Samsung Galaxy S II

[TameRacingDriver]

I know what he means, I don't think its that bad, but on mine the screen did take a second or so to re-appear after taking the phone away from my ear, whereas my old iphone and current Galaxy Nexus both already have the screen on straight away. It was a touch irritating at times, but not a huge deal.

[ceebmoj]

TameRacingDriver said:

Something about the fact that (a) its twice the price of a Nexus and (b) still has TouchWiz on it, which was the whole point of the exercise - getting rid of it. Ever since ICS came out on the Nexus, I've coveted vanilla Android.

Don't get me wrong, TW aint that bad, but it is a little bit childish looking and once you've tried ICS onwards in its naked form, you'll probably not want to go back IMO.

Im running stock ICS on my SGII and its OK why not flash on one of the nice roms weight till you are due an upgrade and then get a proper upgrade rather than losing the memory card slot?

[Richyvrlimited]

ceebmoj said:

Im running stock ICS on my SGII and its OK why not flash on one of the nice roms weight till you are due an upgrade and then get a proper upgrade rather than losing the memory card slot?

Cos you've not read his previous responses!?!

none of the custom ROMS are perfect, they all have weird bugs and whatnot. e.g. when playing music with CM9 and receive a message/notification the music is faded out, but never faded back in.

Memorycard slots are overrated, I've never ever used on in a phone, highly doubt I ever will either.

[ZesPak]

Richyvrlimited said:

Memorycard slots are overrated, I've never ever used on in a phone, highly doubt I ever will either.

Never saw them to be overrated, some people like them, some don't?
I use mine all the time in the phones, tablet and digital camera.

[Tyre Smoke]

Not use a memory card slot?

Have a 32GB card in mine. Music, lots of music. I use it like an ipod.

[TameRacingDriver]

Richyvrlimited said:

ceebmoj said:

Im running stock ICS on my SGII and its OK why not flash on one of the nice roms weight till you are due an upgrade and then get a proper upgrade rather than losing the memory card slot?

Cos you've not read his previous responses!?!

none of the custom ROMS are perfect, they all have weird bugs and whatnot. e.g. when playing music with CM9 and receive a message/notification the music is faded out, but never faded back in.

Memorycard slots are overrated, I've never ever used on in a phone, highly doubt I ever will either.

Exactly, I did have a stock ICS ROM on my SGS2 at one point, but there was too many niggly little bugs, and the battery life was poor.

Besides which, even if it didn't have the bugs, using ICS / Jelly Bean (which I am now using) on a proper Nexus device is so much nicer, you would have to use it to see. OK the Galaxy Nexus may be a side step on paper, but in reality, for me at least, it is a step up from an SGS2; I'd even take the Nexus over the SGS3 as it fits my needs better.

As for losing the capacity, I did have a 16 Gb SD card in my SGS2 but never really used it - I don't watch films on it, I don't have millions of crappy apps, and I can get all the music I need well within the 16 Gb limit (I have 70 albums on my Nexus and still 5Gb to spare). I don't think they're overrated but for me it was no biggy.

[Richyvrlimited]

Tyre Smoke said:

Not use a memory card slot?

Have a 32GB card in mine. Music, lots of music. I use it like an ipod.

I have plenty of music on mine too, don't feel the need to carry my entire collection around though, merely what I fancy at the time.

[ZesPak]

Richyvrlimited said:

I have plenty of music on mine too, don't feel the need to carry my entire collection around though, merely what I fancy at the time.

Agreed, I still have a 1GB Creative Zen Nano and actually find enough for my music. Ok, a bit more could be good (4GB maybe), but not really necessary.

I use the SD card mainly to put some movies on. Unconverted MKV's do take up some space

[ceebmoj]

TameRacingDriver said:

Besides which, even if it didn't have the bugs, using ICS / Jelly Bean (which I am now using) on a proper Nexus device is so much nicer, you would have to use it to see. OK the Galaxy Nexus may be a side step on paper, but in reality, for me at least, it is a step up from an SGS2; I'd even take the Nexus over the SGS3 as it fits my needs better.

Not being picky just interested in, What makes the Nexus a better fit for you and why is it much better? On paper is a very similar device. personally the SD card important for music even with using google music so I can acces other music while out.

[TameRacingDriver]

ceebmoj said:

Not being picky just interested in, What makes the Nexus a better fit for you and why is it much better? On paper is a very similar device. personally the SD card important for music even with using google music so I can acces other music while out.

For me the higher Res screen is very useful as I do a lot of browsing and it just looks better for everything. I also find the stock jelly bean OS much more polished and nicer to use. Its more stable and hangs into a signal better than my s2. Its a personal thing but its just more of a feel good device for me. I also prefer the fast camera shutter... even though on paper the s2 has the better camera I get better snaps with the nexus.

At the end of the day I value thess features more than the extra storage. YMMV.

[ZesPak]

ZesPak said:

Just a little update, I fked up my SGS2 because of water damage and went to look at a whole range of phones, budget not really an issue, and ended up with another SGS2. The SGS3 was just a bit too big and, the bigger (optional) battery for the SGS2 costs peanuts and really transforms the phone for me.

To me, the SGS2 is still one of the best phones out there for everyday use. Plenty of battery with the 2000mAh optional battery, just the right size in screen and a very slim phone. On top of that they can be had new for £350, which makes it very hard to resist imho.

It has arrived today. I find it very odd for me not to go for something completely new/different as I'm a bit of a gadget man, the One X and S3 were very very tempting but I had such good experiences with the S2 that I just went for it.

The other one is in for repair now and will go to my wife as she's been jealous of my SGS2 since day one .

Extra update: got a call from the store the other day that it's returned & fixed and ready to be picked up. All in less than two weeks, couldn't be happier.
They (Samsung) said that I should try and keep it dry this time but fixed it without cost anyway .

TameRacingDriver said:

For me the higher Res screen is very useful as I do a lot of browsing and it just looks better for everything. I also find the stock jelly bean OS much more polished and nicer to use. Its more stable and hangs into a signal better than my s2. Its a personal thing but its just more of a feel good device for me. I also prefer the fast camera shutter... even though on paper the s2 has the better camera I get better snaps with the nexus.

At the end of the day I value thess features more than the extra storage. YMMV.

The SGS2 and SGN are very similar phones. As above, I bought a second SGS2 when I fked my first one up just because I was very happy with the phone and you shouldn't change a winning formula. But I did have a play with the GN and I do think they're quite equally matched. The big upside of the GN will be of course that it'll keep on getting updates long after the SGS2.

[Tyre Smoke]

As a matter of interest, those on CM-9 nightlies, how often do you 'upgrade' the software?

Did mine last night for the first time in a month. I see there is now an increasing ring volume option amongst other stuff.

[TameRacingDriver]

ZesPak said:

The SGS2 and SGN are very similar phones. As above, I bought a second SGS2 when I fked my first one up just because I was very happy with the phone and you shouldn't change a winning formula. But I did have a play with the GN and I do think they're quite equally matched. The big upside of the GN will be of course that it'll keep on getting updates long after the SGS2.

Indeed they are, but what I will say, is that unless you're doing something very processor / GPU intensive, like 3D games, I'd say the GNex is more than a match for the S3 in many respects! Similar sized screen, screen resolution, and believe it or not, day to day, the GNex feels quicker/smoother than the S3. This situation will likely reverse when Jelly Bean hits the S3, but for now, I am extremely impressed with the GNex and how good it is with Jelly Bean. I played with it when it was on ICS and to be honest the S2 felt slightly quicker if anything. However, unless you go with say CM9 / AOKP, you will always have TouchWiz to contend with; this wasn't a burden in the Gingerbread days but nowadays its just not needed or welcome.

My GF has an SGS3 and TBH as it stands right now, its a nice enough phone, but I'm underwhelmed. Its just a nice S2 in my eyes, and nowhere near enough of an upgrade for an S2 owner. A Gnex on the other hand, if it fits your requirements, feels a totally different phone to use, and makes a very compelling "side step".

[ZesPak]

I agree I was underwhelmed by the SGS3 as well. Great display but then so is the SGS2 and SGS3.
If you don't have the need to have the latest and greatest games, like you said, I think the SGS2 and SGN are the better choice and you can save yourself a lot of £££.

Same goes with the 4 vs the 4S. The only difference now is that Apple is creating a more artificial "barrier" by giving the 4S extra software functionality (like finally free turn-by-turn navigation).
Samsung will probably eventually go the same way, if google brings out the next big version of Android there's a good chance the SGS3 will get it and the SGS2 won't.

But then you can go for the SGN indeed.

TBH what sold the SGS2 for me is my familiarity with it AND the bigger Samsung battery I already have. Brings the phone to a new level, and there aren't much high-end phones to match the battery life then. The GN has the bigger screen and, when in use, battery life does suffer from that.

[TameRacingDriver]

ZesPak said:

Same goes with the 4 vs the 4S. The only difference now is that Apple is creating a more artificial "barrier" by giving the 4S extra software functionality (like finally free turn-by-turn navigation).

I really can't understand why Apple denied this functionality to the 4 and even the 3GS. The 4 is more than man enough for the job. Whatever though, personally I think iPhones are looking dated these days. They are effective, and there will be those who say "if it ain't broken etc", but to me, they've barely moved on much since the 1st gen models, hardware notwithstanding. And even the physical form to me looks old hat.

ZesPak said:

Samsung will probably eventually go the same way, if google brings out the next big version of Android there's a good chance the SGS3 will get it and the SGS2 won't.

I'd be willing to bet the SGS2 will get Jelly Bean as well, but I think it will stop there. Still, that's a nice upgrade, TouchWiz or not. However, the question is, will they strip the Google Now functionality out, and use S-Voice, or will they not bother at all? Saying that, at the moment, Google Now is a bit of a gimmick unless you live in the US of A.

ZesPak said:

TBH what sold the SGS2 for me is my familiarity with it AND the bigger Samsung battery I already have. Brings the phone to a new level, and there aren't much high-end phones to match the battery life then. The GN has the bigger screen and, when in use, battery life does suffer from that.

True... there won't be too many Android phones out there that are as thin as the S2 with the official battery and offer the same battery life. The GNex has a slightly bigger battery stock for stock (S2=1650, GNex=1750) and I find the battery marginally better on the GNex stock for stock. You can also get the 2000 battery for the GNex but that only adds 250 MAH so I'm not too fussed.

The S2 is still an impressive phone, and you can buy yourself one for £200. Another £20 and you've got the better battery. Can't go wrong. The GNex is about £250, but without the battery pack, and for that £30 you save you can get a big SD card for the S2... so it really is horses for courses.

As a side note, one thing I did forget to mention about the GNex v S2 is that the GNex, despite having less storage, may be a better buy for some wanting a music playback device; the GNex uses a Wolfson DAC which is a similar unit as the original S and the S3. The S2 for reasons known only to Samsung used a cheaper Yamaha part so the sound quality suffers. Having tested both with my Sennheiser i6 earbuds, the GNex is noticeably better.

[Schmeeky]

I recently thought it'd probably be a good idea to get some sort of protection/antivirus software for my S2, so after a bit of looking around installed Kaspersky..

However, it seems to be a huge resource hog, using around 1/3 of my battery power, and everything seems to take much longer to happen, and I'm also suddenly getting a load of unwanted ad emails.. Should an anti virus app use so much power? And is there anything better/faster out there?

[ZesPak]

Schmeeky said:

I recently thought it'd probably be a good idea to get some sort of protection/antivirus software for my S2, so after a bit of looking around installed Kaspersky..

However, it seems to be a huge resource hog, using around 1/3 of my battery power, and everything seems to take much longer to happen, and I'm also suddenly getting a load of unwanted ad emails.. Should an anti virus app use so much power? And is there anything better/faster out there?

Sorry, but imho a virusscanner is way overrated on Android and very unnecessary. Hardly any real-life reports of virusses that actually do harm in any way. Just be wary when you install programs that, for example, offer you a wall paper and then demand full internet access and access to your contacts.

[Richyvrlimited]

Well last night I got really annoyed with the browser included with CM9.

I had thought/was under the impression that it was chrome, but it lagged touch inputs horribly and just wasn't nice to use, not opening tabs when requested, varying sensitivities for links,

I downloaded Chrome from the store, and what a revelation, it's actually useable, nice to see some care an attention lavised on the UI too with nice animations etc.

Again though the lack of consistency of Android shines through, running CM9 I have a sort of AOSK rom, but chrome has a completely different look and feel, WHY Google, WHY!

[TameRacingDriver]

Thats odd as its usually chrome and not the stock browser that gets lamented for being slow and unstable...

[toxicated]

I upgraded to an S3 and most online places offered £85ish to buy it but Envirofone just confirmed they've paid me £200.10 for it. Had a couple of small scratches but otherwise just a normal phone so if you are considering upgrading...