Samsung Galaxy S II Hardware Review (Video)
After unboxing the Samsung Galaxy S II, which is Samsung’s flagship phone for this year, we wanted to dive a bit deeper into the hardware. First, we’ll go over specs. Packing a 1.2GHz dual-core Samsung Exynos CPU with 1GB of RAM, the Galaxy S II is a worthy successor to the Galaxy S (and its many, many variants), which had a 1GHz Samsung Hummingbird CPU with 512MB of RAM. Beyond that, the device comes with about 14GB of user-accessible storage, which can be expanded with a microSD card. The rear camera takes 1080p HD videos and 8MP photos. The front camera can shoot 2MP photos, and cannot record video (due to a limitation in the software). In terms of radios, the Galaxy S II is quadband UMTS and GSM (giving you 850/900/1900/2100, which are the right bands to get 3G in Europe or on AT&T in the US), plus packs Bluetooth 3.0, WiFi b/g/n, FM Radio, and DLNA support.
The big story for the Galaxy S II, besides its fantastic spec sheet, is its thinness: the device is a mere 8.5mm, which is thinner than the iPhone 4 (9.3mm) and the Desire HD (11.8mm). It’s also very light at just 116g, which is much lighter than the iPhone (137g) and the Desire HD (164g). This reduced weight doesn’t take a way from build quality: the Galaxy S II has a terrific in-hand feel, and when twisted, the casing doesn’t flex.
With the Galaxy S II, Samsung is also debuting its new Super AMOLED Plus display (the Galaxy S line came with the Super AMOLED). How much of a difference does the “Plus” make? Not that much in our testing. While Super AMOLED Plus is far superior to Super LCD in terms of contrast, it’s not a huge leap beyond the last-generation Super AMOLED.
Coming up soon we’ll dive deep into the software of the Galaxy S II and take a look at TouchWiz 4.0.
