EduardoJoelH

This is going to be a long post about the type of user I am, so I can get the best advice on this. This is a big deal for me. What I'm looking for is advice from that kind of user experience information you can't get from the store or from internet reviews. People who live with these devices and use them on a daily basis.

I have never had an expensive phone. I've been tied to Centennial since '01. I had a Kyocera, Qualcomm, some really bad flip phones, and now an LG Tritan (a truly miserable phone, I'm on my third one). I never had money for more than just a very basic plan but now i have a job and I can finally get an "adult" phone (i'm 27, long overdue).

A lot of my phones have died on me, I am not very careful with them. I've dropped everything I've owned. My other problem is perspiration and humidity where I live. I've had a couple of phones die on me because I put them in my pocket and the humidity gets inside them. And I've killed some cameras at the beach.

I have an iPod Touch Gen 2 that I handle very well and I truly love. I've dropped it a couple of times, ran in the rain with it and not taken very good care of it and it works great. I also have a rooted Nook Color and I am in love with, I can work all the widgets and the wallpapers and it looks tremendous. I think both app stores are very well stocked. I know my way around Android very well now. It's been my training wheels so to speak.

I text a lot. I take pictures. I like to listen to music and have uploaded everything I own to Google Music. I've got Netflix. I care about battery life but it's not a deal breaker, my current phone gets 40 minutes of battery life. My current MicroSd is 2GB, so I'm used to a lot of storage, I can curb myself in that aspect. My iPod is 16GB. Hell my laptop is 60GB. So I'm always strategically close to outlets and always carry a charger (But I'm living like a miserab over here.) I have an HTPC at home and all current generation video game consoles, I don't know if that matters. I use Facebook constantly and GMail. I only share pictures on Facebook.

I have no brand loyalty (I own stuff from Sony, Vizio, Samsung, Apple, so there's no specific "ecosystem" set up at my house). The international version of the Galaxy S2 and Droid RAZR are my two "top of the line" options. I am moving to Claro (in case there's a device there I haven't considered).

I know there's no such thing as a perfect phone. My concern is with the software that they put over the phones. I have never worked with neither of them. My Nook is understandably buggy and I've had to force turn off a couple of times. Battery life would be nice. Durability (I have seen those drop tests and i'm impressed with the S2). Looks. Camera quality. And how smooth the user experience is.

If you're still reading you're a very cool person and I would appreciate your advice.

PS The dark horse here would be the iPhone 4S since I can get it for $99 and unlimited data for $85.

Last edited by EduardoJoelH; December 4th, 2011 at 01:30 AM.

chanchan05

The case between S2 and the RAZR is that, the RAZR seems better built, but the S2 has more power driving the phone. Also as a newbie, it seems you will be more using to stock apps that not, and while I dont have experience with MotoBlur (apart from hearing its the worst interface among those provided by the 4 major players), I can say that TouchWiz on the Samsung is pretty neat.

Basically thats it. In my opinion software wise and internal wise, the SGS2 is better than the RAZR, but the latter appears to be more durable.

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EduardoJoelH

Thank you for your advice. That's what I was afraid of in part. I haven't read good things about MotoBlur or any of the skins in general. But Kevlar sounds intense.

Having handled a CM7 Nook I would feel right at home with a Galaxy Nexus but sadly it's not within my options.

TJ2807

first of all dude...wanna congratulate you for thinking this much before buying your first expensive phone...look after your elaboration and as per my conclusions from it, you r a person who will love lots of apps,high speed and much more interactive services....i have used s2.....and also know razr well...so, am telling you some facts about both...

s2 is a gud phone with gorrila glass(u mentioned ur phones die,so this is a gud screen protector)....
razr is a phone which is a hard build and durable(more durable than s2)

secondly, there is 16 GB internal and 16 external memory bundled up in razr...while s2 gives you option of 16 or 32 internal memory and upto 32 external memory...

when it comes to companies,both are trustworthy...but still my own advise about trust would be towards moto....

then when it comes to display, s2 wins the set...as amoled display looks really awesome and watching movie or playing hd games is a great exp..

processors are merely the same but s2 seems faster..

about the looks....s2 is ok looking and razr looks gr8......

when it comes to practical experience, s2 and razr both are same....but razr seems comfortable.....

cost...u know tht...or just google for your area...

so dude...thts it....there are the facts....now u know very much which makes you able to choose your phone wisely....just go through specs once more(they are merely same).....

so bro!!! advanced congrats for your new phone!!

lunatic59

Just to add my $.02 to what's already been said (and I think is some pretty good advice) I think your decision will come down to carrier and Stock skins. The Razr is only on Verizon where the S2 is available in one form or another on all carriers. As for the differences between Blur and TouchWiz, only you can decide that, so try and get both in your hands, if possible. Many people love Sense from HTC, but I don't particularly like it. TW has it's faults, too, but frankly, the first thing i do with a new phone is to put a custom launcher on it to minimize the branding. Eventually all my phones get rooted, but I always spend time with stock to understand what each can and can't do out of the box.

I think buildwise they are pretty similar, but if you're a dropper, you should seriously get a case. There is an issue with a popular case for the S2 that causes call echo, so check them out before you buy.

Good luck. Either way you're going to be impressed.

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Shocky

My take on Razr vs. SGS2, a little subjective because I dislike motoblur but you get the idea, also regarding the dimentions, Razr is thinner but bigger so you can't really call thinness an advantage without acknowledging the other dimentions as an advantage for the Galaxy S II.

Design of the phone is highly subjective, both look good imo.

-Galaxy S II-

Pros

1. SAMOLED Plus Screen
2. 1.2GHz Cortex A9 with NEON instructions
3. Mali 400MP "Better graphics performance"
4. Weight "116g"

Cons

1. "800*600 - pixel resolution

-Moto Razr-

Pros

1. 540 x 960 pixel resolution

Cons

1. 1GHz Cortex A9, without NEON
2. PowerVR SGX540, Slower 3D performance
3, Screen uses PenTile Matrix
4. Weight "127g"
5. Moto Blur

Last edited by Shocky; December 4th, 2011 at 07:59 AM.

EduardoJoelH

Thank you both.

I think a cellphone and especially one this expensive is a big decision. I think it's the device a person has the most intimate relationship with. My carrier will definitely be Claro unless something changes about their plans. Claro's phones. I honestly not going to support AT&T's strategy of buying out their competition, I feel like I'm being coerced into a contract with them but they won't match my Centennial rates. I've been holding out since the purchase but they are shutting down Centennial for good on February.

I realize every device has it's shortcomings and will probably be one upped in 6 months but I'll be happy with something that will last me the 2 years of the contract.

Since I realize that the S2 has different versions, here are the specs of the version I could get with Claro:

DISPLAY Tipo Super AMOLED Plus touchscreen capacitivo, 16M colores
Tamaño 480 x 800 pixels, 4.3 pulgadas
- Pantalla Gorilla Glass
- Interfaz de usuario TouchWiz v4.0
- Soporte multi-touch
- Sensor acelerómetro para auto rotación
- Controles sensibles al tacto
- Sensor de proximidad para auto apagado
- Sensor giroscópico
- Teclado Swype
RINGTONES
Tipo Polifónico, MP3, WAV
Customización Descargas
Vibración Si
- Conector de audio 3.5 mm
MEMORIA Agenda telefónica Entradas y campos prácticamente ilimitados, Foto de llamada
Registro de llamadas Prácticamente ilimitado
Slot de tarjeta microSD hasta 32GB

- 16GB memoria interna, 1GB RAM
- Procesador Cortex A9 dual-core 1.2 GHz, GPU Mali-400MP
CARACTERÍSTICAS GPRS Class 12 (4+1/3+2/2+3/1+4 slots)
Velocidad de datos 32 - 48 kbps
OS Android OS, v2.3 Gingerbread
Mensajería SMS, MMS, Email, Push Mail, IM, RSS
Navegador HTML
Reloj Si
Alarma Si
Puerto infrarrojo No
Juegos Si
Colores Negro
Cámara 8 MP, 3264x2448 pixels, autofocus, flash LED, geo-tagging, detección de rostro y sonrisa, foco táctil, estabilizador de imagen, video 1080p@30fps, cámara frontal 2MP

- GPS con soporte A-GPS
- Brújula digital
- EDGE Clase 12
- 3G HSDPA / HSUPA
- Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n; DNLA; Wi-Fi Direct
- Bluetooth v3.0+HS
- microUSB 2.0
- Integración con redes sociales
- Soporte NFC
- Salida TV
- Cancelación activa de ruido con micrófono dedicado - Reproductor de video MP4/DivX/XviD/WMV/H.264/H.263
- Reproductor de audio MP3/WAV/eAAC+/AC3/FLAC
- Radio FM Stereo con RDS - Organizador
- Editor de imagen/video
- Editor de documentos (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, PDF)
- Integración Google Voice Search™, Maps, Gmail, YouTube, Calendar, Google Talk, Picasa
- Soporte Adobe Flash 10.1
- Memo/comandos/discado de voz
- Manoslibres incorporado
- Ingreso predictivo de texto
BATERÍA Standard, Li-Ion 1650 mAh