Samsung Galaxy S released in 2009 is one of the best Android smartphones in the single core era and is also the fastest selling Android phone in the world. Despite the flaws that is present in the Galaxy S, the phone still remains the most competitive among its other siblings. Just today, I saw 2 people buying the Galaxy S at Lowyat Plaza, KL.

This year, Samsung made a comeback with another flagship phone to continue its legacy to be the best smartphone in the world. It spots a 1.2GHz ARMv7 dual-core processor developed by Samsung themselves. I was lucky to have my hands on this speed demon for about 2 weeks and I’m going to break it down to you on what’s under the hood. I wont be reviewing the phone because if you would want to feast upon a review, you would have visited a more reputable site like Engadget’s Review  and TechRadar UK instead of my blog. Their sources are more reliable and the reputation justifies their review.

Instead, I will highlight on the spot-on features that makes this phone standout. And knowing that I also own a Samsung Galaxy S, I will also give you an insight if Samsung did address all the flaws of its younger brother! I also did a video on a true blue Apple fan’s experience on using the beast for 3 days and how it made her go awwwwww…. !

(Disclaimer : Most of the spot on features are based on feedbacks given by majority of non-Android users! )

Lag, Sluggish, Hang

Galaxy S has a 1Ghz processor, fast enough by theory to run everything smooth, but in real world usage, the phone often hangs and spots slight sluggishness especially with tons of application installed. Well, the processor is not blame but the file system. And thankfully, Samsung finally addressed and acknowledge that its homegrown RFS file system is not suitable for a phone. Instead, they opted for a Linux standard, the EXT4. That being said, the phone spots ZERO sluggishness even with tons of apps installed. The EXT4 file system ensures that the phone does minimum work when writing data to the phone thus making the phone feels awesomely fast. Here’s the article on the new EXT4. To know more of the lag on the Galaxy S, head over here.  To demonstrate the zero lag in the phone, here’s a video for you.

1.2Ghz Exynos, 1GB Ram and a Mali 400MP GPU

Samsung strives in their R&D project and once again introduced their homegrown dual core processor, Exynos. The speed the processor would pump out in the dual core will definitely ensure most programs would be executed within seconds. The boot time of the phone has also significantly been reduced to a matter of seconds and loading time for games and application spots vast improvement. To be exact, the boot time for the phone is : 31 seconds . The processor shows its true power mostly in boot time, CPU intense application such as Google Maps, when installing applications, handling 1080p videos, 1080p recording and photo capture and of course game loading.

Even in web browsing, page renders at a superb speed including when Flash intense video/content! Youtube videos plays smoothly right on the browser itself without hints of slowing down!

The 1GB Ram included ensure multiple application to be allowed to run in the background simultaneously without interfering with each other. This time, Samsung kept its words and really installed a 1GB ram. The Galaxy S was advertised with a 512Mb ram but has 220MB of usable ram available which causes uproars in the online community.

While the 400MP Mali GPU ensures smooth gaming and higher performances on paper, the performance you will get on this beast will be on par with the younger brother, Galaxy S because of Samsung’s decision to capped the frame rate to 59.8 FPS on both phones. The capping might be due to current requirement of games that will not work the GPU out and to save battery. But I’ve not spot any downfall in performance for both the Galaxy S and Galaxy S II in terms of graphic intense games!

Screen Revisited – AMOLED+ Display

In 2010, Samsung released it Super AMOLED display that rivals the likes of Iphone 4’s Retina Display and such. Many say that I4 display is still better but some might prefer the warmness in color of the AMOLED. This year, Samsung brought the world to its knees with its AMOLED+ display that ensures no Apple Fanboys had a chance to ever brag anymore. ( even my GF )

The Galaxy S II on the left, Galaxy S on the right.

The display is crisp and clear and compared to the AMOLED display, the AMOLED+ has a tendency towards ‘white’ than yellow. (see picture) The color reproduction is almost as identical to real world colors and it uses a RGB color profile. The colors of icon, videos and etc are saturated and text displayed are fine at edges! With Samsung implementing more sub-pixels in the screen and still maintaining a 800X400 resolution, Android interface has never been this good.  Viewing angle is superb and in direct sunlight, the screen is still viewable. The usage of AMOLED+ will also guarantee a better battery life up to 18% thanks to its efficient LED display technology.

Camera and Video Recording

Excellent camera is long overdue on an Android based phone. Most cameras on Android based phones has bad quality. The Galaxy S camera is on average but is no where near the Iphone ….until Galaxy S II. This time the Galaxy S II camera spots 8 megapixel and includes LED flash. The camera even eliminates the pink hinge on Galaxy S phones. While IPhone users has their camera to brag about, the Galaxy S II brought hand phone camera to a whole new meaning.

The Pink hinge on the Galaxy S camera,

Samsung slayed the default Gingerbread camera app and utilize its own customize version that adds tons of exciting features,modes and scenes. The user interface is also sleek and menus is accessible in one touch. The camera has superb quality and is one of the best ever in Smart Phones. Of course it could not rival Nokia N8, but its beats the crap out of the IPhone 4 (certified by my Girlfriend and Smashpop). The color reproduction is life like and colors are really saturated. Photo quality is also superb with pictures still being sharp at 100% crop. The camera also captures very fine details and does not show any signs of being a bad camera. The LED flash is really good in low light and rarely overexposed even if the subject is near.

Comparison of the photo above with a similar photo from the Iphone 4 (on the 22nd July)

Can you believe the photo above came out of the Galaxy S II unedited? (:

Did not overexpose with flash on. (:

Samsung is being very generous this time to include a 2MP front facing camera for crisp video calling. Its not that great compared to the primary camera, but for 2MP, its good for what it is. Not to mention the 2MP will be a welcome feature for camwhores who are often underwhelmed by Iphone’s mere VGA quality camera.

For video recording, this time the Galaxy S II is capable of recording a Full HD 1080p 30FPS. This video recording is very good and sharp, with colors being accurate and not overblown, details captured being extremely clear and it also spots continuous autofocus! Autofocus in video is a lil’ slow especially with fast moving scene, it will be on a hunting mission. Despite being to record excellent Full HD video, rolling shutter is also really apparent in the camera. I guess, that’s the downfall of a hand phone camera :/

Superb Battery Life

The battery life for the Galaxy S II is one of the longest I’ve ever used. It spots a 1650 mAH battery that has larger capacity that its younger brother.

I have about 3 application running in the background namely Tweetcaster, Social Hub email app and Whatsapp. All of them needs internet constantly to push updates to the phone, with the exception of Tweetcaster which pulls update every 3 minutes. All these are connected through my DiGi’s HSDPA connection.

I played Asphalt 6 for about 30 minutes on 2 occasions, a few 10-20 minutes call and occasionally using the camera to snap some pictures and experimenting with the video camera. Oh yeah, not to mention I run a live wallpaper! And that itself is a battery hogging application!

I also did light internet surfing on a few websites and some Youtube video viewing on the browser itself.

With all these running, I gained at about 1 day plus of battery life. I must say that it really impressed me to the maximum because its younger brother’s battery would be dead by sun down.

Samsung has this to thank to its AMOLED+ display, a larger battery capacity and of course its ability to scale the clock speed of the power hungry 1.2Ghz dual core processor. To demonstrate the CPU scaling, I’ve installed SetCPU widget to monitor the scaling.

Memory Maniac

People just love large memory. I don’t know why, but the first thing they ever ask on a phone is the storage space! “How many gig (gigabyte) the phone got ar?” is a standard question every phone dealers gets. Thankfully, Samsung hears em’. The Galaxy S II will ensure you’ll never complain about lack of memory with its 16GB/32GB in-built memory choice and an option to use external SD card up to 32GB (pre-installed with 8GB). That means your phone will have storage space of up to 64GB and more! ( If you love swapping memory card, LOL)

p.s: My phone wasn’t bundled with the 8GB memory card

Gyroscope

I’ve not seen much of any Android application or games that utilize the gyroscope just yet but it will definitely increase your total control especially in games as it allows tilt control for 360 degrees!

3G Video Call

Many people are confused when I mention 3G video calls. Most people especially the Americans assumed that 3G video calls are like Qik, Skype (on the IPhone), Fring, Tango, GTalk and the likes of it. But no, those are NOT 3G video call. Those are video calls UTILITZING your 3G INTERNET CONNECTION. People are so advanced into the internet world, that such technology gets overlooked.

3G video call is video call that utilizes your carrier’s network and is made over traditional telecommunication waves. It’s chargeable at around 20-30 cents per minute and is billed to you! It allows you to call to any phone that supports 3G video call and not to Android or IPhone only. The best way to prove to you people on this is : try making a video call with your WIFI and 3G off. And try video calling a Nokia phone user from your Android or IPhone. You cant right? LOL

The only Android phone in the world who has this feature is the Galaxy S and Samsung decided to include this feature in the Galaxy S II too! Many people don’t see the need of it, but if you have a front facing camera, why not just include Video Call right? Besides for those who do not subscribe to data plan but wants to make video calls can do so with this feature. It baffles me as to why no other Android phone manufacturer included this except Samsung.

USB OTG

Most people do not know what is USB OTG. It means USB On-the-go. USB OTG allows external USB storage to be used on the phone. For example, you can use plug your pen drive to the phone to accessed the memory in it. You can also use external Hard Disk provided you have an external power supply to spin the drive. Not only that, USB OTG allows the use of keyboard,mouse or other peripherals that is USB based. This feature exist on most Nokia phones but only a handful Android based phones has it. I think it’s a cool feature because it allows you to have a keyboard and mouse plugged in while you display the screen to an external monitor; mimicking a Computer! It’s like a portable work station on the go!

I would love to demonstrate to you this feature but I’ve searched the whole Lowyat Plaza for a USB Female to Micro USB adapter but could not find one. The closest I get to is Mini USB.

I bought a Nokia USB OTG cable thinking it will work, but the so called Micro USB is of different size. The only place that I could get is on Ebay, but by the time the item arrives, the phone would be long gone.

Here’s a few video I found on Youtube which demonstrates the UBS OTG feature.

Social Hubs

Social Hubs is a bunch of application that includes email and instant messaging all in one. The apps are basically a rebranded version of Se7en application but this time, ITS FREE. The email application is really good that I would recommended it being a standard in all Android phones. This application stands out mainly because of its notification feature that utilize PUSH instead of PULL.

Android standard email app utilize pull notification which checks for updates say every 5 minutes. It will drain your battery if this goes on for a day as your network connection is active every 5 minutes.

Samsung’s Social Hub email app utilize PUSH notification that is seen in IPhone and Blackberry email app. PUSH notification do not checks for updates over a certain period of time but instead updates are “PUSH” to the phone by the server when there is a new email. It saves battery as it only uses your network connection when new email arrives. The same concept applies to Social Hub’s IM application.

ITS NOT A BUG, IT’S A FEATURE

As you guys know, the Galaxy S has bugs that are annoying especially to heavy users. The list of bugs that are present in the Galaxy S are

- Radio audio output is in mono not stereo.

- Camera has a slight pink tinge and lacks of LED Flash!

- Audio recording is not usable at all especially in noisy area.

- GPS is crap. It’s never accurate and its almost not usable at all!

With the release of its older brother, The Galaxy S II, I must say Samsung has successfully addressed all this issue. The radio now outputs in crisp stereo channels and reception has been really really good especially in places that has poor reception.

The pink tinge has been eliminated and this time they include a LED Flash. The camera quality is by far one of the best I’ve ever seen on a smartphone! (Refer camera section above)

The audio recording in the Galaxy S II is way better than its brother but its still not the best. The gain is still quite high but at least this time round, the audio is listenable as compared to the latter!

I am a heavy GPS user and using GPS on the Galaxy S is hell! Navigation positions jump every few minutes. But Samsung finally addressed this bug haunting all previous Galaxy S users. In the Galaxy S II, lockdown takes at about 20-30 seconds and in clear skies, I could get accuracy up to 5 meters. Navigation position has never been out of place and its fairly accurate ALL the time. I recently use the Galaxy S II GPS to get to Kuala Selangor Firefly Resort and yea, I ended there safely! So I guess, the GPS is finally usable! YAY!

Just for KICKS

Benchmark has long been an obsession for users who are crazy over numbers. Most geeks are always looking for benchmark scores although its NEVER represents real world usage. But for the sake of people who loves benchmark scores, ill include Quadrant, Linpack and Neocore scores here. Now feast your eyes……. :

Why do I say benchmark scores never represents real world usage? I’ll give you an example and you’ll be able to fit the puzzle together. Nexus One is able to churn out a whopping 80 mflops in linpack scores over an aging 1Ghz SnapDragon processor. Higher than Sammy’s 40+ mflops 1.2Ghz dual core processor. So what do you have to say about that? (:

WHAT SAY ME?

Its pretty easy for me to summarize this sleek Korean made beast. 2 words : GET IT. If the Galaxy S is the best single core Android smartphone, then the Galaxy S II continues Samsung’s reign by being one of the best, if not THE best dual core Android smartphone. With 1.2Ghz dual core processor and whole host of nifty features especially the quality of the superb camera, its no wonder, the FRUIT fan is especially drawn to this beast. It is hard for any Fruit fan to accept other phones except the IPhone 4 until Samsung released their speed demon, the Galaxy S II. Even my girlfriend was immediately drawn to the phone when I first show it to her. So if a hardcore Apple fan is drawn to the Robot made my Samsung, what’s your excuse not to own one ?!

An Apple Fangirl Confession

I’ve not done filming this, but here’s the trailer before the actual video is being released! (: This is how good the Galaxy S II is. It literally made Apple fan jizz!

Samsung Galaxy S II Reaction Video.

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