iPhone 4 vs. Galaxy SII

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spawnfreak

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Hey guys, I've been an avid iPhone user (3G n currently 3GS) and honestly, I'm bored of iOS now. Want to try something else and only android comes into picture. I've shortlisted iPhone 4 White and Samsung Galaxy SII.

I have 2 worries: Firstly, Samsungs after few months of launch get a huge price drop which results in loss of resale value (atleast iPhone stays at the same stand till the next one is launched).

Secondly, Since, iOS has huuuuge app library, i'm quite spoiled by the small n handy day to day use apps which are very helpful like Indian Trains tracker, live flight tracker, flight track pro, loadz of dictionaries and pedias etc. I don't know if droid has so many apps to match the iOS.

Also, droid phones don't carry that bling factor with em which the iPhones have.

I intend to buy ONLY the macbook pro in coming few months and don't know if droid and lion would sync easily or have any problems?

I really like the Galaxy SII coz its very very powerful but i'm turned off by these 3 factors. Help me reach a conclusion on which one to buy.

P.S - Is it possible to use paid apps as cracked apps on droid like iOS (jailbreaking)
 
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mutant said:
Not even close..
Click to expand...

Tried or read ?

Are you saying Cirrus Logic DACs on iP4 are better than Wolfson DACs on sgs, and older iPhones?

sgs2 seems to be employing DACs from Yamaha though.

supposed to have improved after an update but is the difference really drastic to not even be close?

can you please elaborate and enlighten me ?

would really like to know why so strong opinions..
 
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I do not know what he meant by "not even close" Maybe he meant it other way around saying Iphone 4 is not even close to SGS II. But IMHO, SGS II beats Iphone 4 in music/sound quality. Heck, even Galaxy S beats the Iphone 4 in music/sound quality.
 
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aradhakr84 said:
I do not know what he meant by "not even close" Maybe he meant it other way around saying Iphone 4 is not even close to SGS II. But IMHO, SGS II beats Iphone 4 in music/sound quality. Heck, even Galaxy S beats the Iphone 4 in music/sound quality.
Click to expand...

Galaxy S and 3GS/3 have wolfson DAC which some people prefer over Cirrus Logic DAC on iP4

The output on wolfson was adequate and could be tweaked by custom implementations from 3rd party developments like voodoo.

but im not sure about Yamaha, what I read is that the Yamaha DACs are flawed at the sampling level and can't be fixed by driver changes.

But point remains.. Is it that bad that it is not even close to older wolfsons and cirrus logic?

Can samsung be so lame to slap something like this degrading ones on a flagship model?
 
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It is not bad. I would say that even though it is slightly (I mean slightly without voodoo tweaking) inferior to SGS Wolfson DAC, it is more than adequate for general music listeners.

Now here is an post from XDA member who compares the sound quality between IP4 and SGS II:

"That said, and I'll say this again. Coming from my iPhone 4 I don't find the sound of the Galaxy S2 to be worse. The soundstage is wider and the bass goes deeper. Its warmer sounding though not as clinical as the iPhone 4. I've had no issues with the volume through my headphones - I use Westone 3 IEMs for those of you who know them, and the sound goes LOUD. They are pretty efficient earphones so I'm not sure if everyone would have similar sound levels.."

I did listen to music and compared the sound between SGS and SGS II. While SGS seemed louder, SGS II has a better sound quality. That is without tweaking. So to say that it is not even close to iphone 4 or in this case wolfson chip would be a wrong assessment.

Also I do not think samsung slapped degrading chips on their flagship model. Currently on the market, SGS II seems to be more superior than any dual core that has been released excluding the 3d models which I think imo is a overkill for a mobile phone.
 
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aradhakr84 said:
It is not bad. I would say that even though it is slightly (I mean slightly without voodoo tweaking) inferior to SGS Wolfson DAC, it is more than adequate for general music listeners.

Now here is an post from XDA member who compares the sound quality between IP4 and SGS II:

"That said, and I'll say this again. Coming from my iPhone 4 I don't find the sound of the Galaxy S2 to be worse. The soundstage is wider and the bass goes deeper. Its warmer sounding though not as clinical as the iPhone 4. I've had no issues with the volume through my headphones - I use Westone 3 IEMs for those of you who know them, and the sound goes LOUD. They are pretty efficient earphones so I'm not sure if everyone would have similar sound levels.."

I did listen to music and compared the sound between SGS and SGS II. While SGS seemed louder, SGS II has a better sound quality. That is without tweaking. So to say that it is not even close to iphone 4 or in this case wolfson chip would be a wrong assessment.

Also I do not think samsung slapped degrading chips on their flagship model. Currently on the market, SGS II seems to be more superior than any dual core that has been released excluding the 3d models which I think imo is a overkill for a mobile phone.
Click to expand...

im not sure he meant the same way when he said 'not even close'
 
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mutant said:
Not even close..
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I've heard a song both on Iphone as well as Galaxy, with same earphone, same equalizer, i couldn't notice the difference, unless you spend more time picking difference in sound effect rather than enjoying the music, i don't there should be any problem. Don't get too techy boyo.

--- Updated Post - Automerged ---
Vrinda said:
Samsung Galaxy S II is the winner. Its display size is much higher than i phone (4.3 inch screen of S II where as 3.5 incch for iphone) http://www.shop2020.in/compare-mobile-phones?p1=1001665&p2=1001674
Click to expand...

The link is giving nothing, also there's lot more to both the phones, but i agree with wht u say, i know a lot of apple users who love galaxy s2
 
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I have both. The screen on the SGS2 is GARBAGE. It's horribly pixellated, has awful colour banding and everything is oversaturated. The first thing you'll notice when picking up the SGS2 after using an iPhone 4 is what a pile of shit the screen is. After using it for a week you'll get used to the inferior quality of the screen and it'll look normal.

The sound quality on the SGS2 is UTTER GARBAGE. On my Klipsch X10i there is absolutely no bass, and the mids and highs are very harsh and crappy (almost like mono). Again, after a week I got used to it, but when I plugged the same IEMs back into the iPhone 4 I was instantly blown away by the vastly superior sound quality.

Other than the above the SGS2 completely destroys the iPhone 4 in everyway. The various system level mods that can be applied directly from the market are amazing. The browser is amazing (it doesn't lock up on complex pages and pages with videos like the iPhone). With heavy modding, it's much faster than the iPhone since the iPhone starts lagging a lot once mods are installed. No amount of mods on iOS can compensate for the choice of Launchers, Live Wallpapers, and alternate keyboards like Swype.
 
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Torch said:
I have both. The screen on the SGS2 is GARBAGE. It's horribly pixellated, has awful colour banding and everything is oversaturated. The first thing you'll notice when picking up the SGS2 after using an iPhone 4 is what a pile of shit the screen is. After using it for a week you'll get used to the inferior quality of the screen and it'll look normal.

The sound quality on the SGS2 is UTTER GARBAGE. On my Klipsch X10i there is absolutely no bass, and the mids and highs are very harsh and crappy (almost like mono). Again, after a week I got used to it, but when I plugged the same IEMs back into the iPhone 4 I was instantly blown away by the vastly superior sound quality.
Click to expand...
Obviously you have no idea of what you are talking about.
I have none but used them both extensively.
IP4 is definitely good (both s.q and screen),but SGS II is absolutely at par(if not better)in these two department.I have never used klipsch X10,but I do have some much much better iems and they sound just fantastic with both ip4 and sgs2.
Regarding screen..get your eyes checked ASAP!
 
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@Torch:

Of course Super Amoled is oversaturated. That is why you get darker colors as opposed to other screens in the market. I also do not agree with you saying that "The first thing you'll notice when picking up the SGS2 after using an iPhone 4 is what a pile of s@$t the screen is"

Have a look at this article and you will see:

NOVA Display vs Super AMOLED Plus vs Retina Display vs IPS LCD

As far as Audio is concerned, it is a let down from Galaxy S and Iphone 4 due to absence of Wolfson DAC. But I do not think it is an Utter Garbage :no: It is decent and quite pleasurable for some.
 
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Why you even comparing these two ... Both are from the different league all together .. But certainly SG2 is supremo given the specifications .... You should compare SG2 with Iphone 5 and then see ...
 
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You have used iPhone for quite a long time and I think u shud now switch to droid.. I agree that Samsung or even other brands have price drop problem but wud u even care if the price of your phone has been slashed down by 2k and u have already used it for say 6 months?

iOS has a huge app library - dude, u haven't used Android yet.. try it :)

Yes, you can't sync Android phone with Macbook Pro.. but, you can sync it with your google account..

Coming to bling factor - That's your personal preference.. If given a choice, I would rate S2 higher than iPhone because it's more powerful..

Explore Android for a few months and don't forget that iPhone 5 is on its way..
 
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red dragon said:
Obviously you have no idea of what you are talking about.

I have none but used them both extensively.

IP4 is definitely good (both s.q and screen),but SGS II is absolutely at par(if not better)in these two department.I have never used klipsch X10,but I do have some much much better iems and they sound just fantastic with both ip4 and sgs2.

Regarding screen..get your eyes checked ASAP!
Click to expand...

The SGS2 screen only looks stunning from a distance because the black level makes the icons appear like magic on the surface of the phone. When holding it up close like I normally do, it falls very short of the quality of the retina display. Pixels are WAY to big and there is insane colour banding on everything. Fortunately in games the pixellation problem can be solved by applying 16x Antialiasing in CF3D (LOL at the very thought of something like forcing AA on iOS), but in the browser it's quite awful for reading compared to the iPhone 4. On top of that the ENTIRE screen has some kind of paper "texture" on top of it (i.e. if there is a moving video in the background, there is fixed "texture" in front like it's on the screen's surface), this is completely unacceptable bullshit. All the images in the UI look like they're JPEG compressed (like the grey tab control icons) which is probably the combined result of the colour banding and the paper texture.

The Klipsch X10 are 50ohm IEMs, and the SGS2 just cannot drive them. From what I've read it only works well with low impedance headphones. I've ordered a Fiio E11 as it drastically improves the quality with the phone volume set on minimum.
 
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I have not noticed any paper texture over the screen,the screen is absolutely fantastic even at close range(I have a perfect 6/6 vision)

There yellow tint issue is definitely there which you have not mentioned.

Even iphone 4 cannot drive 50ohms phones properly.
 
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Though screen is SGS II is really good but we should all accept that 800*480 resolution is not good enough for over 4" screen in fact its not good enough for 4". Samsung should have use more pixels on the screen may be they should have used 1280*720 which was being rumored before its release. It would have made it an ultimate device.
I am using vibrant now and found out that pixels are easily be seen when hold close or even at one feet distance, I have not used galaxy SII so dont know how much difference twice sub pixel thing has made there.
 
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red dragon said:
I have not noticed any paper texture over the screen,the screen is absolutely fantastic even at close range(I have a perfect 6/6 vision)

There yellow tint issue is definitely there which you have not mentioned.

Even iphone 4 cannot drive 50ohms phones properly.
Click to expand...

I don't have any yellow tint. I was expecting it but was relieved to get a non-tinted screen. Look at some light coloured images, and slowly scroll them around. You will see small patches that are stationary while the image is moving underneath (they are NOT dust particles). I bought my phone just weeks ago so things might have changed in the manufacturing process.

The iPhone 4 can drive my X10i almost perfectly. They sound very close to the dedicated headphone amp on my Auzentech HTHD which is rated for 660ohms. Low frequencies are completely cutoff on the SGS2. The difference is like night and day when swapping the headphone jack between the SGS2 and other sources. In tracks like the M.I.B. Closing Theme by Danny Elfman, the X10i produces thundering bass that vibrates my skull even at low volume. On the SGS2 it's completely different. I just here "ordinary" sounding music without any low frequency effects whatsoever.

--- Updated Post - Automerged ---
amitjakhar said:
Though screen is SGS II is really good but we should all accept that 800*480 resolution is not good enough for over 4" screen in fact its not good enough for 4". Samsung should have use more pixels on the screen may be they should have used 1280*720 which was being rumored before its release. It would have made it an ultimate device.

I am using vibrant now and found out that pixels are easily be seen when hold close or even at one feet distance, I have not used galaxy SII so dont know how much difference twice sub pixel thing has made there.
Click to expand...

The SGS2 uses a regular RGB screen, so its MUCH better than all the other Pentile Matrix GARBAGE in other AMOLED phones. In other phones, the screen is PEPPERED with BLACK DOTS literally every alternate pixel. The first time I saw it I was like WTF IS THIS BS IN A 25k DEVICE?!

superamoledvsretinadispx.jpg
 
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^^OK, hope I got you..This thing happened to nexus1 also(specially in default android gallery)and was sorted out with sw update.It is definitely a software bug,will be taken care of with an update.

Regarding s.q I still have doubts,I could not find any difference between the ip4 and gsII.In fact 3gs sounds a little better than ip4 and the original galaxy s (and the tab)has the best s.q.

I have used IE7,IE8 and SM3 with them(in fact spent a whole weekend with these)and could not find any difference between `em.I am no bass head but with the IE8 the bass thumps are THUNDEROUS forr both ip4 and sgsII.
 
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red dragon said:
^^OK, hope I got you..This thing happened to nexus1 also(specially in default android gallery)and was sorted out with sw update.It is definitely a software bug,will be taken care of with an update.
Click to expand...

It is NOT a colour depth problem. The banding is present everywhere, but they are much worse in the gallery due to 16-bit colour. The textured patches are physically present on the screen.
 
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