Wednesday 27 April 2011

Samsung Galaxy S II

After what seemed like ages since receiving my amazing Samsung Galaxy Tab, and thinking it was all over, I received an email into my inbox from Samsung.
We wondered if you would complete two more missions for us...on the new Galaxy S II!
Yes, that’s right, if you’d like to take part we’ll upgrade your handsets to our latest smartphone, which is not even in-store yet.  So if you would like to get involved, please let us know by Wednesday 20th April, and send us the address you would like us to send your new Galaxy S II to.”
Well, how could anyone say no to such an amazing offer! And believe me, I am SO glad I accepted! As soon as I opened the box and hit the power button of my brand new, as yet unreleased Samsung Galaxy S II all I could say was WOW!!
The Super AMOLED screen is utterly amazing, and is the clearest I have ever seen on any handset (and that comes from someone who works in mobile telephone retail). The handset feels brilliant to hold, the screen is a really good size, and it’s so thin and amazingly light, which I definitely wasn’t expecting. The Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) operating system seems faultless on this handset, and the TouchWiz interface ensures that everything is easy to find and to use. The notifications bar at the top of the screen allows you to easily turn on WiFi, Bluetooth and GPS, as well as adjusting sound profiles quickly and easily without trawling through endless menus. Add all this to the dual core processor onboard and you have a phone that’s super quick, super light and super...well, super!
Since I received delivery of the Galaxy S II while I was visiting Oxford and London, I decided that I’d make use of the sunshine and test the 8mp camera. AMAZING! One particular photo stunned me so much I have to share it...
You’d never tell that this was taken on a mobile phone and not a digital SLR camera. I’ve shown this picture to everyone I’ve spoken to recently and all of them agree.
As well as all the main features, this phone also has some really nice little gimmicks. The tilt to zoom feature is really handy when viewing photos or web pages, and the panning feature allows you to customise your home page extremely easily. All the usual android apps are available, as well as a gaming and music hub from Samsung, allowing you to download games and songs directly to the handset with minimal fuss.
The design of this handset is one of the thinnest I have seen on the market at the minute and is so simple yet elegant and extremely stylish. Also, the battery life stands up to my constant use, lasting longer than previous handsets I’ve used or owned.
I’m definitely proud to be one of the first people to own this handset. The Samsung Galaxy S II is effortless to use, and from reading various other internet blogs it seems that anyone else who has tested this phone agrees. I knew it would be difficult to surpass the success of the Samsung Galaxy S, but the Galaxy S II will definitely be the handset to do it!