User Review: Samsung Galaxy S II

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Posting the thread (So that i dont forget) for now, and update the details in next 1 or 2 days!

@ Sushubh, may be u can move Mascot's experience of S3 purchase, "ACP Pradyuman"s purchase of Pantech phone and such threads to this section.

So here it goes.....

I hadnt took any photo of S2 till now, and just took one to post here (Excuse me for the lower resolution, as my Nokia N78 has 3.2 MP camera!)



PS: Dont ask me, why i have applied "talc" to the phone. Home is under repairs, and there are these particles stuck on it. Will clean it, or just replace the scratchguard, once everything is over! 😀

Few screenshots i had taken on the phone.....





Some background to my purchase......

Now this was my first Android phone (Bought on October 25, 2011). Till then, i was a Nokia loyalist, and never believed that Symbian had any competition in the first place. I had used Nokia 6260, 3230, and N78. But when i saw this beast (Yeah it was a beast then!) with one of my friend, i was just awed & decided that i have to have this phone.

Review.....

Being my first Android, i was just awed by the first hand experience. It was a difficult migration as well, from Symbian non-touch, to Android, touch. It costed me for Rs. 28,000.

Accessories:
1) The leather case, USB cable, the charger & ofcourse the earphones were the accessories i got bundled in the pack.
2) I added it up with the scratch guard, & a 16 GB external Memory for another 499+1250 bucks. I did buy a Philips headphone of Rs. 295 hoping to improve my Music experience, but its lying useless now, as it isnt upto the mark.
3) A few months back i bought a Capdase car stand for it, which costed another 810 bucks and its coming really handy at the Office desk!
4) Yesterday i got iBall Power Bank for the phone, which has costed 2,200......though technically speaking its not just for this phone. Its for all the phones we own at our home!

Coming to the camera performance.....

For a feature rich phone, this kind of camera comes in really handy! Following are some of the snaps i took from the 8 MP Rear camera:





Looking at the snaps, i wud say it is much more than a decent offering. Atleast for a casual photographer! It has helped me capture snaps of some fun/happy moments at office and share it with the colleagues. And they always praise the quality of the camera.

The experiments i have done with it

To begin with, i was very very skeptical of even modifying its looks by installing new launchers. But then i soon got fed up of the TouchWiz Launcher (Default that was installed by Samsung) & installed Go Launcher (The best option i guess for Gingerbread).
When ICS was launched a few days after my purchase, i was waiting eagerly for it to be available officially for my phone as well. In around March 2012 or so, it did become available. I eagerly hooked the phone via Kies to PC & started downloading the update.

The download did finish after struggling for more than 3-4 hours with it. And then, it started to install. During the installation, some damn file failed to initialise & the setup got stuck. I had ended up bricking my phone. Then i took the brave decision (For someone who didnt even change the launcher initially, this has to be a brave step!) to use Odin and flashed the ROM manually.

This adventure, though successful, eventually disappointed me, as Samsung had really messed up ICS with its bloatware. Fed up of that, i took another brave step - root the phone & install a custom OS. I installed the Pure ICS ROM, which was really good, and gave a good ICS experience.

Then came Jellybean.....i installed the most stable ROM available but had a few very nagging drawbacks with it.....

No Wifi Direct, too low Volume, No connectivity via USB as a Mass Storage Device were the major of those. I even tried out Pure JB, which had the same troubles. So i ditched everything & have reverted back to Pure ICS!

Phew! Have covered quite a few things......still, let me know in case i have missed out on anything. I have purposely ignored the specs part, as it is freely available all over the net! Still, the link to gsmarena......

http://www.gsmarena.com/samsung_i9100_galaxy_s_ii-3621.php

For ROMs relevant for this phone, follow this site: http://www.galaxys2roms.com/
 
Sure... I like jbam only because they merged aokp and parandroid which gives little bit more customization, rest is CM.
 
when is the official update coming?!
 
Guys..I may have damaged my phone's mic as everytime I call someone,they say that the sound isn't clear and is very low.I increased the volume to maximum but still face this problem.In hands-free mode mic works fine.So,can anyone tell me how much will it cost to get the mic replaced as my phone is out of warranty.Please reply soon
 
Strange... If mic has problem then how it works fine in hands free mode, same mic is used for all communication. Are you in custom rom? Btw increasing volume isn't going to help as its for speaker not mic.
 
Strange... If mic has problem then how it works fine in hands free mode, same mic is used for all communication. Are you in custom rom?

Btw increasing volume isn't going to help as its for speaker not mic.

Yes I'm using a custom rom but everything was fine for a month..the problem started three days ago and I guess that phone has two mic.One at the bottom beside USB port and other at the top beside the headphone jack.Theres a possibility that the mic beside the usb port is "damaged" not fully though.If i speak a little loudly then they care hear me properly xD
 


Both r speakers mate! Mic is just 1. If it works fine in hands free mode, then there's no reason y it shudnt work directly. Just ensure the normal stuff like u r not covering the mic as u hold the fone, or that in some manner the audio is getting blocked.... Last, u can reboot ur device. If that doesn't work, then try clearing all factory data and cache and all. Just to b double sure. Let us know if this doesn't work.
 
Both r speakers mate!

Mic is just 1. If it works fine in hands free mode, then there's no reason y it shudnt work directly. Just ensure the normal stuff like u r not covering the mic as u hold the fone, or that in some manner the audio is getting blocked....

Last, u can reboot ur device. If that doesn't work, then try clearing all factory data and cache and all. Just to b double sure.

Let us know if this doesn't work.
Ah..sorry man had no idea what they were 😛 Anyways,I reflashed the custom ROM and it seems to be working pretty well now.Just a slightly low volume but that wouldn't hurt 😀 Thanks for the help 🙂
 
UPDATE:Found the problem 😛 Ink leaked into the mic and it formed a layer over it 😀I heated the cell phone by keep it infront of heater and then used a needle to clear out the ink slowly.Now,the mic is working as it should 😀 Totally clear 😀Thanks again!
 
Ink😕😱
Should have explained that 😀
I'm a student.Ink leaked into my bag from a broken pen.I carelessly put my phone in the bag.There was no ink on the exterior of phone so I thought that there's no damage 😀 Apparently there was and that struck my mind today while discussing about it here 😛
 
hmm..one more correction I want to make(guess I am right)...The tiny hole near Headphone jack is actually noise cancellation mic afaik..yes offcourse there is 2 speakers...one back side of the phone and second one is standard earpiece./OT: @yashleo21...your location is lakhnu...where exactly its located in India? or is it Lucknow? 😛
 

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