Samsung Galaxy SII

Samsung's Galaxy S Android smartphone (reviewed on page 144) won PC Advisor's Best Buy award last year and it's not hard to see why. A slim, lightweight and very nippy handset with an amazing super AmoLED screen, the distinctive-looking phone was one of the best Android mobiles of 2010, and one of the few serious rivals to the iPhone 4.

Samsung's highly anticipated follow up, the Galaxy S II is one of the very first Gingerbread Android 2.3 smartphones, so we were intrigued to see how it compared.

We were also intrigued to find Samsung has completely redesigned the hardware, putting clear blue water between it and the original design (and subsequently adopted by Google for its
own Nexus S Gingerbread 2.3 phone). The all-new Galaxy S II is quite angular. This enables it to accommodate a marginally larger 4.3in touchscreen (the original had a 4in display), but with no change to the 480x800-pixel resolution. The new model looks superficially similar to the HTC Incredible S (reviewed on page 122).

The build quality, if anything, has been improved upon. It's still a plastic chassis, but the handset now feels more rigid Samsung has also upgraded the screen material to tough Gorilla Glass.

PLEASURE TO USE

Usability and navigation are as joyous an experience as on the first Galaxy S. The hyper-real brightness of the screen is still a real wow and though the overall handset design is not as strikingly different as its forerunner, the S II's 4.3in display feels far more expansive.

The internal memory now comes in a choice of 16GB or 32GB capacities and there's a faster dual-core 1.2GHz ARM Cortex A9 processor. The original Galaxy S' 3Mp camera gets a mighty bump to 8Mp and there's now support for 1080p video playback at 30 frames per second. It's quite simply a joy to use.

The original Galaxy S was already a fast smartphone, but this latest version feels even faster. We found it provided a near seamless navigation experience

when flicking between different applications, multi-tasking -even when we put it through data heavy tasks such as streaming high-definition content.

The web browsing experience isn't much changed with Android 2.3 Gingerbread under the hood. However, it offers native Flash support and an updated version of Google Maps. As with all 2.x versions of Android, you can download and open from the Android Market.

SLEEK AND STYLISH

The display is bereft of hardware buttons except the mini USB, power button, headphone and volume, putting the microSD slot inside. That helps the Samsung Galaxy S II keep its svelte and sleek feel, while Samsung relies on two touch buttons with one context sensitive big button in between.

It uses the same TouchWiz interface, which kicks in on the very speedy boot up. This retains the same colour-coded touch buttons at the bottom, with access to the most standard apps.

For navigating the internet you can choose to use the gyroscope sensor and accelerometer to enhance touch browsing. This felt a bit gimmicky, but we did love the Galaxy S II's excellent virtual qwerty keyboard.

VERDICT

Samsung has yet to announce a price yet, though SIM-free costs of £500 are suggested online. This puts the Galaxy S II firmly in the premium smartphone camp, but given the success of the first model and the impressive hardware and build quality, we expect it to find favour with plenty of Android fans.



Details
 
Price £TBA 
Further information : www.samsung.co.uk
Specifications Google Android 2.3 (Gingerbread). 4.3in 480x800-pixel screen, 1.2GHz ARM Cortex A9 processor, microSD card slot; 16GB/32GB memory; 116g; 125.3x66.1x8.5mm