yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Galaxy S II General] Currykiev:
If the actual comparison was worded in this manner then it wouldn't seem so biased. As has already been mentioned you do seem reluctant to praise the SGS2. As biased as you may or may not be the language you used is definately biased whether it's intentional or not (which i believe it is not.)

Try re-reading your article again now you've read this feedback and i'm sure you'll notice a few issues.

P.s. I'm talking purely about the wording in the article not your opinions. :)
[Galaxy S II General] Richdog:
The SGS II is struggling with the levels a little, but also bear in mind that you have zoomed out further with the SGS II and in each shot it has more light to deal with. Have you tried changing the scene mode from Auto to Daylight to see if that improves things? I have taken many pics outside in VERY bright sunlight (Switzerland, 30c) and it has coped very well...

:)
[Galaxy S II General] Tekguru:
I understand what you are saying there, but no zooming was performed apart from myself moving the phones physically closer or further away from the subjects. The photos were taken with a basic users idea of pointing and shooting leaving everything on automatic.

I agree that both phones can be improved somewhat with respect to photo quality if you start making adjustments, but the point was to make no adjustments :)
[Galaxy S II General] Blaiz0r:
The fact that the back cover is flimsy doesn't mean it isn't strong, and is a positive not a negative.

The design of the SGSII is actually impressive, the light weight and flexible, not flimsy back cover means that it can withstand drops and bangs that heavier more solid phones would succumb to damage from.

Also, with your camera test you're comparing Apples and Oranges, the cameras should have been setup the same way, even if their default settings are different.
[Galaxy S II General] Jeegsawk:
After only twenty lines I knew you didn't even read the manual before reviewing. You tell it is a pity for sgs2 not to have search button... You just have to keep menu button pressed. All Samsung are like this
[Galaxy S II General] Jebus99:
I wish somewhere in that review you had used those words "outstanding" and "GSII" in the same sentence because as it reads now, it is still an extremely biased and poor review. From what I read on your posts here, I can see you are not a blind fanboy, but if that review is the only thing on your resume, I think you would find it hard to defend yourself.
[Galaxy S II General] Tekguru:
As an engineer by trade I can't agree with you there, there is no strength in the design and it will therefore fail under impact stress or in certain situations like being dropped onto a hard surface.

It depends on which outlook you take, and in reviewing I always look to see what the standard options offer which is how a new user would be experiencing them.

I never had a manual until near the end of the review process, and I did spot the tap and hold to bring up the search facility. I will correct the wording behind that.

From everything I experienced with the SII a lot it it was close to outstanding but IMHO there was always a flaw which prevented me having a 'wow' experience. Remember on here we're technically knowledgeable and are able to work around such issues, but a lot of the public don't have that information and as the review is aimed at those users then one is better being frank with what has been found.

If Samsung put into the SII the work to develop a decent and harmonised interface as HTC have done with the Sensation it could make a heck of a lot of difference. I agree technically it's a marvel with the hardware features internally being superb but the interface is not good ergonomically.
[Galaxy S II General] tuhinz:
In that case would you characterise the very obvious errors in your review as carelessness or ignorance?:confused:

I suppose when you say regular users, you mean users incapable of accessing the 1st level menus or the reading the manual for the phone?

I wonder if it's ok to put up such a detailed review (with obvious effort) when you clearly haven't used the interface well enough to know the options available to you (The Camera metering & geotagging comes to mind- rest i've mentioned in my post earlier).

The look and feel aside (which are subjective and may have differing opinions), can you atleast bother to correct the factual errors with regard to the features of the SGSII?

..And while you are at it, you could also remove some of the 'pros' you have listed which are nothing but preinstalled apps which could just as easily be downloaded from the market (Soundhound comes to mind). ;)
[Galaxy S II General] Gustopher:
As it turns out, there are plenty of other good reasons why I would have (with hindsight) selected the SGS2 over the HTC device, but here's my primary reason and a cautionary tale to others.

As a long time HTC devotee, my previous phone was an HD2, which I kept for longer than any other phone, not least because it would run WP7 and Android...at the same time. It was a glorious device.

However, in July last year I had to send it back to have the digitiser replaced under warranty. Was told five working days and it took nearer ten, but got my precious back in good working order, so forgave and forgot.

In April this year the digitiser malfunctioned again and again it went off to be repaired under warranty. Was told ten working days as the repair centre was in transition. Took nearer fifteen.

The phone was returned with a different, battered and scratched battery cover and NO BATTERY! I kicked off and was told I was on an escalation list...that would give me an answer in 48 hours! Some escalation!

No call was forthcoming so I kicked off again and was fobbed off again. They did offer a free accessory worth £50...which I'm still waiting for.

After about another week, I was told they would actually give me a free upgrade phone - nice offer! They asked if I wanted the Desire HD or the HD7 - I said HD7. I asked when, they said soon.

A further week later and several further calls down the line, I was no closer. Four working days later a phone arrived...the Desire HD. When I pointed out that I'd asked for the HD7 they said they would change it, but would need to collect the Desire HD first, then re-initiate the order. When I told them this was unacceptable, they escalated and I was then told that the HD7 was out of stock and wouldn't be available again for two months. Could they also have the useless HD2 back. I told them where to go. I also told them I would no longer be buying HTC devices.

I had been hesitating on buying the Sensation or the SGS2 - needless to say HTC were good enough to help me make up my mind and I'm so grateful they did.

HTC seem to produce unreliable devices and are backed up by Customer Service that transcends the word 'incompetent' into a whole new realm of depressing idiocy.

That's a good enough reason for me to chose the SGS2 over the Sensation. Anyone want to buy an HD2 (without a battery) or a boxed and unused Desire HD?? :D
[Galaxy S II General] Tekguru:
Ref the options that I'd 'missed' these are clearly listed in the options area under the camera, so have not been missed. We are obviously going to disagree on what we are looking at in producing a review for the general public. A lot of ordinary users that I come across as looking for a fulfilling and useful phone out of the box with out adding new applications or fiddling with options that that is how I'm looking at the devices from the viewpoint of that user, not as a power user. I will make soem comments in the reserved post after the review where things require clarification but that will be later tonight when I get in from work.
[Galaxy S II General] nickbarbs:
LOL i know, i laughed hard when i read this.

OP: you are saying we should take your Highly Subjective review seriously and you use scales such as

GODLY RAM = 768MB

GOOD RAM= 1,000MB

ME = GTFO

Really, really bad review, you do sound like a noob and should consider a change in career.
[Galaxy S II General] Tekguru:
Depends on how you view the terminology mate.

Goodly is almost good

Good is good

Plus you 'mate' need to learn how to be polite and appreciate the effort that goes into producing a review. As I've said above I report accurately on what I see. But we all have different eyes and see in different ways.

If you can't live with that then tough :)
[Galaxy S II General] Intratech:
You claim to be an engineer but you fail to understand the science behind the material used in the sgs II. The plastic is a much better choice for absorbing shocks from impacts as it deforms and protects the components inside and then returns to its shape where as the solid material will not absorb anything and just transmit the shock from the impact directly to the enclosed components and may also deform (dent).

Also remember the lighter device will end up with less impact if they both fall from the same height since Force = Mass × Acceleration due to gravity.
[Galaxy S II General] kcaz:
Or, you could pick up a dictionary:

Goodly

[good-lee]

–adjective, -li·er, -li·est.

1. of good or substantial size, amount, etc.: a goodly sum.

They have identical meanings. You've managed to take a situation where there is a clear, unambiguous advantage to the SGS2 over the Sensation, yet you equate them with ambiguous language.
[Galaxy S II General] godutch:
samsung tablets did relatively well in the drop test:

http://liliputing.com/2011/06/tablet-drop-test-video.html

htc smartphones do pretty well too:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=duP--YhHHz0
[Galaxy S II General] nickbarbs:
I can't live with it.

768 < 1,000

As simple as that

If you have an issue with the above formula I would reiterate my advice a few posts back.

I appreciate what goes into a good review - which is why I read engadget, and not your site :)
[Galaxy S II General] JJEgan:
I find a biased review to usually include a number of easy to spot points.

Normally due to the review not liking phone B and rather than a review its a lets find the negatives in phone B and post the positives of phone A .Thats followed up by using words that elevate one aspect like phone A has a brilliant screen with xxx and yyyy . Phone B has the same screen with xxx and yyy but the wording always manages to infer something negative .

Thats the sort of review of any product i would ignore as its a bit like asking Gillette to match their product with Wilkinson product .

As to the review no idea i have only SGS2 and no HTC to compare with .

jje
[Galaxy S II General] Mitty1990:
Crap review.
[Galaxy S II General] Tekguru:
Some of the points made here I'll address tonight in an addition post to the original.

For those who split hairs over terminology I'll clarify my thoughts too :)

For those who have worked hard to impart valid points I thank you and will take them on board in the above.

Idiots who state 'crap review' without commenting to elucidate or clarify things should be condemned to the depths of hell :)

I must say though a lot of you guys do seem to feel stung that I did not find the SII to be 'gods gift' to all users, and I do smell a bit of fanboi enthusiasm.

Maybe I have come out more on the side of the Sensation and in a Samsung forum will therefore get some flak. :)

Anyway the points made are taken on board and will be posted on later.

Useful and viable criticism I'll gladly listen to and take action on :)
[Galaxy S II General] Richdog:
Here's something for oyu to read: http://www.gsmarena.com/htc_sensation_vs_galaxy_sii_vs_optimus_2x-review-608p3.php

I think it's pretty clear cut personally. :)
[Galaxy S II General] stoney73:
+1

'Tekguru'? Really? Thats a misnomer in itself.

I understand that you didn't have the manual until late on in the review, fair enough, but.....you only posted that review yesterday. The phone has been out in the UK for over a month, google? or even the samsung site to download the manual? Then you might have found out about the home button being used as a search button.

Surprised that someone making a review didnt have the curiousity to press and hold buttons to see what they did though......

You've made a lot of effort in some areas, whilst neglecting to make minimal effort in more pertinent areas.

Whilst I appreciate the amount of work that went into your review, the review itself is redundant because of your bias and lack of knowledge regarding the S2.

Just very frustrating to read through, and more frustrating knowing that it is time I cant recover.

Perhaps before accusing people of 'Fanboi enthusiasm', you should attempt to be unbiased yourself. Glass house and all that.

As for the sgs2 being 'Gods Gift', well, no one is questioning that the sgs2 has quirks/faults.

People are only questioning your neutrality, which you seem to feel stung about.
[Galaxy S II General] svenk:
I am grateful for that review. Even if it does not mention the two SII problems most people here (as I have the impression) are concerned with (i.e. yellow tint on display, pink spot on camera), I now am very glad to have chosen the SII.

Comparing the pictures you posted, I clearly see that the SII camera has the much better contrast especially in dark areas. The Sensation shows nearly no detail in the dark, whereas with the SI you can see all of it.

Much more important, on each and every photo showing the SII and the Sensation together I am much impressed with the quality of the SII display with it's night-deep black and it's bright colors. The Sensation surely is a good device, but the SII and especially the display clearly is another class.

As my phone is rooted I was also able to freeze Wifi sharing and improve battery life (lasts well over one working day with moderate usage now). I agree that this could be much better, though.

Btw. I had to root the phone anyway to get rid of that ridiculous "I am charged now!" notification. That is a big minus for the SII, if any!
[Galaxy S II General] godutch:
I guess that depends on your eyesight because I can see the individual pixels (and even subpixels) on the SGS2 :( you also need to zoom in quite a bit before text becomes legible whereas on the Sensation you don't need to
[Galaxy S II General] svenk:
So are you telling that you have the SII and the Sensation for a side-by-side comparison? I don't and therefore I don't say that the screen resolution is better or worse on any of the two. However, since my eyes are no longer the best one can have, I am satisfied with the SII resolution ;) I normally do not have to zoom out, even on web pages that are not optimized for mobile phones.

But I see the direct contrast comparison in the review, and there can be no doubt which is the better display.
[Galaxy S II General] khein:
I know, I'm contradicting myself, but I hope that we can just ignore this thread.

I'm sure the users from Sensation subforum are laughing at us now because this thread are full of SGS2 users defending there phones against this so-called 'reviewer'. Proving that SGS2 users will argue to anyone who says ill about the phone even if its from a random,non-sense,unreliable article.

This same thread did not even had a single reply in the Sensation subforum, as it is currently buried at page 4.
[Galaxy S II General] svenk:
I did not intend to make the SII look better than it is. In fact, here are my major pain points (which I missed in the review):

- Calendar is a pain to synch with Outlook in offline mode. No solution I tried worked so far.

- Alarm clock has it's own life: Alarm turns on and off randomly, snooze sometimes works and sometimes not. Also, custom MP3s will only play for one minute and then be cut off.

- Phone wakes sometimes without me doing anything. Happens when lying on the table as well as when in pocket.

- Annoying "I am charged now!" notification. Needs root to remove.

- Battery drainage (which can be reduced on a rooted phone).

- Yellow tint.

- Pink spot.

- Auto brightness is still broken (XWKE2): In a semi-dark environment I constantly get increasing and decreasing brightness, even though the environment does not change. Only solution is to turn off auto brightness.

- Two times so far in about two weeks I had a total hang, forcing me to remove the battery. Did not know about the eight-second-power-button-trick then, will try next time.

- I am not so convinced from the unit's GPS. Takes quite some time before I get a fix. But then it's quite accurate at least.

Since this is my first Android I do not know which of those points are SII specific.
[Galaxy S II General] tuhinz:
I think most SGS II users wouldn't mind constructive criticism. The display/ battery issues have been discussed in several threads which shows that the SGSII is not without it's quirks (Like all devices!)

However, a 'review', especially a head-to-head should be fair atleast in listing the features of a phone. How can a reviewer specifically mention a feature to be missing when all you need to do to enable it is press the menu button?

The owners of the SGSII already know that the review is BS.All we are trying to do here possibly is to let potential buyers know that the reviewer is not on the level or has been careless (At best). :D
[Galaxy S II General] vegetaleb:
Geez man!

How do you want me to buy a SGS2 instead of Sensation now? :eek:
[Galaxy S II General] svenk:
Well, reading that again I think I sound a bit too negative :)

From what Google tells me, the calendar and alarm clock issues are not SII specific, and there are apps available that address it (I have not tried in detail, though).

I guess the wake problem is caused by some app and it only occurs seldom, but in fact it occurs. A re-boot seems to help.

The yellow tint is minor in comparison to the overall display quality. I only see it when I specifically look after it, and it does not bother me. Especially when I now know that other displays are so much worse ;)

The pink spot is a problem on many phones. Chosing another white balance mode (not automatic) fixes it. However, the phone does not remember that setting :( Btw, I forgot to mention that it also does not remember the GPS tag setting when you turn on GPS after it has been turned off. This is really not good if you took a dozen photos and then find out you missed something...

The total hangs were most likely caused by unstable apps. Normal usage never was a problem.

To be fair to the GPS: I used it in my car, maybe the this is not the optimal testing environment ;)

Conclusion: The main pain point is the broken auto brightness. I really wished they fixed it.
[Galaxy S II General] vegetaleb:
What about battery?

I saw very opposite results, some are having 8h and other 4 days!
[Galaxy S II General] nookcoloruser:
thanks for the review :)
[Galaxy S II General] bilboa1:
i dunno if its due to different camera sensors in different sgs2 being widespread or something, but the pictures from the sgs2 on this website are quite bad indeed

i get much, much better ones for example, specially toward exposition (either that either it's been overexposed on purpose)
[Galaxy S II General] godutch:
This is a Gingerbread issue, my desire has it too after upgrading to GB (w/ sense), you can somewhat improve it if you go to settings->display and untick the last tick ( I don't know what it is called since I use dutch and the setting is abreviated, something like automatic screen power?)
[Galaxy S II General] xakarix84:
Sensation photo looks like zoomed in because they have different focal length, sgs2 have wider camera. it's not bad thing for sensation focal length because he can make better depth of field effect especially come to macro compare with wider camera, but it also easily make people think most of the picture are blurred.

But honestly, the in focus area by sensation aren't sharper than sgs2 at all, except the more nearer macro picture which exceed sgs2 focus ability.

The sky a bit overexposed for sgs2 because the auto metering choose to keep better exposure on tree, while sensation keep nice sky and make darker tree.
[Galaxy S II General] Robboftw:
Fairly good review but it was unnecessarily long. Good effort all the same though.

I think that both phones have good and bad points, it's very difficult to decide which one to use as my main device.

The Sensation battery isn't poor though, it's ever so slightly worse than the Galaxy S II but there isn't that much in it. At least not that I've noticed anyway and I've compared them to death.
[Galaxy S II General] XDA mark:
When I saw the "browser" part I knew enough. I dont need to read the rest.

This is CLEARLY, at least the browser part, bull****. You could have wrote it like this:

The Galaxy S II browser is the best out there. It is faster and smoother then the Sensation. It is also the first device to beat the iPhone in browser smoothness.

Fact. Seen enough video reviews. The Sensation Browser still has the "jerky"/laggy scrolling, not ultra smooth as the Galaxy S II. EVERY REVIEW MENTIONS THAT. Your's does not. Ergo, a Sensation loving written review.
[Galaxy S II General] Shocky2:
I've not had the Galaxy S II run out of battery on me yet during the day, by the time I get home I'm usually down to 20-30%, so it will last a day quite easily.

That battery graph is highly suspect, some good points in the review but it does seem a bit one sided
[Galaxy S II General] svenk:
I'll give It a try!
[Galaxy S II General] saveferris:
Well thats interesting......I have dropped my GS2 twice, the most recent was Saturday night. I was eating a pickle, like the clumsy bastard I am I dropped that delicious pickle, in pure frustration i picked it up and threw it as far as i could...in the motion of throwing the pickle my phone flew out of my pocket onto the concrete (bounced 3 to 4 times) phone ended up having a few scratches.
[Galaxy S II General] vegetaleb:
I tried a Sensation in a shop today: I hated it!

I always loved HTC phones for their ''class'' but this one look cheap!

It's just like a nokia 5800 with its plastic borders over screen.

The screen is very weird with its looooong 16/9

My choice is final: getting SGS2
[Galaxy S II General] Robboftw:
Are you sure it was a Sensation?
[Galaxy S II General] Kendoji:
I'm a bit of an HTC fanboy with an innate distrust of Samsung. But after comparing both phones side by side I grudgingly picked the Samsung, which has turned out to be virtually flawless. There really was no contest, the Samsung beat the HTC for me in every way. It was weird, as I really wanted to like the Sensation.
[Galaxy S II General] Tinderbox (UK):
I posted this on androidforum.com

I was just playing though the videos to the point where they show the taskmanger on both phones and they killed all applications on both and we see how much memory was left.

HTC = total ram memory 768mb , Available 558mb , free after clear memory 185mb

GS2 = total ram memory 1024mb, Available 837mb ,free after clear memory 558mb

The Samsung GS2 has over 3 x as much free ram memory as the HTC Sensation.

That`s a lot more free ram memory for games and app designers to play with.
[Galaxy S II General] greyhulk:
That's because Sense, as cool as it is, really gobbles up the RAM. HTC should have put like 1.5 gb of RAM in that thing to compensate.
[Galaxy S II General] godutch:
Linux memory management doesn't have work like that, in it will try to keep as much libraries, in mem as possible as well as create as much disk cache as possible, all the cached stuff will not show as free but is available.
[Galaxy S II General] vegetaleb:
Absolutly!

I didn't like the resolution and the physical size of the 16/9 screen, it's way too long, it will be a pain for typing, it looked like a toy near the large DHD.

Oh and by the way the ringtones are just slightly louder than DHD, the Arc was way louder than that
[Galaxy S II General] Robboftw:
I think it's great to type on.

I think it is massively better than the DHD in all areas, I thought the DHD was a pretty bad phone overall.