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GS2 Five Hour First Impressions

B

blackandroid

Newbie
My Galaxy S2 arrived this afternoon from Clove in the UK. I'm in the US and running it on AT&T. This is the first one I've actually seen, and I've now used it for about 5 hours. These are my first impressions.

First, I've used a Nexus One on T-Mobile for over the a year. I've tried both the HTC Sensation on TMO and EVO 3D on Sprint for over a week each, just recently.

+ DHL took 3 days to get from the UK to Nevada, 2 those days in the UK. At this time last night it was in East Middlands, UK. 12 hours later DHL was at my door. I have never seen anything like this and I have shipped and received a lot.

+ It's thin, thinner than my Nexus One. It really struck me how thin it was.

+ The beauty of the color display can not be seen in videos. It's just plain amazing.

+ It really could benefit from a higher resolution. The fonts in the menus, settings, contacts, etc are just way too big. This is a negative for me.

+ A lot of reviews on YouTube comment on the "cheap flimsy" back cover. I did not get that impression. The cover is very well designed with a great fit and finish. It contributes to the sleek shape and feel of the phone. Great just the way it is.

+ Overall the build quality is great, better than I imagined.

+ The camera is extremely good. Let me say that again, freaking good.

+ The phone is slippery to hold. Much more than all other phones I've tried or owned, that I can recall. I have a genuine mesh cover coming, It should really help.

+ The power button is in a horrible spot on the right side of the phone.

+ There is a lag from when you wake the screen until you can slide your unlock pattern. Very slight, but I must force myself to pause or it will miss the first dot.

+ I could not find a lag anywhere else. It's really responsive. Very fast.

+ I'm getting about 2.5 - 3.0 MB down on AT&T HPSA+ in my area (Las Vegas - west side of the valley). Everywhere I have been except my own house, where it is much slower. No big deal, using Wi-Fi.

+ Overall, very good. I'm thinking I did the right thing by getting it.
 
yes, the lag is only when u wake the phone up. coz the phone downclocks the CPU when in sleep mode, or else ur battery would drain even faster than it already does (which is pretty quickly as it is) thats about the only lag u will find on this phone..

the phone feels slippery, maybe coz its slightly large? i find it a bit hard to pick off a table easily coz of the size, but i dont find it slippery

and i personally love the power button position.. i take it in my hand and its just where my thumb lands. agreed on everything else ;)
 
Sounds about the same as my opinions on the phone. Best phone i've ever had. The lock screen wake lag is really really annoying. All the android phones i've had downclock the CPU to save battery but they all wake instantly too, so it's a pretty silly thing to deal with in such a powerful phone, but it's not too much of an issue.
 
i agree its super annoying. but i guess when it wakes up, it has to speed up to a much higher speed than wat other phones would have to :D thats the only excuse i can think of. someone mentioned that 2.3.4 got rid of the lag, i was very disappointed when i found it still lagging on my 2.3.4
 
Thanks for explaining the wake-up delay.

Overall, I love this phone. Best phone out there from what I've seen. I especially am going to enjoy that camera, simply amazing, more so since the phone is so thin.

As far as being slippery. I might have used too strong a word. That was just my immediate impression, with the context of the other phones I've used.

It also has the best call clarity of any phone that I've used. People on the other side of the call have commented very favorably. That's a major plus since I'm on the phone probably 3 or 4 hours a day.
 
Can you comment in detail about battery life?
Is the ATT HPSA+ similar to a VZW 4G LTE phone?

That way it's apples to apples (eew, no pun intended)
 
blackandroid said:
My Galaxy S2 arrived this afternoon from Clove in the UK. I'm in the US and running it on AT&T. This is the first one I've actually seen, and I've now used it for about 5 hours. These are my first impressions.

First, I've used a Nexus One on T-Mobile for over the a year. I've tried both the HTC Sensation on TMO and EVO 3D on Sprint for over a week each, just recently.

+ DHL took 3 days to get from the UK to Nevada, 2 those days in the UK. At this time last night it was in East Middlands, UK. 12 hours later DHL was at my door. I have never seen anything like this and I have shipped and received a lot.

+ It's thin, thinner than my Nexus One. It really struck me how thin it was.

+ The beauty of the color display can not be seen in videos. It's just plain amazing.

+ It really could benefit from a higher resolution. The fonts in the menus, settings, contacts, etc are just way too big. This is a negative for me.

+ A lot of reviews on YouTube comment on the "cheap flimsy" back cover. I did not get that impression. The cover is very well designed with a great fit and finish. It contributes to the sleek shape and feel of the phone. Great just the way it is.

+ Overall the build quality is great, better than I imagined.

+ The camera is extremely good. Let me say that again, freaking good.

+ The phone is slippery to hold. Much more than all other phones I've tried or owned, that I can recall. I have a genuine mesh cover coming, It should really help.

+ The power button is in a horrible spot on the right side of the phone.

+ There is a lag from when you wake the screen until you can slide your unlock pattern. Very slight, but I must force myself to pause or it will miss the first dot.

+ I could not find a lag anywhere else. It's really responsive. Very fast.

+ I'm getting about 2.5 - 3.0 MB down on AT&T HPSA+ in my area (Las Vegas - west side of the valley). Everywhere I have been except my own house, where it is much slower. No big deal, using Wi-Fi.

+ Overall, very good. I'm thinking I did the right thing by getting it.
Click to expand...

Agree 1000% on everything...except i like the side power button and don't think the lag is that bad
I sold my atrix and iphone 4 after a couple of days with the gs2.
I purchased it from amazon...OEM Shop was the retailer. Great service...they even included the usa north america samsung charger vs the euro version.
Browsing is very fast.....I'm averaging around 4-5mbps down..1.8-2 up. Helps that i am in a hspa+ AT&T market.

This phone will rock when it hits the US carriers but I am glad I have one unbranded.
 
inssane said:
Can you comment in detail about battery life?
Is the ATT HPSA+ similar to a VZW 4G LTE phone?

That way it's apples to apples (eew, no pun intended)
Click to expand...

I'm at just over 24 hours with the phone now, so can't really give a final answer on the battery. But I can say that, so far, it appears to be very good for my usage. My impressions are:

It takes much longer to charge than my Nexus One did, but I suspect that has to do with the greater capacity. The battery also seems to go further, but time will tell. I stay on the phone for hour long calls, a couple of them today. It barely puts a dent in the battery. I keep my display at 100% bright. That does not seem to bother the phone too much. I've mostly been at home on wi-fi, and only sync my non-gmail accounts (4 of them) hourly. I also have 4 gmail accounts syncing. I have not put my Twitter on the phone yet. Under this scenario, for me, the battery is excellent.
 
blackandroid said:
+ It really could benefit from a higher resolution. The fonts in the menus, settings, contacts, etc are just way too big. This is a negative for me.
Click to expand...

Although I can't help you with a higher resolution, font size is no biggie. The Galaxy S2 has the native capability of font changes.

Settings/display/screen display/font style will change your font. Click download fonts and get a font pack. "Clean FlipPoint MegaPack Galaxy" has a lot of smaller fonts for you to choose from, although it will also change the fonts of everything else, like your app titles.

blackandroid said:
+ I'm getting about 2.5 - 3.0 MB down on AT&T HPSA+ in my area (Las Vegas - west side of the valley). Everywhere I have been except my own house, where it is much slower. No big deal, using Wi-Fi.
Click to expand...
Unless you are in a H+ backhaul area (which I believe you are) You will not actually be on H+.
Unless you gave AT&T the IMEI# of an Infuse or Atrix, you are likely on the 3g plan, not 4g H+ plan.
Unless you changed your apn settings, you are most likely not on H+.

Just because you see the H+ at the top of your phone, that doesn't mean you are actually benefiting from H+

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1109983
 
dmlv said:
Agree 1000% on everything...except i like the side power button and don't think the lag is that bad
I sold my atrix and iphone 4 after a couple of days with the gs2.
I purchased it from amazon...OEM Shop was the retailer. Great service...they even included the usa north america samsung charger vs the euro version.
Browsing is very fast.....I'm averaging around 4-5mbps down..1.8-2 up. Helps that i am in a hspa+ AT&T market.

This phone will rock when it hits the US carriers but I am glad I have one unbranded.
Click to expand...

The WIMAX that I used in this area is faster than what I saw on AT&T HPSA+ last night when I was around town checking it out. But at about 3 down, I'm plenty happy. The ping time is real fast. No lag makes for a good experience. The internet experience on this phone on AT&T is very good so far.

I'm with you, I'm perfectly happy with the UK factory unlocked version, even though it likely is much more than I could get it for in the US in a month from now. If the US version are different case designs, as might happen, all the better.
 
Not a big fan of the power button but I'm used to it now, to be honest I don't mind the wake up lag at all, I didn't even notice there was any till someone here brought it up.
 
Vegeto said:
Although I can't help you with a higher resolution, font size is no biggie. The Galaxy S2 has the native capability of font changes.

Settings/display/screen display/font style will change your font. Click download fonts and get a font pack. "Clean FlipPoint MegaPack Galaxy" has a lot of smaller fonts for you to choose from, although it will also change the fonts of everything else, like your app titles.


Unless you are in a H+ backhaul area (which I believe you are) You will not actually be on H+.
Unless you gave AT&T the IMEI# of an Infuse or Atrix, you are likely on the 3g plan, not 4g H+ plan.
Unless you changed your apn settings, you are most likely not on H+.

Just because you see the H+ at the top of your phone, that doesn't mean you are actually benefiting from H+

[FIX] AT&T SGS2 Data Speed Issue's (Correct APN Settings) - xda-developers
Click to expand...

I'm off to get that font pack now. I did give my IMEI to AT&T, and just now double checked with them. I'll read through the linked article. Thanks.
 
Gearu said:
Not a big fan of the power button but I'm used to it now, to be honest I don't mind the wake up lag at all, I didn't even notice there was any till someone here brought it up.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I'm alright with both also. I was just noting first impressions. Minor stuff.
 
im still not alright with the lag, and im not going to be til there's a fix. its really annoying. lol. but u said u've been using 24 hours, is that on one charge? coz ive never got close to 24 hours, max ive got was around 17. which firmware are u running, and have u cut down on any stuff (sync, brightness, etc)?
 
heshanj said:
im still not alright with the lag, and im not going to be til there's a fix. its really annoying. lol. but u said u've been using 24 hours, is that on one charge? coz ive never got close to 24 hours, max ive got was around 17. which firmware are u running, and have u cut down on any stuff (sync, brightness, etc)?
Click to expand...

I always run with brightness full up. I'm not syncing all that much right now. I haven't really paid all that much attention to the battery, to tell you the truth. But If it was deficient in any way, I would have noticed. It just seems really good so far, but I don't have a lot going yet.
 
Thinking of picking one up on expansys USA. The only hesitation I have is it seems that many people are having gps issues. Have you tested out the GPS yet?
 
I've been using the SGS2 on AT&T for a bit more than 2 months now. I've used the GPS on multiple long-distance drives, using CoPilot Live (both the old version 8 & the new version 9), without issue.
 
hi, if you want to fix the delay, go to the market and type in softlocker, enable it and there wont be any wake up delay.
 
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