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Pros
Fast. Large, beautiful screen. Excellent HSPA+ 42 speeds. Good call quality.
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Cons
HDMI out requires an adapter.
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Bottom Line
The Samsung Galaxy S II combines a blistering dual-core processor, a terrific screen, and fast HSPA+ 42 speeds to make it the top Android smartphone available on T-Mobile right now.
The Samsung Galaxy S II series is truly taking the smartphone world by storm. First there was the extremely popular unlocked version ($699, 4 stars) released earlier this year. Then came the Epic 4G Touch for Sprint (4 stars, $199.99) and the Samsung Galaxy S II for
AT&T ($199.99, 4.5 stars). Now the Samsung Galaxy S II for T-Mobile
($229.99 with a two-year service agreement) is finally available, and
it's the best of the bunch. The Galaxy S II combines a smoking dual-core
processor with a gorgeous screen and fast HSPA+ 42 speeds to make it
the top smartphone available on T-Mobile right now. It's an easy pick
for our Editors' Choice award.
Physical Features, Phone Calls, and InternetSimply stated, the Samsung Galaxy S II is beautiful. At 5.1 by 2.7 by .4 inches (HWD) and 4.8 ounces, it's sleek and thin. It found it comfortable to hold, but users with smaller hands beware: this is one honking handset. It's a black slab, made entirely of plastic with a lightly textured back panel, but it feels very solid. Most of the phone's size is dedicated to its beautiful, 4.52-inch, 800-by-480 Super AMOLED Plus screen. This is lower resolution than the 960-by-540 display on the HTC Amaze 4G ($259.99, 4 stars), but there's no denying the incredible richness of Super AMOLED Plus. Colors here are more vibrant and the blacks are deeper. It's also larger than the 4.3-inch displays found on the rest of the Galaxy S II family.
The Galaxy S II is also a very good voice phone. Reception is solid,
and calls sound excellent in the phone's earpiece—full, clear, and
natural. The speakerphone also sounds good and volume goes loud enough
to use outdoors. Calls made with the phone are equally solid. Voices
sound loud and clear, though background noise cancellation is just
average. I had no trouble connecting to a Jawbone Era Bluetooth
headset ($129.99, 4.5 stars) and calls sounded great. Voice dialing, on
the other hand, isn't a strong point. Samsung has traded the usual
Android voice dialing for the much more powerful Vlingo app, which
should let you dictate text messages and issue other commands by voice.
And while it did a pretty good job with text message dictation, I had a
hard time getting it to recognize the names in my address book.
You can hook into T-Mobile's HSPA+ 42 network and 802.11 a/b/g/n Wi-Fi with the Galaxy S II. It also works as a tethered modem or Wi-Fi hotspot with the right service plan. Download speeds were fantastic. In a series of head-to-head tests against the HTC Amaze 4G, I averaged 13 Mbps down and 1.6Mbps up on both phones. 13Mbps is impressive, even if the upload speeds pale in comparison to Verizon's 4G LTE network, or even AT&T's recently launched LTE network (which is so new there aren't any phones that support it yet). Battery life was average at 5 hours 55 minutes of continuous talk time.
Processor and Apps
T-Mobile's Galaxy S II uses a different processor than the other three Galaxys. It trades in Samsung's fantastic 1.2GHz dual-core Exynos processor for Qualcomm's 1.5GHz dual-core Snapdragon S3. Despite the slight bump in clock speed, our benchmark scores didn't show any noticeable difference with the processor change. Even so, the Galaxy S II benchmarks faster than any other phone currently out there, save for the HTC Amaze 4G, which shares the same processor and achieved the same speeds.
The latest version of Android, 2.3.5, is pre-installed, and Samsung adds its signature TouchWiz extensions. There are also a bunch of useful add-on apps, including Kies Air, which lets you view your phone's contacts, messages, and media through a PC's Web browser; Media Hub, a downloadable music and video store; photo and video editors; and Social Hub, a combination Facebook/Twitter client. There's some bloatware from T-Mobile too, including a T-Mobile app store, T-Mobile TV, and T-Mobile Name ID, none of which are deletable. Of course, the Galaxy S II should also be compatible with everything in the Android Market, which has over 250,000 apps.
Physical Features, Phone Calls, and InternetSimply stated, the Samsung Galaxy S II is beautiful. At 5.1 by 2.7 by .4 inches (HWD) and 4.8 ounces, it's sleek and thin. It found it comfortable to hold, but users with smaller hands beware: this is one honking handset. It's a black slab, made entirely of plastic with a lightly textured back panel, but it feels very solid. Most of the phone's size is dedicated to its beautiful, 4.52-inch, 800-by-480 Super AMOLED Plus screen. This is lower resolution than the 960-by-540 display on the HTC Amaze 4G ($259.99, 4 stars), but there's no denying the incredible richness of Super AMOLED Plus. Colors here are more vibrant and the blacks are deeper. It's also larger than the 4.3-inch displays found on the rest of the Galaxy S II family.
Specifications
- Service Provider
- T-Mobile
- Operating System
- Android OS
- Screen Size
- 4.5 inches
- Screen Details
- 800-by-480 Super AMOLED Plus screen
- Camera
- Yes
- Network
- GSM, UMTS
- Bands
- 850, 900, 1800, 1900, 2100, 1700
- High-Speed Data
- EDGE, HSPA+ 42
- Processor Speed
- 1.5 GHz
You can hook into T-Mobile's HSPA+ 42 network and 802.11 a/b/g/n Wi-Fi with the Galaxy S II. It also works as a tethered modem or Wi-Fi hotspot with the right service plan. Download speeds were fantastic. In a series of head-to-head tests against the HTC Amaze 4G, I averaged 13 Mbps down and 1.6Mbps up on both phones. 13Mbps is impressive, even if the upload speeds pale in comparison to Verizon's 4G LTE network, or even AT&T's recently launched LTE network (which is so new there aren't any phones that support it yet). Battery life was average at 5 hours 55 minutes of continuous talk time.
Processor and Apps
T-Mobile's Galaxy S II uses a different processor than the other three Galaxys. It trades in Samsung's fantastic 1.2GHz dual-core Exynos processor for Qualcomm's 1.5GHz dual-core Snapdragon S3. Despite the slight bump in clock speed, our benchmark scores didn't show any noticeable difference with the processor change. Even so, the Galaxy S II benchmarks faster than any other phone currently out there, save for the HTC Amaze 4G, which shares the same processor and achieved the same speeds.
The latest version of Android, 2.3.5, is pre-installed, and Samsung adds its signature TouchWiz extensions. There are also a bunch of useful add-on apps, including Kies Air, which lets you view your phone's contacts, messages, and media through a PC's Web browser; Media Hub, a downloadable music and video store; photo and video editors; and Social Hub, a combination Facebook/Twitter client. There's some bloatware from T-Mobile too, including a T-Mobile app store, T-Mobile TV, and T-Mobile Name ID, none of which are deletable. Of course, the Galaxy S II should also be compatible with everything in the Android Market, which has over 250,000 apps.
Samsung has also added some interesting motion-activated controls to the UI. I particularly like the ability to flip over the phone to mute the ringer or any other sounds that are playing. In addition to this, you can move icons on the home screen by holding them down, then panning the phone left or right to switch between home screen pages. Other controls feel superfluous, like tilting the phone while touching the screen to zoom in on the browser or on images. Samsung has also added a tiny strip at the bottom of the home screen that allows you slide through home pages just by dragging a finger over it, which is helpful.
Multimedia and ConclusionsThe Galaxy S II comes with 13GB of free internal storage, along with an empty microSD card slot under the back cover that takes cards up to 32GB. Our 32GB SanDisk card worked fine, as well as a 64GB SanDisk Ultra microSDXC card. All of our test videos played back flawlessly, at resolutions up to 1080p. Our music test files played back without a hitch as well, and sound quality was excellent over both wired 3.5mm headphones as well as Altec Lansing BackBeat Bluetooth headphones ($99.99, 3.5 stars).
The 8-megapixel camera is very good. It snapped photos quickly, in about .4 seconds in my tests. It lacks the number of shooting options available on the Amaze 4G, but photos look just as good. Colors are accurate and details are sharp. The video camera was able to take 1080p HD videos at 25 frames per second indoors and 30 frames per second outdoors, and 720p videos at 30 frames per second both indoors and out. Videos looked terrific across the board, though we recommend sticking to 720p. There's also a 2-megapixel forward facing camera for self portraits and video chat.
Specifications
- Service Provider
- T-Mobile
- Operating System
- Android OS
- Screen Size
- 4.5 inches
- Screen Details
- 800-by-480 Super AMOLED Plus screen
- Camera
- Yes
- Network
- GSM, UMTS
- Bands
- 850, 900, 1800, 1900, 2100, 1700
- High-Speed Data
- EDGE, HSPA+ 42
- Processor Speed
- 1.5 GHz
But all things considered, the Samsung Galaxy S II really delivers on just about every element you could want from a smartphone, with top-of-the-line specs, a wealth of features, and style to spare. The HTC Amaze 4G is another good choice. It is powered by the same dual-core processor and pulled in excellent HSPA+ 42 speeds in our tests. It also features an excellent camera with a number of advanced functions. But at 6.1 ounces, it's heavy, and lacks a number of features you'll get with the Galaxy S II. The T-Mobile myTouch 4G Slide ($199.99, 4.5 stars) is another good choice, especially if you want a phone with a physical QWERTY keyboard. But that keyboard will cost you: the Slide weighs a pocket-punishing 6.5 ounces. So while it may have taken the longest to get to market, T-Mobile's Galaxy S II was worth the wait.
Benchmarks
Continuous talk time: 5 hours 50 minutes
Posting source: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2394528,00.asp#fbid=XUA8x7FNSVT
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