Perhaps you thought there was no alternative to the ubiquitous iPhone. Perhaps you were too busy prancing through the iTunes store gulping down Apps, or thumbing your way across the country through Maps. Or dockin’ your iPhone to play that Gotye song for all your friends so they can hear it for the 34859th time.
Well, guess what? You’re wrong. In real life, (that place you’re in when you tear your eyes away from the iPhone screen) there are other smartphones in the mobile-sea. Like the Samsung Galaxy S II.
It can take a fair bit of persuading to get a “once-an-iPhone-always-an-iPhone” kinda guy/gal to see the truth. And to be fair, they have a point. The iPhone is awesome! But also, once you’ve gone iPhone once, you’ll find yourself with the following dilemmas:
• Your iPhone and MacBook look so sweet together. Or more specifically, they sync perfectly and run the same software. And iTunes loves the iPhone, and can act a little snobby when encountering other smartphones.
• You already have four iPhone chargers, and your friends/family/co-workers are the same. So even though your iPhone’s battery lifespan may be shorter than a day, there’s always somewhere to plug ‘er in.
• Heaving all your stored info from one iPhone to the next is fairly easy. When you change phones, not as much.
• You’ll have to get used to using a whole new phone, and you've already prided yourself on being iPhone-user-extraordinaire-number-1.
“So what are the pros of the Samsung Galaxy S II?” I hear you tap into Google. Well, for starters it’s narrower and lighter. This means the phone won’t weigh down your skinny jeans as much, and you can also boast about how narrow it is to your iPhone 4S-using friends. The pros speak for themselves really.
The screen on the iPhone 4S is good (3.5 inch). It’s really good. But dare we say, the screen on the Samsung Galaxy S II (4.3-inch) is better. And like in all cases, size matters, and the Samsung Galaxy S II screen is bigger than its opponent.
In terms of connectivity, Samsung has been kind enough to offer tethering on their smartphone with no hassle. Apple – not so much. There are ways around this to get tethering on your iPhone, but we’d rather not talk about it.
While your battery is going to strain whether you’re tinkering on an iPhone or Galaxy, the Galaxy S II wins in this department. Up to eight hours talk time on the iPhone 4S, and up to eight hours and 40 minutes talk time on the Galaxy S II. Think of all that blabbin’ you can do with an extra 40 minutes up your sleeve.
The Samsung Galaxy S II boasts an 8-megapixel camera, LED Flash and can record videos in Full HD (1080p) resolution at 30FPS. So does/can the iPhone 4S. The iPhone 4S also features things like Face recognition, Hybrid IR filter and auto-white balance, and overall, it looks like the iPhone 4S can take better photos, although the picture quality between the two handsets is roughly the same. The iPhone 4S also offers an image stabiliser and real-time temporal noise reduction when recording movies.
When it comes to App choice, the iTunes store (as expected) wins hands down. In terms of storage, the iPhone also wins with a massive 64GB. However, the Samsung Galaxy S II is fitted out with a MicroSD card slot, where you can slot in a 64GB card if you’re that much of a digital hoarder. But seriously, do you really need every Coldplay album on-hand each time you go out for a saunter through the park?
Admittedly, we’ve been a little biased. The iPhone 4S also boasts Siri, the lass you order around to say things like “Hey! Take me to the closest public toilet cos I really gotta go!” The iPhone 4S also has an A5 chip, and we hear that’s a really good thing. We’re not gona lie. To paraphrase a little from Run DMC, choosing between the iPhone 4S and the Samsung S II is going to be a little tricky. If big screens, bright colours and slimmer bodies turn you on, then the Samsung Galaxy S II may be quite the delicious alternative to the iPhone 4S.