I know a lot of people wants to take screenies of their Android phone. As a phone reviewer or somebody who writes Android guides, the ability to take screenshots on a phone is something that we would often need.
Previously, the only way to take screenshots on an Android phone is install the SDK and tether the phone to your machine and use your PC to take the screenshot. There are lots of screen capturing tools in the Android market but they usually require you to have a rooted phone.
Now with Android 2.3.4 (Gingerbread), Google gave us the ability to capture screenshots easily by a combination of buttons. Hold the Power button then quickly press the Home/Back button. The second button varies between handsets because button placements are not the same on all Android phones. Anyway, it works similarly as that of iOS and the screenies are stored in your Gallery folder.
UPDATE: Ok it seems that a number of Samsung phones have this feature built-in already regardless of Android OS rendering the title of this post moot. To take a screenshot on your Samsung Android phone, try the Home and Back button combination. It worked on our Galaxy Ace running on Froyo. Thanks to those who send this tip in. 🙂
I’ve tried this on my HTC Sensation. Saw it work on the HTC ChaCha and heard it works on the Samsung Galaxy SII as well. If you have a different phone on Gingerbread 2.3.4, try it out and let us know if it worked for you.
