yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Galaxy S II General] nikzDHD:
"Sources from several of the biggest mobile operators in the United Kingdom disclosed the reason for this stating that since the technology is not available for major industry and business markets it was dropped. This was revealed to them by Apple in meetings."

Articles from March about iPhone 5 not having NFC, and UK carriers having meetings with Apple Execs about possibilities could be a reason why the UK model may not have it as no one supports it.

Where as the Korean model, the NFC service is provided by the KT network.

However, other reports from the UK state that NFC will be available in the UK in the summer, with Mastercard & Orange working on a mobile phone.

Since this will be a SIM-based NFC service, Orange will still need to roll out upgraded SIMs; and once you have one of those, you will need to download the relevant apps in order to be able to use them. And it seems the services won’t be usable on all devices, either. Nokia (NYSE: NOK) has rolled out NFC capability in select handsets, and Google’s Nexus S is NFC-enabled, but otherwise there have been few signs from the handset makers of actually building this into their devices en masse—although plenty like to speculate about it.

Mobile operators have long been pushing for NFC services that reside on a customer’s SIM card, rather than in the device itself. Their claim is that this provides a more secure solution—although it will also mean that operators can be more involved in customer “ownership” and account management, and all of the revenue generation that will entail. This new service is no exception: the NFC service from Barclaycard and Everything Everywhere will be SIM-based in order to provide a “single point of customer contact” says Orange.

SO... Maybe we do have NFC, but will need a NFC based SIM???
[Galaxy S II General] Jazazze:
Well that's my plans to have a tag in the car to turn off wifi out the window then. :(
[Galaxy S II General] crypticc:
NFC models are reportedly .5mm fatter @ 8.9mm.

http://phandroid.com/2011/04/26/sam...nside-available-for-pre-order-in-south-korea/
[Galaxy S II General] kwokwchoy:
Slashgear review

http://www.slashgear.com/samsung-galaxy-s-ii-review-26148446/
[Galaxy S II General] r2001uk:
I can confirm the UK version definitely doesn't have NFC :(

I downloaded 'Z-DeviceTest' from the market, which checks the functionality of everything and it indicated that there was no NFC present.

Shame, really. NFC was a big plus, something I thought would future-proof me if I managed to keep this phone longer than a year. It's still a bloody awesome phone, though.

I now have a new-found love for P4U - for selling it a day early and for also hooking me up with a £45-value universal kit (case, 4Gb card, car charger and car holder) for free.

Does anyone know how to find out if we're packing Exynos/Tegra2?
[Galaxy S II General] El Salvador:
There's still hope that the future NFC-sdcards might work with this phone.
[Galaxy S II General] Lord_Buckington:
Lack of NFC is a shame. I think Quadrant gives you the system info, otherwise just search for "system info" in the market, I found something like this app might be what you're looking for. Never tried that myself though.
[Galaxy S II General] kreoXDA:
Must be some bad app, they misspelled "Insert Jokes" in the first line of the Translation Credits on that page.[/endtroll]
[Galaxy S II General] Intratech:
I think that's the name of the person who did the Dutch translation mate. :D
[Galaxy S II General] kreoXDA:
well now you ruined my joke for everyone :):cool:
[Galaxy S II General] touness69:
3540 on quadrant advanced :eek:

quote
[Galaxy S II General] ryude:
Jrin also averaged 3500 in quadrant benchmarks. Safe to say that driver optimization goes a long way.
[Galaxy S II General] Intratech:
Gotta bear with me mate, had a right old tear up today during sparring so I'm buzzing a bit here.
[Galaxy S II General] kreoXDA:
np there man, sparred in my time, know how it feels :)
[Galaxy S II General] NIK516:
http://cdn.slashgear.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/samsung_galaxy_s_ii_sg_review_5-543x500.jpg

cutiest picture ever lolll
[Galaxy S II General] Intratech:
Doggy style!
[Galaxy S II General] ryude:
You say cute, I say disturbing.
[Galaxy S II General] kreoXDA:
i agree with both of you.
[Galaxy S II General] Bart1981:
I feel a SGS3 coming :p
[Galaxy S II General] arjun90:
Whatever happened to South Korea? Any word of its release there yet?
[Galaxy S II General] Bart1981:
An other small review
[Galaxy S II General] crypticc:
Or a sgs II and a small green android
[Galaxy S II General] crypticc:
See my link to phandroid elsewhere on this site
[Galaxy S II General] cliffahn:
Preorders have been going on for the better part of a week or so. I reserved mine two days ago. Apparently the release is expected to be either tomorrow or the day after. I hear there will be a media event for the Galaxy S2 tomorrow, so a 29th release seems likely.

If there are any other questions, let me know. I'll skulk the Korean sites to try and find more news :]
[Galaxy S II General] harshet:
Another review: fonehome.co.uk/2011/04/27/samsung-galaxy-s-2-review/

5 stars again!
[Galaxy S II General] NIK516:
That review was horrible.

No quality to the review.
[Galaxy S II General] Funkym0nkey:
I am waiting for GSMarena review. They are one of the few who do detailed audio test.
[Galaxy S II General] :
Another review that says the Arc has a better camera :confused:
[Galaxy S II General] Funkym0nkey:
If you check the gsmarena preview. the Arc pictures are slightly warmer in low light. But they also have more noise.

SGS2 are more neutral and seems to capture more detail (check out the buggy picture and zoom in on the eye ).

If you look at it from distance, Arc picture will feel better to eyes thanks to warmer tone.
[Galaxy S II General] OHDUSER:
Yea.. arc camera IS better...

but without cropping!

I ALWAYS crop 100% too see all the details... thats why people think arc is better? because they are not cropping? =/

thats sad..
[Galaxy S II General] shorty083:
Is that a problem :confused:

If there's one thing SE often gets right it's the camera part of the phone.

The arc has one of the best camera on an android phone at the moment.

If the sgs2 comes close to that, then I'm really happy.
[Galaxy S II General] Beards:
Check the photos here to compare.
[Galaxy S II General] vimto25:
i would say sgs2 is better photos but on a few sony has slightly better colours.

overall a fantastic camera
[Galaxy S II General] jrinco11:
shameless plug for my review :) http://www.jrin.net/2011_04_24/samsung-galaxy-s-2-in-depth-review -- summary: I absolutely love this phone.
[Galaxy S II General] AndyCr15:
My unboxing is up -

http://hemorrdroids.net/samsung-galaxy-s2-unboxing-and-first-look/

:)

Review in a week or so.
[Galaxy S II General] ryude:
First thing that comes to mind is "hemorrhoids.net", lol.
[Galaxy S II General] arjun90:
When: April 28th, 2011 at 10:30 AM, Where: South Korea, Be There or Be Square!

When: April 28th, 2011 at 10:30 AM, Where: South Korea, Be There or Be Square!

Article: http://samsunggalaxys2review.org/wh...30-am-where-south-korea-be-there-or-be-square

:)
[Galaxy S II General] joedoe:
See the post http://xdaforums.com/showpost.php?p=13266972&postcount=7
[Galaxy S II General] ryude:
Don't know if it has been posted, but here is slashgear's youtube review.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-wH2F2Myvk&hd=1

Here is the full review.

http://www.slashgear.com/samsung-galaxy-s-ii-review-26148446/

Also check this video out, amazing detail in HD.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7U-WTudWUI
[Galaxy S II General] kreoXDA:
This sounds like you are suggesting the devices released for S Korea tomorrow will be shipped to India and this is good news. Just want to clarify S Korea is CDMA, not GSM. The devices won't work on India's GSM networks.

Or maybe you are saying with S Korea release behind, Samsung will concentrate on releasing in India.
[Galaxy S II General] Quist:
Just have to clarify that if you look at the fonehome review, they say that the Arc only outdid the SGSII in low light conditions.

I owned the Arc for about a week and returned it because I was less than impressed by the camera.

As mentioned, looking at the photos on the phone, they looked great, but as soon as you put them up on your Full HD TV, it was like looking at a pointalist painting by Seurat.
[Galaxy S II General] Lakitu:
lol Had to "Thank" just for the Seurat similie.
[Galaxy S II General] Funkym0nkey:
So Engadget review is coming up today :p

Place your bets on the score out of 10 there.

If it scores 9 or more, i will bookmark them :p
[Galaxy S II General] grandpanda:
I can tell you Engadget's rating.

6/10, biggest con: it's not an iphone.
[Galaxy S II General] dhruvmalik:
Hahaha, I always see Engadget praise products even when the users figure out the faults. Perhaps, this is the reason they get devices early to "Test" them.
[Galaxy S II General] grandpanda:
I always doubt if Engadget is on S. Jobs payroll...
[Galaxy S II General] android_master:
Engadget Score

Samsung Galaxy S2 : Score=7/10

Pros

*Super Amoled Plus Screen

*Blazing Fast Processor

*Good 8MP Shooter

Cons

*Touchwiz 4.0 is still a mess

*Resolution is poor

*Plastic Materials used
[Galaxy S II General] HumanoidTalking:
Google translate will help

http://www.samsungtomorrow.com/1145

launched in Korea
[Galaxy S II General] george232:
pro: it's not a Nokia.

Encrapget's reviews are bad at best, but if they're written by Vlad, they are absolutely horrible.
[Galaxy S II General] uvaman:
Hi guys ,

This is for Samsung Croatia ...

We are pain in the ass for them and they decided to give us reply ..

Is this true or not let see :

Translation summary :

"We cant confirm that phone will be out till 1.5 and Korea can be one of the first

countries with brand new s2 ..This is official information ...Korea started to take preorders and they are expecting to give them the phones in begining of june ... Then UK, RUSSIA a bit later Austria and for whole Europe we can expect the phone till end of July will be covered...In Germany they are expecting at same time as Austria middle July...As for Canada they are expecting in September... This is the information which they have for now but it can be changed...

This is only for providers without special agreements like for UK ...

Dunno if this is true but let see...
[Galaxy S II General] Funkym0nkey:
Is this suppose to be some kind of joke? Phone is already available in UK unlocked. Ready for mass release there next week.

Magically posted from thin air!
[Galaxy S II General] r2001uk:
But it's currently only available to special providers (P4U) as the statement says, right?

Also, next week would be after May 1st, again just like the statement says.
[Galaxy S II General] Funkym0nkey:
Read that entire thing. They are contradicting themselves. I don't know if its translator error. But they say Korea preorders will be out in June and UK later.

Magically posted from thin air!
[Galaxy S II General] r2001uk:
I understood that to be correct in terms of general release, i.e. excluding special exclusivity deals like the phones4u early release deal.

When is it out in Korea? If it's in the next few days, the statement will be accurate - for general release order.
[Galaxy S II General] ndnesh:
Thats what he is saying. Now that the S Korea release is behind it, Samsung will (Hopefully) concentrate on releasing this phone in India.

Frankly , at this point of time, however many reviews come up, I am buying it once it hits India.
[Galaxy S II General] arjun90:
Only Speculation (But Logically Speaking...)

I can only optimistically speculate that because the Galaxy S2 launched in South Korea close to its anticipated Launch Date, it "should not" have problems launching in India early-May. (ETA: May 6th - May 13th, 2011) ;)
[Galaxy S II General] Lord_Buckington:
The full Pocket-Lint review is up. 4.5/5, with 'niggles' rather than negatives.
[Galaxy S II General] kreoXDA:
thanks but this one is heavily biased, written by Sam's brother Dan Sung. ;)
[Galaxy S II General] Realplayer-88:
When is the Engadget review coming? They said today!!!
[Galaxy S II General] silverwolf0:
Lol why even bother reading online reviews at all? Even Android fanboy reviews try desperately to compare it to the iPhone and call it the iPhone killer. You should just stop going onto the internet itself if you are so afraid of Apple. Will make the internet more pleasant for everyone.
[Galaxy S II General] ryude:
Even without touching the device I can rate it a 9/10, there is always something that prevents a 10/10 and the SGS 2 is no exception. I do think it's the best phone of the year though.
[Galaxy S II General] open1your1eyes0:
Did you just answer your own question? XD
[Galaxy S II General] vimto25:
lol :D:D:p
[Galaxy S II General] calin75:
They will claim that the iPhone is still better. They always do.
[Galaxy S II General] EleCtrOx666:
They will probably say some bull**** like:

"The Galaxy S2 is better than the iPhone 4 Black, but did you just saw the new iPhone 4 White? It just kills the Galaxy S2."
[Galaxy S II General] ivanzgb2:
And here it is:

http://www.engadget.com/2011/04/28/samsung-galaxy-s-ii-review/

9/10 :)
[Galaxy S II General] EleCtrOx666:
oh **** I was very close :p.

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?p=13231448#post13231448
[Galaxy S II General] Spartoi:
9/10 from Vlad is impressive.
[Galaxy S II General] r2001uk:
I stopped reading when he started *****ing about Flash not working. Guess he wasn't smart enough to check the settings.

Saying that, it's silly of samsung to turn it off by default.
[Galaxy S II General] paranoid2007:
Of course it's the best phone on planet Apple. But beyond the moutains with the seven dwarfs ...
[Galaxy S II General] silverwolf0:
You ****ups should actually read the review. It summarizes by saying the SGS2 is the BEST PHONE. PERIOD. The only mention of Apple is the screen and the ecosystem. There's also plenty of mentions of SUPREME, EXEMPLARY, SILKY SMOOTH, and other hyperboles. The Flash part wasn't a slight against the phone since they said it will work as well as any other without incident and didn't fault it.

****ing sad that if any site has a history of liking Apple, it must be evil and their reviews completely crap, even though this review is the most positive review I've read about the SGS2 to date.
[Galaxy S II General] imbapanda:
Id have to agree with this.
[Galaxy S II General] r2001uk:
I don't hate Engadget, I visit the site every day, but the flash issue was pretty stupid. He could have flicked it on and tested it properly.
[Galaxy S II General] fallen2004:
Engadgets review is up, 9/10. They say its the best phone you can buy.

Deffenty getting in a few months when my contract runs out.

Im new so cannot put a link thou
[Galaxy S II General] lynxboy:
I think the most important quote from that review was....

'best smartphone, period'.....

Wow!

Regards.
[Galaxy S II General] kwokwchoy:
The review was outstanding and the phone looks brilliant!

God.. I want this phone so bad.
[Galaxy S II General] touness69:
That is where is the problem, the GSII has nothing to do with any other phone on the market in terms of Web Browsing with flash content
[Galaxy S II General] TorcaFFM:
Sorry, but your translation is wrong. They write, that they will sell the phones in beginning of may in Korea. And they are expecting the phone for the european markets, except UK where it will be sold earlier, in june not july. Sorry for my poor english.
[Galaxy S II General] nonato:
the reason why flash wasn't reviewed is because the sgs2 does it great.

Which apple doesn't want broadcasted to the world and in turn prevents the need for comparison later on in the iphone 5 review. Wouldn't want to minus a point from the iphone 5 for not being able to handle flash like the sgs2 can.
[Galaxy S II General] walk.away:
engadget gave the same score to the atrix... which is running froyo. no consitency, poor reviewing techniques.

"we dont mind the screen being lower res.... downsides: lower res than other phones"

not turning flash on. how can you review a phone without checking the settings it has? is everything turned on by default on every phone? oh gps wasnt working on our model...

i am running out of up to date impartial websites to view for a constant stream of tech.
[Galaxy S II General] lynxboy:
They've updated the main article regarding Flash not being turned on in the settings.

Regards.
[Galaxy S II General] arjun90:
Haha

The Review You All Have Been Waiting For, - Cheers! =)

http://www.engadget.com/2011/04/28/samsung-galaxy-s-ii-review/

:)

Sarcasm =p
[Galaxy S II General] Fokus007:
There is already link to that. 2 pages earlier. But you don't care. It's too hard for you too check previous pages.
[Galaxy S II General] OHDUSER:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=788MeU_msMI

is this been posted?
[Galaxy S II General] OHDUSER:
Finally! Gsmarena has the RETAIL SGS2!

http://blog.gsmarena.com/we-got-our-hands-on-a-retail-samsung-galaxy-s-ii-is-it-yours-the-same/

expect a review soon! :DD
[Galaxy S II General] hubert21:
There appears in Engadget a new article about GPS in SGS II

search in google "samsung-galaxy-s-ii-gps-it-works-it-really-works-video"
[Galaxy S II General] HumanoidTalking:
Here it is

http://www.engadget.com/2011/04/29/samsung-galaxy-s-ii-gps-it-works-it-really-works-video/

Video

http://www.viddler.com/explore/engadget/videos/2728/
[Galaxy S II General] speedfrog:
??

What is wrong with you? he just wanted to help us, maybe someone here has not seen the link and was happy because he posted it.

because of your answer the guy below you is actually asking if the video has been posted, so he wont be hearing "the link is posted, look in the thread, you are so lazy..."
[Galaxy S II General] smashingtool:
Where do you recommend rather than engadget?
[Galaxy S II General] HumanoidTalking:
People Betted on Engadget's review,, They are so Biased towards Iphone... I hope SGS2 will change their thinking...
[Galaxy S II General] Guitarfreak26:
http://www.mobile-phones-uk.org.uk/samsung-galaxy-s2.htm

Quote

"We're totally in awe of the Samsung Galaxy S2. To our minds, this is without question the best phone on the market today. The only reason not to buy it is the cost. You'll probably need to take out a £35 per month contract to get this for free. But that's still a lot less than the iPhone 4. There will be more dual-core phones released later in 2011, and the iPhone 5 of course. But if you want our opinion, you should choose the Galaxy S2 - you won't have any regrets."
[Galaxy S II General] obakesan:
A Korean unboxing:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VDCv2UR-rbQ

Seems to include 2 batteries and a basic stand, 2nd battery charger.

Cheers,
[Galaxy S II General] StarmanUK:
Damn that's some nice extras. Lucky Koreans :)

Sent from my GT-I9000 using Forum Runner
[Galaxy S II General] kreoXDA:
thanks, great find!

Did anyone notice that at 2:03 min when he removes the back plate to insert the battery, there are NO contacts for the NFC antenna? Nothing similar to how Nexus S has a pair of contacts under the cover and the antenna glued to the cover.

We do know the Korean model has the NFC, don't we? Where did Samsung hide it?

Edit: adding the link to pics of Nexus S contacts
[Galaxy S II General] paranoid2007:
/Quote mobile-phones-uk.org.uk

The S2 has a 1650mAh battery, which is the largest we've seen as standard in any mobile. Amazingly it doesn't seem to add any great weight to the phone (have Samsung secretly captured an alien spacecraft and stolen their technology?)/Unquote

LOL
[Galaxy S II General] HumanoidTalking:
You are very right, I did played again again to find anything different from UK released SGS2, Cant Actually find any difference...So no idea where it is
[Galaxy S II General] mur76:
I think engadget is changing the tone towards android, after Josh left.
[Galaxy S II General] HumanoidTalking:
Some nice South Korean Reviews, Gosh love Google Translate :)

3 different models in Korea, Look at the thickness in one of the review 8.9 and 9.4 mm, Couldnt confirm which didnt got NFC?

http://translate.google.com/transla...=oAF&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&prmd=ivns

http://translate.google.com/transla...=oAF&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&prmd=ivns

http://translate.google.com/transla...=QyZ&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&prmd=ivns

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=atGeoCBdGjw&feature=related
[Galaxy S II General] ph00ny:
damn it

i had to buy my second battery dock on my sgs and koreans get it for free
[Galaxy S II General] HumanoidTalking:
Korean Full translated specs

http://www.samsung.com/sec/consumer...x.idx?pagetype=prd_detail&tab=spec&fullspec=F

http://www.samsung.com/sec/consumer...x.idx?pagetype=prd_detail&tab=spec&fullspec=F

"The" means Yes
[Galaxy S II General] hubert21:
Nexus S v Samsung Galaxy S2

youtube.com/watch?v=lqSeXL7fw5o&feature=feedu

and

GALAXY S2 disassemble

youtube.com/watch?v=QKztg1ra4-0
[Galaxy S II General] BoostedSR20:
Nicely done...
[Galaxy S II General] cliffahn:
Just to clear something up

The 8.9mm versions in Korea have NFC, to be available in the future through SIM cards.

Different tech from the one in the Nexus S.

If you guys have any other questions about the tech in the Korean ones, I'll be happy to find out.
[Galaxy S II General] madmack:
thanks for this.

i was very interested in seeing how they crammed all that awesome hardware into this 8.49mm body. i believe i spotted the gps antenna too on the top left of the back side having fixed my own sgs using the hardware fix method.

the second video is full of GPS win for the SII. They totally nailed it this time I think.
[Galaxy S II General] AndyCr15:
Thanks, if you wouldn't mind, go through our site though for the hits ;)

http://hemorrdroids.net/samsung-nexus-s-vs-samsung-galaxy-s2/
[Galaxy S II General] OHDUSER:
dam.. poor sgs2..

but he actually dissambled and assambled everything back together

amzing..
[Galaxy S II General] BoostedSR20:
Anyway could you do another vs a SGS1 w/ gingerbread? A custom ROM w/kernel that has all the bells an whistles vs the SGS2 would be great. :D
[Galaxy S II General] sammy555:
All looked reasonably impressive untill the gps test,then it got 100 x better
[Galaxy S II General] ankushkatari:
[Q] Does the GS2 have an integrated GPS chip or does it need a data connection (AGPS) to get a lock on satellites?
[Galaxy S II General] AndyCr15:
Sure, send me the SGS and I will :)
[Galaxy S II General] sammy555:
It can lock with no network coverage -didicated chip
[Galaxy S II General] brandenk0:
Awesome post thanks for the tests. Keep up the good work :)
[Galaxy S II General] BoostedSR20:
Heh, had a feeling you would say that....
[Galaxy S II General] AndyCr15:
:)

Of course, I can only test with phones I own... I don't do this professionally of course :(

Right now I had the option of Nexus S, G2 or Dell Streak. SNS seemed the obvious choice :)
[Galaxy S II General] mbernstein:
This probably does not work, but: Does anyone know if the Galaxy S 2 connected to a Windows 7 tablet via Kies can be put in full frame in the tablet and thus the tablet can be used as an Android tablet?
[Galaxy S II General] pet family:
I don't think Kies does something like mirrorning or showing full Android. It only provide you some function to see content of phone (SMS, Contact, Photos, Music, and Videos I believes) and transfer files in a very different UI.

So it won't give you any kind of Android looks through Kies

That's what I know about Kies though :o
[Galaxy S II General] mbernstein:
MyMobiler in WM seems to be able to do so on a regular display (although it does not look like the screen resolution is increased accordingly) . I assume with a touchscreen it would be possible to do so in my system though I don't have a tablet to try it. Wanted to see in Android as I'm moving to S 2 in the next weeks. Thanks.
[Galaxy S II General] AndyCr15:
http://hemorrdroids.net/samsung-galaxy-s2-review/

:)