If I was forced to describe the Samsung Galaxy S II Skyrocket in one word, it would be - competent. The design isn't anything to write home about, but it gets the job done and it isn't terribly flashy or pretentious.
I will be focusing this review on 4 main areas of interest: Look and Feel, Hardware, Software and Why would anyone buy this phone?
Look and Feel
1) Build Quality - In a word, this phone feels solid. It feels comfortable in my hand (I don't have bear claws, but neither do I have petite hands), and is easily worked with one hand for simple tasks. It feels less fragile than it's older brother, the original Samsung Galaxy S II (I constantly felt like I was going to break that one).
2) Form Factor - I enjoy that fact that the form factor is larger than an iPhone but smaller than the comically gigantic Samsung Galaxy Note, it strikes a good balance between the two. When I help my wife or mother-in-law with an issue on their iPhones, I feel cramped and hampered by the smaller size. I have tried out a Samsung Galaxy Note in an AT&T store...and let's just say it's plain silly big.
3) Screen - Samsung has done a great job with their Super AMOLED Plus displays, and the Skyrocket is no exception. While it doesn't have the crispness of the iPhone Retina Display, it looks and feels comfortable on the eyes and won't strain the eyes too much during a full day's use.
Hardware
1) Construction - The body is made of plastic, but it doesn't feel like it's put together with legos (unlike the original Motorola Atrix that I had before this). It doesn't hold a candle to the solid/metal construction of the iPhone 4/4s or the unibody build of the new HTC One X, but it's a happy medium between cheap and high end.
2) Camera/Camcorder - It takes decent pictures, but it's slow to take a picture and quite often they turn out blurry. This is one of the weakest points from a hardware perspective, and I have only used the front-facing camera few times for Skype calls...and I didn't hear any complaints from the other end of the line.
3) Horsepower - Under the hood is a Qualcomm APQ8060 S3 processor, which for the most part makes for an enjoyable Android experience with smooth App performance and navigation around Android (much better in Android 4.0.4 than it was when I started out with Android 2.3.6, but that's for later).
4) Network Performance - I'm AT&T, and I originally bought this phone in the anticipation that LTE would be available in the Seattle area...but cut to 6 months later and my dream of 15+ mpbs up and 2-3 mpbs is a dream unfulfilled. Other than having my hopes dashed by a lack of LTE in Seattle, the HSPA+ (I refuse to say 4G) is passable (when I'm not being throttled by AT&T for going over my data limit..even though I'm on an unlimited data plan...I'll save that for another post)...but it can't hold a candle to Verizon LTE.
5) Call Quality - No complaints from myself or people on the other side of the conversation and I don't believe that I've ever had a dropped call that wasn't the fault of a dead zone.
Software - where things get tricky
1) Android - Until I downloaded and installed a series of 'leaked' Android 4 (Ice Cream Sandwich - ICS) ROMs for my phone, well my experience was downright crap. My battery would last maybe 4 hours on a full charge with moderate use, the OS would lock up, apps would crash very often and I wouldn't get email notifications (a slightly important part of my job). AT&T customer support was at best inept and at worse downright hostile to my requests for help (see my post Know your Enemy), so I got fed up and helped myself. It only took a quick Google search to find a couple leaked ICS ROMs and I was off to the races. The first leaked build had a couple bugs (couldn't receive incoming calls), but 2 ROMs later... everything was butter. In a future post, I will discuss Android fragmentation and the abominable things that the US cell phone carriers and manufacturers do harm the overall Android experience.
2) Apps - Applications for Android are a mixed bag, for the most part the selection is pretty decent, but let's face it...iOS rules the roost when it comes to quality/quantity of apps. To make matters worse, a side-by-side comparison of the same app on an Android/iPhone will make it very plain that apps on iOS simple look and perform better. That being said, I am sufficiently happy with the selection/quality of apps, and I typically only use a core set of 10-15 apps to get the job done on a day to day basis.
Why would anyone buy this phone?
When I bought this phone 6 months ago, it was the king of the block - it was one of the first phones to bring LTE to the AT&T party, it has a decently fast dual-core proc, decent amount of RAM, a nice display and was easy on the eyes/hands. It's still a pretty decent phone and if you can find the right custom ROM (cyanogenmod et al), it's makes getting into this phone a lot easier. The going rate for this phone is $99, so if you're looking for a solid, well designed phone for half the price of current iteration Android phones on AT&T then I would be hard pressed to recommend anything else that's on the market. To sum up, I would give this phone a well deserved 'probably buy' recommendation now, but 6 months ago I was saying this:
5) Call Quality - No complaints from myself or people on the other side of the conversation and I don't believe that I've ever had a dropped call that wasn't the fault of a dead zone.
Software - where things get tricky
1) Android - Until I downloaded and installed a series of 'leaked' Android 4 (Ice Cream Sandwich - ICS) ROMs for my phone, well my experience was downright crap. My battery would last maybe 4 hours on a full charge with moderate use, the OS would lock up, apps would crash very often and I wouldn't get email notifications (a slightly important part of my job). AT&T customer support was at best inept and at worse downright hostile to my requests for help (see my post Know your Enemy), so I got fed up and helped myself. It only took a quick Google search to find a couple leaked ICS ROMs and I was off to the races. The first leaked build had a couple bugs (couldn't receive incoming calls), but 2 ROMs later... everything was butter. In a future post, I will discuss Android fragmentation and the abominable things that the US cell phone carriers and manufacturers do harm the overall Android experience.
2) Apps - Applications for Android are a mixed bag, for the most part the selection is pretty decent, but let's face it...iOS rules the roost when it comes to quality/quantity of apps. To make matters worse, a side-by-side comparison of the same app on an Android/iPhone will make it very plain that apps on iOS simple look and perform better. That being said, I am sufficiently happy with the selection/quality of apps, and I typically only use a core set of 10-15 apps to get the job done on a day to day basis.
Why would anyone buy this phone?
When I bought this phone 6 months ago, it was the king of the block - it was one of the first phones to bring LTE to the AT&T party, it has a decently fast dual-core proc, decent amount of RAM, a nice display and was easy on the eyes/hands. It's still a pretty decent phone and if you can find the right custom ROM (cyanogenmod et al), it's makes getting into this phone a lot easier. The going rate for this phone is $99, so if you're looking for a solid, well designed phone for half the price of current iteration Android phones on AT&T then I would be hard pressed to recommend anything else that's on the market. To sum up, I would give this phone a well deserved 'probably buy' recommendation now, but 6 months ago I was saying this:
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