Apple is embarking on huge legal battles in the United States (US) and Australia to get injunctions against Samsung products. So what is it about the Galaxy S II smartphone that has Apple scampering like a ‘scardy cat?’ Tech enthusiasts say the Galaxy S II is Apple’s worst nightmare…a super-hero smartphone whose, power (like DROGBA!), Slimness, extraordinary Super AMOLED screen and android OS may cast a dark cloud on the coming iPhone 5. Without doubt, Apple has made it clear when seeking injunctions that it believes the Galaxy II S infringes on various Apple patents - a claim denied by Samsung.
But whether it infringes patents or not - the simple fact is that the Galaxy II S is the first smartphone to worry Apple. And no wonder, the Galaxy S II’s spec sheet reads largely like a power’s user dream phone. Besides, the 1.2GHz dual-core Exynos processor makes it the most powerful smartphone in existence and it benchmarks accordingly, coming first in the Quadrant benchmark with a score of 3,131. This is 421 points better than the second-fastest smartphone, the Motorola Atrix, and over 2,000 points better than the original Galaxy S. I can attest to its speeds because I use the Galaxy S II.
Do I smell envy in the air? Don’t hate the player, hate the game! Unfortunately, there’s no global benchmark that works across all smartphone platforms, so you’ll have to take my word for it when I say that the Galaxy S II really is the fastest phone I’ve ever used. All you have to do is get a Galaxy S II and subscribe to a data bundle from Airtel and open web pages at amazing speeds. Back to my discussion, the 4.3in Super AMOLED Pro display is so vibrant it looks painted on, to the point that you will need to reassure friends that it’s a full working model rather than a display phone. That’s the gospel truth peeps!
This ‘phony phone’ inkling isn’t helped by the Galaxy S II’s waif-like dimensions; it weighs next to nothing at 116g, and its 8.49mm thickness makes even the iPhone 4 look chunky by comparison. Its tiny girth makes the lack of HDMI output understandable, but I’d have happily sacrificed a few micrometers to gain this functionality. The device runs the latest version of Android (Gingerbread) with Samsung’s custom TouchWIZ 4.0 skin on top. Even those that prefer ‘Vanilla’ Android should be impressed with the additional widgets and apps, custom homescreen editor and all the extra settings and functions. Samsung has taken the standard Android experience and made it faster, and significantly more capable.
There are many other features that make the Galaxy S II my top pick of all current smartphones, including the 16GB of internal storage can be added to with a microSD card, the eight-megapixel camera can record Full HD 1080p video, and the 1650mAh battery lasts for a full day-and-a-half of heavy usage.
Hardware
The Samsung Galaxy S II is 8.49mm (0.33 inches) thick. We whipped out a ruler and checked. It's true. Admittedly, that measurement expands a little at the handset's bottom, where a curvy bump houses its loudspeaker, and around the camera compartment, which protrudes ever so slightly from the rest of the body, but even at its thickest point, this phone doesn't allow itself to go beyond the 1cm mark. Given the veritable spec sheet overload that Samsung has included within the Galaxy S II, we consider its thin profile a stunning feat of engineering.
Battery life
The story of the Galaxy S II's battery life cannot be told without returning to its luscious screen. Being an OLED panel, the 4.3-inch display here doesn't use one single backlight as LCD screens do, and instead only illuminates the pixels that are needed to actively display content. This is the reason why it can generate truer blacks than any backlit panel, but it also permits the user to optimize battery life by doing such things as switching to darker wallpaper or reading eBooks against a black background.
Camera
Samsung eschews the default Gingerbread camera app for its own effort, which comes with a neat slice of customization. The left menu column gives you three shortcut slots for the functions you consider most relevant to your photographic exploits. By default, two of them are populated with a button to flip between the rear-facing 8 megapixel and front-facing 2 megapixel camera and another one for controlling the flash, but you can do whatever you fancy.
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