Samsung Galaxy S II - still a cake!

In the spring I managed to drive one day with a raw-dresser engineering model SGS II, and then I did not enjoy the excitement. Everything was with him, but somehow the gadget did not cling to me, and that was all. There was not even the most overwhelming raisin in it - solid high technology ... Several months passed, the raisins were no more, but all the roughness had smoothed out, and now it is rightfully the most technologically advanced smartphone today. For him it would be no sin to give 25 thousand, well, a maximum of 28, but no more. And the official price, meanwhile, is 31990!

Design

Apple knowingly sued Samsung for copying the latest iPhone design! Galaxy S II is really very similar to the apple mobile. On the other hand, what modern smartphone with a large display doesn’t look like it? They all look the same. But these two models, if not peer, and the truth, can be easily confused. Both have a thin black case, a large display and a large button below it.
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The difference becomes noticeable only after the gadget enters the hand. The second galaxy is made of plastic, which means that it is much lighter than glass-metal iphone. And it is also thinner, and it is believed that because of this is not so comfortable in the hand. In any case, I get used to this ratio of size and weight only now - one month after the start of testing.



In addition, the back panel of this Samsung is not as austere as the iPhone: at the bottom there is a ledge that the finger conveniently clings to, at the top there is an impressive eight-megapixel camera module, and the cover itself is textured, which makes me happy hand does not slip at all.

And the buyer will probably like the concept: despite the fact that the body is completely plastic, it is assembled to the conscience, no squeaks even during attempts to twist the smartphone, but well, it gives the impression of a quality thing even before it starts Shine a super bright display.

Display

The Galaxy S II screen rips to shreds all the displays that are currently on the market, unless they are also not made using Super AMOLED Plus technology. The last word in the title is, in my opinion, pure marketing (according to the subjective feelings of the standard “amoled”, if it is different for the better, then only slightly), but in this case, you can forgive the marketers desire to emphasize the coolness of the screen. It can be so bright that in the direct rays of the sun, not only the contrasting text remains readable, but the colors seem practically untouched. And I'm not exaggerating, really!

Oh yes, I almost forgot to say about the resolution ... The matrix has a resolution of 480x800 pixels - not the highest figure, but these are honest pixels, not the PenTile matrix, where the same subpixel belongs to two whole pixels at once. Separate points here, unless you look closely, not noticeable. And in the end, what's the difference how many pixels are there if the display is just cool?

Iron

Samsung, like HTC (and maybe vice versa), did not install NVIDIA into its top-end smart mainstream hardware and built it on the basis of its own Exynos chip, known until recently as Orion. First, it made it possible to distinguish the device among a number of others on the same platform. And secondly, this system on one chip turned out so cool that in software tests it tears all competitors into small pieces.

This is due to the fact that the chip includes a Cortex-A9 dual-core processor running at 1.2 GHz, gigabytes of DDR-2 RAM, and a Mali-400 video subsystem that can handle stereo image resolution FullHD.



For lovers of counting parrots, I provide the screen of the Quadrant benchmark, and all the rest is left to say that I have never been slowed down. While lying! The game Cut the Rope hung up, taking two minutes and the whole system with it, but this is some kind of game error, with which the developers agreed in response to my bug report. (By the way, if there are SGS-II owners among you, and the software update hasn’t come out yet, then I know how to solve the problem - it turns out you just need to cut down the music and other sounds in the application!)

True, all this power has one side effect: the gadget sometimes heats up so that it is difficult to hold it in your hands - it becomes so hot! Moreover, it was not possible to reveal any strict dependence. It happens, the top iron reminds of itself literally out of the blue, when, for example, a mail client is launched and only. And it also happens that heavy three-dimensional games make the device only slightly warm.

Camera

Pictures, which makes the eight-megapixel camera Galaxy S II, one of the best among smartphones. They are not even afraid to open on the big screen.


Two Chertanovskih full resolution


Monastery on the Volga in full resolution


The nose of the ship "George Zhukov" in full resolution


Kozmodemyansky house in full resolution


Sunset on the Volga in full resolution


Nizhny Novgorod pedestrian bridge in full resolution


Nomobil version 3.0 in full resolution

But the video, despite the high resolution Full HD and the lack of grain, the output is not the best because of problems with autofocus.

Soft

The smartphone runs on Android 2.3 with the TouchWiz 4 shell, which makes the system oh-so-very similar to Samsung's own software platform. Firstly, this is good for those who suddenly decide to buy a powerful androidphone instead of a regular touchscreen phone, and secondly, it fixes the flaws in the Android interface, which are still present in version 2.3. Personally, I really liked the set of "toggle switches" inside the top panel: in a couple of clicks, you can turn on or off Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS, sound and auto-rotate the screen without having to crawl through the wilds of the menu. And besides, we were pleased with the company's widgets, the size of which can be dynamically changed right on the desktop, the “Applications” menu, divided into separate pages, and, of course, the ability to take screenshots using the combination of the lock key and the button below the display.



We should also mention that the smartphone easily digests any multimedia content. Too lazy to convert Full-HD-film in MKV format? Yes, and do not - the handset is able to reproduce such a file. You can even with subtitles.

Battery

The battery here is a Li-Ion 1650 mAh. This is slightly more than the “average for the hospital”, but in combination with the AMOLED-display (and this, as you know, the main energy consumer) allows you to achieve a stable 12 hours of operation with particularly dense use when the smartphone is used instead of a computer.

Little things

At first, it was wildly frustrating that the power and lock button was on the right side, because the vast majority of similar devices usually have it on the top, but in the end I got used to it, because the volume control keys because of this were placed on the left, and not to the right.



What could not get used to, so it is to the location of the speaker. On the ledge of the rear panel there are two holes through which the sound should in theory go out. And he regularly does it when the gadget is in the hand vertically. Turn it into landscape mode, or, say, put it on a bed, and it becomes like a fish - the speaker is tightly closed with a palm or blanket. Therefore, than to accidentally miss an important call, it is better to put the phone "face" down, hoping that the surface is flat, and there are enough half-millimeter projections of the shiny border so that the display does not scratch.

Competitors

The ideological opponent of SGS-II is of course the fourth iPhone, and among smartphones on the same platform is the HTC Sensation. All three devices are really good. Ask me which one to choose and I will not be able to answer. So it goes…

Summary

I have repeatedly said that the Galaxy S II at first did not impress me at all. But I must confess that over time, I was filled with great respect to the developers of this gadget. It has long been on the market did not appear so powerful, technological devices. Yes, there is no proverbial raisin in it, and why hide it, it frankly looks like an iPhone 4. But, damn it, this thing never turned up on me, it digested any content and allowed to work comfortably with any, even the heaviest sites! I do not care that smart faceless, I still take! Only not in Euroset and not in Connected, because 32 pieces are expensive even for such a tube.

TTX

OS: Google Android 2.3.3 + TouchWiz 4.0
Processor: Samsung Exynos dual-core, 1.2 GHz
RAM: 1 GB
Main memory: 16 GB + microSD up to 32 GB
Screen: Super AMOLED Plus, 4.3 ", 800 x 480
Communications: 3G, Wi-Fi 802.11 b / g / n, Bluetooth 3.0, USB 2.0
Connectors: micro USB, 3.5mm
Cameras: 8 megapixels, flash, autofocus + 0.3 megapixels for video calls
Navigation: GPS, GPS
Battery: 1650 mAh
Dimensions: 125 x 66 x 8.5 mm
Weight: 116 grams
Price: 31990 rub.