Samsung Galaxy SII

Anyone following the Apple vs Samsung war? So just recently, Apple won in the Netherlands against the galaxy phones, note: not tablet.

Know where the conflict was? The swyping gesture in the photo gallery to browse through photos. Yes, that was patented and caused the Samsung Galaxy phones with that feature in the gallery app to get banned. Samsung offered some comfort to their customers in the Netherlands by saying they'll be switching up the gallery app to allow sales of their phones again.

Makes you wonder.. if broad stuff like that (gestures) can be patented and does get patented, won't that cause some type of roadblock in our progress of these devices? For example, Swype is known for their swyping input for keyboards. But there's also Flex T9 and HTC Trace that do the same thing. I have yet to see any lawsuits thrown around, so I assume Swype's patents are more detailed.

 

Patents are a two way street. They can protect products but they are also road blocks that stop innovation. Patents for things that never even get built are the worst. I also think patents for gestures seems kind of silly.

 

Looks like the Galaxy S II will be coming to all of the US carriers except Verizon. The Sprint version has an absolutely ridiculous name. It will be called the "Galaxy S II Epic 4G Touch."

I've heard the screen on these is supposed to be pretty amazing, and they have a snappy 1.2ghz dual core CPU. If the AT&T version really has a keyboard, I'll probably upgrade to one of these. Don't get me wrong, touchscreen keyboards have improved dramatically in recent years, but they're still nowhere near as good as a physical keyboard. I think that's one of the big reasons Blackberries still have a market despite being horribly dated in most regards.

http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/news/2011/08/samsung-galaxy-s-ii-smartphone-enters-us-orbit-in-mid-september.ars

 

Its a good phone, a couple of people here at work have it. The screen is fantastic I just think its a bit too big overall. It weighs almost nothing so if it wasn't so big you would probably forget it was in your pocket at all.

 

sprints most likely just going to call it the epic 4g touch. they're probably the only carrier still using a US variant of the name since their original galaxy s epic 4g did so well.

grim, if you think that's big, att just so happens to be the only carrier that is getting the original 4.3" version. sprint and Tmobile USA are both getting 4.5" versions.

 

so i just got the sprint variant of this phone. 4.5" juggernaut. my htc evo was showing its age chugging along in the updated adw launcher ex.

i had no idea that this variant would have an led notification light.. jesus christ that was a nice surprise. i'll have to get used to the power/standby button being on the side as well as the menu and home buttons being swapped around.

i was able to score this at $350.. it's nice that t-mobile and sprint phones hold no value. the original owner only had this for a day.

so far, i can already tell the wimax radio is better than my evo's. i can pick up wimax at the house where my evo couldnt. this thing also supports 5GHz wifi bands. one of the main reasons i wanted to switch phones was due to my evo having horrible battery life. i'd be at work for a 9hr shift or so. my phone would be on for maybe an hour most, the rest of the time in airplane mode. when i leave work, it'd be at 60% battery.. ???? sgs2 is supposed to have remarkable battery life.

 

Is it easily pocket-able at 4.6"?

Sometimes I regret not getting the GS2, especially since they still haven't rooted this goddamn iPhone in months and months.

 

Yea, it's easily pocketable.. for me at least. You mentioned you were borderline on the 4" epic 4g.




The evo was 4.3" and I had no issues with it. It's slightly thicker and I also put it in a phone condom so it made it even more thicker. The SGS2 is a bit thinner than my evo but noticeably wider/taller. But I think since it's slim, it's not an issue at all in my pocket.

 

I'm almost to the point where I can renew my contract, so I'll probably still get one of these. It's one of the best reviewed smartphones on the market, and has been wildly successful.

@Khaid

Did yours come loaded with Ice Cream Sandwich, or is it still running Gingerbread?

 

It's still on Gingerbread. I don't think ICS went official for the SGS2 international or US versions yet.

 

The Epic4g was beastly thick due to the built in keyboard. I felt the screen size was just perfect though. The iPhone is too small for me, and the lack of the notification light as burned me on multiple occasions. Anybody that talked shit about that light, never had a phone with it before.

 

The iphone really isn't that great. It's all hype.

If you've had one of the premium Android phones, you'll probably be pretty underwhelmed by it honestly.

 

Yeah, I mean, who actually thinks that faster processing and graphics is important anymore? Probably only the baristas at Starbucks. Big screens with slow processors...that's where it's at for today's discerning tech enthusiast.

 

The main benefit from the iPhone is how stable it is. I only rebooted it once since I got it, whereas it was becoming a routine with my Android.

Also the Epic4g was the Galaxy -S 1, it was as premium as you could get at the time. That's how I motherfuckin roll at all times.

 

Holy nutballs. This thing boots up like it's on an ssd. It boots up in about 7sec or less. It also surfs web pages like my desktop. It loads the full site facebook page super fast.

 

Hmm, when I got mine, it was still stock with all the carrier bloat still on it too. And sprint has quite a bit of garbage on their phones. Sprint TV, NASCAR (car racing) trash, NFL (american football) trash, etc. Although the firmware must've been newer though. The phone came with the original firmware when it launched in US mid-sept.

I must say touchwiz isn't all that bad. They could work on the aesthetics more, but it's probably the most functional overlay out of all of the different ones. I hear that the touchwiz browser has hardware acceleration too.

 

I'm still running a Nexus One and I never reboot it, it never goes wrong, don't know if it is that stock android is more stable than the versions with an overlay but it works great.

Will be upgrading in a couple of months, wonder if the SII will still be the phone of choice come April or if I will have other options.

 

the galaxy s III will be right around the corner by then.

 

After tons of rumors and letdowns, Samsung officially unleashes ICS for the Galaxy S II internationally. The scheduling of the release is dependent on your carrier and market.

The other thing to note there is that they'll also be throwing in some new features for the older gen Galaxy users.

Some Nexus S users in some markets still don't have ICS yet.. this is funny.