The Samsung Galaxy S2 is the upgraded version of the best-selling Galaxy S. It is hailed as one of the best smartphones currently available, and thus it has proven to be very popular. In this article I will take a closer look at its key features so you can decide if it is the right smartphone for you.
The Samsung Galaxy S2 is known for having a very good touchscreen. At 4.3 inches it is quite sizable, but where it really excels is in its display quality this is thanks to a resolution of 480x 800, and its super AMOLED Plus capacitive touchscreen technology. The resolution gives it a pixels density of 217 ppi (pixels per inch), so videos, photos, web pages and the interface are all displayed in unparalleled clarity.
One of the most important aspects for many when choosing a new mobile phone is the camera. The Samsung Galaxy S2 certainly provides in this department with an 8 megapixel unit, capable of taking high quality still images and even full high definition video footage in 1080p quality. The camera comes with several useful features in its accompanying software package such as autofocus, touch focus, face & smile detection and image stabilisation. These are all included to improve the quality of the resulting images, as well as make it easier to take them as many of these settings can be set to automatic. There is an additional camera located on the front of the handset, which
Internet browsing is certainly one of the strengths of the Samsung Galaxy S2. With download speeds of 21 Mbps in 3G covered areas, it is joined by only a couple of other handsets which can share boast this data download rate, with most new smartphones downloading data at 14.4 Mbps. Of course, Wi-Fi connectivity is included, making it the ideal portable web browsing device. The HTML browser supports flash content, and full email capabilities and other messaging formats are of course included as standard.
The operating system of choice for the Samsung Galaxy S2 is the renowned Android OS; in this case it is the latest version, called Gingerbread (version 2.3) which is the latest version of the smartphone optimised platform. Along with the TouchWiz 4.0 user interface, it makes for a customisable and versatile smartphone experience. As an Android device, it is of course packed with applications and impressive features straight out of the box. To run powerful applications, and provide the necessary computing power to numerous apps and tasks, the Samsung Galaxy S2 packs a 1.2 GHz dual-core processor. This makes the overall performance of the phone outstanding, and its power is lent to many areas of the phone's use.
All sounds good so far right? Surely this phone must have some bad points...
Well, it is actually hard to find anything negative to say about this phone. The spec list itself reads like a phone enthusiasts dream device, so there are certainly no bad points about the technology itself. Some reviews hint that the handset itself is of disappointing built quality, but in my opinion it is no worse than any of its competing smartphones.
Overall, the Samsung Galaxy S2 is a great phone in many respects, and its popularity (it was recently reported that over 40 million units have been sold since its release in February 2011) is testament to this. It makes the perfect alternative for those who are not sold by the popular iPhone and HTC units currently dominating the smartphone market. If you are interested in this handset it is now available on many UK networks, most of which offer the handset for free on selected tariffs.
