Since this is my first piece for the Clove Blog, perhaps a word of introduction would be useful. I’m Murray Winiata, doctor of medicine, obsessive home barista, occasional guitarist, technology hobbyist. In the technology world I’m likely better known as NZtechfreak – just another guy who spends too much time in online forums like Androidforums, Symbian-Freak, Mobile-Review, Nokiausers, XDA-developers, Geekzone, and Samsunggalaxysforums.

My mobile phone history in recent years looks like this: N95, N95 8GB, N82, HTC Touch Pro, Xperia X1, Nokia 5800, Nokia N97, Samsung i8910, HTC HD2, Nokia N900, HTC Desire, and Samsung Galaxy S i9000. These have pretty much all been hacked and modded to pieces, almost always to their betterment. Almost. This line has culminated in my current handset, and subject of the following review – the hotly anticipated Samsung Galaxy SII (SGSII hereafter).

I’m hoping that this review can give readers something lots of the other reviews haven’t – a real users report. Let me explain. The top blogs and tech sites are great, but increasingly I think you have to wonder whether they are really using these devices as their daily drivers. Prime example: GPS performance issues and lag in the original Galaxy S – readily apparent to users, but not even a word in reviews from the usual handful of tech sites we all tend to gravitate toward. I have a luxury that most of these sites don’t have: time.

I’m going to release this in sections; each coming when I’ve really had enough time testing and using the device to make commentary that is genuinely representative of the device in day to day use. Read: don’t ask me to comment on the battery until well near the end. Feel free to ask me anything else you want, chances are you may belong to one of the communities I mentioned above, and I can be easily contacted there. I’ll do my best to answer your questions in the main body of the review, and after the review is finished I’ll run a piece to try and mop up any questions that remain.

Anyway, enough preamble – onto the review!

FIRST IMPRESSIONS, BUILD QUALITY, DESIGN & ERGONOMICS:

I was going to run with the tried and true unboxing and hardware tour here, but honestly YouTube is full of them, and the contents of my retail box are no different to any of those, so why waste time? (Clove’s YouTube channel has a couple of these, if you feel you absolutely must watch one HERE).

Initial impressions

My initial impressions were much like those you will have seen elsewhere: ‘Wow!’ That is thin, and really, wow, that is thin… and light …and plastic. Having read everywhere that this is a thin device did nothing to prepare me for the reality of how it feels in the hand. It’s striking. The same can’t really be said for the aesthetics. While it’s certainly not unattractive by any means, it’s a rather bland and inoffensive slab, likely to inspire neither hate nor passion.

Design

There are numerous little changes from its forebear in terms of design, and a few things that remain the same, for better or worse. Samsung’s curious predilection for placing the power/screen wake button on the right edge of the device continues, and while most of us get used to it, its opposition to the volume rocker will remain utterly maddening to some. Lens covers, and hardware camera buttons, remain on the out to the ire of shutterbugs. The micro USB connection port is shifted to the bottom of the device, which I think most would agree is an improvement. Unfortunately what Samsung have given on one hand, they have taken with the other – the excellent sliding cover for the port exhibited in the Galaxy S has gone.

The unit’s single speaker has now moved to the bottom of the device, and this time around it’s a little more recessed behind the casing. Being situated under a non-removable part of the casing, one hopes this doesn’t trap dust, but the possibility is there. Compared to the Galaxy S the speaker is louder, and also less muffled when sitting on a soft surface like a couch or cushion, but it is also a bit more tinny and lacking in warmth and bass response.

After the initial fondling the next thing most users will do is remove the back cover. In Twitter I’ve seen it referred to as feeling “like a rice crisp”, or even a poppadum. Paul Obrian of Modaco fame asked whether users would prefer to be chased by a dog, or remove the back cover – if the responses are anything to go by, SGSII sales are making a meaningful incursion into the incidence of cynophobia.

To be honest I didn’t find it as bad as all that, but there is no escaping the fact that it will take the shine off your initial enthusiasm. When fitted again there are or creaks or movements, the textured backing helps to grip the phone a little better, and it’s very fingerprint resistant.

Like a good many small details throughout the handset, the textured back shows that somebody at Samsung has been listening to user criticisms of its predecessor. However, the implementation here just doesn’t live up to hopes and expectations, which is shame. It simply doesn’t feel like it belongs in a premium flagship device.

With the cover off, users will note that micro SD card insertion requires removal of the battery. There is no hotswap on offer here. Although undesirable, this is probably excusable given the amount of storage available between internal memory, SD card, and USB drives (more on that later). Hotswapping the external card would mean removing the back cover each time – for piece of mind’s sake, it’s probably better this way to discourage you from doing so very often.

Ergonomics

It’s worth pointing out that the thinness of the device, in concert with its rather squared edges, isn’t necessarily the most ergonomic of arrangements. Considering the ergonomics are already a little stretched given the very size of the handset, this could perhaps have been improved.

I’ve seen several reports from users who actually find it difficult to use because of the constellation of design choices – large/thin/squared. In comparison, some of those same users find operating Sony’s Arc perfectly fine due to its great design, despite it sporting a relatively similar footprint. To put this in some perspective though – I’m talking about a handful of users from several hundreds. I think the best advice is to spend some real hands on time with the device and see how it is for you.

In the case of the SGSII, I think it likely that ergonomic and aesthetic considerations may have taken somewhat of a back seat behind the need to shoehorn its stellar internals into a handset without creating a brick.

Fortunately after these downers you’ll power on the device, and the ‘Wow’ will come rushing back.

Firstly, boot up time is quick. It’s somewhat of a trick; the setup continues after the lock screen appears, with media scanning and other services starting up. The device isn’t completely ready for use for a few more moments.

That said, you are likely to forget how quick the boot time is once you unlock it, and see the screen in its full glory for the first time. Everything you’ve read about it is true. It’s gorgeous. You could run out of superlatives.

Screen

Unlike its predecessor, which toted a pentile subpixel matrix screen, this Super AMOLED screen comes packing a real stripe matrix, earning it the ‘Plus’ part of its title. I won’t get into technical explanations, suffice to say that GSMarena has a few good articles discussing this for those compelled to know more.

While I expected the move to a real stripe matrix would make a real difference for browsing and other text heavy activities, I really had no idea the difference it would make to essentially everything you view on the screen. Watching video just has an extra level of crispness you don’t get with the Galaxy S, which was previously the high bar for video on a mobile, and you’ll notice it throughout the UI too.

As with numerous other details Samsung has picked up on criticism of the colour tones in the first Galaxy S and made some improvements. While I really like the way colours popped in the Galaxy S with its exaggerated saturations, it’s not everyone’s cup of tea. Under ‘Display’ in ‘Settings’ there is now an option to change ’Background Effect‘, which changes the colour tones throughout the phone. Now those who like their colours a little more accurate can choose ’Movie‘ mode to drab things up a little.

That’s not to say it’s without flaws, however, only that you have to nitpick a little to find them. Despite Samsung’s efforts the colour temperature is still a little off. The blacks are perfect, of course, and the colours pop just how I like it, but the white tones are off. I compared it to an iPhone 4 at a friend’s house tonight, his wife is a graphic designer, and with both phones displaying Engadgetmobile she immediately pointed out that the SGSII whites are not white. There is a slightly blueish cast to them, which is quite apparent, particularly when seen alongside the iPhone 4. Movie background effect helps a little, but the iPhone’s whites are still streets ahead.

On the topic of iPhone 4 Vs SGSII comparisons, there are a few quick shots here, although it’s hard to capture the differences as they appear to the eye.

Sunlight legibility is at least on a par with the Galaxy S, possibly slightly better. Unfortunately the sun has not obliged since the first morning I got the SGSII, so I’ve not yet had a chance for side-by-side comparison. Naturally there will be an update with some pictures in due course.

In summary, viewing angles are basically a wash, and the SGSII seemed to have an edge with respects to brightness, although the increased contrast may have confused the eye here. Blacks go to the SGSII by a wide margin, whites to the iPhone 4, colour is a matter of taste. Text clarity obviously goes to the iPhone with its retina display, but the difference is far less dramatic now than versus the original Galaxy S. For most realistic use-case scenarios I don’t think the reduced clarity in the SGSII is enough to actually impede use or enjoyment, and on balance the much larger screen more than compensates in the usability stakes in my opinion.

Speed and synthetic benchmarks

The other initial impression any user of this phone will come away with is just how fast everything is. Again, I’d read this before experiencing it, just like I had about the thinness. No doubt you have too, but trust me – it’ll still make an impression. I don’t know if this properly fits here, but knowing the insatiable appetite people have for synthetic benchmarks I’ve included a few here. These weren’t taken on a fresh boot with the RAM cleared, so no doubt I could get better if I felt driven enough to do so. Also worth noting that the SGSII GPU is limited to 60fps, so results like the Smartbench gaming benchmark and Neocore, reflect that, rather than the ceiling of the devices performance. I found the J-Disk benchmarks of the Internal Memory the most interesting, given the high read and write speeds there. All the usual caveats about these not translating to actual use apply, so take them with a grain of salt if you will, just know that this phone blazes.

Summary

Overall my initial reactions were ultimately firmly in the wow category, despite a few wee disappointments, and that awful back cover. I think the build quality is quite reasonable, there are no moving parts, no creaks, or rattles. It feels solidly built, however the choice of build materials isn’t great, something we’ve sadly come to expect from Samsung. It’s a shame really, with a great build quality, materials akin to something like the Wave, and an ergonomic and aesthetics enhancing design, they could have absolutely knocked this out of the park in concert with the Super AMOLED Plus screen. I don’t want to foreshadow the rest of the review too much, but before you come away from this segment with a negative impression, I will say its good thing nearly everything else about this handset is superb enough to overcome the pedestrian design and materials.

PS: I know I wasn’t going to say anything about battery, but I know someone will ask anyway, so check out this screenshot.

That’s on the second charge, so the battery will still improve from here on out, but with plenty of screen-on time, and continuous Gmail/Weather/RSS feeds/Facebook/Twitter sync I’m impressed at this stage.