I want this phone

http://www.techradar.com/reviews/phones ... 907/review

Phoned Orange today and they said they wont have it until June though!

+1

Samsung Galaxy S2

I'm due an upgrade in August and unless something better comes out between now & then I'll definitely be getting one of these bad boys ...

I dont understand how you can get it on contract now with an orange sim but you cant get it from orange.. pain in the arse

Couldn't wait until August so picked one up this morning ...

Top of the charts at this reliable site. Let us know how you get on with it?

Will do ...in the mean time:

Okay, although it's still early days thought I would confirm how I'm getting on with my brand spanking new Samsung Galaxy S2 (it's only fair that I point out that my previous phone was a Nokia 5800 Xpress so the SGS2 represents quite a jump in terms of specs from my perspective so maybe take that into consideration when reading what follows).

First impressions are that this really is a very impressive piece of kit, in terms of other Android smartphones I don't think it really offers anything particularly unique (apart from perhaps Kies Air) but what makes it stand out from the crowd is the sheer speed at which it operates . Every aspect of this phone is lightning fast (comparatively speaking), there's no lag at all when you move from one menu screen to another & most applications load pretty much instantaneously.

Admittedly I'm still on a learning curve with this phone and therefore will post more info at a later date but feel free to ask if there's something specific you'd like to know about it and I'll do my best to give you an informed answer ...

I'm considering upgrading my 3 year old iPhone 3G for one of these.

Has anyone tried going from iPhone to one of these?

My main concern is being able get the same apps, synch iTunes library and potentially causing an interoperability problem if I decide to get an ipad2 ....decisions

I upgraded from an Iphone 3G to a Motorola Atrix yesterday. It is also a dual core Android based phone like the Galaxy. It has been fantastic so far. The UI (drag, pinch etc) is quite similar to the iphone so it's quite easy to get used to, but it is a much better phone from what I've seen so far. You can link it to your itunes library so you can keep your current music. If you have any questions about it, fire away.

thanks razor and glfsm - I'm pretty sold on the S2 to be honest, the harware spec looks phenomenal ....my only concern was software / apps but is looking good from what I'm reading

In some ways it will be a relief to be out of the whole apple thing - hype getting a bit too much IMO

One question - does Android have a single store and pre-pay wallet system like itunes?

There's the Android Market but that's (unsurprisingly) app related, don't think other than that there's a single Android itunes type of store (could be wrong though ) but similar services can be obtained via Amazon etc. You can download tracks on your phone via Samsung's dedicated Music Hub but as yet I haven't tried that (although I did have a quick look at it last night & it seemed very itunes-ish).

Alternatively you could just download itunes material via your pc/laptop & then copy the files over to your smart phone (that's what I've done in the past)...

Tried out the google maps navigation earlier today and can report it worked very well indeed, in fact it was just as good as any dedicated satnav device that I've used in the past.

Also tried out the 8mp camera which generated some really decent pics that still retained a great degree of detail when I 'zoomed in' and the 1080p video seems pretty sweet as well (although I'll reserve judgement on that until I've had a chance to play back a recording via my HDTV).

So far the only problems I've had with the phone have been trying to get it to sync (via the 'Social Hub') with my yahoo email account (but a free app via Android market has pretty much taken care of that problem) plus getting the default weather app to recognise when I'm in a different location (again sorted once I'd worked out how to manually add a location )...

Whats the speed like on the camera mate? can you take pic after pic really fast like on the iphone?

I've only tried it on the default settings and there's about a one second delay between you pressing the virtual button & the picture being taken (try the link below for more info on the camera):

SGS2 Camera

I got my GS2 yesterday and all i can say is ....WOW

Sums up the SGS2 quite nicely ...

Is there anything you miss about the iPhone or is it all covered?

Had the phone a week now and still loving it, not missing the iphone at all

However there are a few niggles which others may have solved...?

1. Synching music - this was my biggest fear and indeed its not simple. Had to download a Samsung program called Kies on to my PC (nowhere was this sign posted out of the box). Eventually i got some music onto my phone but for some reason Kies wont pick up artist or album info on MPEG4 files ...and obviously wont read or play protected DRMs.
2. Battery time isnt great - though it may take time for battery to optimise and for me to learn which functions consume power. I have also noticed that the battery gets quite hot with prolonged use and you can feel it through the back cover.
3. The keyboard is a bit fiddly and doesnt seem to have predictive text (maybe im missing a setting somewhere?)
4. The mail app cant find my Yahoo account
5. The Android market is a bit random and i cant find a number of my fave iphone apps including the TFF and SDT ones!

Overall the pros def outweigh the cons though



seem to have predictive text (maybe im missing a setting somewhere)

The Mrs' HTC lasts days instead of hrs after installing appkiller. One touch you can close down all unused apps

Settings -> Language & Keyboard -> Samsung Keypad -> XT9

Alternatively you could enable swype:

Settings -> Language & Keyboard -> Select Input Method

There's a task manager app on the SGS2 which does this...

Connected my SGS2 to my lap top via the micro usb to usb, then just went to my music files (via the documents 'library) and then just sent them to my phone, wasn't any different to how I've done this with previous phones.

Both artist name & album info have been ported over but in a lot of cases the album art work hasn't, need to look into why this has happened & what can be done (if anything) to get it added. Will update as & when I know more...

Yep ive got the widget of that now on my jome screen, feels a bit odd having concurrent apps / programs running - with the iphone it was open app close app open next app.

How are you finding the battery time?

Were they just MP3s? I have no issues with these (except the album art)

They were MPEG-4s...

Blame TFF. They are one of the many companies out there that can't see beyond their Apple blinkers and so don't have an Android app

Also, why do people think the iPhone is 'sexy'? To me it is a nasty block compared to the curvier HTC and Samsung phones.

I've found a solution to this .

Go to the app store & download 'Album Art Grabber Free', it's very easy to use & will download the majority of album covers for your music files (for the odd one or two that it can't find, you'll need to locate the image yourself online, save it to your gallery & the app will then apply the gallery image to the track)...

Same here, I've tried countless times to get my phone's 'Social Hub' to sync with my yahoo account but it just won't .

However I downloaded the Yahoo Mail app from the app store and now I'm able to access my e-mails from my SGS2 ...

Yep i got that now too