Samsung News Geek

I'm not the first to say that you really need to hold this phone yourself to get the best experience. From a basic design perspective this phone is beautiful, an exceptionally thin, black, flat slab with gun metal grey edging. At only 116 grams its really light too (my previous iPhone 4 was 137 grams), but sturdy, well put together and very comfortable to hold.

The Samsung I9100 Galaxy S II software is great. The home screen widgets are cool and useful with handy shortcuts from which you can instantly call/sms/email/etc.

I have found that configuring the home screens and app pages is pretty easy. I've gotten a few new notifications which are well handled (not as disruptive as with the iPhone) in that they come up as little icons in the top status bar that alert you to any notification that's happening (e.g. email, sms, calendar reminder, app installation, etc.), which you can take or leave in the notification menu to look at again later which is useful.

Again the Samsung I9100 Galaxy S II screen is great. True vivid colour, fantastic contrast because there is no backlight in the display because it's super amoled.

There are also two touch sensitive buttons at the bottom of the display, to (the left and right side of the home button) which when you press them, they light up, and the phone gently vibrates a tiny bit to provide further user feedback that it was pressed. I find the 4.3" screen comfortable and so much easier to type on than the smaller screen found on the iPhone. The pixels on the phone are small but large enough for me to read without having to zoom in.

Certainly the expense of the Samsung I9100 Galaxy S II is something that realistically will have an impact on your decision to make the purchase. My best advice is to shop around, but I purchased from Amazon because it seems to be a bit cheaper and I know what I'm getting. However, at the end of the day, what you will be getting is a sure top end device which hopefully will have some longevity in today's market...

I actually use the camera on the Samsung I9100 Galaxy S II a lot and it's terrific, easy to use, fast, and high quality. The camera is full 1080p and I am particularly impressed with the video. With 16GB of storage this is more than enough for me to store hours of video footage, movies and music.

However, if you need to add more, there is space underneath the battery cover to put in your SIM card and/or microSD card which is a great, cheap and easy way of increasing the capacity of your phone.

The Samsung I9100 Galaxy S IIs phone is a lot more comfortable against my ear if I compare to my previous iPhone 4. Audio sound is clear. Reception strong so far and I move around a lot. Because the antenna is located on the back, very bottom, of the phone, if you cover this I find you might lose a bar of strength but it has to be deliberate so I can't imagine it ever being a problem.

This phone also uses the new standard for phone chargers - essentially a microUSB port - located at the bottom of the phone (the headphone jack is at the top). This single multi-purpose port is used when connecting the phone to your computer, charger or whatever. I seem to be getting around two days usage.

In my opinion the Samsung I9100 Galaxy S II 16 GB Sim Free Smartphone is a better phone than the iPhone 4. It is a beautiful phone, intuitive, super fast, true brilliant screen, with usable and customisable software. In fact, I struggle to find anything to criticize except perhaps the price tag, but even at that the Samsung I9100 Galaxy S II actually feels worth the price (unbelievably slightly cheaper than the iPhone 4).

So if you are in the market for a smartphone, the Samsung I9100 Galaxy S II in my view, is a great buy and the one to go with.