Another SGS2 preview woohoo!

[chocobosandwich]

Nice closeup and plenty of lighting. From the Philippines. To a Soul Sister cover! I found this one on Google with my own ten fingers.

Oops. Here's the accompanying review.
http://www.yugatech.com/blog/mobile/samsung-galaxy-s-2-i9100-review/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+yugatech+%28YugaTech%29

YouTube - Samsung Galaxy S II i9100 in the Philippines

 

[chocobosandwich]

Another Russian reviewer. Yayz. From kratos123 on XDA.

xda-developers - View Single Post - Samsung Galaxy SII Articles, Reviews etc.

 

[jbirdsf]

Who says nerds don't have fun!!


http://youtu.be/Z8973hQk5nY

 

[chocobosandwich]

Here' yugatech again comparing the two galaxy s phones, to soul sister, AGAIN.


YouTube - Samsung Galaxy S II vs Galaxy S

 

[chocobosandwich]

Some preliminary videos before the big review on Monday? methinks. These are way sharper looking than the videos on his preview. No Samsung logo! But it does get about 3000 quadrant. Who knows? And OMG four phones at once. Can I haz them all when you done?

YouTube - Samsung Galaxy SII Benchmark Demo

YouTube - Samsung Galaxy SII Battery Demo

YouTube - Samsung Galaxy SII external view Demo

Prolly be more vids on the same channel later.

 

[NZtechfreak]

Phonearena review proper is up now.

 

[SirKronan]

Phonearena review proper is up now.

That's a nice review. Thanks for the link. Looks like an amazing phone, and exactly what I want. Here are the things I expect Berizon to remove from whatever version they happen to get:

MHL (for video output - remember they removed 3.5 video out from their Fascinate)
FM Radio (just like they removed from the Fascinate)
Internal Memory (I expect 2GB, like the Fascinate AND Charge)

I really hope they don't put Bing on it, but I wouldn't be surprised. Bing is coming on the Revolution. I've heard a report that the LTE radio was able to be engineered in without sacrificing room for the battery OR making a thicker device. I really want this phone, and I can live without FM radio and some internal memory (2GB has never been too little for me on the Fascinate), but removing the ability to have high definition output with a cable I can simply plug in would force me to pass on this phone, and more than likely switch carriers. I'm sick of their antics. They get everything "a day late and a dollar short."

I'm not saying they're going to do this, and I certainly hope they leave it exactly as it is, but I've never known them to leave the high end phones unscathed, with the exception of most of the "Droid" series.

 

[jroc]

Did I mention this might be my next phone...lol

I would really be shocked if the GS 2 for Verizon didnt have MHL. From what I read last year, the video out feature was a feature of GSM chips. The Epic 4G didnt have it either.

I did just read where it may be possible with a mod, hack on the Epic 4G.(+1 to having a custom kernel...) Kronan, I'm with you. If I find out it got removed for the Verizon version, or it just isnt possible for CDMA phones that will be the last straw to make me leave. I havent jumped to AT&T yet and they have better service in my area. Still giving Verizon one last shot...

 

[jinwons]

Indeed this is amazing phone. It's got winning combination of all things (excellent screen, camera, battery, call quality and plenty of RAM and storage). Even if HTC, Motorola throws in their dual core monsters that come close in performance, it will be hard to beat SGSII in other features like screen, camera, battery, slick form factor that make it a great phone.

I also really hope Verizon wouldn't dumb down the spec, features on this phone. If they do, I should seriously consider switching carrier but their coverage and LTE speed is hard to give up.

 

[jroc]

^Thats right....I forgot about LTE. That LTE speed has been looking amazing. Why cant these things ever be easy...lol

 

[SirKronan]

^Thats right....I forgot about LTE. That LTE speed has been looking amazing. Why cant these things ever be easy...lol

Amen to that question. Nobody has a coverage map like Berizon. Even AT&T + T-Mobile is still a lesser coverage area than what Berizon has. I can take 10 hour trips on highways - not even freeways - in the middle of large states like Wyoming or Colorado and almost never lose signal with Berizon, and there are places like that nationwide.

And I hate AT&T. If I switch carriers, it will probably be to the Evo 3D on Sprint. I really like Sprint right now. They have very reasonable service fees and they are fighting the AT&T + T-Mobile merger, despite the fact that they are actually the carrier with the most to gain from such a merger. I will consider T-Mobile until the merger completes, if it eventually does.

Berizon was really kicking some butt with the Droid, Droid X, D'Inc, and Droid 2, as far as keeping up spec-wise to competition. But since the iPhone 4 and the Atrix they have been behind every other carrier in device release timetables (basically all of 2011). I thought times were changing with their Droid Does initiative, but now Berizon is back to what we know them well for, all the way back to the Motorola Razr.

 

[John Jason]

Here are the things I expect Berizon to remove from whatever version they happen to get:

MHL (for video output - remember they removed 3.5 video out from their Fascinate)
FM Radio (just like they removed from the Fascinate)
Internal Memory (I expect 2GB, like the Fascinate AND Charge)
I'm not saying they're going to do this, and I certainly hope they leave it exactly as it is, but I've never known them to leave the high end phones unscathed, with the exception of most of the "Droid" series.

I am keen on leaving AT&T, and I love what I read about the SGS2. I recently played with a Thunderbolt at the Verizon store at the airport here, where they already have LTE enabled. LTE with a 4G phone was pretty impressive.

But one of the things I really want in my next phone is an FM radio. I am fairly new to Android and was not aware that Verizon had removed the FM radio from the Fascinate. I am trying to figure out why they would do that. Like, where's the profit?

There are only two local radio stations that I listen to, and both are streaming on the net as well as broadcasting on FM. I could always stream them, but that would use data. Why would Verizon remove a feature that would force me to use more data? It doesn't add up. I wonder why they removed the FM radio from the Fascinate.

 

[AndroidifyMe]

Samsung Galaxy S II Passes FCC With AT&T Bands Well, it passed for AT&T. Idk if it'll be the Infuse or later announce the SGSII. Either way it sounds good for the US and hopefully other variants are quick to follow.

 

[jinwons]

And I wish that they keep the Galaxy S2 name across all carriers instead of giving different name for each U.S carrier like last year. That's confusing for average users and will help establish its name value like iPhone has.

 

[SirKronan]

And I wish that they keep the Galaxy S2 name across all carriers instead of giving different name for each U.S carrier like last year. That's confusing for average users and will help establish its name value like iPhone has.

Couldn't agree with you more. Google has already felt the pains of fragmentation, or rather Google's fan/customer base has felt the pains and made Google aware of it. I'm sure Google employees with their own android phones feel this pain. There's something to be said for a consistent experience with a handset across carriers, and it raises the quality of the manufacturer up several notches in my book when they do this. This is one area where Apple excels. The iPhone on AT&T provides virtually an identical experience to the iPhone on Berizon, network differences aside. They both receive their updates at pretty much the same time, at least as far as I'm aware. Imagine the simplicity if Berizon, Sprint, T-Mobile, and AT&T just simply carried a Galaxy S phone, like the international version. I would think that would cut manufacturing costs substantially. It would definitely cut user headache and update wait times substantially.

I mean, we Fascinate users had to wait the longest for our 2.2 update to our "galaxy S device", but we got it shortly after Sprint and AT&T got theirs, which was a substantial wait!! And I can understand why it took samsung so long. They had to update a phone that had less memory on this carrier, more memory on that carrier, a keyboard on this other carrier, a flash for the camera on this carrier, etc. What a mess! I realize CDMA and GSM technology differ, but leave the differences at that.

The fragmentation of the Galaxy S over multiple carriers was absolutely ridiculous. I pray that the SGSII does not suffer such a similar fate. Looking at videos of the SGSII makes my heart skip a beat. The device is sensational. The included software samsung puts on it is absolutely stellar, and it has hardware that will NEVER lag to run that great software. It is THE android smartphone, and it answers EVERY SINGLE GRIPE I had about the Fascinate, hardware wise. It's pretty much exactly what I would tell Samsung that I want in a phone, at least in this year of tech.

 

[lucas.childers]

I'm just worried that the phone will be too big in the hand (for me). The TB is almost too big but works (without case). Not sure how the TB would be with, say, an Otterbox Commuter case.

I can agree. I plan on getting this when it is finally released. But when I picked up a infuse 4g. That defines too big for a phone. And that is 4.5 this is going to be 4.3 I believe. I was always used to 3.8 and smaller things like that. So this is going to feel HUGE for a long time. But I think it's probably a good thing cause you can be like "dude look how thin my phone is".