VIDEO PHONE REVIEW: Samsung Galaxy S II

The Samsung Galaxy S II will not ship with the Tegra 2 dual-core processor in the U.K. Instead, the handset will have Samsung's own Exynos chipset under the hood. And while the accuracy of the Quadrant benchmark test for dual-core processors has not yet been determined, the Exynos chip apparently produced a brain-numbing score of 3,053 on a Quadrant test run by Eldar Murtazin. We say "apparently" because it is possible that instead of using the Galaxy S II running on the Exynos 1.2 GHz processor and Mali-400 MP GPU, it’s possible that Murtazin's model was powered by a nVidia Tegra 2 with a ULP GeForce GPU.

The score beat out the 2,958 produced on a Quadrant test of the LG Optimus 3D, which we reported on back during the MWC. Ironically, the Samsung Galaxy S II scored only 1950 at the same time, making us wonder if Samsung has tweaked its device since February, or if that high score of 3,053 is legit.

The Samsung Galaxy S II is expected to launch May 1st in the U.K. and there is no word yet if the phone will be offered in the States.

Samsung I9100 Galaxy S II at a glance:

General: GSM 850/900/1800/1900 MHz, UMTS 850/900/1900/2100 MHz, HSDPA 21 Mbps, HSUPA 5.76 Mbps
Form factor: Touchscreen bar phone
Dimensions: 125.3 x 66.1 x 8.5 mm, 116 g
CPU: Dual-core ARM Cortex A9 1.2 GHz processor, Orion chipset
GPU: Mali-400MP
RAM: 1GB
OS: Android 2.3 (Gingerbread)
Memory: 16/32GB storage, microSD card slot
Camera: 8 megapixel auto-focus camera with face detection, touch focus and image
Connectivity: Wi-Fi a/b/g/n, Wi-Fi hotspot, Bluetooth 3.0+HS, standard microUSB port,
Misc: TouchWiz 4.0 UI, DivX/XviD codec support, built-in accelerometer, multi-touch input, proximity sensor, gyroscope sensor, Swype text input

The Samsung I9100 Galaxy S II impressed us at every turn. We were surprised at how much engineers have managed to cram into something that’s just 8.5mm thin.

The new SuperAMOLED Plus display is amazing even if it makes the phone quite a big thing to hold. The camera scored big points as did the overall performance of the phone – and that’s with the 1GHz version we tested. Samsung is yet to churn out those samples clocked at 1.2GHz.

As flagships go, the Samsun Galaxy S II is a prime example. At times we wished for some metal on the body but that would have increased the weight – at 116g the phone is lighter than much smaller handsets.

We’re not sure about the price at which the Galaxy S II will go (pre-orders currently hover around 550 euro), but its predecessor’s price gradually settled at very reasonable levels. If the same happens to this Galaxy, it might be the smartphone to buy this year.

We have yet more tests to perform and aspects of the Samsung I9100 Galaxy S II to explore, but those will wait until the full review. Our first impressions are nothing but positive and that’s quite a way to start.