Samsung Galaxy SII Review

The Samsung galaxy SII is an Android smartphone and the second of the Samsung Galaxy series, released into the markets in May of 2011 and was a great hit selling over 40 million devices. This phone has been succeeded by the Samsung Galaxy SIII and improved in almost all aspects.

The Good: 

The Samsung Galaxy S II supports a fast-paced dual-core processor of 1.2GHz backed up with a vibrant 4.5-inch Super-AMOLED Plus producing a sharper and less grainy image. If you’re an Android-Fanatics, this phone would be your cup of tea as it runs Android 4.0 and is 4-G mobile ultra-broadband Internet access capable. The quality of the camera is near excellent with 8 megapixels - supporting hd photography. 

The Bad:

The biggest let down of this beautiful phone would probably be it’s battery - when on sleep-mode/lock screen, this phone lasts under 10 hours max. Also, the sound output isn’t the best quality having a low volume and slightly grainy sound.

Category Overviews 
(All scores are in correlation to the release date)

Build quality - 8/10

The build quality of this phone is average - with a plastic shell and somewhat fragile screen permitting some scratches here and there.

Call quality - 9/10

The size of the phone interferes with the call quality, however the firmware update from the previous update (before Jellybean) Ice Cream Sandwich version of Android greatly improves the call quality.

Multimedia - 8/10

Generally this phone is very competent when it comes to video, however the audio output isn’t the best so I wouldn’t recommend this phone to anyone looking for a phone that would suffice as your mp3 source as well.

Internet - 9/10

As said earlier, This phone is  capable of 4-G mobile Ultra-Broadband Internet access which is quite rare for a phone this old. This phone is very proficient in this category and I would recommend it for all heavy internet users.

UI Speed - 9/10

With the newest android update - Jellybean - the UI speed has improved greatly with the touch responding nearly immediately with little to no lag improving the UI speed to match it’s big brother the Samsung Galaxy S3.

Text input - 7/10

Despite the fact that this phone is over 4.5 inches wide and the , the touch quality of text input is quite glitchy and sometimes doesn’t respond. The next phone - Samsung Galaxy SIII has improved it’s touch and many more features. I do however have to give this phone some credit for it’s swype text-input function making text-input much more efficient and convenient. 

Battery Life - 5/10

The battery life would probably be the biggest let down of this beautiful phone with a 12 hour maximum battery life when on sleep-mode/lock screen making it very frustrating and very inconvenient.

Camera - 9/10

This phone comes with a magnificent 8-megapixel Back-illuminated sensor (digital image sensor) with auto focus, 1080 and 30 fps full HD video recording and Single LED flash. - which is obviously very strong for a phone of this size. Beating the iPhone 4s and producing sharp HD images. The zoom effect on this phone is very strong especially considering that the camera is 8-megapixel. On top of that, this phone also includes a front camera with only a 2-megapixel camera. However the quality from this side is quite decent as well.

Everyday Usage - 8/10

Overly organized and to strenuous to access certain areas of the phone, however is a very capable phone - for a more straightforward phone I would probably recommend an apple iPhone. If you are someone like me who likes to manage/send out a lot of their e-mails, facebooking etc. on they’re phone, the samsung galaxy isn’t the best especially due to it’s text input.

Display - 9/10

This phone’s display could be one of the biggest assets of the phone with a vibrant 4.5-inch Super-AMOLED Plus producing a sharper and less grainy image. Very few phones of this age possess this quality display making this phone more valuable.

Category	Score /10
Build Quality	8
Call Quality	9
Multimedia	8
UI Speed	9
Internet	9
Text Input	7
Battery Life	5
Camera	9
Everyday Usage	8
Display	9
Average - 8.1/10

Final Thoughts:

Despite it’s minor flaws, I personally am a very big fan of this phone. The display and camera are both near immaculate and the call quality is clear and distinct. This phone serves it’s purpose as a smartphone very well however, as I said earlier, if you’re looking for a phone that would be your mp3 source as well, the Samsung Galaxy sII wouldn’t be the best model - a better model would be the HTC Sensation XL with Beats by Dre Audio or the Samsung Galaxy Note 2 with 5.3 surround sound. Overall I would say that this phone is a sensational phone for it’s time and would please many.