****The Official Samsung Galaxy S II Thread***

1) Is it possible for phones such as this to have "stock" android loaded on it (easily)?

Not sure

2) How do you sync data to this phone, is it just Mass storage USB device as far as a windows/mac pc/laptop is concerned?

-yes, or it can host a webpage over wireless which your pc browser can upload to

3) How would I sync my iTunes music/playlists/album art to this device (on a mac)?

I know winamp transfers all playlists and art, as does spotify so this shouldn't be an issue but depends on what app you decide to use for playback

4) How easily does the screen smudge?

I've found it very good, much better than my htc desire

5) Finally, what sort of deals are available on this? I am on Orange atm, but I guess I would have to move to a different network to get the phone as they don't have this phone yet. I would just be after 300mins, 300 txts and as much data as I could get (I know most networks are now 500mb to 1gb max).

You could stay with orange, mobiles.co.uk offer upgrade tariffs for example

Edit: Also does it get hot? My only other experience is an iPod touch 2g, which warmed up a bit after playing Graphical games (although the metal back of that device probably played a part in this).

it does get warm yes although i've not tried much gaming. Videos get slightly warm but nothing that has concerned me yet
 
Finally got to order mine tonight after a load of hassle with o2. My local store had 1 but sounded like half the country had pawed over it, so decided to give that a miss. Tried online purchase last night but transaction failed due to my card provider stopping it in case of fraud. Had an automated call from them today to approve the transaction. Rang o2 and told me website was out of stock til this Thursday - arrgh!!! Decided this evening to chat to an advisor live about stock availability, redirected me to sales team and order was completed in 25 mins. The beast is due to arrive some time on Wed. Really looking forward to getting this. Never had a smarty-phone before, never used Android, so will probably just sit & stare at it for yonks, then read about 90 million posts in this thread on how to get the best from it. All good:)
 
I like what Samsung have done with calls in the background, full control from the noti-bar!

sgs2_call.png


Oh, and I'm on 19% battery now since this morning, current running time since full charge is 14 hours.

Today i have watched an hour's worth of TV (mkv/iPlayer), Watched several youtubes, streamed some music, made approx 20mins of calls, checked emails, Bookfaced, Played Wordfeud throughout, updated apps, browsed the Market, uploaded stuff to my website over the air, administered the phone and tweaked stuff around....and more.

The display ontime is listed as 3hours 6mins.

I do like! My HTC Desire would go down faster with that kind of heavy usage.
 
Last edited:
Zap said:
1) Is it possible for phones such as this to have "stock" android loaded on it (easily)?

Not sure

2) How do you sync data to this phone, is it just Mass storage USB device as far as a windows/mac pc/laptop is concerned?

-yes, or it can host a webpage over wireless which your pc browser can upload to

3) How would I sync my iTunes music/playlists/album art to this device (on a mac)?

I know winamp transfers all playlists and art, as does spotify so this shouldn't be an issue but depends on what app you decide to use for playback

4) How easily does the screen smudge?

I've found it very good, much better than my htc desire

5) Finally, what sort of deals are available on this? I am on Orange atm, but I guess I would have to move to a different network to get the phone as they don't have this phone yet. I would just be after 300mins, 300 txts and as much data as I could get (I know most networks are now 500mb to 1gb max).

You could stay with orange, mobiles.co.uk offer upgrade tariffs for example

Edit: Also does it get hot? My only other experience is an iPod touch 2g, which warmed up a bit after playing Graphical games (although the metal back of that device probably played a part in this).

it does get warm yes although i've not tried much gaming. Videos get slightly warm but nothing that has concerned me yet
Click to expand...

Cheers for the reply. The webpage server upload sounds a very smart way to do things, is that a Samsung or an Android feature?

I will have to check regarding the iTunes sync from an Apple Mac. I used winamp years ago on windows, but I am certain it is not available on the mac :). Currently I use an iPod touch for music, but would love to use the Galaxy S2 for that, as long as it retained my artwork, artists/album names etc. Dunno much about Spotify but I use iTunes on the Mac so unless I could sync everything from that it would be a dealbreaker :(

Will have a look at the website you mentioned as well.


rp2000
 
rp2000 said:
Hi All,

I have never had a Android phone before but am tempted by this (been holding off getting a fully touchscreen phone for ages but am ready to take the plunge now).

Questions:

1) Is it possible for phones such as this to have "stock" android loaded on it (easily)?

Its possible, but that will come down to the devs at XDA. You can modify the phone so you're getting more or less the stock Android experience, so I wouldn't worry about it too much.

2) How do you sync data to this phone, is it just Mass storage USB device as far as a windows/mac pc/laptop is concerned?

Mass storage USB and Samsung Kies (Samsung version of iTunes). Or wirelessly.

3) How would I sync my iTunes music/playlists/album art to this device (on a mac)?

Same as 2). There are lots of other methods but it isn't difficult, lots of Android media players support it.

4) How easily does the screen smudge?
Its a bit better than normal, but it does smudge fairly easily unfortunately.

5) Finally, what sort of deals are available on this? I am on Orange atm, but I guess I would have to move to a different network to get the phone as they don't have this phone yet. I would just be after 300mins, 300 txts and as much data as I could get (I know most networks are now 500mb to 1gb max).

You can get your upgrade done through any major phone retailer, Mobiles.co.uk are good and Phones4U (and I think Carphone Warehouse) can do them too -

http://www.mobiles.co.uk/samsung-i9100-galaxy-s-2.html

Thanks in advance.

Edit: Also does it get hot? My only other experience is an iPod touch 2g, which warmed up a bit after playing Graphical games (although the metal back of that device probably played a part in this).

It does get a bit warm but it isn't a problem.


rp2000
Click to expand...

I will say though, if your tech equipment is all centered around Mac, an iPhone might be better for you.
 
Having some issues with Orange so far, people call me and get the answer machine part even though I have full bars with orange, then call again and get through, I often get messages saying etc has tried to call.

I get text messages late sometimes 1 day later I find this a bit of a joke really as I never had these issues on T-Mobile.

I still have a T-Mobile contract which I had on Android so has the 3gb allowance still, I can do a speed test and hit around 1968kbs speed with a much worse signal than on Orange, when I do the same test on the Orange sim I am lucky to hit 659kbs.
 
Robbo said:
I will say though, if your tech equipment is all centered around Mac, an iPhone might be better for you.
Click to expand...

I just have a MacbookPro and an iPod. I will probably replace the macbookpro with another Apple laptop/desktop but the iPod will probably be flogged for whatever it fetches if the Samsung can sync my itunes.

At the moment I only sync music and podcasts to the iPod, in terms of data moving between phone and laptop. If I used the movies/photos/books etc syncing from an iPhone would probably make more sense, but not really interested in those features. Just want msuic/podcasts, good web browsing, good Google services integration youtube, maps etc (I would start using contacts/calendar which I don't use at present, as I have a Nokia N85!!)

I am not really familiar with Kies, but would it just use the iTunes folder on my laptop (I am not interested in a solution that makes its own copy of my music as that would double up the space on my macbook and I don't have much hdd space left!!).

As an Apple user (I presume) would you say based on my above usage an android phone would do what I need?


rp2000
 
rp2000 said:
Cheers for the reply. The webpage server upload sounds a very smart way to do things, is that a Samsung or an Android feature?

I will have to check regarding the iTunes sync from an Apple Mac. I used winamp years ago on windows, but I am certain it is not available on the mac :). Currently I use an iPod touch for music, but would love to use the Galaxy S2 for that, as long as it retained my artwork, artists/album names etc. Dunno much about Spotify but I use iTunes on the Mac so unless I could sync everything from that it would be a dealbreaker :(

Will have a look at the website you mentioned as well.


rp2000
Click to expand...

It is a samsung feature but I bought an app for my hero ages ago which did the same thing.

I actually manage my music quite differently,I had iTunes on my desktop and just copied over the whole of my itunes folder to the sd card, winamp on the phone then picked up album art and playlists. Not easy to add tracks though and there are better ways.

Since spotify now sync with ipods and the phone over wireless I now manage all my music through that. That costs though, obviously.
 
Just unboxed mine today and absolutely love it so far. Not got much more to say about that really!

The only slight qualm I have is with the build quality, but the screen is remarkable, and coming from a Hero the speed and responsiveness is stunning.
 
.:SAmSuNG:. said:
I think i can overcome the audio. Its getting any video via mkv2vob... Have can this be so difficult. :confused:
Click to expand...

It's probably because you've fiddled with a load of the settings at once, by the look of it. Leave everything on Automatic (including Transcoding which you've disabled), if the file is DTS then select the Transcode DTS option, and also try the Use Old Format option.
 
Jabbs said:
Having some issues with Orange so far, people call me and get the answer machine part even though I have full bars with orange, then call again and get through, I often get messages saying etc has tried to call.

I get text messages late sometimes 1 day later I find this a bit of a joke really as I never had these issues on T-Mobile.

I still have a T-Mobile contract which I had on Android so has the 3gb allowance still, I can do a speed test and hit around 1968kbs speed with a much worse signal than on Orange, when I do the same test on the Orange sim I am lucky to hit 659kbs.
Click to expand...

it sucks doesn't it? i'd say now you've said it happens on this phone it's an orange problem not a phone issue. i had it every minute of every day with orange on my htc hero. it didn't happen on day 1 but all of a sudden it seemed when at home or sometimes out an about i get exactly as you say. it become so annoying as friends would know of the issue so call again and again hoping to get through and i'd just get texts which was taking up all my recpetion which meant they'd never get through until all texts come in, then give it a minute to get back. i'm on tmobile now though phone some reason says orange in notification bar. reception is up and down (4 bars atm, watching it goes to 2, then 3, then 2 then 4 etC) but not had the issue yet so either tmobile don't send the text or are better or this phone can deal with the issue quicker/better. i'd think hard about staying with orange if this is frsit time with them as it annoyed the crap out of me i'd hate to start a new contract and have it the whole time. made me never want to use the phone as you just spend time trying but getting no where
 
European Samsung Galaxy S2 Source Code Released,

"Last week we told you that the Samsung Galaxy S2 was out on Three UK, and now, just 5 days later, Sammy has dropped the source code. This is huge news for Galaxy S2 owners, as this is probably the most beastly phone out on the market today, and you know that our boys (and girls?) over at XDA are going to do everything in their power to make it even more beastly.
So, if you’re a dev and are ready to get started hacking some GS2 code, head over to the Samsung Open Source Developers Center and get your download on!"

http://www.androidpolice.com/2011/0...laxy-s2-source-code-released-download-it-now/
 
Found the solution to one of my problems, namely the lock screen turning on after 15 seconds when I'd set it to two minutes. Turns out that the lock screen setting is fine. What isn't fine is the setting for turning the screen dark after inactivity, which was still set to 15 seconds - and whenever the screen gets turned dark, the lock screen automatically turns on. This makes it pointless to set your "lock phone" time as longer than your "keep screen on" time.

I find this an incredibly bizarre decision. I can't think of any reason why you'd want the phone to lock while you're looking at it, and quite a few reasons to want the screen to turn off without actually locking the phone.
 
Jabbs said:
Having some issues with Orange so far, people call me and get the answer machine part even though I have full bars with orange, then call again and get through, I often get messages saying etc has tried to call.
Click to expand...

I used to get those issues on orange - to be honest I put it down to the phone but now i'm not so sure. On tmobile now so it will be interesting to see if i get the same issues
 
I have had my phone for a week now, here are some pros and cons (I used to own HTC Desire for reference)

Pros
-> Very light
-> Screen is brilliant
-> Video recording is amazing for a phone. Still can't get over how good it is
-> Android - state the obvious but this OS is just getting exponentially better. I literally can do whatever I want to it, I can customize it to suit my needs, not to mention there is no overlord dictator telling me what I can and can't do.
-> Speed - its like having a laptop in your pocket
-> Plays all sorts of video types from the outset including HD.
-> GPS locks quicker than my old desire.

Cons
-> Build quality is an issue in that it is made from plastic, but I don't see how this differs from other plastic phones. I would rather have a £400 'super phone' than a £650 mediocre one with a metal shell.
-> Not a big fan of samsungs UI. I have gone with Launcher pro instead (this is a pro of android - don't like something, find something you do)
-> Camera is poor in dark with flash (most are bad, this is no exception)
-> Battery life is good (2 days) only if you don't use it much! The screen sucks a lot of power. This may be rectified in later ROM releases. When I first got my desire it only lasted 10 hours without a recharge. At the end i was using a rom called LeeDroid and it was lasting 2 days easy
-> Lock screen is crap, so bought Widget Locker.
 
has anyone used google navigation with theirs yet? very interested to hear how hot this little beasty gets given there are plenty of people stating it gets rather hot when gaming ...
my desire used to get very hot when gps was in use so hoping the gs2 doesn't melt :D
 
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