Ah, the power of dual-core processors – it lets you do cool stuff like buttery-smooth multitasking, exciting 3D portable gaming or Full HD videos. The latest Samsung I9100 Galaxy S II packs the new Exynos chipset, which pairs a couple of Cortex-A9 cores with a Mali-400MP GPU. Sounds like a potent mix – at least on paper, so we’re eager to pit it against one of the first phones to offer Nvidia’s Tegra 2 platform - the LG Optimus 2X.
Samsung I9100 Galaxy S II official photos
What we have in our hands is a pre-release test unit of the Galaxy S II, successor to one of the best selling Android phones. Ours runs its two CPU cores at 1GHz but Samsung announced that the speed will be bumped up to 1.2GHz.
Once that’s done, the I9100 Galaxy S II would be the most powerful droid – until the competition catches up, which won’t take long judging by our rumor mill. Anyway, we’re going to use the chance to put Samsung’s Exynos chipset head to head with NVIDIA’s Tegra 2. We’ll be using the LG Optimus 2X for the benchmarks, which runs at the same clock speed as our Galaxy S II – 1GHz.
We’re already working on our Galaxy S II preview but until that’s done, we just couldn’t resist testing some of the most interesting new features of Samsung’s latest flagship. Here’s what this comparison will be about.
First off, this is our first encounter with the Super AMOLED Plus technology, which improves on an already excellent screen. We’ll run the new display through several tests to determine how it stacks up against the old one and other leading displays on the market.
Next, we’ll get to the camera department – the Galaxy S II comes with an 8MP still shooter that can capture 1080p FullHD videos. That’s our second encounter with such a beast and we’ll be pitting it against the LG Optimus 2X camera, that’s for sure. A surprising guest star in the camera test is the Sony Ericsson Arc, which we recently reviewed as well.
After that comes the test of what makes the Samsung I9100 Galaxy S II tick – the new dual-core Exynos chipset. Just keep in mind the Galaxy S II retail version will have 20% more clock speed for each of the two CPU cores.
Finally, we’ll wrap things up with a real-life performance test – how does the Galaxy S II stack up in real world tasks (we’ll be testing the user interface, web browser and games) against a phone with a Tegra 2 chipset (which is quite popular among new smartphones and even tablets).
Samsung I9100 Galaxy S II in our office
The original Galaxy S had an amazing display. But as great as SuperAMOLED tech is, it did have its drawbacks, mainly the PenTile subpixel matrix. The new generation SuperAMOLED Plus should increase the size of the available panels up to 4.3”, it should improve the performance and it’s comes with a conventional subpixel matrix. We expect nothing but excellence – let’s see if the Samsung I9100 Galaxy S II delivers. First, a few words on PenTile matrix to give you an idea what you’re looking at. PenTile matrices use only two subpixels per each pixel of the screen, unlike traditional matrixes that use three (LCD displays use this arrangement too). The image below demonstrates the difference though in an exaggerated way. Even though both the original Galaxy S and the Galaxy S II have screens with equal resolution – WVGA, or 480 x 800 pixels. The use of a conventional matrix has given the SuperAMOLED Plus screen 50% more subpixels, making the display noticeably sharper (especially when it comes to small text). Here are a few shots we took of the displays of the original Galaxy S, the Galaxy S II and the iPhone 4. You can see that the subpixels look as we expected them to. The iPhone 4’s Retina display is easily the sharpest of the bunch. There is a very noticeable difference between the two Galaxies in the following extreme close-up shot, but in reality, the difference isn't that strongly pronounced, unless you’re looking at them from really close. The SuperAMOLED Plus display of the Galaxy S II has exceptional viewing angles but the old screen in the Samsung Galaxy S isn't half bad either. Especially compared to a regular LCD unit, see for yourselves. For this comparison we’ve put the first and second generation Galaxy S phones next to the LG Optimus 2X. Let’s just say, the screen is not among the strongest features of the LG smartphone. The new Super AMOLED Plus display reportedly has improved brightness and reduced power usage. We’ll leave the battery tests for the review, but we did test the brightness levels. We were surprised to see that the SuperAMOLED Plus screen is no brighter than the previous generation used in the original Galaxy S. Here are our measurements.Super AMOLED Plus up close
Macro shot of the screens of the Galaxy S II, the original Galaxy S (middle) and iPhone 4 (bottom)
LG Optimus 2X • Samsung I9100 Galaxy S II • Samsung I9000 Galaxy S
| Display test | 50% brightness | 100% brightness | ||
| Black, cd/m2 | White, cd/m2 | Black, cd/m2 | White, cd/m2 | |
| iPhone 3GS | 0.84 | 134 | 2.51 | 504 |
| iPhone 4 | 0.14 | 189 | 0.39 | 483 |
| Sony Ericsson XPERIA Arc | 0.03 | 34 | 0.33 | 394 |
| LG Optimus 2X | 0.23 | 228 | 0.35 | 347 |
| HTC Incredible S | 0.18 | 162 | 0.31 | 275 |
| Samsung I9100 Galaxy S II | 0 | 231 | 0 | 362 |
| Samsung Galaxy Ace | 0.23 | 160 | 0.34 | 234 |
| Sony Ericsson Xperia Neo | 0.05 | 68 | 0.10 | 134 |
You’ll notice we didn’t measure the contrast ratio of either SuperAMOLED display – that’s due to how OLED works. Contrast is the ratio of how bright a white pixel is compared to a black pixel while both are visible on the screen. Since black pixels in OLED type displays don’t emit any light at all, the contrast works out to infinity (which isn't really a meaningful measurement).
This post is sponsored by:
Dr Mobiles Limited
1 Huron Street
Takapuna, North Shore 0622
Tel: (09) 551-5344
Mob: (021) 264-0000
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