What else is there to mention? Whether in its original, exotic exterior , its lightly changed but far more accessible AT&T-flavored model , or the decidedly Epic Sprint version, the Samsung Galaxy S II hasn’t ever did not impress us. Basically, we called that first release “the very best Android smartphone yet” and still, nearly six months later, it sits mighty near the end of the pile — if not squarely on the peak, waving its flag proudly whilst taunting the others below.
Here today we’re the last of the 3 Musketeers: the T-Mobile version. This marks the general US release of the Galaxy S II, unveiled in late-August. At that announcement event the device was curiously locked up in Lucite, but now it’s here in our hands. While we didn’t really need to set down this 16GB, 1.5GHz, 42Mbps HSPA+ wunderphone, we gently laid it aside just long enough to put in writing this very review. Join us as we see what sets this latest and final revision apart.
Hardware
All of the three GS II variants now subsidized at our domestic carriers have received some visual tweaking to distinguish themselves from the unique, sliver-thin European model. Just like the other two, the T-Mobile version has lost the physical front button, leaving with a collection of 4 capacitive receptors along the underside of the screen for handling the common swath of Android tasks.
Beyond that, the diversities listed here are decidedly subtle. Of america models, this version has the roundest shoulders, though you really want to stack the 3 up in a pile to inform. (Naturally, we did just that.) an even bigger differentiator is the removable battery cover. At the other versions the chin of the device is shiny chrome, but here the whole back of the device has a soft-touch feel. That whole, rubberized plate peels away to bare the battery, SIM card and microSD slot (the latter of that’s vacant out of the box, inviting you to expand the 16GB integrated here).
0 The eight megapixel shooter at the back is vertically aligned with the flash, as was the Sprint version — rotated 90-degrees from the AT&T and international releases — but apart from a special loss of manufacturer branding on its backside (you will have to turn it over whenever you forget who made it) it truly is much the identical device.
It’s at the front you could find T-Mobile and Samsung logos, both in discreet chrome embossed above and below the 4.52-inch, WVGA Super AMOLED Plus display. That fits the Epic 4G Touch version on Sprint for size, a slight step up from the (already more-than-adequate) 4.3-inch version AT&T and the remainder of the sector got. So, if you would like a bit of more that’s it, but that comes on the cost of reduced pixel density — it’s WVGA the entire way, notwithstanding which flavor you select.
But, we’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: we’re happy to renounce resolution for the always catching contrast and colours produced by this slice of organic diodes. Viewing angles are as nearly 180 degrees as you may get, and straight-at the picture is beautiful. When cranked to its brightest it will make you recoil, but as ever readability in direct sunlight just isn’t this technology’s forte. Yes, you are able to read it outside without much bother, but don’t expect much within the way of contrast when you do.
1 The gunmetal chrome ring that makes up the outer extent of this device is punctuated at the upper-right for the ability button. The micro-USB port is at the bottom, a volume-rocker at the upper-left, while the three.5mm headphone jack is up on top. So it is the same basic layout of inputs and ports because the rest — give or take a number of millimeters here or there.
Dimensionally, there are not any big surprises to be found. At its thinnest, this GS II measures 9.4mm (.37-inches), but chubs as much as 11.5mm (.45-inches) at that chin. You are looking at 69mm (2.7-inches) across and 130mm (5.1-inches) tall. This again puts it within spitting distance of the Epic 4G Touch, which skipped dessert last night and so is available in at only a fraction of a mm thinner. You will not really notice the adaptation between those two, but you are going to spot the whole millimeter gained over the unique. You’ll notice the additional heft, too — 4.87 ounces (138g) in step with our scale, which makes it the chunkiest of the bunch.
Perhaps that’s to make room for that 1,850mAh battery (also the most important), or the bevy of antennas inside. Here we’re watching quadband GSM plus tri-band UMTS, almost certainly including HSPA+ while also including Bluetooth 3.0 and 802.11a/b/g/n. And, yes, there’s NFC support baked in here besides, though not one of the NFC apps we tried could actually read tags. Even worse, 7 Google Wallet 7 isn’t even available for download yet.
Software
2 No surprise that this version of the GS II is running Gingerbread, but it is the highest numbered version of the 3, popping out of the box offering 2.3.5. The additional few hundredths of some extent are not making a lick of difference here in comparison with the others, and as ever it’s TouchWiz that makes essentially the most striking visual impact the 1st time you adorn this thing together with your own touch.
While TouchWiz is what it’s, we discover ourselves liking some of the customizations you will see that here. This contains a form of gestures for navigating throughout the OS and gallery (as we detailed thoroughly in our 8 original review 8 ) and plenty of helpful desktop widgets for such things as power management and road traffic. There’s also the customized applications list, which makes it easy to create folders and groups of applications in the full list. That’s, without a doubt , particularly useful for hiding among the bloatware that this guy comes installed with.
Big Magenta has pre-installed some utility apps, like 411 & More for locating infos and Name ID for displaying information regarding who’s ringing you — if you are willing to pony up $3.99 a month to make it work. There’s obviously a ramification of media apps, like T-Mobile TV and Kies air, the latter of which lets you sync media manually (if you’ve opted out of Google’s own avenues for media syncing). There are more than one games you likely won’t care about, Qik Video Chat is handily pre-installed after which there’s the T-Mobile Mall, which helps you to buy ringtones for $2.99 a pop.
Remember when people happily paid three bucks for ringtones? Ahh, the times before Ringdroid.
Performance and battery life
3 A Galaxy S phone can’t get by on looks alone, and the GS IIs have all been performers. With its 1.5GHz processor, a step up from the opposite phones’ 1.2GHz chips, this could be the quickest of the bunch, right? Not so fast, dear reader. Those phones used Samsung’s dual-core Exynos, while the T-Mobile flavor is instead using the twin-core Snapdragon APQ8060. While that won’t exactly like comparing apples to oranges, these two bits of silicon definitely wouldn’t be present in the identical portion of the produce aisle.
There are numerous cases where this phone proves slower than its siblings, including a Quadrant score of two,576 (the Epic 4G nabbed 3,244), Linpack single / multi scores of 42 / 70 MFLOPS, respectively (in comparison to 55.1 and 79.5) and Neocore hovering at around 57fps (in comparison to 59.8).
So, T-Mo got the gimped device, then? Oh no, it’s never that straightforward. The SunSpider 0.9.1 JavaScript benchmark, which provides a very good impression of the way quickly a latest webpage will load and respond, delivered an astonishing 2,407ms. That’s a whole 1,000ms below the former versions managed and a brand new Engadget world record.
Obviously, none of this matters worth a damn inside the real world; it is all about how the telephone performs and feels within the hand, and when cradled thusly the GS II won’t disappoint. It boots in a decent 28 seconds and, once there, is incredibly aware of your every gesture. Webpages load quickly, apps launch promptly and suffice to assert this is not a tool so they can leave you wanting.
Battery life doesn’t disappoint, although this model doesn’t match the heights of the AT&T model, which scored 9.5 hours at the battery rundown test. The Sprint version struggled to maintain a video looping for 8.5 hours, while this model made it 7.7 hours. This is, again, despite having the most important battery of the 3. We are not sure whether guilty T-Mo’s antennas or the recent processor, but still we do not think you’ll upset with the longevity here. We found an afternoon of solid usage to be well in the realm of possibility, more in case you keep things light.
In the case of network performance this can be a 42.2Mbps HSPA+ device and, while we weren’t ready to test in a space that has that sort of bandwidth available, we have seen results showing 20 – 25Mbps down and a pair of – 3Mbps up. Obviously your mileage here will vary considerably counting on network strength, and our own tests in a place T-Mo’s coverage map lists as “4G Good” were admittedly less stellar, but still quite good: averaging 9.5Mbps down and 1.8 up. Pings of 700 – 800ms, however, mean you will not would like to pipe your COD server through this connection.
Camera
4 The Galaxy S II has become world-renowned for the great camera assembly poking out the back, and this latest revision does nothing to detract from that halo-like status. It is the same eight megapixel sensor and other guts we’ve come to grasp and love elsewhere and here it performs admirably. The camera is responsive, focusing and shooting quickly, and the resulting pictures are likely to look fantastic.
But, they don’t seem to be always perfect. As we’ve noticed before, the narrow dynamic range of the sensor here can create some washed-out images when shooting particularly bright scenes, or very murky ones when the lighting sways too far the opposite direction. You will see that during the motorcycle shot into the sun, where the glinting rays cause everything dark to get a little pale. Stay acquainted with this limitation and you may take some amazing shots in this phone, especially while you make an effort to dive into the extensive customizations made possible throughout the camera app, including exposure compensation, white balance and ISO.
Video has the similar, contrast-rich look and records great-looking footage at 1080p, that’s plenty enough pixels to maintain your new HDTV sated (unless you 9 really went big 9 ). The camera is often quick to regulate focus for subjects near or far, but we did notice slightly focus-hunting, as we have seen beforehand. Also, the scary CMOS jelly-vision effect is extremely noticeable here, so it is advisable keep a gradual hand while filming any sunbathing pooches.
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9 Wrap-up
0 If you’d been hoping this Galaxy S II with the better clock speed would wipe the ground with the former models, we’re sorry to claim that isn’t quite the case. It’s indeed quicker in web browsing and a few other situations, but if it involves gaming and multimedia it’s actually a touch slower. The result’s basically a wash, so if you are buying this guy over the others it’ll need to be on its other merits.
There are of course many merits to choose between here, but none of them vastly out-shine the AT&T or Sprint versions we’ve already spent plenty of time with. On the end of this proverbial day the T-Mobile Galaxy S II is particularly much the identical its siblings — and that’s an incredibly, outstanding thing. In case you are on T-Mobile or were seeking to get a bit more magenta to your life that is a surprisingly good selection. But, when you are already on Sprint or AT&T and are reasonably happy to remain there, pick up a kind of versions instead. Whichever way you swing, you will be getting an excellent phone.
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