Ten Thousand Things

Screening room: The screen size of the Samsung Galaxy S2 is marvelously wide and spacious, at 4.3 inches and it’s possibly the biggest Super AMOLED screen of any cell phone in the market to date.
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I have always had techno-lust. Ever since I could remember, I’ve always liked gadgets of all sorts. I have an admiration for people, companies that design and make things that are smart, novel and cutting edge from calculators, watches, cameras, TVs to computers, recorders, players, phones, etc., and all the other different trendy gadgets that I see in US stores like Brookstone. I scour catalogs of the latest audio, video, phone equipment and look for bargains all the time.

My latest hotties in this indulgence of mine are the new Samsung products that have just come out. Some of you may recall hat I reviewed a Samsung camera. two years ago. I then had a good look at the Samsung Tab and the Galaxy S phone where I compared the former to the first Apple iPad and the latter to the iPhone 3. I gave them quite positive reviews. No doubt, Samsung seems to be coming out with winners especially during the last year.

A week ago, I got the Samsung Galaxy S2, the newest, latest and let me say, the most wonderful Android phone I have used to date. Since I took it out of the box and turned it on, I have not ceased to be enthralled by it. The screen size is marvelously wide and spacious, at 4.3 inches and it’s possibly the biggest Super AMOLED screen of any cell phone in the market to date. The colors are bright and every detail on the screen is amazingly super clear. Compared to the plain AMOLED feature on its earlier models which already was impressive, this upgraded version is simply outstanding. The extra pixels they put in it really gives it a lot of dazzle. Screen-wise, I think I can safely say that it is a clear notch or two better than the iPhone 4.

It is also lighter and visibly thinner than its predecessor, which was the Galaxy S. In fact it is 8.49mm (0.33 inches) thick (or thin), so thin you can slip it under rather tight doors as some of its fans like to brag. I tried it on a few doors and they are right. Again, in the “thin” department, it wins over the iPhone although not by much.

I’d been using the Galaxy S prior to getting the S2. The Galaxy S has an Android OS called Froyo. While I love the phone, in my six months’ experience with it, I noticed it can get annoyingly slow to start especially if you are using Wi-Fi or 3G even if it does catch up in a few minutes and runs at a respectable speed. The SGS2 on the other hand runs on the Gingerbread OS (the highest Android OS so far) and let me tell you, it is like a souped-up car thanks to its ARMv7 dual core processor that runs at 1.2 gigahertz. Try surfing on the browser, or even going through the different menus, pages, applications and you will experience a practically seamless, smooth and very quick response. You are actually zipping through them.

The camera has lots of bells and whistles which you can find in a decent all-around point-and-shoot and is capable of a respectable 8 megapixels. I’ve taken clearer pics using the SGS2 than any phone I’ve used.

The issue with most mobile gadgets including Samsung phones has always been battery life. Wi-Fi, push notifications, Twitter, Facebook, Google, Google and so many apps can drain a battery quickly. Here is where you can see Samsung took extra care to improve this phone. I would say that the battery life on the SGS2 is at least 30 percent longer compared to its predecessor. In a test done by Endgadget, the phone had 15 percent left after extensive use of Wi-Fi and 3g for some 20 hours.

I know I’ve been gushing about the SGS2 since the start of the article. In truth, I was taken by pleasant surprise at how great the phone looks, and how great it functions during everyday use. Quite frankly, given the phones out right now, I would not want to use any other phone except the SGS2. Admittedly, I have not seen the LG, Sony Ericsson and the HTC phones and the other competition. Just the same, it seems easy to see why ENDGADGET has said so far that the Samsung Galaxy S2 is the best Android phone right now. Maybe even the best smart phone.