thoughts on SGS2?

[rabbitt]

Hey all,

String fluffyIrreleventBackStory = "I got my Galaxy Tab 10.1v from vodafone a few months back, and I bloody love that device. It's my absolute favourite electronic device I've ever bought. But when I ordered it I was kinda going out on a limb, never having bought a Samsung device or tablet before.

\nMy HTC Desire is getting a little old and lame (Android devices seem to make each other redundant all the time and it's pretty annoying), and I noticed an ad for Optus SGS2 and thought maybe I should go with Samsung again since the original SGS still seems solid and I think this new one will be too. + My contract is up with Voda (they suck) next month.";

Now to actual the point:
What are peoples thoughts on the SGS2?

• Hardware?
• Build quality?
• Screen?
• Battery life? (I turn off WIFI, data & BT during the day).
• TouchQiz 4.0?
• Crapware?
• Kies - Do I have to use this or can I just go through the setup wizard and email myself a zipped vcard?
  

Should I grab it on an Optus $49 contract mid next month or wait for something else?

Thanks for your help guys. Have a great day.

[MarauderDeuce]

Can't comment on anything else but Crapware...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AlIFhYnQJlU

That seems to be a review of the Samsung apps.

As for the deeper crapware - that will depend on your carrier. Virgin tends to give you a fairly virgin (unintentional joke) device - but I know that Optus drops a load of crapware on it. I only have knowledge of those two as my phone is with Virgin but when I did the Froyo update through Kies it gave me the Optus package which was probably the thing which decided me to root my phone. Was horrible.

The vid I linked also links to other review vids for the phone - not going to go through them all myself and I've decided that I'm happy with the Galaxy S 1.

[petedee]

Just say no, any other hardware from any manufacturer will be better and better supported.

[cashcow]

(08-09-2011 06:16 PM)petedee Wrote:  Just say no, any other hardware from any manufacturer will be better and better supported.

Personally I will never allow a Sony product in the house.
I even bought a different brand of car due to the standard Sony audio system, but I would never let that influence my decision to attempt to offer up an educated review.

I have an SGS & the 2 females have HTC's.
Personally I prefer the SGS [ even with the mofo knoen as Kies ] but would have no qualms snaffling an HTC
I believe the SGS II is a far superior device to the SGS but I have not played with the newer model.

[petergraham]

I have an sgs2 .. I researched it heavily before making the decision to get it over the htc sensation mainly because the sgs2 has more onboard memory.

Battery life is pretty standard for a smartphone .. it does quite well considering the power under the hood and the massive screen. I had the original sgs and before that I had a iphone 3gs .. I can tell you this .. this phone owns everything else on the market. It is so stinkin fast.

Have a read of this review by engadget.com they recently posted .. its pretty fair.

http://www.engadget.com/2011/04/28/samsu...ii-review/

[ozvaleron]

I've been using the SG2 for a little while now, and it rocks. Screen is big and bright, battery life is passable - even with wi-fi on. Performance of the machine itself is absolutely brilliant!

Unfortunately, Samsung needs to get their act together in supporting it. Kies is woeful. More than half the time it won't connect with the phone, although the phone SAYS it's connected to Kies. Sync'ing is painfully slow, and I can't sync contacts, ever.

Samsung support people aren't simply unhelpful, they are downright arrogant, ignorant, and rude. Their advice on how to "sync" contacts was to transfer all my old phone contacts onto the SIM. I can't get any of the tech's there to understand that what I want to do is SYNC my contacts between the computer and the phone.

Google sync's automatically and seamlessly - but I don't WANT to have all my contacts on the cloud!

There is a mountain of alternative software on the market that will do everything they say, so dump as much of the Samsung crap as you can and use quality, feature rich software that actually works instead!

The SG2 would get 9 out of 10 from me if it weren't for Samsung's "support" - so untill they get their act together, it remains stuck at a generous 5

[van]

Hardware? Build quality? Screen?

Fantastic. The only debit is the flimsy plastic of the back - however, that too is a great feature because it's designed to be super flexible, while 'adding' to the phone's overall fantastic lightweight build.

The screen is great (Gorilla Glass I think?), the home button is quiet and easy to click, and the touch-sensitive menu/back keys are fine too.

I've got pretty short and stumpy figures, annoyingly, so the larger dimensions of the GS2 (I had a Desire before) took some getting used to. I find it easier to tap out a text (using SwiftKey X, of course) with both hands even in portrait mode, but I don't mind.

As for speed, well hell, it's plenty fast. I'm not intense techhead, but it's never let me down.

Battery life?

Apart from the fact that I'm not a gamer, I'd consider myself a power user - I'm tweeting and facebooking and tapatalking all day long. Because of that, I never expect great battery life. The GS2 seems to be fine, though. I get through a full business day usually, but the reality is that I'm almost always near a charger, so there's been few chances to really run it out and see how it goes (can't bring myself to do it deliberately).

TouchWiz 4.0?

Dunno, I'm using ADW for my launcher, and I haven't noticed anything odd elsewhere on the phone.

Crapware?

Telstra installs plenty, but none of it gets in my way. I've removed the one widget they had, and all the icons have been removed from my desktop. So apart from the fact that they're in my app drawer and using a little bit of storage space, I couldn't really care less about the crapware.

Kies - Do I have to use this or can I just go through the setup wizard and email myself a zipped vcard?

I've never used this. Been curious about it, but never bothered to run it. So I guess you don't have to do anything with it or about it.

[Harvz]

Van that is a really good quick wrap up of it. thanks

[petergraham]

I'm using the ADW launcher as well .. its great. Like you I am always near a charger but these days its so busy at work that I'm not on my phone as much so the phone gets through a whole day with plenty left at the end.

I've had this phone for 5 months now and I love it .. so damn fast and responsive.

As usual I payed extra to be on a one year contract so I can upgrade every 10 months .. not sure I will upgrade straight away this time around .. I really love this phone and it would have to take a pretty serious new model to get me to give it up.

[van]

Yep, I feel the same way. It's an incredible phone, and it's all that I need.

I'm a bit of an upgrade whore, but I feel like this one is pretty damn close to perfect. What could a new phone offer me that I'm not getting out of this?

I imagine I'll eventually root it, but so long as Samsung doesn't delay too long in getting ICS onto the GSII, I'll be happy.