Samsung Galaxy II

The good: The Samsung Galaxy S II has a speedy dual-core processor, a large, gorgeous display, 4G capability, and excellent cameras. It's also up-to-date with Android 2.3 Gingerbread.

The bad: The Samsung Galaxy S II lacks a hardware camera button, and you need to remove to battery to access the microSD card slot. Call quality could be better.

The bottom line: Despite a few complaints, the Samsung Galaxy S II hits all the high notes, making the unlocked handset Samsung's most advanced and successful smartphone to date.



Review:

Since its first Galaxy iteration, Samsung has taken the line of slick black smartphones and run with it, straight down the production line, to produce one blockbuster after another. The cell phone maker wasted little time spinning off variations, from the premium to the pedestrian, and even the slightly odd. But of the more than a dozen global models, the unlocked Samsung Galaxy S II takes the cake; the svelte "jumbo phone" is as beautiful and premium as when we first laid eyes on it last February at Mobile World Congress.

HTC EVO 4G

The first thing you're likely to notice about Sprint's HTC EVO 4G is its size: this smartphone is big. And so is its display, which measures a whopping 4.3 inches. But pick up the EVO 4G and you'll be blown away by its speed. This is one lightning-fast phone - even if you can't experience the phone in all its 4G glory.


4G Wireless

As the first 4G phone to hit stores, 4G wireless support is the EVO 4G's headline feature. Sprint says its 4G network can offer download speeds that are ten times faster than a 3G connection, which will give the "HTC EVO 4G the fastest data speeds of any U.S. wireless device available today."


But 4G is still a new technology and the network isn't yet available in many places. The network is not available in the Boston area, where I live and where I tested the EVO 4G. But I was still impressed by the phone's speed.

LG Optimus 2X

The Optimus 2X, also known as the T-Mobile G2X in the United States, will be the first dual core smartphone to make it to release. The high powered Android handset will mark a big leap forward for LG, a company which has traditionally lagged behind in the smartphone industry. The Optimus 2X comes with a gorgeous 4" capacitive touchscreen that includes multitouch input and a sharp resolution of 480 x 800.


While featuring an accelerometer for auto-rotation of the interface, now a fairly standard feature on most smartphones, the Optimus 2X will also come with a new gyro sensor. This sensor, made popular on the iPhone 4, allows for three axis controls which can be put to good use with many innovative apps and games. These apps and games can be downloaded from Android Market, which is easily accessible from LG's latest handset.


Aside from the dual core processor the LG Optimus 2X is pretty impressive in other areas too. While the 4" screen is ideal for viewing high quality 1080p videos, the phone's 8 megapixel camera also comes with 1080p video recording. You can also record 720p videos at a higher frame rate, and the Optimus 2X comes with an HDMI port and DLNA enabled Wi-Fi, both of which allow you to stream videos through your home TV.

The Optimus 2X also comes with YouTube and Adobe Flash support so that you can enjoy streaming videos online, as well as enjoying videos contained on the phone's 8GB storage. This is expandable with microSD cards and the Optimus 2X can support an impressive 32GB microSD. As well as the excellent 8 megapixel rear camera, the 2X also comes with a 1.3 megapixel front facing camera that can be used for making video calls on services such as Google Talk.