Tech Review: Samsung Galaxy SII White

Galaxy SII White

The Galaxy SII is for me one of the top 2 phones you can buy right now.

It will only be a matter of days before IceCream Sandwich (the latest Android operating system) will be available for Galaxy S II owners to upgrade to, and there are already unofficial ports available online (if you know where to look).

Currently shipping with Gingerbread OS 2.3, it’s still an ultra smooth operating system, familiar to anyone experienced ‘in the ways of the Droid’, and it’s so intuitive even total newbies won’t find it daunting to get to grips with.

With all the iPlayer and YouTube, Video and Photography Apps, Radio, Navigation, Office productivity tools and other trimmings, phones such as the Galaxy SII are becoming hugely powerful tools and more importantly, a great way to pass the time on the way to and from work.

It has a 4.3″ Super AMOLED Plus screen, the colours are vivid and crystal clear. Touchscreen gestures are smooth and instant (Angry Birds is very nice). Most smartphone cameras are functional at best, but the Galaxy SII has a really good 8 megapixel camera, another 2 Megapixel front camera for video chat and it’s also capable of HD video recording.

If you were to judge phones on their features, all round usability and value for money then I think the Samsung would just edge the iPhone to 1st place, in fact many writers have already made this their ‘Phone Of The Year’.

Don’t get me wrong, the iPhone 4 is a pretty amazing piece of equipment, and there is an added touch of class when it comes to Apple products that you don’t quite get anywhere else, but what makes it so good can also be its weakness.

samsung-galaxy-s-ii-white-Because of a tough selection process, it’s harder to get an Application published to the Apple App Store than to get one onto an Android phone, as a result the quality of apps on the apple store is generally better, but you can feel contained, caged, restricted.

Customisation on an iPhone is limited too, but with the Galaxy SII you can make it YOUR phone. Downloading an Android App can be like running naked through the jungle, whereas an iPhone can sometimes feels like an extremely well organised package tour.

It’s a bit like when I was younger, on a Saturday Morning you either watched Multi-Coloured Swap Shop, or Tiswas it defined you as a person.

Tiswas was Archaic and Wild, and Swap Show more sedate and a bit geeky (personally I liked Tiswas).

At the moment there is no doubt Apple are leading the way creatively, but with brilliant phones like the Galaxy S II around, the gap is closing all the time.

So in summary, it looks great (we had the white one), it’s thin and light but feels solid (except for the plasticky battery cover), the OS is easy to use and the hardware matches up in quality too. Battery Life, an issue with many of the newsest models is also good.

It’s quite difficult to find anything wrong with it.
Oh yeah, there is one thing. Without a contract it’s going to cost you at LEAST around £375 to buy (mind you that is still £100 cheaper than the latest iPhone 4).

Nothing is ever perfect.

Built in memory 16GB (up to 48GB with Micro SD Card)
FM Radio
Operating System: Android OS 2.3
1.2GHz Dual Core Application Processor
More info visit www.samsung.com/uk/galaxys2

Flush the Fashion

Editor of Flush the Fashion and Flush Magazine. I love music, art, film, travel, food, tech and cars. Basically, everything this site is about.