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Rogers Samsung Galaxy S II LTE Hands-On Review + VS. Original Galaxy S II

I finally took the plunge. I traded up my Galaxy S II for the Galaxy S II LTE from Rogers. I have also done some recent LTE tests a couple weeks ago, on which I will briefly touch on later in this review. This review will also be comparing the Galaxy S II LTE to the original Galaxy S II from Bell/Virgin

The Samsung Galaxy S II LTE was officially placed on sale at rogers just a few days ago. If you want more information on that, you can find the ( LINK HERE )

On to the review.

Physical Design:

The physical design of this phone is very eye pleasing. It’s smooth plastic all around, rounded edges opposed to the original Galaxy S II’s more squared edges. Has the speaker on the bottom right corner as to be expected, with the camera obviously in the centre of the back. Hardware buttons are the power button on the right hand side, volume rocker on the left. The Galaxy S II LTE has no physical home button like the original Galaxy S II does.

Front side of the phone is very basic, with your light sensors and speaker at the top, touch sensitive buttons at the bottom. One thing I’m not to crazy about is; Galaxy S II LTE has etched symbols where the touch sensitive buttons are, opposed to the original Galaxy S II’s hidden buttons. I prefer the solid black look of the face without the etched symbols.

The Galaxy S II LTE is ever so slightly taller and wider than the original Galaxy S II, which is to be expected, as the screen itself is going from 4.3″ to 4.5″

Performance:

The performance is a little tricky on this phone. I did multiple Quadrant tests, and I hit ranges from 2500 to 3900 end results. Despite the 1.5Ghz CPU chip used in the Galaxy S II LTE, it clearly doesn’t perform at the same level as the chips found within the original Galaxy S II. The simple fact that it has been bumped to 1.5Ghz, based on side by side Quadrant tests, I would call these devices even in overall ratings produced by Quadrant.

Scrolling through menus, navigating from app to app, there appears to be a slight bit of lag, but nothing you don’t see on any other phone, even GS2. So if your looking for a phone that can out preform the original Galaxy S II, keep looking, as this one is at par with it.

Sound and Media:

One thing that stands out with the Galaxy S II LTE is the built in speaker. They have really juiced it up from the previous models. Watching youtube videos, I’m able to turn the volume so high, I actually feel the phone start to vibrate from the sound. That’s pretty outstanding for a small phone speaker.

Music clarity is pretty decent. Due to it’s boost in maximum volume, maxing out the volume can distort your music ever so slightly if you listen hard, but with the levels of volume it produces, I couldn’t see you doing that very often for personal use. I’m Very impressed with the built in speaker of the GS2 LTE.

Galaxy S II LTE comes with 16GB built-in storage. 11Gb user accessible, 2Gb for apps. The rest if for system data and such, which is not accessible.

Battery Life:

I thought for sure with the LTE radio inside this phone, and it’s default setting being set to GSM/HSPA/LTE (auto mode) I figured it would burn battery like a crazy beast. To my surprise, at the end of my music intensive work day, I ended up with more battery than my original GS2.

My average use at my place of work is 8Hours of Bluetooth music playback, followed by about 60+ messages and replies from Text, Google+, Email. with a total screen-on time of about an hour. During my three days of testing, I came home with between 55% – 65% battery that would easily take me to the end of the day. Granted you’re most likely going to have to charge every day or two, but it’s defiantly enough to last you the day, if not two. At work I hold a sold connection of LTE, so that test is also while using the new network.

[Optional Rooting]

Rooting is something I don’t talk about to much on Android in Canada, as I feel it would be best to leave it to the real professionals over at XDA.

Currently the Galaxy S II LTE is rootable, but you use the american GS2 i727 Skyrocket root tools. Both Canadian Rogers and Americans AT&T are the same based on hardware and should work just fine. I personally rooted mine, but due to it still being in the very early stages, CWM doesn’t yet exist for this phone. That being said, rooting is still limited to cutting bloat, hardware manipulation such as CPU tweaking, but roms will have to wait a little while still.

The battery test mentioned above was done before rooting. After rooting and cutting bloatware, I didn’t see much of a battery increase, maybe 5% at best during the work day.

Network + LTE:

One of the main questions I have been asked since I bought this phone is; “Is the LTE really worth upgrading?” It’s really hard to give a solid answer. The LTE network isn’t something we all need right now, but if you’re in the coverage range, network speeds on every side by side test HSPA/LTE, LTE was 3-4X faster in every test. Those speeds aside, It’s really up to the user and what kind of budget they are on.

LTE is not something we need right now, but it’s very awesome to have

[Camera Quality]

I’m a bit disapointed with the camera on the Galaxy S II LTE, it’s a small step down from the original GS2.

I’m not sure if I have been having just bad lighting issues the past couple days, but a bunch of times my camera failed to focus, resulting in one blurry monster of a picture. My focusing issues aside, the picture quality is pretty good, video quality to match.

[Screen Quality]

Not much to go on with the screen. Galaxy S II LTE’s Super AMOLED Plus screen delivers amazing colours and picture, but due to its lower resolution of 480 x 800, increasing the screen size from 4.3″ to 4.5″ you also increase the pixel size. Same resolution as the original Galaxy S II, but with the larger screen, you see a little bit more of the ridged edges of letters and such, but only slightly more than original GS2, you really have to be looking for it. It’s a small sacrifice to make for that giant screen which is amazing once you get it in your hands.

[Other Stuff]

Samsung has included a screenshot function within the Galaxy S II LTE. This is done by holding the home button, then pressing the power/lock button.

Google Talk allows Video chat over LTE rather than Wifi only.

I Have had one random reboot during my three days of testing.

[Final Thoughts]

Despite some of the minor issues I’m noticing with this phone, it makes up enough in other areas to make it forgivable. Is it worth tossing your Galaxy S II or equivalent phone for? I would say no… It is however a very nice alternative, but will not out preform GS2 besides in network speed.

Keep in mind I have only been testing this phone for three days, and the opinions I have expressed here today may not be agreeable to everyone. For those who have different views, please share your experience with the rest of the community as well in the comments below.