yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Galaxy S II General] Dombledore:
That's my friend Stacey! She's a Samsung mob!ler too :-)

XWKD6
[Galaxy S II General] jimbiye:
Does it really matter?

Why does this matter so much to you? Does the logo add/remove some value to the phone or something?

I just don't get why some folks seem obsessed with this detail...
[Galaxy S II General] moparman:
Because the logo is so ugly :(
[Galaxy S II General] OHDUSER:
naw.. I dont really care.. I just wanna know if eldar's unit is retail or not... XD
[Galaxy S II General] HumanoidTalking:
here is the same link clickable, good work stacy, She said its not retail model

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MT8Hxjp-8g&feature=player_embedded
[Galaxy S II General] OHDUSER:
NOT? o.o

then will there be logo or not?! XD im so confused.... when will it be out, where, logo/no logo... O_O
[Galaxy S II General] kreoXDA:
PEOPLE, EITHER BUY SPRAY PAINT OR AN ETCHING KIT!!!

Some of us only care about logo/nologo to know WHICH freaking unit is final and what review to trust.

Let's stop logo/nologo noise please :)

thanks
[Galaxy S II General] HumanoidTalking:
Absolutely Agree, what difference logo makes... All are Previews until its officially released.. so wait for 4-5 days:D
[Galaxy S II General] jimbiye:
Fair enough.
[Galaxy S II General] kreoXDA:
Back to Eldar's review guys :)

To summarize, he made three points that are new at least to me:

1) There is NFC tech inside but it is disabled in menus/software of phones in some countries, including his in Russia. However pictures of his phone show on trace of any NFC antenna. Either he is wrong, or Samsung changed the antenna design and position from Nexus S.

2) Under sunlight SGS2 screen is worse than SGS1. He states that while SGS1 was as good as best LCDs under direct sunlight, SGS2 is now back to be worse than best LCDs. He says it is in part because Samsung went from Pentile to true RGB.

3) Samsung will produce Amoled screens later this year that surpass pixel density of 300 DPI - he is probably referring to SGS3 that he hinted will get released in the fall to compete with iP5.

Anything else?
[Galaxy S II General] silverwolf0:
Considering the outside legibility videos from Dom Armstrong, I am skeptical of his claims. He also said the Exmor camera sucks more than the Galaxy S II one, but his pics weren't working for me so I dunno.

I don't care too much about the Samsung logo on the front, but the logo and back cover as an indication of a retail unit and how it will look. Here's the confusion.

Samsung Mobilers (Dom, Matt, Stacey) - all flat matte backs, with Samsung logo in front.

Yugatech - crosshatch backs like the press release shots, without Samsung logo in front.

Mobile-review - crosshatch backs like the press release shots, without Samsung logo in front, same as Yugatech.

Electricpig - Crosshatch backs, but WITH Samsung logo, different than the two above with crossbatch backs.

All claim to have retail or near retail units. Maybe it is different by region. But that doesn't explain why the Samsung Mobilers version and electricpig, both from the UK, look different. The matte black is also unique to the Mobilers' devices, or at least the only time I've seen it.

If they are all the same units dressed up in different ways, it doesn't bother me too much, but it is confusing. I would prefer the back cover of the korean version though, which also looks to be different, diagonal marks instead of a crosshatch from the promo pics a few pages back. But that picture has a different lense/LED arrangement whereas the live shot right below it has the traditional arrangement, the live shot being too blurry to tell the texture on the back. If it is the same arrangement as everyone else, I can eBay the back cover I want.
[Galaxy S II General] touness69:
Considering I owned both phones , just that quote removed any weight in all he can write from now

.

actually this is false, their (Electricpig) version is exactly the same as samsung mobilers, with matte back
[Galaxy S II General] silverwolf0:
Oops I forgot to add the II at the end.
[Galaxy S II General] OHDUSER:
so,is he right or wrong?
[Galaxy S II General] touness69:
Oh well....
[Galaxy S II General] kreoXDA:
So let's see here :)

Eldar trashes SE Exmor camera, but the sample pictures he provided clearly show that he picked higher compression and worse quality for the SE variants of his samples - the file sizes are at least twice smaller with the same megapixel resolution. Not saying his comparison is 100% incorrect, but this is not a clean apples to apples comparison.

He also said SA+ was worse than SA under direct sunlight, but Dom just laughed at this :)
[Galaxy S II General] OHDUSER:
no that just how the way its.. arc shots files with very high compression... I mean 1.5MB is the top for its arc 8mp camera?

comon.. thats WAY too harsh compression... =/
[Galaxy S II General] Quist:
I owned an Arc for about a week and that was indeed what was output with the highest resolution and best quality settings available.

With the Arc, there was a notable downgrade in the quality of the photos from their prototypes to the retail versions, presumably for this very reason. They went for massive compression to make it seem like it was faster at handling the imaging media (smaller file sizes).

I have a hard time believing the Arc camera was worse than the Galaxy S, but it's definitely not in the same league as the SGSII camera. At least on the SGSII prototype(s) that GSMArena had and whatever version Eldar has.
[Galaxy S II General] Master05:
Oh come on guys, there is no reviewer in the world who is 100% unbiased :rolleyes:

The subjective perception of what exactly "being objective" means, differs for all of us... just by trying to judge something like a phone you have to classify from relevant to unrelevant (parts/components/whatever) which you do the way you measure them/it.

I know my english skills are limited :o but I hope you understand what I'm trying to say :p

I still thank Dom for his review and believe what he's saying, maybe with some lowered sights in some cases but overall he seems legit :)
[Galaxy S II General] silverwolf0:
That's what they all claim, that everyone is biased, but even with bias there is fairness and integrity. Don't say you hate this phone because it's plastic and then love some other phone that is even more plasticky. Don't compare images of a shaky hand camera versus one on a tripod. Don't lie about benchmark numbers or artificially screw with them by bogging down one system intentionally. There is bias, and then there is outright sabotage and malevolence, a sheer want to be right or even from some strange hatred. If their demeanor completely changes if an identical phone gets made by a different company instead, you know they are hypocrites. I'm just making up examples by the way. Liars should be shot. Not accusing anyone of lying either.
[Galaxy S II General] fallenguru:
Every one is biased, sure, that's a given. But Dom and the other "Samsung Mobilers" are too close to Samsung for my liking. The fact that there is such a title at all should tell you that this is a part of Samsungs marketing campaign, aimed at a part of the population that mostly ignores more traditional advertising channels.

I'm not saying that anyone is a fake, lying or intentionally misrepresenting a product, just ... -- even if they're not paid, they still get free gear, invitations to conferences, a certain amount of inside information. Now imagine what would happen to that special status if they were to write or say something unequivocally negative about a Samsung product.

Of course, professional trade journalists have to cope with this moral dilemma on a day to day basis, but they should at least be prepared for conflicts of interest and have a better feel for where to draw the line. Regular students most certainly do not (and that's not their fault).

(Maybe I've just read one too many "user reviews", "private blog entries" and the like, that were more or less obviously and blatantly influenced by the product's manufacturer in the last couple of weeks, I don't know ...)

EDIT: Also, when I read nothing but good things about a product (or pretty much anything, really), I feel the need to play advocatus diaboli. If something smells too sweet, I don't think roses, but Versailles-style olfactory cover-up. It's just who I am.
[Galaxy S II General] silverwolf0:
You trust with your own eyes and ears, and learn to discern. Washing everyone under one color is a pretty abysmal way of looking at the world.

Even if you believe the Mobilers are nothing but a PR stunt, they are nonetheless providing useful factual information like GPS locking, codec support, etc. and we can at least thank them for that. Subjective things like phone build quality, display, sound, and general impressions will be personal, and can only be used as a guide. I've loved poorly reviewed phones and hated well-received ones. It varies. These are not quantifiable and thus not always comparable. Also remember the people in these forums are a very small handful of hardcore lunatics who seethe over every little detail whereas the general public don't give a rat's ass. It is probably just a bigger iPhone to them.
[Galaxy S II General] sckc23:
Couldn't have said it better :)

Dom and co. mentioned at the first place that they are samsung mobilers so they never intend to hide their identity. We are given information and it is up to you to judge what to believe and what not to. i personally am thankful to them and i appreciate their effort in answering our questions.
[Galaxy S II General] NIK516:
I have pre ordered my sgs2, so this review is just something to get me even more interested.

One thing i will say is that, on mobile review the back cover had a sticker on the inside, giving you directions to using the cover, in a production model this would be standard, so that they can cover them selves for warranty claims if the back cover snaps.

Would be interesting to see if doms back cover has the same sticker?

Another thing was the fact that the indents in the back cover serve a use, for removing heat, if this was in the pre production model it will surly be in the actual production model, due to the fact that the device does get hot under load as mentioned in the other review.

And another note, i think the device on mobile review is a device that is production ready but before the implementation of the logo to the front, remember that they only decided to add this last min it still uses android 2.3.3.
[Galaxy S II General] silverwolf0:
The mobile-review preview a while back also had the sticker on the back cover with instructions, so that wouldn't be a good indicator.
[Galaxy S II General] Beards:
Agree..... They are totally miles apart from the two we had a couple of weeks back who gave information but completely failed to explain or back it up.

I got crucified by a few members in that topic for coming forward in my disbelief of their knowledge and honesty.... Now, a little later everyone doubts their integrity.

These guys on the other hand have my complete support. Well done guys for coming to us with your news and information.
[Galaxy S II General] OHDUSER:
this video will make EVERYONE shut up about speaker loudness and clarity :D

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LYNB_9Gsz_k

another goodie

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bo8VelPZxkg

check out his videos.. they are great
[Galaxy S II General] :
Oops, just posted a new thread about this review and then noticed this thread, apologies. But anyway, 5 stars from TechRadar! http://www.techradar.com/reviews/phones/mobile-phones/samsung-galaxy-s2-930907/review
[Galaxy S II General] kanchi2015:
Damn, I hope they are wrong on the NFC not being available in UK (last chapter of page 9), I'm planning to get this phone to work on NFC stuffs ://
[Galaxy S II General] recklesslife:
I think it is available but only on the sim free version of the handset not carrier versions.
[Galaxy S II General] dhruvmalik:
Tech Radar gave the SGS II 5 Stars.

http://www.techradar.com/reviews/phones/mobile-phones/samsung-galaxy-s2-930907/review

You UK Guys are lucky dogz... ;)
[Galaxy S II General] Dombledore:
James is *also* a UK Samsung Mob!ler ;-)

You make a good point there and of course Samsung has beguiled us with their riches! However, all I've/we've done is given accurate information about the phones which people have asked for and given our honest opinions. Can't help that this phone is a stunner! I think (hope?) you'll see from the other reviews and impressions that start coming out this week that this is one hell of a device!
[Galaxy S II General] OHDUSER:
does it mean they HAD errors, or they DIDNT have errors?
[Galaxy S II General] HTC_Spree:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kSbTCjCTubQ&feature=player_embedded
[Galaxy S II General] kreoXDA:
WOW I do not even recall the last time I read a review of ANYTHING that was this positive!!! Un-freaking-believable!

"The Samsung Galaxy S2 has not only set a new bar for smartphones in 2011; it's smashed the bar, recreated it in its own image and put it out of reach of the competition."
[Galaxy S II General] :
It's fantastic news. The iPhone has some SERIOUS competition.
[Galaxy S II General] ndnesh:
It just means that a lot of other devices gave the error. The SGS2, did not. Not even once. :) Super!
[Galaxy S II General] ndnesh:
Agreed! Awesome Review. Re-reading it for the 3rd time :)
[Galaxy S II General] ndnesh:
Wow!! Nice, though i would still prefer more attention being devoted on our beloved SGS2.:)
[Galaxy S II General] harshet:
Slashgear review is out

Slashgear's review is up on their site. Once again, everything loos good for SG2
[Galaxy S II General] smartbot:
Slashgear just posted their in-depth review of the SGS 2: slashgear.com/samsung-galaxy-s-ii-review-26148446/
[Galaxy S II General] kreoXDA:
I am starting to hate the Brits.
[Galaxy S II General] imbapanda:
http://www.slashgear.com/samsung-galaxy-s-ii-review-26148446/
[Galaxy S II General] Fokus007:
Another GSII review

jrin.net/2011_04_24/samsung-galaxy-s-2-in-depth-review
[Galaxy S II General] OHDUSER:
SlashGear review has the BEST software up to date! 3500 quardant, BEST picture quality I have seen so far! way better than eldar's!

Btw... I still DONT GET WHY ALL REVIEWS SAYS SGS2 PIC QUALITY ISNT GOOD AS ARC?!

ARC is so dam noisy! FULL of noise even in front of the sun! its disgusting.. made me pass on buying him... =/
[Galaxy S II General] mbernstein:
Eldar did say S 2 took mostly better/equal photos compared to Arc.
[Galaxy S II General] kreoXDA:
there is only one thing Eldar hates more than SE, and that is Nokia.
[Galaxy S II General] MakeYourOwnTacoNight:
Sorry, can't link it, but has anyone else noticed engadget reporting that the NFC chip IS the reason the Sth Korea model is thicker and it won't be present on the UK model?

However, most UK sites I've seen offering pre-orders list NFC as a feature.
[Galaxy S II General] Master05:
Plus, I really like the pictures with the green android next to the phone :)

Despite haters whining about the back cover (it makes this phone incredibly light and reduces heat inside the phone aswell as on your hands...so it's quite useful and reasonable), this phone just looks super sexy, I can see 'em bi***es being all over the place the moment I unveil it out of my pocket :cool:

I mean look at that little fella, he can't get enough of it:

:)
[Galaxy S II General] kreoXDA:
UK sites go by generic info, no one has precise info and whoever has, is not in a rush to update their listings.

The Korean model IMHO is thicker because of the TV tuner and probably beefier battery. The NFC chip/antenna would not add that much bulk I think.
[Galaxy S II General] NZtechfreak:
The required hardware is on the SGSII end. The dongle that Samsung are releasing will do the HDMI out, and it has a side input for the phones charger so that it can charge while outputting to the television (TVs with an actual MHL connection will handle charging the input device without the need for a seperate power input), but TVs without an MHL connection will not be able to use the TV remote control to control the input device (at least thats my understanding). There is a longer more informative video on MHL from MWC this year, its easy to find in youtube.
[Galaxy S II General] Chad_Petree:
i hate samsung copying apple with no shame, apple should sue them so they make something NEW :( i mean i love the phone but it does look a hell of a lot like the iphone 4, touchwiz is a bad ios ripoff and im sure the galaxy s III will look like the iphone 5 :D , the only skin i like is htc sense
[Galaxy S II General] Brut.all:
Yeah, that's what I meant. I think remote control feature is software-only, so Samsung should be able to add it to older TVs. But I may be wrong. Also question is: will they want to do that?
[Galaxy S II General] martino2k6:
Doubt it. They'd rather make you consider buying a new product which has that feature rather than patching their old products which you may already own. Same as with any other company...
[Galaxy S II General] touness69:
I don't think toucwizz is a "bad Rip-off" I mean iOS is just a fixed wallpaper (that can be changed since the 3rd or 4th version of the OS...) with some icon grids on top of it.. eh.. not that hard to make somethin better, and TW is actually nicer with some more personalization going on and some nice part that are clearly copied, kinda like an improved iOS for me because it has all the many important things that iOS lacks
[Galaxy S II General] MikeyMike01:
The Widgets seem to be much improved... Honestly there's very little iphone compared to the sgs. Other than the launcher dock.

Sent from my Captivate
[Galaxy S II General] maxnik1:
I updated the first post. I hope you don't have anything against that.
[Galaxy S II General] touness69:
Disapointing vid :(

LAGS are ubiquitous !

[youtube]wx2LT3YxZ7I[/youtube]
[Galaxy S II General] Lakitu:
A little, but to be fair, the page he was looking at had a lot of flash.
[Galaxy S II General] eroracing:
I think That Samsung did this in order to make the transition from iPhone to the Gs2 easy. It's nice when you are familiar with the operating system. I'm sure they are looking to steal a lot of iPhone users like myself. this is the first time I will leave iOS and the similar look and feel will make it easy.
[Galaxy S II General] EleCtrOx666:
New fresh review

http://www.sizzledcore.com/2011/03/...utm_campaign=Feed:+SizzledCore+(Sizzled+Core)
[Galaxy S II General] martino2k6:
That's a hands-on...
[Galaxy S II General] touness69:
Ya it feels particularly smooth in this vid, even with the live wallpaper it remains butterly sooth in the appdrawer :eek: , astonishing.. or maybe this is just because there isn't any widget on the desktop , or better because it is a more finalized firmware ???
[Galaxy S II General] Lakitu:
Yes, and the phone was running 2.3.1. Fingers crossed that things will be even better when the phone launches with 2.3.3 (?)
[Galaxy S II General] KLoNe1:
I'm still so upset that it only has a single loudspeaker :(
[Galaxy S II General] FLAC Vest:
Well I mean a lot of phones run buttery smooth while having a live wallpaper up, that's nothing new.

I want to see a review or... a preview, as it were, of the phone being put through its paces and really pushed to something we can talk about.
[Galaxy S II General] EleCtrOx666:
Yes, sorry, I messed up with those terms.
[Galaxy S II General] devteam:
http://www.engadget.com/2011/03/29/samsung-galaxy-s-ii-shows-off-gyro-zoom-option-in-touchwiz-4-0/ :)
[Galaxy S II General] Success100:
i disagree, every droid ive used even with oc'ed custom roms and kernels will lag some when a lwp is put on.

even the galaxy lags somewhat when a lwp is put on
[Galaxy S II General] FLAC Vest:
So two phones you have used prove this? My Nexus 1 doesn't lag,my Atrix didnt lag, my cousins Evo doesn't lag.

It's a dual core phone with a gig of ram, why would it lag? The wallpaper takes up like 15 megs if ram and a small percent of CPU.

Can it cause the phone to lag when you have a lot of applications running at oone time. Iof ccourse; however I don't see any reviews where the people actually put the phone under stress while having a live wallpaper open.
[Galaxy S II General] OHDUSER:
its funny how here in my country, the sgs2 front camera will be better or equal or almost equal quality to many many phones rear camera XD
[Galaxy S II General] nikzDHD:
Your correct, the Korean models are thicker as they incorporate a T-DMB tuner!
[Galaxy S II General] BoostedSR20:
I've been following this thread since the start, I've read so many previews and reviews my brain is going to bleed. I'm ready for some XDA members to get theirs and put up some thoughts.
[Galaxy S II General] kersh:
Why in Europe we never have a TV tuner? It will be great but it seems that always are a exclusivity to asian markets. Piss me off.
[Galaxy S II General] d3sm0nd:
So envy because all of these reviews... I WANT THIS PHONE NOW! :D
[Galaxy S II General] cvenk:
For me this is the best review so far... and now i can not wait any more:

http://www.jrin.net/2011_04_24/samsung-galaxy-s-2-in-depth-review
[Galaxy S II General] kreoXDA:
theoretically it is a bit biased, the reviewer is a Samsung Mob!ler.
[Galaxy S II General] hubert21:
New video with Samsung galaxy s 2 on ps2 emulator/gran turismo

search on google "08_3bkWkv9s"
[Galaxy S II General] BoostedSR20:
Frame rate was up there, but still looked jumpy. Light years better than my Captivate though. I gave up on PSX emulation a long time ago on my Captivate because of how awful it ran.
[Galaxy S II General] kreoXDA:
[YOUTUBE]08_3bkWkv9s[/YOUTUBE]
[Galaxy S II General] nikzDHD:
Here we go, UK model confirmed to have a Samsung logo on it:

On another forum a guy has picked up his from p4u today:
[Galaxy S II General] kreoXDA:
He just turned it on, and the phone is already covered in smudges :) don't people wash hands any longer :)
[Galaxy S II General] kreoXDA:
I would bet it is jumpy because of the emulator. The SGS2 has no problems doing the usual 60 FPS on the content the emulator is sending its way. The emulator just can't emulate fluidly enough. Have you seen this particular implementation run smoothly on any Android phone?
[Galaxy S II General] kreoXDA:
http://habrahabr.ru/company/samsung/blog/118129/
[Galaxy S II General] kersh:
so, the NFC finally dissapear from the phone specs?
[Galaxy S II General] nikzDHD:
It's always been known that Samsung will release a NFC version and one without! The UK models seem not to have it, the Korean deffo has it!

Without dismantling a UK version we won't know but can assume it doesn't have it.
[Galaxy S II General] kersh:
Well, the thing is that samsung always publicy the phone on europe with NFC technology, and now is out?

Thats a bad move
[Galaxy S II General] EinPaul:
NFC in Germany

I asked Samsung Germany about NFC and that's what they said:

(loosely translated)

:(
[Galaxy S II General] nikzDHD:
Again this doesn't rule out all of Europe, you never know some European markets may incorporate it.

"The bad news, however, is that there will be at least two versions of the Galaxy S II — and not all will come with NFC. The decision on whether or not the devices shipped into a particular country will be equipped with NFC or not will depend on "market requirement", says Samsung"
[Galaxy S II General] nikzDHD:
First retail user preview:

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showpost.php?p=18993841&postcount=1216
[Galaxy S II General] kersh:
Well, if it doesn't rule out all europe, I want to know what markets will have it before buying a UK version with advertised NFC to see later that I have payed for a feature that samsung publicy a lot and later I dont get it.

The NFC situation needs a official word from samsung.