When the Samsung Galaxy S was revealed, it’s hard to find things in which it can improve on aside from a built-in flash and probably better materials. It’s one of the most capable Android phones in its time and even until today. However, Samsung outdone themselves and the Galaxy S with the announcement of its successor, the Galaxy S II.
If you think the Samsung can’t get their Android phones thinner and lighter than the Galaxy S, well they did. The Galaxy S II is just 8.49mm thin and only 116 grams, 3 grams lighter than the original Galaxy S. It’s thinner than Sony Ericsson’s Xperia Arc. And they did improve on the aesthetics foregoing the glossy plastic finish in favor of a matte one with a nice, rubberlike texture on its back for a good grip.
Not wanting to be left behind the dual-processor mobile phone game, the Galaxy S II has a 1GHz dual core processor on Samsung’s own Exynos chipset. The previous Galaxy has a 1 GHz Cortex A8 processor and the Exynos 4210 is its successor which is based on two 1 GHz Cortex A9 cores. RAM is doubled at 1GB.
How about the built-in flash? Yes, the Galaxy S II will have it along with an 8 megapixel camera that can do 1080p. The Galaxy S is one of the handful of smartphones with good imaging and the inclusion of a flash on the Galaxy S II will make it a handy shooter and phone all in one.
The screen size of the Galaxy S II is bigger at 4.3-inch and it features a Super AMOLED Plus display. If you’re impressed with Super AMOLED, I don’t know how much you’d be more impressed with the Plus version. Samsung says it’s a significant update from plain old Super AMOLED and it accounted for the additional shaving off its already anorexic build and would help prolong the battery life. The 480 x 800 resolution is a bit unimpressive when the 4-inch dual-core Motorola Atrix we saw at CES 2011 has 960 x 540.
It runs on the latest Android 2.3 OS (Gingerbread) and their latest TouchWiz 4.0 UI. I was not impressed with TouchWiz 3.0 and the 4.0 still fails for me. The main UI and widgets are too blocky and inelegant. Samsung should take UI design lessons from HTC. But that’s just me.
So here’s a recap of the Galaxy S II specs and how it compares with the first Samsung Galaxy S.
| Samsung i9100 Galaxy S II | Samsung i9000 Galaxy S |
|---|---|
| Dual-core 1GHz Samsung Exynos 4210 | 1GHz ARM Cortex A8 |
| GPU: ARM Mali-400 MP | GPU: PowerVR SGX540 |
| 4.3-inch Super AMOLED Plus (480×800) | 4.0-inch Super AMOLED (480×800) |
| TouchWiz 4.0 UI | TouchWiz 3.0 UI |
| 16GB/32GB storage, 1GB RAM | 8GB/16GB storage, 512 RAM |
| microSD up to 32GB | microSD up to 32GB |
| 8 MP autofocus camera with LED flash | 5 MP autofocus camera |
| 1080p @ 30fps video recording | 720p @ 30fps video recording |
| 2 MP front camera for video calls | VGA front camera for video calls |
| Android OS 2.3 | Android OS 2.3 |
| Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n, DLNA, Wi-Fi Direct | Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n; DLNA |
| 125.3mm x 66.1mm x 8.48mm | 122.4 x 64.2 x 9.9 mm |
| 116 grams | 119 g |
