Reccomend the S2?

[Girevik]

Hello all,

I currently have the Galaxy S (Captivate), and am considering an upgrade. I was debating between the S3 and the HTC One X (kind of perfer the S3, but it's $100 more). Now I see that AT&T has an offer where I can get the S2 for like $10. I was wondering if you all would reccomend the S2 or not. I'm seeing a lot of threads around ICS, but I know that you don't see a lot of "things work great!" threads on these forums.

Would a new 2 year contract on an S2 be a bad idea?

 

[LoafPincher]

Depends. How do you use your phone now? Are you concerned with upgrading the Android OS? Is it going to bother you if you don't have the latest and greatest?

The technology on the S2 is a year old, but it should serve you well for the duration of your contract if you purchase it today. ICS has it's quirks, but I haven't had any issues. Then again, I've had a custom rom installed from the instant I brought the phone home from the store.

Speaking of which, if you care about getting official support for Android OS upgrades, you might be better off investing in the S3 or One X. AT&T and Samsung probably won't support any OS upgrades for the S2 past Jellybean 4.1, if it even gets that.

 

[Halofromsue]

When I first got my GS2 I LOVED IT!! Told people how wonderful it WAS.
After this crappy ICS, I HATE IT. Would NEVER buy a phone full of garbage. Nothing works most of the time, and if I'm lucky, I can get four hours on my battery. I hardly have any apps either. Texting shuts off randomly, phone shuts off randomly, sometimes ring tones dont work, text tones stop working and you have to restart it...I could go on and on. If I was given a chance, I would NEVER have purchased this phone knowing they were going to send me the ICS. So, I'd say, dont get one and save yourself a LOT of hassle. The GS2 is the only phone that is NOT compatable with ICS....figures.

 

[Girevik]

..

 

[chrisphoenix7]

Don't. I love the phone, but support is being cut off. The skyrocket will continue being supported though.

 

[fldude99]

When I first got my GS2 I LOVED IT!! Told people how wonderful it WAS.
After this crappy ICS, I HATE IT. Would NEVER buy a phone full of garbage. Nothing works most of the time, and if I'm lucky, I can get four hours on my battery. I hardly have any apps either. Texting shuts off randomly, phone shuts off randomly, sometimes ring tones dont work, text tones stop working and you have to restart it...I could go on and on. If I was given a chance, I would NEVER have purchased this phone knowing they were going to send me the ICS. So, I'd say, dont get one and save yourself a LOT of hassle. The GS2 is the only phone that is NOT compatable with ICS....figures.

Really too bad you have such a rotten experience on ICS with the S2. Have you wiped it and started from scratch? It's really the only way to go. My S2 is flawless on ICS due to a fresh start. I believe it's one of the best devices on the market today, but a new upgrade at this time? Not so sure... A lot of new technology since the S2 came out. But anyway, @Halo: why put up with such a frustrating experience? Either get the S2 working or move on..life's too short to be that bitter over a freaking phone.

 

[jjinga]

Ive had my s2 for almost a year now and love everything about it except battery life. Even when I turn the brightness all the way down, I still do not get the battery life I did with my iphone 3gs when it was turn all the way up. Overall I am very happy with my s2 and would recommend it.

 

[CoreyV]

If you can still get one with 2.3.4, yes. I have two sitting at 2.3.4 (unrooted) and am not upgrading until they put out something stable - because it works great on 2.3.4 (no force closes, no battery issues).

I'd probably buy an S3 if given the choice today though because I tend to fall for getting the latest technology. I might try waiting until someone drops them to $100 though.

 

[lunatic59]

I know that a good many people have no desire to root or flash a custom rom to their phones. I used to be one of them, both for the reason of not wanting to void my warranty and afraid I'd screw it up somehow. However, when I updated my S2 to 2.3.6, my battery life went into the toilet. Honestly, it wasn't that great to begin with, but it was tolerable for my use. That official update caused issues with a lot of people's phones and it was only an incremental update to gingerbread, not an entire version change. Honestly, I can't blame Samsung, Google or AT&T since the phone still worked and I didn't have to reset it, but the nature of the way these devices work means that updates my require resets. (This is also the case for iPhones, Blackberry's and WindowsPhones). Can you imagine the furor from customers if an update automatically caused a factory reset? Losing all your config's and apps and user data? Yikes!

Anyway, I took the plunge and rooted and rom'ed my S2 (took about 2 hours total with downloads and such) and I have to say that my battery life is fan-friggin-tastic (pardon the language). No overclocking, no undervolting, no special radios or modems or anything, just an average rom for 4.0.3 ICS and I now enjoy charging my phone on the way to work, and without any further juice, it's only down to 80% by quittin' time. If I keep it off the charger all night, I might be at 45% ~ 50% by morning.

The point at least for me is that the S2 has a big user base and a big support community and we can help most members overcome any hurdles they my be facing.

 

[Halofromsue]

Really too bad you have such a rotten experience on ICS with the S2. Have you wiped it and started from scratch? It's really the only way to go. My S2 is flawless on ICS due to a fresh start. I believe it's one of the best devices on the market today, but a new upgrade at this time? Not so sure... A lot of new technology since the S2 came out. But anyway, @Halo: why put up with such a frustrating experience? Either get the S2 working or move on..life's too short to be that bitter over a freaking phone.

Wow...at first I was going to say "thanks" but I'm glad I read everything you said cause you're NOT getting any "thanks" from me. I'm not "bitter" about my phone, but I AM very upset at Samsung/At&T for sending out such a crappy firmware for a phone that I paid a crap load to buy (along with a TWO year contract). Dont judge me and feel empowered because you're behind a computer, it turned your phone into crap as well and you had to erase everything. Not everyone knows how to do that.

 

[fldude99]

Wow...at first I was going to say "thanks" but I'm glad I read everything you said cause you're NOT getting any "thanks" from me. I'm not "bitter" about my phone, but I AM very upset at Samsung/At&T for sending out such a crappy firmware for a phone that I paid a crap load to buy (along with a TWO year contract). Dont judge me and feel empowered because you're behind a computer, it turned your phone into crap as well and you had to erase everything. Not everyone knows how to do that.

Sorry if it came across as "judging" you. Just thought I'd pass along some advice that wasn't asked for. I certainly don't feel "empowered" either because I'm behind a computer....that is an interesting concept however that I'm not familiar with. Someone gave me some advice years ago I try to remember, which is, if you can buy your problem, you don't have a problem. So if it's affordable, I'd ditch the that S2 and get something that makes you happy. We use these devices enough not to have to be frustrated

 

[LouWags]

I see a lot of complaints about battery life on the forum but I don't have those issues.

The bad thing I see is that you have to turn off a lot of the features of the phone in order to have it last the full day. Mine lasts two days. But I have all notifications turned off and on occasion, when I d/l an app from the stores, a rogue app will start chowing down on the battery. It's insane, at times.

I do think that it's not a great "solution" to have things turned off that make the phone so great and more importantly, made the phone pitch to get you to buy it.

My biggest complaint about the SII after nearly a year is that there is so much bloatware on it as delivered by AT&T. Granted, they put some good apps on there too but generally speaking, most of it is stuff I'm never going to use and there are even various apps that do the same function as other apps on the phone. Strange.

Anyhoo, for me, the phone will last me for the next year + until my commitment runs out and then we'll see what else is out there.

As far as I'm concerned, the phone does most of the major functions I do on my PC/laptops but I can carry it around in my pocket. I can't complain about that!

--Wag--