Appearance: GALAXY S II Slim and Unmatched
If not carefully distinguished, it is difficult to tell the difference between the iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S from their appearance. The weight, size, and hand feel are all identical, with only slight changes on the metal frame. If it weren't for the pressure from the iPhone 4 antenna issue, it's uncertain whether they would be exactly the same. Of course, the advantage of continuing the product's design is that it is easier for users to accept—one could say it seeks to avoid criticism rather than to achieve recognition.
In contrast, the Samsung GALAXY S II has a more imposing appearance and size. Its dimensions of 125.3 x 66.1 x 8.49mm make it thinner and lighter than the iPhone 4S, while the 4.3” Super AMOLED Plus screen provides a wider field of view. The back cover of the body has an anti-slip design, offering a good hand feel, which is clearly superior to the glass surface of the iPhone 4S.
Samsung I9100 vs iPhone 4S
In terms of buttons, the GALAXY S II has a physical button on the lower front of the body, flanked by two touch-sensitive buttons for Menu and Back. The iPhone 4S, however, continues the traditional design with only a Home button, which may leave some users feeling unsure in today's high phone usage scenario.
The side design of both devices is neat. The iPhone 4S has its power button on the top, while the GALAXY S II places it on the side of the body. There is no clear advantage or disadvantage in terms of user experience for either position, although the iPhone 4S has a crisp button feel, slightly superior to the GALAXY S II. On the left side of the body, the GALAXY S II is simpler with just a single strip volume button, while the iPhone 4S has two round volume buttons, which I personally find too small and less accessible than the GALAXY S II.
Comparison of the backs of the two phones
From the back, the iPhone 4S has a striking glass back with a prominent logo, forming a sharp contrast with the reserved and understated Samsung GALAXY S II.
Although the GALAXY S II is larger than the iPhone 4S, the material advantage results in it weighing only 116g, clearly lighter than the iPhone 4S's 140g.
Summary: The iPhone 4S and GALAXY S II each represent the consistent design style of their respective companies, Apple and Samsung. However, Apple, long renowned for its industrial design, has failed to produce an eye-catching product over the past year or so.Samsung Electronics has timely introduced new products, releasing multiple well-received and popular smartphones and tablets after the flagship GALAXY S II, such as the 5.3-inch crossover product GALAXY Note, the GALAXY Beam with built-in projection functionality, and the GALAXY Tab 7.7 tablet that can make phone calls. All of these products without exception emphasize slimness and portability.
In well-lit conditions
Screen: Combining large size and intelligence
Back in 2010, when Apple released the iPhone 4, the Retina display pushed the limits of display quality with a resolution (960×640 pixels) beyond the recognition capacity of the human eye, and this design was continued in the iPhone 4S. However, Apple did not improve the 3.5-inch screen for five consecutive product generations, which limited the user reading experience and caused a considerable drawback.
The Samsung GALAXY S II has a 4.3-inch display, using Samsung's proud Super AMOLED Plus screen, which improved on the Pentile pixel arrangement of previous Super AMOLED screens, making the matrix arrangement more normal and refined. In addition, with the inclusion of the DNIe+ image processing engine and a 50% increase in sub-pixels compared to before, images are clearer and more detailed. As for which is better compared with the iPhone 4S, the author conducted tests in both dark and well-lit conditions for easy viewing.
In dark environments
Under lighting, the author compared the Samsung GALAXY S II and iPhone 4S from several different angles. Although the iPhone 4S features IPS wide viewing angle technology, there is still a gap compared to the Samsung Super AMOLED Plus screen. Observant readers will notice that no matter the angle, the Samsung GALAXY S II shows very vivid and bright colors with excellent viewing angles. At the same time, the two screen sizes provide completely different experiences for work and entertainment.
Summary: As the biggest highlight of the iPhone 4S, it is undeniable that the Retina screen's resolution is higher than that of the GALAXY S II. However, whether the value of this resolution, which exceeds human eye recognition limits, is more significant or merely a marketing gimmick, remains debatable. Thinking back to 2007, when most people were still using 2.4-inch-screen phones, the iPhone's 3.5-inch screen was a revelation, making people finally realize that a phone's screen could be so large.After so many twists and turns to the present, as touchscreens become increasingly popular, Apple's insistence on the still self-contained 3.5-inch screen makes people sigh in regret.\
Samsung, as the world's largest mobile phone supplier, has the advantage of a complete industry chain, and its innovation and R&D capabilities cannot be underestimated. The LCD panels it produces supply multiple manufacturers, including Apple. At the same time, we have also seen spy photos of Samsung's flexible screens on foreign technology websites, which strongly indicates that Samsung has already taken the lead in this field. What tomorrow holds, we can clearly catch a glimpse of from Samsung.
Samsung i9100 main camera sample photo\
Photography: differences in front cameras\
More and more people are reluctant to carry heavy DSLR cameras when traveling, so the phone's photography function is increasingly valued by users. Both products have powerful photography capabilities, with 8-megapixel lenses. The iPhone 4S uses a back-illuminated CMOS sensor, with face recognition, auto-focus, and other features, supporting output of up to 1080p full HD video. The front camera, however, is VGA level (300 thousand pixels), providing up to 640×480 pixel still images and supporting FaceTime video calling.\
The Samsung GALAXY S II also has an 8-megapixel main camera with common features like auto-focus, supporting 1080p full HD video recording. In comparison, the 2-megapixel front camera becomes the largest difference between the two products, with the Samsung GALAXY S II capable of producing 1600×1200 pixel still images through the front camera.
iPhone 4S main camera sample photo\
From the sample photos, we can see that the Samsung GALAXY S II and iPhone 4S show no significant differences at a general glance. However, upon zooming in, we can notice that the Samsung GALAXY S II slightly excels in detail control. It is also worth noting that the iPhone 4S shutter speed is indeed very fast.\
(Left image is iPhone 4S front camera sample, right image is GALAXY S II front camera sample)\
Summary: Both products use 8-megapixel main cameras, which are perfectly capable of replacing a portable digital camera for everyday photography.In terms of the secondary camera, the iPhone 4S's 0.3-megapixel camera seems somewhat 'meager' compared to the Samsung GALAXY S II's 2-megapixel camera. Hopefully, the next generation of iPhones will see an improvement in the front camera, after all, beauty enthusiasts who love selfies do not want to see a face full of pixelation.
Parameter Comparison
Configuration: The long-anticipated 4S still cannot hide its weaknesses
The main factor affecting a phone's response speed depends on computing and processing power. From the configuration comparison, we can easily see the gap between the two devices.
iPhone 4S System Parameters
Both the iPhone 4S and Samsung GALAXY S II use dual-core processors of their own design. Apple uses the A5 processor, while Samsung uses the Exynos 4210 processor. However, the clock speeds differ significantly. Apple's CPU clock speed is 800MHz, although it was previously claimed to be 1GHz. It turns out Apple lowered the clock speed to 800MHz to save power.
Samsung i9100 System Parameters
The CPU clock speed of the Samsung GALAXY S II reaches 1.2GHz, which counts as flagship level among dual-core phones. For current mainstream large Android games, the Samsung Exynos Orion processor is fully compatible and runs very smoothly.
In terms of RAM, the iPhone 4S continues with the 512MB RAM configuration of its predecessor, ensuring overall performance comparable to the iPhone 4. The relatively small RAM configuration may also be one reason why iOS has never fully supported multitasking. However, when multiple applications are opened simultaneously, the iPhone 4S still experiences noticeable lag. The Samsung GALAXY S II uses 1GB of RAM, double that of the iPhone 4S, thus performing better in multitasking. The author has tested that opening more than 10 applications consecutively still maintains smooth operation.
Regarding storage space, the iPhone 4S comes with 16GB built-in storage (as in the author's unit) and does not support an expansion card. The Samsung GALAXY S II has 16GB of storage and supports an expandable card up to 32GB.
Samsung i9100 Removable Battery
The iPhone 4S still uses the same 1420mAh battery design as its predecessor, about 14% lower than the Samsung GALAXY S II's 1650mAh battery.From the author's experience, indeed, the iPhone 4S battery is not very strong. Leaving home with a full charge in the morning, by around 6 p.m. by the end of the workday, it usually has about 20% left. If used a bit more frequently, it might be around 10% or even dead. If staying in the office, it's a bit better, as you can go home and plug it in after work, but if you have other things to do and come home late, you really don't dare to use it. In contrast, the Samsung GALAXY S II battery is indeed more powerful; normal use for a whole day is completely worry-free, and even watching videos or playing games is not a concern, plus the battery can be replaced.
iPhone 4S cannot freely install third-party input methods
System: The battle of the gods between open and closed systems
In terms of systems, open-source and closed-source systems are hard to distinguish in terms of superiority. This conflict has continued from desktops to mobile devices. However, from the author's perspective, although the closed iOS has certain advantages in internal integration and external applications, in today's fast-updating Android and rapidly growing market share, especially with the widespread adoption of Android 4.0, the Android hardware market is more standardized and applications are continuously increasing. iOS has been increasingly losing its edge, making it difficult to hold the high ground.
Since exiting the iTunes software store in 2008, Apple has tightly controlled the entire App Store operation. All software needs to be approved by Apple before being listed, so the quality of applications has always been an advantage of iOS. Yet today, whether due to the company's size allowing it to take advantage of users or genuinely being overstretched, the quality of applications on the iOS platform has been declining, and the outlook is concerning. Meanwhile, on the 2012 315 International Consumer Rights Day, CCTV also focused on reports that some apps in the Apple software store were suspected of being pirated, which shows that the decline of the Apple App Store was not caused by a single factor.
iPhone standard unlock screen and desktop
In contrast, looking at the Samsung GALAXY S II, we can see that Android, the world's most widely used open mobile system, has many advantages that closed systems cannot match, such as easily customizing desktop widgets, installing third-party input methods more suitable for Chinese users, and plug-and-play mobile storage.More importantly, all data can be directly transferred to the Samsung GALAXY S II's storage via USB, completely without the need for any third-party software for synchronization, and this is exactly the key to creating a perfect user experience.
Samsung i9100 System Interface
Summary: As the flagship product on the Android platform, the Samsung GALAXY S II was released six months earlier than the iPhone 4S, yet it still surpasses the latter in most aspects, which is truly astonishing. Recently, there has been news that an upgraded version, the Samsung GALAXY S III, will be released in 2012. It is believed that the battle between these two flagship devices on the iOS and Android platforms will continue to be exciting. Regardless of the outcome of this competition, Apple, relying on the half-generation iPhone 4S to maintain market share, is clearly falling behind the rapidly advancing Samsung.
