at night better leave the job for dslrs

for now the main issues i see these phone owners have are phone build and camera(which is still debatable)

im waiting for the end of the month to buy a phone. it would either be this phone or htc sensation. have to admit their UI is cool

actually, its just normal...

Just that a forumer wants to know whether it is hot after 30 mins of talking.

So i removed my previous experience and gave him my verdict.

signal strength, its pretty good, full bar 3.5g when im in my room

here is the weird part, if i go out, drop to 2-3 bars...

in toilet, only got 2-3bar 3g, no 3.5g

lol, urs is metal, if not hot i dunu how lol.... anodised aluminium rite n8??

not super hot, but hot that it gets very uncomfortable near ur ear

since when a good screen protector is cheap lol??

If you wish for a more future proof - go for a dual core  O2X . But having used the Motorola Atrix which is also a dual core - the main davantage you can see is in browsing speed and under multitasking - much smoother. As most apps are not optimized yet for dual core - any increase in performance from the dual core is not significant. This increase in performance we will only see in apps being redesign for dual core ; the most obvious I'd think will be in the games

Between the ARC and the Incredible S - my vote goes to the Incredible S. I have used both phones. You have to ask yourself which aspects of the smartphone is important than readup the features,  user's comments, and web reviews. The price difference is not much between the two about RM 100-200 max , the  IS being cheaper. The phone that meet most of your NEEDs not your wants is your choice.

A user commented the Xperia Arc was number one before SGS II was released ?? - this statement is an overkill. One can claim is number one for own needs but to say is number one as a general statement is an exaggeration

In my opinion based on MY own needs, The htc Incredible S is a way much better phone than the Xperia Arc based on my usage of both ARC and Incredible S. Checkup my blog for a comparison review. I'd highly recommend the Incredible S as a good starter Android phone in the RM 1500-RM 1900 range. The HTC IS is excellent in many areas while the Arc strengths is mainly on its camera/video recording and even though is better , I feel is not significantly much ahead.

One potential ARC buyer  PM me several times to ask me to clarify on my comparison but he still buy the Arc after that. A few days later he PM me and said my comments were " right on the spot" as he was using a HTC Desire HD ( which is similar to the HIS ). He clarify further saying " Well, I wouldn't say it's 100% what I am looking for in a phone. The problems that you mentioned, like the extremely slow boot up, the slightly worse performance due to lack of storage and RAM, it's all true and it's all there. And these are things I wish to address in my future phone. But right now they do not make me unhappy about the phone, because after our conversation, I already expect those problems when I made my purchase. So the key is to know exactly what you are getting when you buy the phone. "

One of the user here has lamented selling off his IS for the SGS II ; I understand his feeling as he is a new Android user having move over from IOS. The HTC IS UI is undoubtedly one of the better if not best Android UI for a new user. It has a very well designed UI and widgets all beautifully designed.  Having used several Androids, just on UI effectiveness, slickness, features - HTC is ahead follow by Samsung, Xperia Arc and last Motorola Atrix

However though I have positive words on HTC UI I never use it. Similarly I never used the default UI of  TouchWiz in the Galaxy S, Motoblur in the Atrix, Stage UI in the Dell Streak. I always prefer to customize the UI from scratch using either ADW Launcher of Launcher Pro.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u3Ilo-A_OJE...be_gdata_player

The longer one il post it when im back home, youtube dun allow me to upload big files via 3g.

I discocered, i can edit the video, but i have to go and take the video thru videomaker app

---

Added on May 8, 2011, 6:28 pmYes, 1080p kenot edit thru video maker

My full review is coming tomorrow.
Alot of things to hantam but not much to praise.

android like one said, takes full use mostly of its software, not just by its hardware.

even with a low spec phone, with the right software coding, the phone is silky smooth.

does the SGS2 imported from UK support chinese language?

Comparison of photos taken by Galaxy S II and Nexus S

Galaxy S II


Nexus S

Galaxy S II


Nexus S


Galaxy S II


Nexus S

In some pictures, I feel Nexus S has better colour ...
Some pictures, Galaxy S II very sharp..

My opinion on some comments raised by potential buyers : Is the SGS II a good worthy buy ?

Is this the best ? NO it is not. There is always a better one coming out just round the corner. As of now , if it meets most of your needs, consider it your best

First of all do not be distracted by negative comments unless it is a repeated case similarly opinionated by several users. Off the cuff comments are plenty and we do have not many users yet - I recorded 10 so far but only active commenting on it is 3-4 users only. Others are quiet, perhaps they are very happy with it already or they are just too shy to post their opinions. Some negative comments are solely based on personal preferences on what they expect from the phone. Their certain expectations could be unimportant to you

These are my personal opinion - there is no right/wrong answer here. I am not a high power user. Besides the usual phone functions, I used the phone mainly for browsing/Email/Newsfeed/RSS/Tweeter/Facebook updates. Multitasking is an important criteria for me

User Interface : Do not compare with HTC Sense which is far superior . Touch Wiz 4 though is an improvement is still way behind in terms of design, features, attractiveness - there is still lacking the " will die and grab it " appeal . However it is a vast improvement over the older Galaxy S - is slicker, smoother and more responsive. If you don't like it, just customize it yourself with other launchers: ADW or  Zeam or Launcher Pro or Go Launcher or SpB Shell 3D - fill the homescreens with your desired apps and widgets. I am on SpB Shell 3D and is superbly smooth and slick, way much better than my other dual core Motorola Atrix.

General performance / speed : Apps access/ launching and respond  - fast, very very fast  and smooth, must say is the best and fastest I have used. Beats and blow away the other dual core Atrix to " oblivion". The change to EXT4 FS is indeed a big boost vs the RFS FS used in Galaxy S

Operating temperatures : Fair and good , ranging 30 to 45 degree C - I am comfortable with it. The warmness is insignificant to me

Reboot issues : NONE detected so far

Battery life : Hard to say as I have yet to really test it. First day impression as battery was not fully charge, at idle with several apps auto refreshing data ( email, weather, RSS, Newsfeed) from 11 pm till 7 am, battery drop by 30 % which is higher than my other Androids which ranges about 20 % max . Would give a better feedback after several days usage

Camera/Video : I do not have high expectations. Even the ARC which is deem the best does not impress me significantly that I will be overwhelm by it. I'd just say as a normal user I am happy with it - at least it turns up sharp, nice, clear and not blur. Again this feature dependent on one's levels of expectations. Haven't taken any night shots yet. Anyway to me this camera feature is just a bonus when I need it - it is never a consideration when I buy phones

Browser ( on Dolphin HD ) : Superb , the screen slightly oversensitive at times and occasionally flicker slightly . Slightly faster than the  Atrix and is way ahead of the IS, Arc, Streak, Galaxy tab

Games : I tested only Asphalt 6 - superb graphics display, very smooth and responsive - slightly better than Atrix . Other Androids just cannot compare which show some lag at times. Anyway, I am not a gamer - how well it performs is not an important issue. Based on its hardware, I don't think one will regret using it to play games

GPS : Excellent , "hundred" times better than SGS. GPS loactions lockup using Aura 2-3 sec ; Papago X5 5-8 secs

Just two days on it, my satisfaction factor : 9.5/10
Overall is the best Android I have used to date. I have said I wish to give Samsung a second chance after a dismal performance from the SGS and I must say I am not disappointed. As a comparison, How do my other Androids rank compared to it ?

HTC Incredible S : 9
Motorola Atrix : 9
Xperia Arc : 7
Dell Streak : 7
Galaxy Tab : 9
Nexus One : 9
HD2 @ android : 8
Galaxy S : 5

great that u noticed those details

wao..you're really an expert
I only notice 1st set, nexus s colour so nice
2nd set the sgs2 orange juice looks much details than the nexus s
3rd set i don know how to see

u really a PRO

one more comparison
this one I think maybe my shooting skill got problem..I can't focus
a closed up object by sgs2

sgs2

nexus s

Okay, since I do have some time, il do the review now, anything I missed out, pm me so i can edit and tell u all.

Everything I typed is based on my own device, to hell with the other people's device, because its my opinion, and it is strictly subjective.

Lets start off with the boot time and shut down time.
The Samsung Galaxy S II takes 12 seconds on average to totally shut down. To completely boot it back up, it takes 12 again on average.
Then, it takes 10 seconds to completely do all the memory reading and scanning.

From there, we enter the homescreen. Now im greeted with a hell load of heavy widgets, such as weather syncing, ap news, email, skype, and such, with a background live wallpaper. No lag is experienced when navigating from one page to another.

Screen, as you all know, is fantastic, dont be mad or whatever, but sometimes, I feel the screen looks just normal, most probably because I keep looking at the screen.

Pressing the capacitive menu button leads me to add, wallpaper, search, notifications, edit, and settings(yes, im trollin u all )
Press edit and it will allow you to edit the 7 home pages you have, to reorganize the page in any order, or to remove the page completely (Those who have used HTC's recent android phones would be used to this function, and will feel like this is a rip off from htc's, and we'd wonder why samsung is being sued  )

Pressing add and that will lead you to either an option of placing more widgets, adding folders, shortcuts, or applying wallpapers.
Now widgets, you have about 30 widgets out of the box both by samsung and google. Theres like 7 types of clocks for u people obsessed with time.
Talking about widgets, I must say, not all widgets are adjustable by size, few are only. Examples are like accuweather, ap mobile news, email, and about 1 or 2 more I could not bother to give a finger to greet their mother (its rubbish in another word).

Now within this "adding widgets" function, theres a way which samsung calls panning to move widgets from one page to another, this function I find most useful if ur on the 1st page, and you plan to place the widget on the 7th page. The sensors are simply just too "mafan", pain in the ass for u bananas because its just so inaccurate, like when I want to move the widget to just anothe page, for example from page 1 to page 2, id rather just drag my finger to the next page, so much faster, rather then playing super monkey ball with the damn widget and page..... Of course, you have to activate this "panning" by going to settings and to motion settings.

Next, the contact widget is pretty basic, you have keypad, logs, contacts and favourites tab on top. As usual, facebook integration makes it better, so i can see whos calling me when i forgot who is that. (seriously, my friends think im suffering from amnesia)

With keypad tab, you get the dialer, very responsive, no lag at all at this part. You also have 2 options to call, call by voice, or call by video, and also an option to text.

Messaging, the bubble conversation as usual. but before you tap on the small bar down the screen to bring up the keyboard, you have a shortcut to attach files as such : pictures, videos, audios, locations, contacts, calander, memo and tasks. (pretty damn alot if u ask me, very useful indeed)

Since we r on the message, il talk bout the keyboard, the keyboard is alrite, i personally dont find touch screen keyboards great due to the fact that i have kinda "large fingers" not to say fat, but id definitely guarantee loads of americans will find this problem as well.

Back to the keyboard, the samsung keyboard is fine for most of you people im sure, with the additional space you get from the 4.27 inch screen, its definitely easier to type on compared to my previous nexus one.
There is also a swype keyboard, i tried it, and i nearly hung myself for using it... I dont find it really good, personal preference.
Now both swype and samsung keyboard has a bulit in microphone "button", pretty neat, used it, and its accurate, there was a time though where it got it quite a hell wrong,but id assume factors such as the deejay unable to shut the fuk up contributing to the confusion of the voice search engine.

Lets jump to the email client.
One word. FANTASTIC. Sorry, not enough, FUKING FANTASTIC, THE BEST IN ALL ANDROID PHONES IVE USED AND COMPARED WITH MY BRO'S O2X.

This client is nice because I dont know why, I do think they already have this function, but I can have like a "android 3.0 style email, with one bar separating the email list and the email content. This email content capable of supporting pinch to zoom. Neat feature indeed.
I have like a hotmail inbox, a gmail inbox, and a yahoo inbox and you can differentiate them.

Internet, its blazing fast... what the heck can I say, the dual core really does work wonderful here.
Scrolling is just so fast, without any lag. Afew sites ive been are unreal tournament web, scan.co.uk, engadget, youtube to stream a 1080p video. No lag. I swear upon my surname, browser no lag, as long as the page has finished rendering.

When I try scrolling a site while the page is still loading, i will get those checkerboard thingy. Thats the only time i ever get it.
Now, if you try to type in lowyat or any other forum's reply box, there are times where u noticed u will lag or worse, sometimes hang like my nexus one did when i was listening to music while replying here..
While using the sgs2, the lag is almost, almost! unnoticeable. I say almost because there are some times where it does lag alittle, but thats like quite rare, so no worries.
Since we r on browser, il comment about the "tilt" feature, which you can place to pressure points on the screen and bring the device back and forth, to enlarger or to minimize.. This feature... is a real waste of time, why the fuk will i want to move my hands or arms when i am already lazy to move my 2 fingers??? no brainer issue here, its just to show off to friends who are not smart enough to shoot u back with what i just said.... Or, its just a feature to say, ur phone got anot??? no rite??? then stfu.... yeah that kinda shitty conversation...

Moving on to GPS, the 1st time it tried to locate me, it toke exactly 2 minutes to search. Now, 2-4 seconds and it will lock ur balls down with precision. No joke.
Maps is just the common maps but with rotation and mayb 3d buildings, i have yet to see any 3d bulidings on my screen yet, perhaps i need to bring the location to KL, okay tried, cant, this is rubbish 3d feature we dont get in Malaysia...

Now lets go to the 4 hubs, Music, Game, Readers, and Social hub.

oldKyoo: Music hub!!!! So excited !!!!!! I can get songs easily now, yeepee!!!!!
Samsung: No GTFO NAO U 2"!!!!!!!!
oldKyoo: WHY   me no 2", me 3 1/2"
Samsung: Your country is not supported.
oldKyoo: Fuking kimchi and ur barbie dolls!!!!!!! NVM, I Shall go to Game Hub!!!!!

Now gamehub, We have 2 tabs above, one for social games and the other for premium games.

Social games consists of
- We Rule (Dunu wtf is that)
- We City (This is a We production ???? whats next??? We Wee??)
- Pachinko (Is this the cute puppy doggy from the movie???)
- Forces of War (dont waste my time pluese)
- Villians (I soppose they got all the bad guys from james bond judging from the cover that looks like 007.)
- Age of Legends (I think this is a mmorpg game, sorry, i have a life here.)
- We Farm Safari (FUK!!! ANOTHER WE?????)
- Vegas Strip City (The only enticing game tittle which disappointed me 1 minute later)

Now, TO Premium Games u pawns!!!!
Premium games is nothing but a special link to all gameloft's game I believe, because we have tittle as such:
- Real Football 2011 HD
- GT Racing
- N.O.V.A Near Orbit Vanguard Alliance HD (This game is like a must to buy, it takes full advantage of the sgs2 gyroscope, hyposcope whatever scope lah)
- Lets Golf! 2 HD
- Assassin's Creed- Altair's Chronicles HD
- Hero of Sparta HD
- Shrek Kart HD
- Modern Combat 2
- Brothers In Arms 2
- James Cameron's Avatar HD (Havent watch this show yet, waiting for astro hbo )
- Dungeon Hunter HD

Well, thats bout the amount of games right now, and its quite an extensive list to me, im not a real mobile gamer, and yes, as the name suggests, u pay for the premium games, just like u pay for premium toilet to see less shit on the bowl.... The social is free of charge.

Lastly, is the camera, owh yeah, I know u dslr lurkers are waiting to paw my balls on this one.
The camera is decent. Much better compared to a desire HD, but not really much difference if you compare it to sony xperia sensors.
Seriously, why b**** about the photos??? just pay 20k and get a leica or a hasselblad if ur that obsessed.

Now the camera comes with quite a hell load of options, we have
- Self shot (it activates the front camera to see ur handsome ah beng/ ah lianz face for more camwhoring)
- Flash (3 choices, disable fully, keep it auto, or enable it permanently to blind a pervert)
- Shooting mode (Choosing either single shot, smile shot, beauty shot, panorama, action shot, cartoon)
- Scene mode ( Choose from none to either portrait, landscape, night, sports, party/indoor, beach/snow, sunset, dawn, fall colour, firework, text, candlelight, backlight)
- Exposure value (-2.0 to +2.0, no idea, mayb to expose ppl undercloths i think)
- Focus mode (Choosing either auto focus, macro, or face detection)
- Timer (choosing from off to either, 2,5, or 10 seconds, useful when u too shy to ask ppl to take photo of urself or noone wan help u take photo of ur whole gang/triad/kampung/clan)
- Effects ( From none to either negative, grayscale, or sepia)
- Resolution (Yeah babeh, from 3264x2448 aka 8mp all the way to 640x480 aka 0.3mp)
- White Balance (Can set from Auto to daylight, cloudy, incandescent, fluorescent, josticent, last one joking, dun claw me plueseeee)
- ISO (From auto to 100, 200,400,800)
- Metering (From centre- Weighted to either Spot or Matrix)
- Outdoor visibility (off or on lah)
- Anti-Shake (Cant see difference, probably for u to use when ur "shaking", yeah boys u know what i meant  )
- Auto Contrast (Off or on)
- Blink Detection (I think it will detect if ur blinking then it wont take the photo, so it doesnt look liek ur sleeping, dslr ppl help me here!)
- Guidelines (to create white borderlines for u to aim better when u wanna take a photo, so the object is where u want it to be in the photo)
- Review (to let u see the photo after u taken it)
- Image quality (from superfine baby skin to normal like ah mah)
- GPS tag (u wan ppl know where u are when they lookin at cho photo then this is gooding)
- Reset (For u to "FFFFUUUUUUU" after u so hard to set ur camera settings" and end up back where u started)

For Video mode, u have the some of the options available only, but new settings as well such as:
- Recording mode (Normal, limit for mms or self recording)
- Resolution (from 176x144 up to 1920x1080)
- Outdoor visibility (when the sun tells u to turn stop recording, u use this to challenge the sun's brightness, a losing battle indeed to begin)
- Flash (whether u want to be a night stalker in the singapore night safari to see animals breeding)

Okay unrelated info, but i felt like i had a dejavu just now, like what i just said and pressed on my phone happened before in my dream many years ago.....

back to topic...

Battery life.
I officially announced that i plug out the charger at  09.xx am and the battery was 100% full, charging for about solid 8 and a half hours while the phone was shut down.
I got my 1st battery warning at 20% by 20.13pm. Battery definitely can last you from 8am to 7pm for u working people out there. This was on moderate usage. Calls about a total of 1 hour, heavy messaging, moderate browsing, email and weather syncing. I dont know about others like ccm or anyone else, but this is far from the so claimed 2 days battery, since they got the device, and charged it up for the 1st time as i did. Battery wont last a "Whole" day, but it will get u thru ur working hours.(exclusion for those definitely working in banks and some hardworking people)

The heat, while playing games, and browsing the web, it was well within the acceptable range, but as for calling, it was never once within an acceptable range, all phones are never, thats why they gave u a earphone, and thats why they sell bluetooth earsets, not to show ppl ur ear can wear one, but for a dam good reason. Thus, phone is cleared from overheating worries.

Hardware wise, phone is light, yes, light. But this light isnt the cheap light, it somewhat has a quality feel. hardware buttons feel great and responsive, its raised perfectly i should say, even with the rubber cover, it still feels good.
The battery cover is the one dissapointment, theres no good way of taking it out, u have to pry it out with ur fingernails, but samsung had mercy and gace a small gap only on the side above the volume control hardware button. From there, u drag ur fingernails all the way down and the battery cover will slowly come out.
Flimsy, but not to the extent of giving u an impression u can tear it easily.

Overall impressions, Touchwiz 4.0 is definitely something... all these little wonders that samsung threw in the pot certainly made the new touchwiz better then those found on the stock 1st gen sgs.
With its samsung social hub, I do find it quite a replacement for Htc's proprietary social widgets, although truth be told, it will not beat htc's one.
Satisfied?? quite satisfied.

overall ratings 9/10

where did the 1 go?? The 2 REAL reason why the one went off is because the phone rebooted itself without its master's permission. Secondly, battery door, definitely a market i see for people to get a metal doorcover, but i wish the person planning to do this all the best and godspeed, because its gonna be hard, real hard.

If u find this useful, u r more then welcome to pin this up infront of the page, and pray to god people look at this before start typing a question already answered.