I originally planned to write this review a couple days after I received my Galaxy Note in late October, but I decided to wait.  After using it for the first couple minutes, I didn’t like it as much as I hoped because it’s larger size made it feel a bit awkward to hold and use with one hand (at least, in my hand). It just simply didn’t feel right.  At the same time, however, I was genuinely excited by it’s specs and feature set such as 1280×800 resolution, 1.4GHz dual core Exynos processor, huge battery, stylus, camera, etc.  I didn’t want to not like it.

So, I decided to give myself time to try and get accustomed to it and then see how I felt about it after having used it for a while.  After a little over two months of usage now (a little longer than I had originally planned), I’ve really put the Note to use: traveling to France, Germany, and the US, multiple long train/plane rides, many days of using it as a sat nav, using it as a portable media player, extensive web browsing, playing games, etc. 

Note (ha), this review is going to focus on it’s physical size, as that was pretty much the only thing I did not like.  The GPS is fantastic (best from any phone I’ve used), battery life is great, performance is snappy, etc, but it was the fact that it was so big that really put me off. 

So, has using it for two months changed my initial impression?  Read on (or watch) to find out!

It’s size:

It’s big.  And that’s just exactly what everyone, friends or strangers, say whenever they see me using it: “Whoa, that’s a big phone!”, “Is that a phone?”, “Dude, does that fit in your pocket?” (yes, it does).  And it’s that which seems to be the main factor that makes people like the Note or not, which makes sense and I agree with, to a point.  Again, it’s big, but with that there’s a question to ask which is: is it a big phone, or a small tablet?  It is indeed too large to be a true one handed device (at least, for my hands), but you need to keep in mind that it’s not necessarily meant to be one.  Every phone you’ve likely been using in the past has been a phone that fits nicely in your hand, so it’s going to be a big change (yes, I know the Dell Streak is of similar size and if coming from that phone, then you already know what it’s like). 

As shown in Samsung’s own ad, they too say it’s not just a phone, but also a tablet: 

When I first heard about the Note, I thought – this sounds great – it has a huge, high resolution screen unlike other phones (such as the Galaxy S 2, iPhone 4S, etc), so it’ll be awesome for browsing the web and watching videos while still being pocketable – and indeed it is!  I’ve used it now on long haul train and plane rides, while on vacation, at home on the couch and in bed, and it’s wonderful for media and browsing.  I also had the hope that it could be my all-in-one device, meaning, I wouldn’t need to carry around my laptop and/or tablet (either the original 7 or 10.1 Galaxy Tab) in conjunction with my phone when traveling.  Normally, I would take my tablet (or Dell 11.6” 1121) when on vacation or taking long train/plane rides to be my main movie/tv show player and web browsing machine, as well as my phone for maps/gps, music, and games.  I saw the Note as being the opportunity to combine my laptop and phone into one device. 

So has it’s size met my expectations and desires?  Yes, but also a bit no.  As mentioned earlier, it’s not necessarily meant to be a one handed device, though I’ll admit that I was expecting (or hoping?) that it would be.  With my Galaxy S 2 (and all other smaller phones), the way I hold a phone is by having the bottom of the phone rest on my pinky, with my other fingers wrapped around to the other side, which then leaves me free to use my thumb to get everywhere on the screen:

With other (non Galaxy Note) phones, I am able to hold them in my hand and reach my thumb up to swipe down the notifications menu, reach to the top right corner app on the home screen (though just barely on the SGS2), and reach the ‘back’ button in the bottom right corner. 

However, on the Galaxy Note, this is not quite possible for me.  Now, I say not quite possible, as opposed to flat out not possible, because I can still reach up and pull the notifications menu, or tap the top right corner app on the home screen, etc – I just can’t do so without having to shuffle it around in my palm or without loosing my firm grip on the phone.

For example, here is how I ‘normally’ hold the Note (and any other phone) when just simply using it:

However, when I need to reach the top/top right of the Note, I have to slide it down my hand a bit (and therefore no longer have it resting on my pinky) in order to do so:

Okay. That all being said, for the first couple days of using the Note, I wasn’t all that happy with needing to adjust the way I’ve always held a ; it didn’t feel right to have to change my ‘phone grip’.  However, after using it for a while, I’ve found my self holding the Note differently without giving it any thought, I simply hold it differently to compensate for it’s size and go back to my ‘old phone grip’ when using any other (smaller) phone.  I simply slide the phone up and down my hand/fingers to reach the places I couldn’t reach with the way I’ve held phones in the past and it has become natural to me.  

Is it pocketable?

Yes.   I don’t wear baggy pants, though also not skin tight or skinny jeans, and I don’t have a problem with it.  It easily fits in my pocket, doesn’t restrict movement, and is easily removed from my pocket. 

It even fits in a shirt pocket:

Size comparisons to other devices:

Here are just some simple photos of it next to other devices:

iPhone 4s, Galaxy Note, Galaxy Tab 7

iPhone 4s vs Galaxy Note thickness

Conclusion

Update 20 Jan: Samsung has just released an update which makes the keyboard more one-handed friendly: http://phandroid.com/2012/01/19/new-samsung-galaxy-note-update-brings-better-support-one-handed-typing/

In short, after taking a few days/weeks to really get used to handling a larger phone, I have zero issues with it’s size and now am that much more satisfied with the Note.  Do you have a Note and also had initial reservations with it’s size but now you’re okay with it?  Or perhaps you never got used to it?  Let folks know in the comments below!

With the introduction of the iPhone 4S, I’ve been keen to see how it compares to one of Samsung’s flagship devices, the Galaxy S 2.  Of the many aspects of both phone to compare, I was most interested in which had the batter camera in terms of both videos and photos, so I tested them out!

Let me start by saying I am nowhere close to being a ‘great’ photographer, so when I take pictures, I pretty much just frame the shot and click.  Sure, I know enough to manually adjust ISO and shutter speeds (when using a camera that allows it) to try and compensate for certain lighting situations, but that’s about all I know.  In other words, my observations of which camera is better should be taken with a few grains of salt (someone else may have been able to frame my sample shots better/etc to make them turn out better); think of me as just an average person taking photos/videos with their phone (because I am!). 

To try and make as true of a test as I could, I strapped both phones to a piece of double cardboard (one right above the other) and had both cameras vertically lined up.  My idea was that this would allow them to take as close to the same photo/video as possible:

Videos:

Both devices have a maximum video resolution on the rear camera of 1920×1080 – however, the Galaxy S 2 allows you to adjust the recording resolution to lower resolutions as well (ie, 1280×720, 640×480, etc) whereas you are stuck at the full 1920×1080 on the iPhone.  While by itself that’s not really an issue, it could become one once you start to add apps, photos, and music.  On the iPhone, each second of video takes up approximately 2.89MB (that’s about 173MB a minute), and given that there’s no expandable storage options, I would have liked the ability to take lower quality videos (if even at 1280×720) if I wanted to conserve space.  

That being said, after taking a video of the same scenes with both cameras, it’s my opinion that the video quality of the iPhone is better than the Galaxy S 2:

(note that in the video above, I had to make some adjustments during editing to try and have a good even ‘cut’ between both clips and therefore had to push the SGS2 clip up a bit in the frame – that’s not an issue with either phone but rather the way I took the videos with my ‘cardboard rig’)

The colors on the iPhone are less washed out, bright scenes (like when looking directly at the sun) don’t create as much ‘lens flare’ (is that the right term?), it focuses much faster and accurately, and with its video stabilization there’s much less jitter.    The Galaxy S 2 does have a couple advantages, however, such as being able to choose lower resolutions to record at, having a slightly wider angle, and a few different color effects (sepia, negative, b&w, etc). 

Photos:

They’re very close and it’s hard to say which one produces better quality photos overall.  As with videos, the iPhone 4S can only take shots at it’s maximum resolution of 8MP (3264×2448) whereas the Galaxy S2 (same max 8mp res) can take lower res shots; though, unlike with videos, I can’t think of a situation where you’d ever want to take lower res shots, so that’s a non-issue to me. 

Here are a few sample shots (iPhone 4S will always be on the left, Samsung Galaxy S2 on the right):

Here we have a simple shot at the streets below my balcony.   In this particular example, the colors are more vivid on the SGS2, while the tree line where it meets the sky seems less washed out on the iPhone (but, perhaps that’s because there was ‘less’  bright sky in the field of view on the iPhone while it was focusing, thus helping the resulting iPhone photo?)

This is taking a picture of the side of my building with the bright sun just around the corner (to see how it does with light and dark objects in the field of view). Other than the iPhone making it’s picture a tad brighter, they both look the same.  (iPhone was ISO-64 1/1905s exposure, SGS2 was ISO-32 1/1479s exposure)

In this room, it’s fairly dim, so I figured this would be a good ‘indoor’ photo test.  The SGS2 photo is a bit darker and looks a bit noisier even though it was shot as ISO-400 and 1/17s exposure vs the iPhone which was at ISO-800 1/15s exposure. 

Here I tried taking photos inside my very dark bathroom.  As in the previous photos, the SGS2 was a bit darker though I’m not sure if it looks noisier or if it’s just cause it’s simply darker, but the iPhone shot does look slightly better (if not, at least brighter) and both images had the same iso/exposure as above. 

Here we have the same dark bathroom photo only this time with the LED flash enabled.   This time, the Galaxy S 2 seems to have taken the better photo as it’s a bit brighter while also sharper with more defined colors.   The Galaxy S 2 was at ISO-125 and 1/20s exposure with the iPhone 4S at ISO-250 and 1/16s exposure. 

One last shot is of my cat on the duck mat.  The two were very close here, and only upon zooming far in does it look like the iPhone’s photo is ever so slightly more clear – but either way, they’re almost the same.   Galaxy S 2:  ISO-125 at 1/17s, iPhone 4S: ISO-200 at 1/20s.

Software/Camera app:

Both phones have their advantages over the other in this department.  The great thing about the iPhone 4S is it’s zero shutter lag and it’s ability to access the camera from the lock screen.   For the shutter, as soon as you tab the shutter button, the iPhone almost instantly focuses and takes the photo – however, on the Galaxy S 2, it takes about a second to focus (or sometimes longer if it’s poorly lit) and up to another second for it to take the shot.   And for the lockscreen, I absolutely love the ability to access the camera by double clicking the iPhone home button and tapping the camera icon and very much dislike the fact that I have to unlock the screen and wait for the camera to load on the SGS2:

Then we have the Galaxy S 2 where one of it’s main advantages over the iPhone 4S is it’s numerous photo and video mode options.  While the iPhone 4 just has the ability to show a grid or use HDR,

the Galaxy S 2 has a multitude of features such as smile/blink detection, panaramic, beach, sunset, fireworks, manual ISO/white balance/exposure/color effects:

To see all of the features, be sure to check out my in depth review of the SGS2 and scroll down to the camera section. 

Conclusion:

When speaking strictly about quality from the photos and videos I’ve taken the past few days, the iPhones 4S has the better camera.  The iPhone’s videos are much smoother thanks to it’s stabilized lens, and the photos (on average) come out to be a bit more clearer/sharper.  It’s not substantially better, nor in anyway is the camera on the Galaxy S 2 bad, but it’s still better.   That being said, I’ve been using the S2 for 6 months now and have been plenty satisfied with it as a camera when I don’t have my ‘real’ one with me.  The Galaxy S 2 does, however, win in the category of feature or the camera with it’s ability to take photos and videos at varying resolutions, being able to manually choose the ISO/exposure/white balance/color options, as well as various scene settings such as beach/portrait/fireworks/sunset/text/etc. 

In the end, based on the photos and videos I took above, it is my opinion that the iPhone 4S does have a better quality camera/lens.    Do you have one of the devices and think otherwise, or perhaps you agree?  Do you have any sample shots or videos that you’d like to share?  Any questions or requests for me to take better samples or comparisons?  Let me know in the comments!

As a Samsung Mobiler, a few of us were invited to attend and promote the Samsung “GALAXY Note WORLD TOUR in Europe” launch event in London to show off the GALAXY Note and GALAXY Nexus – and as any sane person would do, I accepted their offer!  We were all there for about 5 hours and below is a description of what the event was like for us Mobilers

Before the event started:

The event was held this past Thursday evening at the Battersea Power Station in London:

At a bit before 5:00, I finally was getting close to the power station, where I’d soon start getting educated on the devices, and I finally started to see some signs letting me know I was on the right track:

Once I got through two security checkpoints (my name wasn’t on the list!), I met with our Samsung Mobiler contact and was shown to a trailer where I met with other UK and German Mobilers to start the pre-event training. 

First, we were each given a Note to play around with while a Samsung rep showed us around all of the features and highlights the Note has to offer:

This was my first time actually seeing and handling a Note, and my first reaction was surprise at how light the device was.  I currently own a Galaxy WiFi 5.0 and was expecting it to be the same ‘chunkiness’ as that, but was pleasantly surprised when I found that it was quite thin and light (yes, I compared specs before arriving, but it doesn’t really mean much to me until I actually have it in my hand).  

After we went through a few minutes with the Note, we had some folks start showing us the Nexus and a few of it’s neat features as well

One thing that really stood out was some of the new features with Ice Cream Sandwich (Android 4.0) seemed to be taken from various roms I’ve used recently, such as being able to re-size widgets and the TV-Off animation when turning off the screen – very interesting.  

The one thing that stood out the most for me was the deeply integrated data management within ICS which allows you to closely monitor your data usage – you can set usage alarms, shut off mobile data once it reaches a certain amount (perfect for those with data caps), and even monitor each individual app’s data usage and set caps for each:

After our short training (to bad we couldn’t take one of each device!), we all changed into our Samsung blues (a shirt they gave us), and started to walk toward the main entrance.  It was neat to see that they lit up the power station blue and even slapped a GALAXY Note logo along the entire wall: 

The event:

First thing upon walking in, we checked our bags/coats at the front, and then we were promptly brought over to the product demonstration stations where we would be showing the event goers the Note and Nexus after the show:

After a bit of talking and grabbing some free food and drinks, we were seated and the show began with an interesting dance routine:

Then, we were all introduced to the GALAXY Note which has been designed to try and bridge the gap between Smartphones and Tablets:

(by the way, wouldn’t it be nice to have such a large display like this in your living room?)

We were then shown through a bunch of the features that the Note brings, most notable, of course, is the S-Pen, which they had @Liam Brazier use to draw a live image of the power station during the presentation:

Next up was a bit about the GALAXY Nexus, which is the first device to have Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich):

The phone itself really does look great, and all the new features that come along with Ice Cream Sandwich are going to make it difficult for me to eventually decide on whether to get the Nexus or the Note…(if only I’ll get one of each from Samsung – here’s to wishing!). 

The rest of the presentation went on to talk about the specs of each device, some sample scenarios of people using them in every day life, as well as a list of launch dates such as the following:

After the presentation was over, the curtains went up to the left of the room to show the demonstration booths. This allowed folks to get some hands on experience with both the Nexus and the Note, while us Mobilers helped show them off as well as doing a few interviews:

After a few hours of this, the event started to wrap up, we grabbed our belongings from the coat check, and went on with our lives. 

Final thoughts:

This was the first, big product launch event that I have been to (other than the Galaxy Tab 10.1 at PC World a few months ago) – and it was quite an experience.  It was great being able to get some behind the scenes training as well as be able to show fellow phone enthusiasts these new devices (especially before they were publicly available).  It’s definitely going to be a toss up as to which device I may end up switching to once both are available, seeing as how they both now seem to out class my amazing Galaxy S 2 (though, don’t get me wrong, it’s still a great phone!).   

One of the many aspects of this event that I enjoyed was to be able to meet some people behind a few of the sites that I follow, such as the folks from Android Central (check out their hands-on review of the Note from the event!).

Is anyone else stuck in deciding between which new Samsung device to get, or perhaps it’s no contest and you’ve already settled on one?  Were you at the event as well and have something to share?  Sound off in the comments!

It’s time for another Samsung Mobiler mission – this time we’re to document being active or ‘sporty’ with one of our Samsung devices.  I chose to focus on talking about using the Galaxy S 2 as a camera to take photos while hiking.

Camera:

I simply don’t like having to carry many things when I’m out hiking or walking around.  I recently bought a Canon SX30IS, which is basically a watered down DSLR (it is a big camera) and after going on a few hikes with it, it was just too big and bulky to carry around.  Now, I’m not saying that the SGS2 takes as good of pictures as the SX30IS, but it takes good enough pictures that I’m content with it’s image quality to use in lieu of a stand alone camera. 

For example, last weekend we went on a walk to Hadrian’s Wall where I had my SGS2 along with me and here are a few sample shots taken along the way:

A lake along the path

Part of Hadrian’s Wall

Sycamore Gap from Robin Hood:  Prince of Thieves

Steps over the wall

As you can see, the pictures are actually quite good (at least in my opinion), and what’s great is that since the phone is so light, I can barely tell it’s in my pocket.   I do sometimes have to pre-focus on a darker area if I am going to take a picture where there’s a lot of light (such as the "Robin Hood" tree above), otherwise it focuses on the sky and makes the tree very dark, even though it then makes the sky almost completely white. 

I also went on another walk/hike up Mount Snowdon, where I again took the SGS2 along (as well as the SX30IS).  I constantly found my self being bothered to take the full sized Canon out of the bag, putting the strap on my neck (as to not get in front of the lens), remove the cap, etc to the point where I gave up using it and instead used my SGS2 most of the time.  For shots that I ended up using both for, besides the Canon having a higher resolution, the qualities of the two were actually pretty close for the most part:

You can of course tell that the SX30IS is better (sharper and what I consider to be truer colors), but the SGS2 still produces good images.  Unfortunately, those are the only two images that I ended up having that were similar enough to have direct comparisons, but here are some more samples of the Galaxy S 2 while hiking up the foggy and rainy Mount Snowdon:

Now, granted, take my opinions about the SGS2 being a good camera with a grain of salt – I’m no photographer by any means, so I likely could have used better settings on the Canon to make the pictures look even better, but even so, the SGS2 took images that I am happy enought with to be okay if I don’t have another camera with me.

Do you have a Galaxy S 2 and have taken some great pictures to share, or perhaps you are not as pleased about it’s quality? Do you take yours around while being `sporty` or `active`? Sound off in the comments!

Being a Samsung Mobiler has brought another opportunity for me to get my hands on many Samsung devices such as the Galaxy S 2, Galaxy Pro, and Galaxy Tab 7.  Next on the list is the 1GHz dual-core Tegra 2 3G+WiFi Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet – check out my thoughts below!

Specifications of reviewed unit:

(taken from samsung.com)

• 256.7 x 175.3 x 8.6mm (10.1 x 6.9 x 0.34in)
• 565g (1lb 3.9oz)
• Pure White
• 10.1” widescreen, 1280×800 WXGA TFT LCD, 149 pixels per inch
• 1GB (RAM), 16GB (ROM/storage)
• HSPA +21 850/900/1900/2100
• EDGE/GPRS 850/900/1800/1900
• WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n with dual band support (2.4ghz or 5GHz)
• Bluetooth 3.0
• WiFi Direct
• 1GHz Dual Core Tegra 2 processor
• 7000mAh battery, rated up to 9hrs video, 72hrs music
• Rear camera:  1280×720 HD video, 3MP auto focus photo with LED flash
• Front camera:  640×480 VGA video, 2MP photo
• Video playback:  up to 1080p 30fps with codecs:  WMV9, WMV7, WMV8, H.264, MPEG4, Xvid, DiVX, H.263, VP8
• Audio playback:  MP3, AAC, AAC+, eAAC+, WMA, RA with stereo (2) speakers

What it looks like:

Here we have the front and the back:

The top with power, volume rocker, ear phone jack, and simcard slot:

The bottom with the usb/charging port and mic:

And of course the sides, each with their own speaker:

Specs compared to other tablets:

Here’s an on-paper comparison to a few other tablets of similar size:

As you can see, they’re all pretty close in terms of specs.  The Tab weighs in the lightest and thinnest, the Transformer has the highest ppi, and the Xoom has the highest megapixel cameras. 

Included apps:

Along with the “standard Android” apps (such as gmail, gallery, google maps, navigation, etc) Samsung has included a few additional ones as well:

• Polaris Office:
  
  Polaris Office is essentially a lite version of Microsoft Office. 
  

  It allows you to create/read/edit Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files, and it’s actually pretty good at it.  It’s pretty limited on what features you have in creating, but I haven’t run into any docs that haven’t been able to render correctly when viewing them here (though, perhaps I just don’t have access to any complicated word/excel files!)
  
  It’s great for creating or editing a document when you don’t have access to a PC (it’s helped me a few times while on the train when responding to a work email or two). 

• Samsung Apps: 
  
  This is basically a Samsung app store.  From the few apps that you can actually download from here, many appear to be either available in the standard Android Market or are relatively useless (at least in my opinion), so I honestly don’t see the point of this. 
• Pulse: 
  
  This is a fancy news reader, and it’s actually quite nice interface.  You see your various feeds in the homescreen (images and all), and it will even automatically update with new feeds periodically. 
  

  Once you tap on an article, it gives you a split pane interface for reading:
  

  You can also add in any RSS feed, as well as import feeds from Google Reader:
  

• Pen Memo:
  
  This is basically a note taking app – just use your finger to draw directly on the screen, or open up the keyboard and start typing away.  You can choose the thickness and color of the lines that you draw, and it’s pretty straight forward.    I honestly never find my self drawing a note, but it is something I regularly use to type out notes (grocery lists, todo-lists, etc)
  

• Samsung Music Hub:  
  
  This is Samsung’s music store.  It’s about what you would expect, you can browse for music (by album, artist, popular), or you can of course search. 
  
  To be honest, I don’t see much benefit of using the Music Hub over Amazon MP3 (which is generally cheaper). 

Web browsing:

Browsing the web is really great on this device – having a 1280×800 resolution screen, just like a laptop, really makes the browsing experience just as if you were using a computer.   For example, viewing Engadget, you don’t need to horizontally scroll and you can view the page just like you would expect:

I’ve also not had any problems performing any tasks that I would normally do on a full PC – for example, within Dolphin browser on my Samsung Galaxy S 2, tagging doesn’t work, however, no problems in the built in browser on the Tab:

Final thoughts:

All in all, the performance and experience is similar to other 10” dual core Android tablets in the market that I’ve tried (Transformer, Xoom, etc).  What mostly differentiates the Tab is that it is lighter and thinner than any of the other tablets I’ve used, it has a 3G option (which most don’t have, yet), and that there are no other ports (such as USB or MicroSD). 

One thing to note is that a few people have mentioned having the “Newton’s Rings” issue which is where you get what looks like an oil slick effect on your screen.  Mine actually developed this problem last week, and after I put it in the fridge for a bit, the problem is minimal now and it only happens if I press the screen a bit hard (there’s a YouTube video about it here).  However, Samsung seems to be replacing those that have had this problem, so as long as you don’t mind dealing with the issue if you happen to get it….

Do you have a Galaxy Tab 10.1 and want to share your comments?  Thinking about purchasing one and have any questions?  Let us know in the comments below!

In previous posts, I’ve written about Google Voice (GV) and all that it can do and about how to utilize GV in conjunction with Gizmo5 to make free calls.  However, that party slowed once Google bought Gizmo5 and stopped taking new signups, and then it was completely over when they shut it down completely earlier this year.   However, the party can continue now that GV has enabled the ability to utilize Google Chat to make/receive GV calls in custom applications.  Various companies are taking advantage of this ability and this is where Obihai’s OBi110 for $50 (or £50) and OBi100 for $44 really shine. 

So what exactly are these?

The Obihai OBi110 and OBi100 are essentially enhanced internet phone adapters (ATA/VOIP adapter) that allow you to use a normal land line phone to make/receive calls (using your internet connection) using various VoIP providers (phone service over the internet).  One of the main features that really makes Obihai’s devices stand out amongst other ATA adapters (such as the Linksys PAP2) is that they have the ability to directly utilize Google Voice as one of the phone service providers (without having to use any other 3rd party service or have a computer running). This means being able to utilize Google Voice’s features (free US/Canada calls, call forwarding, voice mail transcription, etc) directly from a traditional landline/home phone while at the same time having access to all the Obihai features such as call bridging, free obi-to-obi calls, and much more:

What does it look like:

The devices themselves are quite small, especially the OBi100.  On the left/top is the OBi100 and the right/bottom is the OBi110:

Even the power supply is small as well as dual voltage (100-240v 50/60hz), so it can be used world wide:

Why would you want one?

The main reason I bought one was simply to save on calls.  Google Voice allows free incoming/outgoing calls to the US and Canada, and very cheap UK calls (they recently lowered rates to UK mobiles – it’s now cheaper than any other VoIP provider that I use).  I work from home in the UK and deal with our US and UK offices all the time (and don’t get reimbursed for phone usage), so this saves me an incredible amount of money.  I didn’t want to sign up for an expensive UK land line calling plan, nor did I want to pay the price for a higher/unlimited cell plan, so being able to utilize the Obihai boxes for GV is perfect for me (especially since it’s a no hassle setup and doesn’t require a dedicated computer or similar to run it).

Prior to using an Obi, I set myself up a FreePBX system using the easy to install and use Incredible PBX.  Discussing IncrediblePBX would need a whole post (or more) by itself, but it’s basically an incredibly supercharged Obi100 that runs on a computer.  It has so many features, and works great – however, it does require a dedicated computer to run on (which would cost more than the Obi devices) and has a lot of features I would simply never use

So that’s one (big) reason, cost savings for calling from home, to get an OBi110/OBi100.  Here are some more reasons and sample scenarios in how you could/would want to use an OBi:

• Call internationally from your cell phone at cheap (or free) rates.  With the Obi devices, you can set it up so that when you call into it, you can have the option to then call back out from it using any of your configured VoIP providers.  For a specific example, I currently have a free Google Voice and free Sipgate UK VoIP account setup on my Obi110.  Sipgate UK allows free incoming calls and they even provide a free UK phone number.  So, from my cell phone in the UK, I dial my Sipgate UK number which gets picked up by the ObiAttendant (which is a built in automated operator which you can turn on and off for each configured phone service provider).  I then select the option to make an outgoing call and then proceed to dial a number from the US (which is routed through my GV account), and my call is connected.  I have just dialed an international number from my cell phone using my “regular” minute plan as opposed to dialing internationally directly from my mobile and paying £0.49/minute (yes, I know there are cheaper mobile providers). 
• Call directly through your Obi110/100 from your cell phone using your data connection.  Obihai has a mobile app, “OBiON”, for iOS and Android which will allow you to make calls directly from your Obi device using your phone’s data connection.   However, I’ve never had great success/quality when using OBiON (and by judging by the app reviews, it’s the same with many other people), so perhaps it’ll get better in the future, and in the mean time, you’ll probably want to stick with utilizing the ObiAttendant/call through feature mentioned above (if you’re wanting to use your Obi device with your cell phone)
• Save on cell minutes when at home.  This is basically my “cost savings” reason above, but when I was still living in the US, I did not have any land line service and relied entirely on my cell phone.  Seeing as how I didn’t want to pay the price for a huge minute plan (or unlimited), I could see running into issues if I ever needed to make multiple hour+ calls to support (either for fix the internet, get a computer warranty repair, etc).   However, having an Obi110/100 and GV would allow me to make as many calls to tech support as I’d want without paying anything (besides the initial cost of the Obi device of course). 

Is it easy to setup (with or without Google Voice)?

Most definitely, and it’s quick too – check out Obihai’s excellent step-by-step guide (and below is a very brief overview):

• 1.  Unbox the Obi110/100 and plug in the power supply, Ethernet cable, and your land line phone, and put it where you want (I mounted mine under my desk near the modem):
  
• 2.  Get your Google Voice account ready (it’s best to use a dedicated Google Voice account – one not associated with the email address you regularly use – so it doesn’t conflict with the GMail chat app when you have GMail open).   Turn off Call Screening, Enable calls to be forwarded to Google Chat, and turn off direct voicemail access.
• 3.  Go to http://www.obitalk.com and sign up for a new account.  Once registered, click on Add Device and follow the on screen instructions to add your device to your account (you basically dial a **5 number which has the Obi device connect to your Obitalk account automatically). 
• 4.  Then click “Setup google voice”, enter in your google voice email address and password, click Submit, let the device restart, and bam – you’re done!

How does the OBi100 differ from the OBi110?

Besides the obvious differences in size, the only way they differ is that the larger and slightly more expensive OBi110 offers an FXO (or “line”) port that the OBi100 does not:

An FXO port allows you to plug directly into your “actual” land line provider (assuming you have one) so that you can have both your land line connection and your Google Voice/VoIP connections all managed and accessible through the OBi110.   It’s also useful to have the OBi110 if you have a land line, even if you don’t have service, as you can (maybe) utilize it to make 9-1-1 calls if/when necessary (though you can also setup “E-911” service with various VoIP providers).   This way, all incoming calls from all your phone providers can be answered, and dialed from, a single home phone – very convenient!

FAQ/frequent questions I’ve seen:

Since the OBi110 and OBi100 have been released, there have been tons of deals and general information threads on various forums across the web and many people always ask the same questions – Here are a few of the more frequent ones:

• You can’t use this (with or without GV) outside of the US:  False.  I live in the UK and have no problems with either device and they even have the OBi110 for sale at amazon.co.uk now.  The only caveat is that if you want to use Google Voice outside the US, you must sign up from a US IP address as well as have access to a US phone number for the initial ‘activation’ (GV will call this US number to confirm your account). Once you have an account, you can use it anywhere.   Note that if you live in the UK, you may need to buy a BT-to-RJ11 plug adapter in order to get a UK phone to work with the OBi devices (they’re cheap!):
  I had an OLD cordless UK phone that worked fine, but then purchased a new one and it wouldn’t work with the same RJ11-to-RJ11 cable from the US that I was using, so I had to stick w/the RJ11 to BT cable the new phone came with and purchase an adapter to switch the BT end back to RJ11.  (For those interested, the UK uses a different standard phone plug [“BT” as it’s frequently called] and it appears that on the RJ11 end, the two outside wires are swapped when compared to the US style RJ11 plug, which is why a standard US RJ11-to-RJ11 plug won’t necessarily work)




• Related to the above, you do not need to have two OBi devices (one setup in the US and one setup in whatever country you are living in) in order to make calls (whether they be US/Canada calls or local to the country you live in) with GV if you are outside the US. 
• This is not the same thing as a Linksys/Vonage PAP2 ATA.  While it is very similar, the Obi110/Obi100 has MANY more features that the PAP2 does not, most notably again, being able to utilize GV directly (whereas the PAP2 cannot). 

What else these devices are not and cannot do:

• No answering machine built in.  If you want to have an answering machine, you’ll either need to get a physical answering machine plugged into the phone port, or let the VoIP provider(s) handle it (ie, GV). 
• You cannot connect a SIP/VoIP phone to it (directly).  This device is not like an Asterisk server where you can connect a SIP/IP/soft phone.  You can, however, setup the Obihai bridge (OBiAPP for PCs) on a computer and then connect a SIP/IP/VoIP phone via the bridge.  For example, say you wanted to use X-Lite (a softphone app which lets you make a call from your computer, similar to dialing from GMail) – you would need to have OBiAPP running on a computer and you would then connect to the OBiAPP which then connects your SIP/IP/soft phone to the OBi110/OBi100.  Again, this requires you to have the OBiAPP running on a computer anytime you want to make/receive a call from a sip/ip/soft phone. 

Some final thoughts:

There is SO much that you can accomplish with these devices and there are TONS of articles, reviews, guides, etc on how to use them and tips and tricks.  Most notable to me are the series of posts over at The Michigan Telephone Blog which goes through a very detailed review and how-to guides for setting up various things.  Obihai also has a good support system and very active user forum if you want any sort of question answered (or see if anyone else has the same question or issue). 

One thing to note is that yes, one of the major selling points for these are it’s simple integration with Google Voice. However, Google Voice has (so far) only stated that calls to the US/Canada will be free through 2011 with no mention as to what happens in 2012 (it may remain free, they may start charging – who knows).  However, no one knows if they’ll stop the free party, but even if they do, I wouldn’t expect it to be much (as there are other providers that offer unlimited US/Canada calls  for $3-4 a month, so I would think Google would meet, if not beat, those prices).  Plus, this works very nicely with any other VoIP provider out there (Sipgate US or UK, Call Centric, VoipFone, etc the list goes on ). 

It’s only available from Amazon for now, so head on over there and pick one up:

Have any questions about using the OBi110 or OBi100?  Have you picked one up and want to share your tips and tricks?  Sound off in the comments below!

The Samsung Mob!ler program is back and better than ever.  We are now a larger group, it’s been said that there will be many more missions than last year, and this year we’ve already been given a Samsung Galaxy S 2 to review and now we’re onto a Samsung Galaxy Pro.  Our first ‘official’ mission this year is to compare the Galaxy Pro against BlackBerry.

First off, it’s hard to compare a single phone to an array of phones (Galaxy Pro vs BlackBerry in general), so let’s take a birds eye look at comparing the Galaxy Pro two of the latest BlackBerrys (BlackBerries?) of a similar form factor – the Curve 3G and the Bold 9780 – and while we’re add it, let’s throw in the HTC ChaCha. 

Let’s first start out by comparing their spec sheets:

Spec	Galaxy Pro	HTC ChaCha	BB Curve 3G	BB Bold 9780
CPU	800 MHz	800 MHz	624MHz	624MHz
Screen Size	2.8” TFT	2.6” TFT	2.46” TFT	2.44” TFT
Touch Screen	Yes (not multi)	Yes	no	no
Screen Res	320×240	480×320	320×240	480×360
OS	Android 2.2	Android 2.3	BB OS 5.0	BB OS 6.0
Memory	512MB	512MB	256MB	512MB
Storage	512MB Internal 2GB MicroSD	512MB internal	256MB Internal	2GB MicroSD
Rear Cam	3MP	5MP+Flash	2MP	5MP + Flash
Front Cam	none	0.3MP	none	none
Height	4.28in/108.6mm	4.5in/114.4mm	4.29in/109mm	4.29in/109mm
Width	2.62in/66.7mm	2.54in/64.6mm	2.36in/60mm	2.36in/60mm
Thickness	0.42in/10.7mm	0.42in/10.7mm	0.55in/13.9mm	0.56in/14mm
Weight	3.74oz/106g	4.23/120g	3.7oz/104g	4.3oz/112g
Batt TalkTime	6.3hrs	7.5hrs	5.5hrs	6hrs
Batt Stand By	460hrs	640hrs	456hrs	528hrs
WiFi	b/g/n	b/g/n	b/g/n	a/b/g

As you can see, they’re all fairly similar.   The ChaCha and Galaxy Pro (on average) have the better battery life, processor, memory, and screens

Media/Screen:

First and foremost, neither device is meant to be a media power house.  Yes, you’ll be able to watch a wide variety of videos from either device, but at 2.8” and less, it won’t necessarily be something overly enjoyable.   The screen on the Galaxy Pro specifically is a bit pixely given that it’s a 320×240 stretched across a 2.8” screen, and the viewing angles aren’t the best – when viewing text and/or a webpage, it can be a bit hard to read when zoomed in to a point where you don’t need to horizontally scroll to read the page:

However, the same issue exists with the 320×240 screen on the Black Berry Curve 3G as shown from Tech Radar in their post here.  It’s just how it’s going to be with a screen this small and at this resolution.  

However, where the Galaxy Pro definitely beats either BlackBerry is that it has a capacitive touch screen.   (Yes, there are newer BlackBerrys that have touch screens, but they’re a bit above the class from the Galaxy Pro).  This is essentially where the Pro mixes non-BlackBerrys with the BlackBerrys.   Where most BlackBerry users are used to using the optical pad/scroll ball wheel, users of the Pro now are able to control input by directly on the screen.   But of course, there is a limit to it’s capabilities in that it is not a multi-touch screen, which means (for example), there’s no pinch to zoom for websites or google maps – one must use shortcuts built into the various apps for such actions:

However, having a touch screen is still much better in my opinion than having to scroll through a list of links on a given page in order to click on the one you want (BlackBerrys). 

Keyboard:

It’s not common to have an Android phone with a hardware keyboard like most BlackBerrys do, so it’s a definite way that Samsung is trying to steal some of the BlackBerry users out there.   For traditional Android phone users wanting an affordable option to have a hardware keyboard, then this is of course an option.  However, I found the keyboard on the Galaxy Pro to not be quite as well laid out as those on either the Curve 3G, Bold 9780, or even the ChaCha. 

As you can see, of the four phones I’ve been mentioning in this review, the Galaxy Pro is the only one that does not stagger the keys in a more ergonomic (curved) fashion:

Also notice that the Galaxy Pro has it’s bottom row of keys pushed to the left so that the Z is directly under the A and Q which, at least for me, has caused me a great number of typos (not that I use ‘Z’ a lot, but many of the other keys are not in their ‘natural’ location either).   

While it is a step up for those of you who have been yearning for a hardware keyboard on such a form factor, I feel as though it’s just simply not as good as a BlackBerry (or the ChaCha). 

OS/Software:

Now this is going to be hard to discuss without being biased towards Android, as it’s what I’ve been using for quite some time and am therefore quite used to what it has to offer.  That being said, the fact that the Android app market is much more developed (number of quality apps), leans me towards Android as a winner here. 

There are, however, good BlackBerry-Only apps – one most known about is BBM (BlackBerry Messenger), which is basically a built in IM client that works, and is present, across all BlackBerrys.  While this exact feature does not exist in the Android realm, there are plenty of cross-platform/OS apps that accomplish a similar feature, such as any number of IM clients (AIM, Meebo, etc), or one that is very similar:  What’s App, which is a cross-platform IM client that works on iPhone, Android, BlackBerry, and Symbian.

Conclusion:

Unfortunately, I do not have the years of experience of using and owning a BlackBerry to go into a detailed comparison, but as you can see, they two mentioned here are very similar from a quick overview.  Each has their own advantages over the other (when comparing similar form factored devices), and I feel that it (mostly) comes down to which mobile OS you prefer and how important it is to have a touch screen.  Both are of similar size, weights, and battery life – both provide a similar hardware keyboard (though, arguably, BlackBerry may have the upper hand here) – though the Galaxy Pro affords a touch screen. 

Do you have a definite leaning towards which you feel is the better mobile phone?  Are you on the fence as to go with a BlackBerry or a Galaxy Pro (or even HTC ChaCha)?   Sound off in the comments below!

The 2Phone case for the iPhone 4 is a 3-in-1 case.  It is A) a case, B) a dual-SIM adapter, which allows you to use two SIM cards for voice at the same time, and C) an extended battery(ish..).  The team at RebelSim sent me one to review so read on to find out more about it:

Video Review:

As a case:

The 2Phone as a case offers full scratch protection for everything except the front screen; for front screen protection, you’ll want to pair this with a screen protector.

The inside of the case (the part that the rear glass touches) is a slightly textured plastic that protects the entire backside of the iPhone:

The bumper that covers the sides is a relatively thin, translucent plastic that covers everything else except the front glass.  It comes in a few different colors, but it only comes with this “smoke” colored one (and I can’t seem to find a way to get/order other colors), but I personally like the color well enough:

The bumper completely covers the volume and power buttons and unfortunately it makes it a bit annoying to change the volume. I find that I have to either press hard, or use my thumbnail, to actually get the volume buttons to press in (as opposed to being able to just lightly use the “pad” of my thumb).  Also, it prevents you from easily using your thumb to flip the vibrate switch – I now have to use either my thumb/index fingernail:

All of the port “cut outs” line up perfectly, such as the headset jack and camera:

What’s also nice is that it gets rid of the proprietary Apple port and replaces it with a micro usb port (which is used for charging AND syncing with your computer/iTunes):

The case is very light and when compared with the weight of the iPhone 4, I really can’t tell a weight difference when using it.  However, the case does add a bit of thickness to the phone – it almost (not quite) doubles it’s thickness, but at least it’s curved on the edges, so it’s not like you would be carrying around a brick:

As an extended battery / second SIM card:

The part that sets this case apart from all other cases I’ve seen is the fact that it lets you use a 2nd SIM card at the same time as the iPhone’s SIM card;  You don’t have to switch between two SIM cards like other dual-SIM solutions.

The case is essentially a second phone that you are attaching to the iPhone, except instead of having it’s own screen, you use a jailbroken iPhone app to use it.   The 2Phone case is powered by it’s own 800mAh battery and not the iPhone 4:

This battery can also act as an extended battery to charge the iPhone 4 as well, however, it must have a remaining capacity of at least 50%. If it has less than 50%, it will not charge the iPhone as the case will reserve the remaining 50% to use for powering the case.   With a full charge of the 2Phone battery, I have been able to charge the iPhone about 20% before the 2Phone battery reaches 50% and stops charging the iPhone.  It’s not much, but think of it more as a bonus feature than anything else – in other words, don’t buy it to rely on as a backup power source.

The 2Phone is quad band 850/900/1800/1900 and unlocked, so it should work with any SIM you end up pairing it with.  It takes regular size SIM cards so you’ll need to use a microsim-to-regular SIM adapter if you end up using it with a microsim:

As mentioned earlier, in order to utilize the 2Phone’s SIM card, you need to install their 2Phone app which requires your iPhone to be jailbroken.  Luckily, at least at the time of this posting with 4.3.3 being the latest iOS, I believe all iOS versions are easily jailbreakable.   To get the 2Phone app, open up Cydia and add the 2Phone source (www.2phone.com/cydia) and then install the only app within that repository which is 2Phone. (Jailbreaking is bit out of the scope of this review, but feel free to comment below if you have any questions about doing so)  .

The app itself is very similar to the built in Phone app on the iPhone.  The iPhone Phone app has options for Favorites, Recents, Contacts, Keypad and Voicemail whereas the 2Phone has Settings, Recents, Message, Contacts, and Keypad:

(on a side note…I find it interesting that on my UK iPhone, they spelled it “Favorites” and not “Favourites”)

There are a few different setting options you can change such as the ring volume and tone, text message tone, the phone number to use for voicemail, as well as setting/inputting the SIM pin.  As far as Ringtones, you are able to use the single 2Phone created ringtone, or any of the built in iPhone ringtones:

To place a call with either SIM card, you simply use the appropriate app (the default phone app for the iPhone SIM or the 2Phone app for the 2Phone SIM).  When you receive a call from the 2Phone SIM, you’ll get what looks like a notification popup which will then open up the 2Phone app to accept that call:

One thing that does bug me a bit is the fact that the audio quality of the speaker phone when using the 2Phone isn’t that great.  The audio is rather scratchy and not nearly as loud as when using the iPhone speaker phone.  Again, it’s nice to be able to use two SIM cards at once, but it’s disappointing that the speakerphone doesn’t perform well with the 2Phone. 

Wrap up:

If what you are looking for is the ability to have two SIM cards active at the same time, then this is the case for you (plus, it gives you great scratch protection and a small extended battery).  However, don’t buy it thinking you will be getting a big boost in call time (remember, it’ll only charge the iPhone if the 2Phone has 50% or greater battery left).  That being said, it works great for adding an extra line to your iPhone.  I would prefer it being a bit cheaper though, as at £130/$210, it’s the cost of a low end Android phone.  But if you are currently having to carry around two phones to have two separate numbers (such as a work and personal phone), it would probably be worth it to ditch one of them! 

Pros:

• Lets you use 2 SIM cards at the same time
• Light weight, scratch protection case
• Looks sleek
• Adds a micro usb port (instead of an Apple port)

Cons:

• It’s expensive – currently £130 / $210
• The battery doesn’t provide much extended battery for the iPhone
• The bumper covers the vibrate switch causing it to require extra effort to switch it

Thinking about buying one and have any questions?  Already have one and have something you want to share?  Tell us about it in the comments below!

The Samsung Galaxy S 2 is Samsung’s latest android phone featuring an Eynos dual core processor, 4.3” Super AMOLED Plus screen, and 1080p 8.0mp rear camera all in an sleek and extremely light (4.1oz) package.   First off, thanks to Samsung for the opportunity to be a member of the Samsung Mob!lers group again, and to be able to take part of this first mission to review this phone – be sure to stay tuned for our next mission! 

What is my quick conclusion of this phone?  It’s the best phone I’ve ever used.  Why?  Read on to find out!

Specifications:

Below are the specifications of the reviewed unit (given to me by being a member of the Samsung Mob!lers group). 

• 4.3” Super AMOLED Plus screen
• Android 2.3.3 Gingerbread with Samsung TouchWiz 4.0
• 8.0mp/1920×1080 video rear, 2mp video front
• 1.2Ghz Exynos 4210 (using ARM Cortex A9) Dual Core Processor
• 16gb internal storage (expandable with MicroSD slot)
• 125.3mm x 66.1mm x 8.49mm (4.93” x 2.60” x 0.33”)
• 116g (4.1oz)
• WiFi a/b/g/n, BT v3.0+HS, USB 2.0
• Network:
  HSPA+ 21Mbps/ HSUPA 5.76Mbps
  EDGE/ GPRS Class 12
  Quad band GSM 850/900/1800/1900
  Quad band UMTS 850/900/1900/2100

Glamour Shots/Aesthetics:

Here’s a quick video showing off the phone:

And here are a few pictures.  In the front you’ve got the front camera, proximity and light sensors, and the speaker along the top, and the home button (and menu and back buttons) along the  bottom.  On the back is the rear camera with LED on the top and the main speaker on the bottom right.  

As far as the touch sensitive buttons go, you have the option to have them always lit up, always off, turn off after 1.5s or 6s, or only have them light up when it’s dark.  (also, they do not rotate with the screen):

On the top you’ll find a microphone and the 3.5mm headset jack, and on the bottom is the MicroUSB connector and another microphone.

On the left you have a hole for a wrist strap followed by the volume rocker, and along the right you have the power button:

On the back, the area around the camera is slightly raised and the bottom of the phone has a bit of a lip:

Cameras:

The cameras, both front and rear, are very good quality.  The rear camera is capable of 8mp photos and 1920×1080 videos, while the front camera is 2mp photos video.

Below is a video of the available photo and video settings as well as a few examples:

Here is the full list of options/settings for photos as well as a few sample pictures and descriptions:

• Self shot (this switches to the front camera)
• Flash (off, on, auto flash)
• Shooting mode (single shot, smile shot, beauty, panorama, action shot, cartoon)
  • Smile shot:  choose this option and then press the shutter button, the phone will then wait until it detects all the faces it detects are smiling before actually taking the picture (it seems to work pretty well with the few test shots I took):
    
  • Panorama:  this will have you take 8 pictures while slowly moving to the left or right and then automatically (and quickly) stitch them together to make a panoramic picture (however, in low quality – linked image is full size and unedited)
    
  • Cartoon:  as the name might suggest, it gives the photo a cartoon looking effect (I, personally, don’t care for it much):
    
    
• Scene mode (none, portrait, landscape, night, sports, party/indoor, beach/snow, sunset, dawn, fall color, fireworks, text, candlelight, backlight)
  • Text:  This appears to try and make text a little sharper in the image.  I tried taking a picture of two pages of an open book, but it came out very blurry – I think this meant to work while being up close to a single page (like the one in this sample):
    
• Exposure value
• Focus mode (auto focus, macro, face detection)
• Timer (off, 2 sec, 5 sec, 10 sec)
• Effects (none, negative, grayscale, sepia)
• Resolution (640×480 to 3264×2448)
• White Balance (auto, daylight, cloudy, incandescent, fluorescent)
• ISO (auto, 100, 200, 400, 800)
• Metering (centre-weighted, spot, matrix)
• Outdoor visibility (off, on)
• Anti-shake (off, on)
• Auto contract (off, on)
• Blink detection (off, on):
  This here does what you would expect – it lets you know if any subjects were blinking after you took the photo.  From the few test shots I took, it wasn’t always reliable as you can see from the photo below (it only thought one of the two girls were blinking):
  
• Guidelines (off, on)
• Review (off, on)
• Image quality (superfine, fine, normal)
• GPS tag (off, on)

Fancy settings aside, the camera does take rather good pictures.  I’m not anywhere close to being a photographer, but the pictures I’ve taken with the Galaxy S 2 seem very good in my opinion (linked pictures below are full size and not edited):

And to test some low light pictures, I took a few with and without the flash under my desk (both with auto ISO):

And of course, the HD videos.  The rear camera on the Galaxy S 2 is capable of taking Full HD (1920×1080) videos and I was surprised at the quality.  They’re not as good as full fledged digital/video cameras, but it’s still impressive.  The video quality is crisp and detailed, though it is a bit….”bumpy in the sense I feel it could use some sort of built in stabilization (not quite sure how to describe it).  Below is a sample 1080 video:

Keep in mind that 1080 videos take up a lot of space – the 46s clip above is about 97mb. 

Speaker: 
It’s excellent in my opinion – it has a full range of sound, it’s not washed out or “tin-canny”, and it can get quite loud without distortion.

Even though it’s located on the back at the bottom left corner (when holding it), it still produces great sound.  Headset volume/quality, too, is good; coming from using the Desire HD, Dell Streak, and Galaxy Tab, I was really hoping it wasn’t going to suffer from low headset volume and I was happy to find that it didn’t.   One thing I personally am happy about is that it can get loud enough (and without distortion) to play it in the bathroom while taking a shower:

I also set it up in my universal car dock to see how well the speaker performed with GPS navigation and speaker phone (especially considering my car produces a LOT of road noise). Hearing the GPS directions was no problem, even with the radio on, though the speakerphone was on the cusp of not quite being loud enough – it was definitely better than any other phone I’ve used recently, but not quite as loud as I’d like it to be in order to hear 100% of the call.

Music and Videos:

I was very curious if this phone would be able to play back 720p and 1080p videos without issues, especially since it can record in both of those formats.  I tried a few sample videos from http://www.highdefforum.com/high-definition-movies-video-clips/6537-official-hd-video-clip-list.html and the phone played back both 1080p and 720p clips without issue, and they looked and sounded absolutely fantastic.  For good measure, I also tried a ripped DVD (LOTR) I created with H.264 as well as an episode of Modern Family which also had no issues.  And of course, playing back HQ youtube clips looked and played back fine as well

Music playback, too, worked as good as you would expect after watching the phone playback 1080p videos.  The music app is nice enough – it has album art, and the normal playback controls you would expect to find in any media app.  (note:  I’m not picky when it comes back to media players as long as it plays the media without issue).

Screen:

The Super AMOLED Plus on the Galaxy S 2 looks very nice.  The colors are crisp and the screen in general is very sharp.   With the screen on and showing only an all-black image, I can’t tell that it’s on and there’s no light leakage:

Starting at 10% battery life remaining, I discovered that the screen goes on it’s lowest brightness level and you are unable to increase it (even with the power saving features turned off) – notice how the option to adjust the brightness is greyed out/disabled:

At first thought, that feature may seem useful to conserve what little battery power you have left.  However, I was outside when it happened and that made it almost impossible to read the screen for a quick, important phone call I had to make.   I’d be okay with it as long as there was the option to manually turn the brightness back up.

Outdoor screen visibility, like most other screens, isn’t very good – that being said, however, it is at least usable.  When on automatic brightness, it does appear to boost it to the max when in direct sunlight, and it’s just enough to get by (unfortunately, it’s been rainy the past couple days, so I haven’t been able to re-test outdoor viewing while having my camera with me). 

The resolution is 480×800, and before I actually received the phone and used it for a few days, I was a bit disappointed; I was hoping for something better (such as the iPhone 4′s screen) than what most other phones currently have. However, as soon as I turned it on and used it, that was the furthest thing from my mind. The quality of the screen completely overtakes any “limitation” (480×800 is still fine in my opinion) of the resolution

Battery:

It’s impressive.  I have gone 46 hours and 42 minutes, had it charge for about 30min total (while plugging it into the computer to get pictures, screenshots, and what not, to write this review) and I am at 1% battery life.  This was using the camera (HD videos and pictures), installing and playing games, watching a few videos, about 15min of calls, 20 minutes of music playing, and about 10 minutes of GPS navigation (with WiFi on and automatic brightness). 

When charging from the usb cable connected to the computer with the phone on (which is how I charge the phone 99% of the time), it took roughly 5.5 hours to perform a complete charge from 1% to 100% (from the 2 times I ran it down to 1%), which works out (on average) to be about 3 min 24 seconds per battery percentage. 

Web Browsing:

I’ve been using it for a few days now and have yet to come across any issues while web browsing.  I’ve been able to play back BBC iPlayer, play a few flash games (that don’t require special input from the keyboard or anything), any website I regularly visit, and all the while having flash enabled and multiple windows open:

Software and Included Apps:

With any phone, there are a bunch of included apps that come preinstalled with the phone, as well as Samsung’s own TouchWiz (4.0) interface. 

• Email app:  This is basically meant for any email other than Gmail (such as you work’s Exchange account, though you could feed gmail through here if you wanted).  Like the email app on the Galaxy Tab, it has a nice dual pane view when in landscape mode:
  

  One thing I don’t like, however, is that when setting the view to “conversation mode”, it won’t fade the conversation when it’s not expanded even if all the messages in that conversation have been read.  In other words, even though I have read all my messages in the “galaxy s 2 is a cool phone” email thread below, it looks as though they’re unread (vs, in “standard” mode, you can see messages that have been read):
  

• Video maker and Photo editor:
  Samsung includes a simple photo and video editor as well.  The photo editor lets you do basic things such as cropping, selecting, warping, filling, and a few different effects (blur, lens blur, linear blur, radial blur, ghost effect, and speed line effect).  Below you can see a few of the effects as well as a sample of me selecting part of a picture and applying the Speed Line effect:
  

  The Video maker app also allows basic video editing such as splitting and trimming clips, creating transitions between clips, adding music/pictures/videos, and applying transitions and themes.  Below is a sample of creating a transition between two clips:
  
  One limitation is that it can only work with video clips that are 1280×720 or smaller:
  

  Here’s a quick demo of the video maker app:
  

  Using the video editor (Video Maker) app included on the Galaxy S 2

• Touch Wiz and other phone features:
  One of the first things I noticed were the advanced motion setting controls that Samsung has included with this phone which are Turn Over, Tilt, Panning, and Double Tap:
  
  Turn over allows you to mute incoming calls by turning your phone over, tile allows you to tilt the phone to zoom in and out, panning allows you move from side to side in the gallery and applications, and double tap turns on Voice Talk:
  
  Advanced motion controls of the Samsung Galaxy S 2

Performance / Gaming:

Seeing as how this phone has a dual core 1.2GHz processor, I was eager to find out more about and see how it performs.  From connecting it to the computer in debug mode and running ADB with the cat /proc/cpuinfo command, I was presented with the following info:

Processor : ARMv7 Processor rev 1 (v7l)
processor : 0
BogoMIPS : 1592.52
Features : swp half thumb fastmult vfp edsp neon vfpv3
CPU implementer : 0×41
CPU architecture: 7
CPU variant : 0×2
CPU part : 0xc09
CPU revision : 1
Hardware : SMDKC210
Revision : 000e

Reading around a bit then lead me to find out that it is using a Exynos 4210 processor (which utilizes the Cortex A9) and you can read more information about it over at Samsung.com.  [one interesting thing to note is that according to the samsung link above, it lists “USB 2.0 Host 1-channel, supporting LS/FS/HS (1.5Mbps/12Mbps/480Mbps) with on-chip PHY” – does this mean we’d be able to plug devices into the phone, such as usb drives, or am off base here?]

Running Quadrant CPU gave me an average of 3521

with the following details:

CPU:  ARMv7 Processor rev 1 (v71)
Current Freq: 500mhz
Max Freq:  1200MHz
Min Freq:  200MHz
Cores: 2
Architecture:  7

Memory:  Total 853032 kB
Display:  480×800
Renderer:  Mali-400 MP
Version:  OpenGL ES-CM 1.1
Max texture units:  8
Max texture size: 4096
Max lights:  8

Sensors:
K3DH Acceleration sensor
AK8975 Magnetic field / Orientation sensor
CM3663 Light and Proximity sensor
K3G Gyroscopic sensor
Gravity sensor
Linear Acceleration sensor
Rotation Vector sensor

Running Linpack for Android resulted in:

MFLOPS:  46.394
Time:  1.81 seconds
Norm Res:  5.68
Precision:  2.220446049250313e-16

In general, though, I haven’t found any issues with lag or sluggishness while using the phone.  Even during the initial sync when you add a Google account, other phones I’ve used become noticeably slow until it was finished, but with the Galaxy S 2, things seemed fine.    Game play is also well executed – I’ve tried a few of the Gameloft HD games (and of course, angry birds), and everything played back just fine:

When connecting the phone via usb storage (to have it act as a USB drive), I achieved average write speeds of 4.7MB/s and read speeds of 15MB/s(while transferring a 1.5gb mkv video):

Wrap up:

All in all, this is a great phone in my opinion.  Media playback is great (both from audio and visual standpoints), performance is great in that I never experienced any significant lag (either when doing video editing or playing HD games), battery life is great (almost 2 full days with what I would consider moderate usage), and it’s all in a sleek, lightweight package.  

To give a bit of background, my primary phone was an iPhone 3GS for almost two years, and the phone I used after that the most was the HTC Desire, and in between I jumped around between the Dell Streak, Galaxy S, Desire HD, Orange San Francisco, and iPhone 4 – all for about a month at a time – so I’ve had my fair share of phones. I’ve of course used MANY more (ie, playing with devices at the phone stores, friend’s phones, etc), but the specific ones listed above I’ve had long term experience with. Of all of those phones, I can without question say that the Galaxy S 2 is my favorite phone that I’ve used (and it will only get better once 3rd party roms such as Cyanogenmod is ported over!).

You definitely cannot go wrong with the Samsung Galaxy S 2 in any way you look at it (well, other than the current PAYG pricing is a hefty £494 at carphonewarehouse).   Sell the phone you currently have, maybe some family jewels or save up, and buy a Galaxy S 2. 

For Mission 4 as being a Samsung Mob!ler, our mission was to go to a local store (I finally found one at O2) and check out the Galaxy Tab and give our initial impressions (after which, we’ll soon be given our own Galaxy Tab, so stay tuned here for a full review once it arrives!)

First Impression:

Let me start out by saying this was the first time I had actually seen it in person — well, actually the first time I’ve seen it outside of promotional pictures — so I did not really know what to expect (I hadn’t yet watched any video reviews, comparison shots, etc).   When the O2 guy pulled it out of the box, it was a bit smaller and a bit thicker than I had expected;  after using an iPad a couple times, I was expecting something similar to it (yes, I did know it had a 7” screen vs.. the 9.7” of the iPad, but I couldn’t really picture the difference until I saw it in person).

Here’s an image to show the difference between the iPad and the Galaxy Tab:

So as you can see, it’s basically they’re both about the same thickness, but the Tab is of course smaller width and height wise.  Though, that being said, after handling it for a few minutes and actually using it (playing games, browsing the internet, etc), my initial qualms about it’s size went away.  It’s not quite small enough to fit in your pocket, but it’s not too big to actually be able to type on it landscape mode with your thumbs – it’s a bit harder than a “normal phone” sized on screen keyboard, but it is doable. 

What’s it like?

The more I used it, the more I realized it’s like a big Galaxy S (just like the iPad vs.. iPhone debate).  They (will soon) have the same version of Android (v 2.2 / Froyo) and TouchWiz interface, and they do share a lot of the same hardware; other than the obvious larger size of the Tab, here’s a break down:
 

* as rated by Manufacturer

So as you an see, besides the size/weight differences, they’re all fairly similar (with the Tab and Galaxy being very similar). 

General Usage:

Seeing as how I didn’t get to take tab home (because it’s £600…), I was only able to play with it for a few minutes.  I was able to play NOVA which is a Halo-like First Person Shooter game – how was it?  fantastic – While the on screen controls for any FPS game like this takes a bit to get used to, the game play and quality was great – smooth frames through out the 5-10 minutes I played and never once had an issue. 

That being said, when playing the game, I did manage to hit the Home soft key twice (since it’s right along the right edge), so that was a bit of an annoyance — perhaps there’s a way to disable it…either with or without rooting it?

Unfortunately, I did not have a chance to test web browsing and give Flash a go, so that will have to wait until mine arrives and the full review gets posted…

Final thoughts:

For the few minutes I was able to use it, I’m not sure which of similar devices I like the best (iPad, Galaxy Tab, Galaxy S, or even the Dell Streak).  It’s definitely has it’s own slight niche in terms of form factor, but I think it will be hard to choose between the cheaper and slightly smaller Dell Streak (also with Android and similar hardware specs) or the larger and slightly more expensive (if you get 3G+WiFi) iPad.  All three offer similar functionality (yes, iOS vs.. Android have major differences…) but all come with different foot prints, so mobile operating system choice aside, I would say it’s going to come down to what size device you are looking for.    That being said, I’m going to wait until I get my own Tab and am able to use it for a longer period of time before I give my “final” final thoughts! 

And to finish this prereview, here are a few more shots I was able take:

Have you ordered a Tab yet or perhaps you are in the UK and already picked one up from O2?  Tell us about it in the comments!  (be sure to stay tuned for future Samsung Mob!ler missions and my full review of the Tab once it arrives at my door!)