yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[General Questions and Answers] Althestrasz:
First off, the Sensation XE is an overpriced, recoloured Sensation with a pair of Beats headphones, so be sure the check the price difference and ask yourself if a pair of Beats is worth it. There are plenty of headphones out there, better and cheaper.

If you look at hardware only the S2 is a little stronger, but the Sensation is really close by.the Qualcomm Snapdragon processor can work safely up to 1,5 ghz, only HTC underclocked it, so a custom kernel should do the trick.

If you are going with a custom rom, I doubt you would see the difference, what does meet the eye is the look of the Sensation. The sensation is more designed and has more body (making it heavier), the S2 is just plastic.

The Sensation has a qHD screen, it's not amoled but it comes really close, sharpness is better than it is on the S2 because the pixels are closer to eachother.

Don't be fooled by advertising. ;)

I hope I helped.
[General Questions and Answers] Suuugen:
Sensation . Galaxy batt sucks and The build quality is a joke.
[General Questions and Answers] modstorm:
The prices are very similar to each other with the Sensation XE being slightly cheaper. Ragarding the Sensation, I would prefer the XE as I like the Beats earphones and the red accents on the phone much better :D
[General Questions and Answers] slapshot30:
GSII has a monsterous dev community. You will have no shortage of new things to try. Id be willing to bet the GSII gets ICS first too.

Edit: and sorry if I step on toes, but beats sound quality is ****. I guess go for beats if you want to look cool and fit in. Other than that though, they suck.
[General Questions and Answers] Mainspring:
if it's cheaper, go with that.

if you are flashing roms I don't think it's going to matter that much in the user experience dept.

SGS2's hardware is really nice but so is the Senny's.

really going to comes down to your taste I guess.

better build quality, prettier design, and Qhd display vs. slightly stronger hardware(exynos version) but have to deal with the plastic and lower resolution screen.

both good phones though. can't go wrong with either.

good luck mate.
[General Questions and Answers] Althestrasz:
If you like the colour, go for it. I really don't like it. With all the blue backgrounds of CM, I think it would just look weird. :)

I think you're right on that part. Though I think the casing of the Sensation (XE) is stronger.

You're right about that, too. Beats is overpriced, there are cheaper and better solutions on the market. I believe that Sennheisser has a pair in-ear headphones that offer better quality for half the price.
[General Questions and Answers] modstorm:
Thanks :D So regarding performance, with custom roms the phones are quite similar right? And regarding battery life, which one is best?
[General Questions and Answers] Althestrasz:
I think the S2, I am not sure, neither of my friends nor me own a S2 so I can't compare. but the Sensation is known for it's shorter battery.
[General Questions and Answers] Mainspring:
from what I've been reading the S2's battery life isn't too good. I don't own one so can't say for sure.

Senny?

get a Anker... or the Evo 3D battery if the stock doesn't do it for you.

1900 and 1730 mah respectively, though I think the Evo 3D batt's rating is more accurate.

anyway, Anker is around $10-15.

pretty much solve the battery issue, though my stock 1520mah battery wasn't too bad.

I'm using the Evo 3D batt and I've been pretty happy with it's performance. :)
[General Questions and Answers] modstorm:
Ok thanks :D My friend has a GSII so I'll try it a bit.... I like the HTC's looks better so I might go for it. Thanks for the help :)
[General Questions and Answers] Gambler_3:
I find it funny whenever people mention the sensation has higher resolution and fail to mention just how much inferior it actually is to SAMOLED+ in pretty much everything else. The sensation isnt even the best LCD, bad viewing angles, average contrast and very reflective. It's a terrible display for such an expensive phone.

S2 also has a much better camera and more internal memory. And sensation might be better built but S2 is slimmer and lighter.
[General Questions and Answers] NoobCuber:
I think s II, :)
[General Questions and Answers] Mainspring:
it's more of a personal taste thing isn't it? not sure how you could say it's inferior to the SGS2's lower resolution screen.

I find SAMOLED's color to be too exaggerated.

viewing angle has been fine on mine.

I've been pretty happy with the Senny's screen. text is so clear.
[General Questions and Answers] Althestrasz:
Amoled screens are green-ish, I rather have less viewing angles than a green glow.

I am very clumbsy, so I would go for the bigger casing and heavier Sensation XE than I would for the light and fragile S2.

But that's just me.
[General Questions and Answers] lilotimz:
Amoled on the original Galaxy S is greenish. The Super Amoled + on the galaxy s2 has no such problems (color saturation can be tweaked in the settings). Battery life under moderate useage can go from 16-24 hours for a average user, more for a light user, and anywhere from 10-14 (around there) for a power user.

Light doesn't mean fragile btw... you should see the drop test comparison between the 4s and the S2 if you really want to know what is "fragile".
[General Questions and Answers] Gambler_3:
As mentioned the color saturation can be controlled with the SGS2 and there is no green tint.

The problem with the sensation is that it is not even the best LCD, far from it. While contrast will always be average on LCD, the viewing angles and sunlight performance are very good with samsung and apple LCD's. The samsung wave 2 and iphone 4 are the finest examples of LCD tech I have seen. The new LG IPS HD display in the nitro is most certainly the new LCD king from what I have read about it but haven't used it yet. HTC just cheaps out on the most important part of a smartphone

Dont get me wrong it's by no means a bad display and you could very well be completely satisfied with it but I really felt like saying all this after reading the comments of S2 having lower resolution while completely ignoring many of it's strengths.
[General Questions and Answers] kurolife:
It is safe to assume that you have your own reason to choose between the SGSII or the Sensation XE

[offtopic]If it isn't for the budget, I suggest you to choose neither, and go with a Galaxy Nexus (at least if you want to go with a SGS II) and wait a couple more days for CES, and check what will be annouced there.[/offtopic]

Now back to the choice between both phones

With either you can't go wrong and it is more a matter of taste than anything else

but for me these are the point:

Sensation XL........................................................SGSII

-Built quality and industrial design......................-Lightness and tickness

-qHD and SLCD screen (realistic colors)..............-SAMOLED+ (Vivid colors)

-Sense.................................................................-Touchwiz

-Free Beats audio headsets................................-More internal storage (although the Sensation is supplied with a high capacity SD card unlike the SGSII)

that for the objectif part of the choice, but from my point of view I'd go with the HTC phone over a Sammy as long as Samsung keeps building a phone with cheap plastics, because I don't feel it is serious when you are buying a premium product and high end superphone with cheap plastic, it is like buying a Mercedes S-Class with VW lupo interior, doesn't feel right at all
[General Questions and Answers] lucas2005x:
the looks of Sesation is better but the Hardware is a little weak than Gs2
[General Questions and Answers] modstorm:
Sorry for posting in wrong thread (new to this forum). I think I will wait for CES and see if its worth waiting for a new phone to come out or get the Sensation :)
[General Questions and Answers] modstorm:
I am also starting to consider the Galaxy Nexus as I found one for sale for a good price :) So between the Sensation XE and Galaxy Nexus, should I go for the Nexus? (around €70 more)
[General Questions and Answers] kurolife:
About the same argumentation between SGSII and Sensation XE except you'll get pure google experience with the Galaxy Nexus, so I'd say if you don't mind the plastics, and the inferior camera the Galaxy Nexus is a better choice

Less than a week till CES I'd say wait a little bit before making your choice
[Galaxy S II General] soraxd:
how can so many of you not like touchwiz, lemme correct that *HATE touchwiz... i realize its the hip thing to do, to hate touchwiz, and you somehow think it makes you look pro.. but touchwiz rocks.. most of you havent even seen what the alternative is, you just hate it cause everyone else does.

do you realize losing touchwiz loses:

*built in screen capture by pressing home+lock

*task manager built into long press

*swipe left/right to call/text in contacts/dialer/texts

*toggles in drop down menu

*amazing UI in camera/file manager/ music player

*ability to adjust display options, beyond what stock roms are capable of

*swype

* ability to adjust brightness by moving dropbar back and forth

* the option to use the actual touchwiz launcher

* Divx, Xvid, and .avi support out of the box, as well as other formats supported only by samsung

its not like having a stock rom gives you anything in place of these.. if you dont like the touchwiz launcher, you can install another one, i cant see why ppl are soo determined to get rid of it, and have nothing in its place. would you really rather have no options, in place of where you DID have options?
[Galaxy S II General] vicelord.leo:
I personally like touchwiz and that's the reason i'm not switching to

aosp
[Galaxy S II General] Intratech:
You forgot all the built in format support for multimedia files.
[Galaxy S II General] titooo7:
On older devices the phone was much slower when using samsung roms (tw) than AOSP. I i think that's the main reason why some people HATE touchwiz.

Right now AOSP roms like cm7 are still faster than Samsung roms, but that doesn't means that Samsung roms are bad!

Touchwiz has some goodies were it still bet AOSP, so at the end is a matter of personal taste.

Enviado desde mi GT-I9100 usando Tapatalk
[Galaxy S II General] petsasj:
I personally like the TouchWiz UI on Gingerbread. It's an update over AOSP/CM7 Roms.

However, seeing that KP4 video, i find that TouchWiz 4 is a downgrade for ICS. Many of the features that TW4 had over Gingerbread were implemented in ICS.

So for me AOSP is the way to go for ICS.
[Galaxy S II General] anshmiester78900:
hell yeah .!! i love touch wiz
[Galaxy S II General] dan1431:
I have nothing against TW, there are many parts of it that I actually like, but ICS seems to be a big step forward for Android and TW (at least the ALPHA/BETA iteration does not seem that much of a step forward).

Granted, I am actually not really sure what I expected of TW and ICS, but I guess I was expecting to see more of ICS (Roboto, the Blueish Hue for the Signal Meter/etc.) and maybe over time my expectations will rationalize and I will see TW as my mode for interaction with Android and ICS.

Dan
[Galaxy S II General] Sideromelane:
I just find it clunky. I always install LauncherPro immediatly after a reflash. Much easier to fit stuff on my home screen.
[Galaxy S II General] J31Rob:
Others run better on my phone. That simple. No hate.

---------- Post added at 12:07 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:06 PM ----------

Hell yeah. Now I look 1337/pro/boss status.
[Galaxy S II General] Red_Vex:
Well...in ICS taskmanager will be replaced from standard one.

I like ics but it has some missing feature

1)Sorter icon on app drawer (only using appZorter)

2)Custom icon of status bar (thanks Jkay)

3)HORRIBLE!!!! Green battery. Add a % better battery.
[Galaxy S II General] ajcantonio:
i think tw is good. the features are just amazing. this is my first time to use a samsung android phone (former lg user) and i find tw really functional compared to my past phone's ui. i just don't like the look... there's a lot of launchers out there anyway. and about aosp, i just think it's too plain for casual users, like... me... hehehe!

btw, happy new year, guys!
[Galaxy S II General] DannyDrama:
Because I can't resize all widgets, have 6x6 home and lock screen, customize animations and change themes and icons. I also can't hide the dock or the status bar.

ADW is better IMHO.

Sent from my GT-I9100
[Galaxy S II General] Arkanius:
TouchWiz is not a launcher!
[Galaxy S II General] AllSeeyinEye:
It's not TW that's bad, it's TWlauncher that sucks ;-)
[Galaxy S II General] victorinoxs:
not bad, but it's built into ICS as well

but number of recent apps down to 6, very annoying; besides, task manager is really not necessary for a powerful phone like S2, I always have around 500mb free ram sitting around. I rarely use task manager to kill background apps.

ya, it may be handy sometimes, but no threaded call logs, and call logs are mixed with sms logs.

CM ROM can do even better, such as 2G/3G/2G&3G modes toggle

indeed amazing camera UI, but file manger & music player are so so. There are better and free alternatives. The camera app is the only thing I will miss about TW.

can be installed separately anyway

I find brightness level widget easier to use.

What's so good about TW Launcher anyway?

Agree. Samsung does have the best codec support of all, but it's not like there is no alternatives available.

Having a stock rom I can get almost everything that TW provides by installing 3rd party apps; on the other hand, on a stock TW rom, I'm stuck with no video calling in GTalk, no green icon indicating Google service status, only 6 recent apps and a bunch of Samsung bloatwares.
[Galaxy S II General] asdfasd2:
Touchwiz is ugly..

iphoney SMS

launcher icons

Pull down toggle icons

Music player
[Galaxy S II General] bala_gamer:
Touchwiz would be the best launcher if it had the following

1.multi dpi scaling.

2.proper resize support.
[Galaxy S II General] josephislee:
I tried out CM9 yesterday and the only thing I miss from tw is the browser.. smoother IMO, even compared to the videos of the galaxy nexus..
[Galaxy S II General] nicregi:
Happy new year!

I don't hate TouchWiz but I just felt it is too 'stock' feeling. Just love to modify so TouchWiz isn't my main choice...
[Galaxy S II General] mike21pr:
I like touchwiz. Its the only UI where the launcher runs perfectly smooth even using a heavy live wallpaper. I believe that they use the cartoony colors to show off the Super Amoled screen as well. The only thing that will make me flash a non touchwiz ROM is Stock ICS, cuz im not using the visually unpolished abomination that AOSP Gingerbread is. MIUI is sorta buggy for us so its out imo

sEnT fRoM mY ExYnOs PoWeReD MoNsTeR
[Galaxy S II General] aranab:
Sometimes I feel like I'm the only one who isn't a fan of MIUI lol
[Galaxy S II General] borolo222:
I first thougt tw was dull and tried go launcher ex. I liked all the transitions but came back to tw. Its simplicity is enough 4 now. I did changed that horrible lock screen for widget locker..
[Galaxy S II General] karendar:
Oh I so agree with the lock screen. Took me all of 5 minutes to replace that sucker on my phone when I got it. ;) haha.

The launcher I can do without... There is better out there. The touchwiz features like slide to call/text and slide notification for brightness are two features I love and would not do without.

And anyway, there are so many ways to get rid of touchwiz launcher (Which is the main reason people dislike touchwiz) as opposed to getting rid of sense launcher, so why make it an issue? :P
[Galaxy S II General] javefang:
the only thing that TW attracts me is the slide left/right to call/send messages :)
[Galaxy S II General] brar.arsh:
I use Go Launcher over TW..

In leaked ICS also i used the Go Launcher.

TW Launcher is good but UI is Bad.. :(
[Galaxy S II General] sikcool:
Yeah, at first TW is cool, but after I move to ICS with Nova Launcher it's seem very out of date :p

Just try it (Nova) and you'll never missed the TW :D
[Galaxy S II General] dyallo:
i think we hate the launcher, not the samsung rom :)
[Galaxy S II General] jastonas:
I applause this thread :)

Especially the OP and his post.

I though I was the only touchwiz lover.

I think that objectively, TW framework is better, more complete AND faster than AOSP as far as the Galaxy S II is concerned.
[Galaxy S II General] langas:
I was using TW until the day I reflashed my SGS2 to ICS.

From then I preffer AOSP ICS launcher to TW.

But I to see the final version fro Samsung once it will be finished... I think the roms from Sammobile have to change the aspect much more... And maybe then final result will like me...
[Galaxy S II General] Ghost-of-the-Sun:
TW is not bad, it has actually good functionality, but it is so ugly!

I'm not only talking about the launcher: the menu, statusbar, lockscreen, icons...

I think that if touchwiz was nicer, a lot of people wouldn't switch to iPhone because, you know, most of the people don't even know what a processor is. They only look at what they see.

At least the launcher is smooth and fluid (only Launcher 7 can compare to it with a stock rom).

P.S. I love MIUI :)
[Galaxy S II General] LBTaylor1984:
While it might be a minor point the colour scheme of GB and worse in TW. I don't like the fact the launcher is 4 icons max, and you can't move the app draw button to the middle. While minor it ruins the experience. Don't get me wrong it's better than Sense (which eventually drove me bonkers) but against AOSP it stands no chance.

Personally i'm rolling Revo ROM v4 with ICS Domination over the top. as it's the best combo of functionality and aesthetics.

however even the ICS leak from Samsung is themed in TW and again Green and Orange? horrible choice, even the icons i'm not a fan of.

CM9 will make the phone alot better and any rethemes of the TW version. but standard TW i can't stand...
[Galaxy S II General] aagobbo:
I had a Defy + MIUI, so when I looked to my sgs2 + touchwiz, with heart opened to like it, I came to xda to download a MIUI for sgs2.
[Galaxy S II General] Filiprino:
I don't like TouchWiz because is buggy as hell.
[Galaxy S II General] incidentflux:
I like TouchWiz, it's not causing any noticeable issues. I have a Samsung Captivate Glide and bought a Galaxy S II for mom. TouchWiz runs fine on both of them, even after loading them up with 80 plus apps. Haven't even felt the need to root them yet.

Of course I'd prefer to unload any unwanted component or app, from memory or un-install it completely, if it improves performance or just to gain additional install space.

Since Samsung is making really good Android devices, I have no worries with them adding something for market segmentation purposes.

Technical elites usually find ways to get what they want. So lets not "hate".

"Keep calm and carry on" :)
[Galaxy S II General] molesarecoming:
dont like it because it destroys the experience that is ice cream sandwich. i think it is poor that people from now on think that touchwiz is ice cream sandwich, google should put a ban on that and copyright the term, only allow it to be used for aosp/holo based roms. what samsung does is basically false advertising. all this stuff listed in the first post roms like aokp do a zillion times better, and swype is not touchwiz, it can be downloaded just fine (for free!) - whats the big deal.

if touchwiz would be an addition that you can install or uninstall, it would be great. but they needed half a year to **** up the original framework, which was perfect. they could have simply adjusted their drivers to fit aosp and you would have enjoyed a fast, modern, sleek and perfect os months ago. i see no reason why i should be happy. samsung touchwiz fake ics is out now and probably has more errors then cm9, what's there to be be happy about? it's a tragedy.
[Galaxy S II General] GJ123:
People please stop with all the 'Cyanogenmod is teh ****ING best because it's reallll Android'

Samsung's additions are okay, the colours are horrible in Cyanogenmod really horrible.
[Galaxy S II General] sahibunlimited:
I think just the opposite
[Galaxy S II General] AppReviewBros:
To be honest, I really dislike the UI TW has. I mean, you can't compare pure ICS with ICS that's combined with TW... You know what I mean.
[Galaxy S II General] slugger09:
I know exactly what you mean, Samsung have ruined ICS with this release, it looks like $hit
[Galaxy S II General] molesarecoming:
cm has opted to go along aosp with version 9, no? they did not introduce anything that distracts from the ics experience that was conceived by google's ui and ux team. of course this approach retains the spirit of "real android." real android was made with the plattforms in mind its running on, yet samsung did not create touchwizz because it was needed, and as you can gather from all the outcries here and everywhere where people actually complain about the many bugs and errors that came with it, the device itself even seems to repel it. :)
[Galaxy S II General] soraxd:
wow.. this rant I did a while back got so much attention lol.. I just assumed it died that day
[Galaxy S II General] PantsDownJedi:
I just found it myself and was going to reply but found myself a little late, but since you came back... all those things you listed are fine and frankly desirable for me with the exception of the Touchwiz Launcher, or UI, itself. Its boring. The analogy is sort of like looking at Windows 95 and 98 for too long, or Windows XP for over 10 years. People often use the Samsung Kernel in their ROM but add AOSP tidbits which simply aren't as good and that I replace with the original Samsung counterpart where needed and if possible. Usually its small things like the clock and calculator or voice recorder. As for Samsung based ROMs that are "minimal" and stripped down, I don't see the point because anyone caring about that knows how to do it themselves with Titanium Backup anyway so I find that quite annoying when I'm looking for a ROM.

I want the Touchwiz framework, but I don't want the launcher. That's personal choice and there's plenty of other launchers out there. The only other thing I care about, which is pretty recent, is a good job on the theming of a Samsung ICS ROM. I want to move away from Windows 95 syndrome, which is natural I think, in my case anyway. The best one I've tried so far still has a stray font issue here and there but its quite preferable over the standard Touchwiz UI. Finding something well themed and very stable isn't always wonderfully easy. Prior to the ICS launch, just finding a launcher that suited me was in itself enough.

As for entirely custom ROM and kernels, I have to agree that you give up way more than you gain.

Interestingly enough, it was my wife's iPhone that got me thinking about the whole "Same boring Windows look for 5 and 10 years". I swear they need to overhaul the interface of those phones because its become even more boring than what I'm on about here and I haven't even used one in quite some time apart from the odd picking up of my wife's phone to show her how to use something.

As an afterthought, on quite a tangent, the only thing more annoying than an iPhone user that doesn't know how to use an iPhone is an XDA member that says "I like cheese. Be sure to hit the 'Thanks' button if this post has helped you."
[Galaxy S II General] norpan111:
Please link the post:)
[Galaxy S II General] PantsDownJedi:
I'm not sure if this is what you wanted, but I think this is it hopefully?

http://xdaforums.com/showpost.php?p=20879443&postcount=1
[Galaxy S II General] norpan111:
I'm not sure if xda redirects me wrong but I was talking about the gut who likes cheese, thanks
[Galaxy S II General] diddly3000:
Golauncherex is my launcher of choice. I hate how touchwiz home screen is first screen on left
[Galaxy S II General] okmijnlp:
I used to love Touchwiz, until I flashed MIUI, and now I see just how ugly it is! The icons are quite frankly terrible, way too cartoony and childish for a touchscreen. 5 year olds > should not have a phone, let alone a bloody expensive one, so why on earth did samsung make it look as though it's built for a child?