Shortly after AT&T got the Samsung Galaxy S II on their network AT&T turned on their 4G LTE network in their first set of cities. AT&T also launched a pair of phones that supported that new LTE network, the first one was the Samsung Galaxy S II Skyrocket and the second one was the HTC Vivid. Recently Samsung sent us a Galaxy S II Skyrocket to review, so we’ve put together this article which reviews the Galaxy S II Skyrocket and compares it to the Galaxy S II and the upcoming Galaxy S II Skyrocket HD.
The Galaxy S II
We reviewed the Samsung Galaxy S II back in October and we came to the conclusion that the Galaxy S II was overall a great smartphone but with a few issues. The Super AMOLED Plus display was great but the screen resolution was a little low. The battery life and performance were also great but the smartphone only ran Android 2.3 Gingerbread and not Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. And finally the camera had some shutter lag that was kind of annoying when it comes to taking pictures of things that are moving.
The Galaxy S II has a 4.3-inch Super AMOLED Plus display at an 800×480 resolution, 1GB of RAM, 16GB of storage, and a 1.2GHz dual core Samsung processor. And on AT&T the Galaxy S II supports HSPA+ but not anything like LTE. So the Galaxy S II wasn’t a bad phone at all. It scored 3304 in Quadrant which is pretty impressive.
The Galaxy S II Skyrocket
The focus of this article is the Galaxy S II Skyrocket since it’s what we just got in to review and what we are reviewing today. The Galaxy S II Skyrocket really isn’t a Galaxy S II successor but instead a Galaxy S II companion. The differences between the Galaxy S II and Galaxy S II Skyrocket are very minor but Samsung really did take what they found people didn’t like about the Galaxy S II and fixed those things to make the Galaxy S II Skyrocket a much better smartphone.
The Hardware
When it comes to the hardware the Galaxy S II Skyrocket has a nice large 4.5-inch Super AMOLED Plus display although it’s at that same 800×480 resolution. So text and images displayed on the Skyrocket are very large which isn’t actually a bad thing once you get used to it, but there are many smartphones now like the upcoming Galaxy S II Skyrocket HD that can have a lot more on the screen at one since it has a higher resolution display.
The processor inside the Skyrocket is also faster, or at least it’s supposed to be faster. It’s a 1.5GHz dual core processor which is a Qualcomm Snapdragon chip. You’ll also find 1GB of RAM and 16GB of storage with the Skyrocket.
From my tests the Skyrocket actually scores lower than the Galaxy S II in benchmarks. With Quadrant we’re looking at a score of 2578, with Geekbench we’re looking at a 968, Linpack scores are 75, with SunSpider the phone scores 2716, and finally the BrowserMark score is 69940. So generally speaking the Skyrocket is slower than the Galaxy S II but from my tests that means nothing when it comes to real world performance. Both smartphones run almost perfectly without any need for a task killer or anything like that. And oddly enough the Skyrocket actually manages to work better with the same 8MP and 2MP cameras. The Skyrocket can take pictures much faster than the Galaxy S II which is very nice, although we could just be looking at the difference between the version of Android on the two smartphones.
When it comes to the battery life I was pretty impressed just like I was with the Galaxy S II. With the Colin test where we played games on the phone constantly until the battery died we were able to run for just about three hours on a single charge. But that’s gaming, when it comes to real world performance tests I was able to get a full day of use out of the phone without having the battery even come close to dying. Throughout the day I check my email quite frequently, go to a few websites, check some social networks, read some RSS feeds, and of course play a few games. So battery life isn’t an issue with the 1850mAh in the Galaxy S II Skyrocket. The battery life was also pretty good with the original Galaxy S II.
The biggest and most important part of the Galaxy S II Skyrocket has to be the 4G LTE radio inside. The Skyrocket supports AT&T’s LTE network which offers extremely fast download speeds when compared to the older HSPA+ found with the Galaxy S II. The problem with LTE right now is that with AT&T it’s not available in many cities at all but soon AT&T’s LTE network should be much bigger making this phone very future proof. But for now you can stick with the pretty fast HSPA+ network if you don’t have LTE in your city. I usually get about 2-5Mbps of download speeds and 1-3Mbps upload speeds when it comes to the HSPA+ network. You’re looking at at least twice the speeds of HSPA+ when it comes to LTE.
The Software
The Android 2.3 Gingerbread on this smartphone with TouchWiz isn’t anything new. We saw the same operating system on the Galaxy S II a few months ago and overall the software hasn’t changed a whole lot at all. The Android operating system was very smooth and worked very well without any real issues. However when it comes down to it we are really just sitting and waiting for the update to Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich which will make this smartphone quite a bit better. The good news is that we know that the Galaxy S II Skyrocket will get the Ice Cream Sandwich update some time very soon. Ice Cream Sandwich will bring lots of things to the Galaxy S II Skyrocket and we’ve actually written an article covering Ice Cream Sandwich if you want more information on the update.
Generally speaking I don’t have any real complaints when it comes to the software on this smartphone. One thing to note is that there is no way to turn on or off LTE which is kind of an odd thing not to have. But since I had no issues with the battery life of this phone it’s not a real issue. Plus Samsung could always go ahead and add that feature in a future software update which will hopefully be the case.
The Galaxy S II Skyrocket also supports something called NFC just like the Galaxy S II. It’s built into the battery and it allows your smartphone to work with other gadgets wirelessly. NFC hasn’t quite gone mainstream meaning NFC on this phone really is just future proofing it. Ice Cream Sandwich includes quite a few more NFC features so you’ll be able to share web pages and apps with other phones, tablets, and computers. NFC payments will probably also eventually be common in stores.
The Aesthetics
The look and the feel of the Galaxy S II Skyrocket is actually in many ways very different from the Galaxy S II. The Galaxy S II Skyrocket is just a tiny bit thicker and overall more rounded than the Galaxy S II. The back of the smartphone is a smooth plastic instead of a textured plastic like on the Galaxy S II which is both good and bad. It’s good since the back of the smartphone feels a lot more solid since Samsung must have decreased the distance between the battery cover and battery as well as made the plastic a bit thicket. But the back is now much more smooth and slipperier meaning it’s a harder phone to grip. The back of the phone also picks up fingerprints much more easier than before.
The speakers on the Galaxy S II Skyrocket just like the Galaxy S II are in the wrong spot in my opinion. The speakers are on the back of the smartphone towards the very bottom of the phone. That’s personally where I hold the smartphone quite frequently meaning I’ll a lot of times cover the speaker which distorts the audio when you are playing things back through the speakers.
I also found that the power button is a bit too high up on the side of the phone. That’s good if you don’t want to press it on accident but having the button just a little bit lower would help make it easier to press without having to reach as far to unlock and lock the Skyrocket. The power button on the Galaxy S II wasn’t as big of an issue since the Galaxy S II has a slightly smaller screen meaning the phone is just a little bit smaller.
The Galaxy S II Skyrocket HD
Right now the Galaxy S II Skyrocket is a great phone. If you need a high end phone on AT&T with LTE then the Skyrocket is going to be one of your best options right now. But the thing is if you are willing to wait just a few months or so you’ll be able to get a smartphone on AT&T like the Galaxy S II Skyrocket but a bit better. That smartphone is called the Galaxy S II Skyrocket HD. It was announced at CES 2012 back in January and it’s the Galaxy S II Skyrocket but with a larger 4.65-inch display at a very nice 1280×720 or 720p resolution. Meaning you’ll have quite a few more pixels that you can use to see more of a web page at once.
It’s really up to you if you want to wait or not but knowing that the Galaxy S II got a price drop when the Skyrocket arrived chances are even if you want just the Skyrocket you can get a better deal when the Skyrocket HD arrives. Right now the Galaxy S II Skyrocket costs $200 and the Galaxy S II costs $150. I’m betting that when the Galaxy S II Skyrocket HD arrives the Galaxy S II will cost $100 and the Skyrocket will cost $150. That would make room for a $200 or a $250 Skyrocket HD in the future.
The Galaxy Nexus
We don’t even know for sure if the Galaxy Nexus will arrive on AT&T but there is a pretty high chance that it will. It’s on Verizon now and it’s headed to Sprint. AT&T would be a good carrier for Google to go to for the Galaxy Nexus later this year. If AT&T gets the Galaxy Nexus chances are they’ll get it after they get the Galaxy S II Skyrocket HD later this year.
If you are willing to purchase a smartphone unlocked you can get the Galaxy Nexus on AT&T right now. The price of an unlocked international Galaxy Nexus is pretty expensive but you won’t have to deal with sticking with AT&T for two full years on a contract. However if you go with the unlocked international Galaxy Nexus you won’t be able to use AT&T’s 4G LTE network.
The main reason for going with the Galaxy Nexus is the pure Google experience meaning you get Android the way it’s meant to be. Google and Samsung worked together to make the Galaxy Nexus and it’s running Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich now and will get updates for probably at least the next two years. That’s really why a Galaxy Nexus is a good option.
The Galaxy S III
Now we don’t have any real information the Galaxy S III quite yet other than it won’t be at Mobile World Congress 2012 later this month, and we won’t see it at Samsung’s event on March 22nd. Rumors are that the Galaxy S III will arrive some time this summer. We just don’t know when exactly that will happen or when Samsung will have their launch event for the Galaxy S III.
The Galaxy S III is rumored to have a 1.8GHz dual core Samsung processor, along with 2GB of RAM, a 12-megapixel camera, and a 4.6-inch HD Super AMOLED Plus display at a 720p resolution. The Galaxy S III is really better than all of the phones mentioned above in most cases so if you are willing to wait even longer the Galaxy S III is something to look for since it’s Samsung’s next generation smartphone.
Wrap Up
Hopefully we’ll be able to review all of the smartphones mentioned above so we can give you a better idea of how they all compare. But for now the Galaxy S II Skyrocket is one very nice smartphone for $200. It’s definitely better than the Galaxy S II overall. It has a larger display, a faster camera, and most importantly 4G LTE making it very future proof.
However the Galaxy S II Skyrocket still doesn’t run Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, the back of the smartphone collects fingerprints and is somewhat slippery, and the Skyrocket for some reason or another doesn’t score as high in benchmarks as the Galaxy S II.
Personally if I was getting a smartphone on AT&T I would wait for the Galaxy S II Skyrocket HD or the Galaxy S III but it’s really up to you which smartphone you get. We’re just here to let you know how all of them compare to each other. But if you want to purchase the Galaxy S II Skyrocket purchasing through our Amazon affiliate link supports us.
More Pictures
We put together a set of photos taken with the cameras on the Samsung Galaxy S II Skyrocket along with a test video. We’ve uploaded them all to Flickr and you can see the set of photos here. We also put together a set of photos that we took of the Samsung Galaxy S II Skyrocket so you can get a good idea of how the smartphone looks, you can see that set of photos here.
Video Review
