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Samsung Attain Review aka Galaxy S2 Review

Apple is  going after Samsung for many reasons, but according to many experts the trigger is the new device Samsung released in April 2011. It is not the Galaxy Tab but the Samsung Galaxy S2 also know Samsung Attain or Samsung within in US.

Android has been evolving fast and with Nexus series everyone was expecting the device can match , the market leader Apple. But it appears finally it was up to Samsung to bring the real iPhone competitor , in many ways a real iPhone beater. It will be really harsh to compare iPhone 4 with Samsung Attain,  the Galaxy S2 is more of a competitor for the next generation iPhone be it iPhone 4S or iPhone 5.  But while going over the comparison we will compare the device with iPhone 4, Motorola Atrix, Google Nexus S , Nokia N9 and Samsung Infuse 4G.

We will also use the names Samsung Galaxy S2, ATT Attain , Samsung Attain 4G, Samsung Within 4G (CDMA)  interchangeably. All the names refer to the one and only Samsung I9100 Galaxy S2 (SII) , the main difference would be Network frequencies if at all they exist.

Processing Power / RAM –

Samsung Attain probably defines the class of 2011 cellphones. It is the first major Cellphone to have a Dual Core processor and individual cores breaching 1GHz (clocked at 1.2GHz), but it appears Samsung has limited the clock frequencies to 1GHz only. It runs on the Samsung 1.2GHz ARM Cortex-A9 processor (Dual Core) on the exynos (Samsung Orion) chipset. The Phone also boasts a 1GB RAM and  Mali-400MP GPU.  These specs alone would beat many mainstream computers few years ago. The Phone has 16GB/32GB memory option for storage.

Compare this to iPhone 4’s spec, it has 1GHZ Single Core Processor, 512 MB RAM and PowerVR SGX535GPU which are definitely one generation behind. And the Specs of  Samsung Attain (Samsung Within) most probably will also be the specs for next Gen iPhone.

Camera –

Samsung Attain is also the first phone which would bring Full HD Video Recording  ie 1080p @ 30fps. It also has 8MP camera with Auto focus and Geo tagging etc.  Samsung has also increased the front camera to a 2MP one from the VGA camera found on most models. Most of the current models have 720p video recording including the iPhone 4 , Samsung Infuse, Nokia N9 and Motorola Atrix (1080p with software update). Nokia N9 has fancy Carl Zeiss lens in place of the standard lens.

Samsung Attain (Samsung Galaxy S2)  –  8MP , 1080p Video
Samsung Infuse 4G – 8MP , 720p Video
Nokia N9 – 8MP , 720p Video (Carl Zeiss Lens)
iPhone 4 – 5MP , 720p Video
Motorola Atrix – 5MP , 1080p (with update)

Dimensions and Weight –

Samsung Galaxy S2 probably gets the sweet spot of the dimensions, little larger screen but thinner and lighter. This is not as large as the ATT Samsung Infuse 4G and not heavy like iPhone 4. It is definitely bigger than iPhone 4 due to bigger screen.

Samsung Galaxy S2 (Attain) – 125.3 X 66.1 X 8.49 mm
Nokia N9 – 116.45 x 61.2 x 12.1 mm
Samsung Infuse 4G – 132 x 71 x 9 mm
Iphone 4 – 115.2 x 58.6 x 9.3 mm
Motorola Atrix – 117.8 x 63.5 x 11 mm
Blackberry Torch – 111 x 62 x 14.6 mm

Weight comparison
Samsung Galaxy S2 (Attain) – 116 g
Nokia N9 – 135 g
Samsung Infuse 4G – 139 g
Iphone 4 – 137 g
Motorola Atrix – 135 g

Screen –
Samsung Galaxy S2 has 4.3 inch (480 x 800 pixels) Super AMOLED Plus capacitive touchscreen 16M colors. This is not upto iPhone’s pixel density but you cant really make it out either. The phone has capacitive touchscreen and is super responsive due to the Processing Power. Also sports the Corning Gorilla Glass found on other high end devices, the Gorilla glass much stronger and scratch resistant.

It also runs on Android 2.3, has a standard 3.5 mm headphone jack. Uses A-GPS.
Supports
Audio formats
MP3, OGG, AAC, AAC+, eAAC+, AMR-NB , AMR-WB, WMA, WAV, MID, AC3, IMY, FLAC, XMF
Video formats
MPEG4, H.264, H.263, WMV, DivX, Xvid, VC-1
Image formats
JPEG, PNG, GIF, WBMP, BMP, AGIF

The phone has a large 1650mAH battery, which seems to be drained easily. But it is expected, that this issue should be fixed with software updates.

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Samsung Galaxy S2 in US by July-August

Samsung Galaxy S2 is the most anticipated device among smartphone fans, even beating the expectations for iPhone 5. With Samsung Galaxy S2 already available in many countries and hitting top of Smartphone sales in UK,   US consumers are wondering when they will get their hands on the ultra fast Android device.

Samsung Galaxy S2 is expected to hit US shores before July end or possibly by Mid August, but not later than that.  Atleast one carrier most likely Sprint is expected to Carry the device ahead of ATT and even Verizon. One of the reasons for delay in Samsung Galaxy S2 is Apple, Apple who has taken up  litigation against Samsung’s devices , appears to be pulling the strings with ATT and Verizon ahead of its own next version of iPhone.

With earlier versions of  iPhones, Apple was always first to market as a trendsetter, but this time around iPhone 5 is under pressure from Galaxy S2. Most of the specs of iPhone 5 are expected to match the Galaxy S2 and any botch up will be bad for Apple. And Samsung is also determined to bring in its Galaxy S2 before the arrival of iPhone 5,  just to rub it on Apple.

Sprint’s version of Galaxy S2 is expected to be called Samsung Within and ATT’s version to be christened Samsung Attain.   Not sure whats with lame naming convention in USA, but we surely expect the dual core powered Galaxy S2 very soon.

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Google anti competitive practices and few examples

With  FTC announcing the probe on Google’s search practices , I was pleasantly surprised. After the panda update Google had irked so many publishers and rendered many out of business.  Though Google might claim whatever the benefits,  the panda update was more targeted on websites causing  loss of Google Revenue. Be it sites which garnered higher ranking high paid keyword sections or the sites  advertising with Microsoft/Yahoo.

Many sites which were either directly competing with Google , using Google products for Ad revenues were the ones who faces the brunt of Google Panda fury. After the update still we get quite a lot of junk in first page results of many keywords and there are hits and certainly several misses.

Behind the scenes Google undertook another step, many adsense publishers were banned and several websites received notices from Adsense that their sites are banned from Adsense due to various reasons and many due to “Abuse of Google Products”. Well abuse of Google products like Youtube, Search etc. Google collected these data through their new search algorithms and started optimizing Adsense. Several publishers were confused as to the Google Product abuse notice, though they haven’t circumvented Google’s policies, their sites were removed from adsense program.  Many involved sites embedding primarily youtube video, for Google if someone watches a video in Youtube, there are several benefits like ad revenue and more time in its sites.

Sites which were mostly relying embedding youtube videos were taking a portion of Google’s revenue, by better titles and descriptions. Google did fix these issues with Panda update.

On the Anti competitive front, Google’s dominant position in turn has helped most of its services, whatever Google might its  services get the top position in any searches. Though Google might claim that it is helping customers, there is a financial benefit  for Google for using their service. For any search from movie timings, or even just cinemas, Google Service appears on top of the theater’s own website.

And one of the key part of Antitrust cases of Past are bundling of products, and using one’s dominant position to kill competitors. Google is doing exactly that with its dominance in search, all of its new services immediately hit top of search results on release and most users will simply click the top link.

With Google Chrome, Android and Chrome OS, Google is positioned to take control of internet traffic and in few years Google might be the internet, by killing of competition  Google can easily charge higher for ads and pay  less to users. Already there are very few good advertising options other than Google and one reason being the power of Google.

Google is already on the defensive in terms of antitrust investigations,  there are clear examples of Google leveraging its position in Search for control in other areas and it will be a tough battle for Google to prove otherwise. At the minimum US will try to put some restrictions on using Search to promote services and data collection for ads.

Lets see how this probe turns out.