Samsung GALAXY S II

I honestly couldn't wait till my contract was up for renewal to get this phone. I've never wanted an Iphone, but was instantly drawn to this phone. I now totally understand why it was voted phone of the year in 2011.

I had the Samsung Galaxy S2 in black for six months, but due to a 'common software problem', I was told the black one was out of stock, so I took the white one instead. Where the hell have I been all my life?

Looks wise, the Galaxy S2 looks really simple, whilst being smart at the same time. It has a large screen, with 'Samsung' written in bold at the top. It is the slimmest and lightest dual core smartphone produced by Samsung. It has a weight of only 116 grams.

The colours on the Galaxy S2 are truly amazing. Even simple things like screen savers produce some of the best graphics out there. It has a 4.3" AMOLED plus display, meaning it has one of the most colourful and graphic screens on the market today. It has organic LED technology.

The screen can be rotated to whatever view you desire. Rotating the screen sideways gives you a much larger and clearer view-but you are left with the choice.

This amazing phone is available in black, white, newcastle colours and pink. The black and white ones look equally classy, although the pink one is a perfect addition to any girls handbag!

Speed wise there is no other phone on the market as fast. It has speeds of up to 21mbps and bluetooth of 3.0+HS. I've transferred pictures from my Galaxy S2 to another machine in record timing.

The sound on this phone is really good, it is clear when you play music and when you are listening to other people on the phone.

The device has a dual-core 1.2GHz processor, meaning you're getting PC like browsing but from you smartphone. It runs on Android 2.3 Gingerbread.

It is so easy to swich between the applications, and very easy to find your way around without using the user manual. On my black Galaxy S2 you just had to click on the applications button and scroll across the screens to select whatever you wanted to do on the phone. My white one would appear to be a newer version, and is a little trickier to use. In order to scroll through the applications you have to select the button in the bottom left-hand of the screen and you have to scroll 'up' the screen to see all the applications.

My favourite feature of this phone is its 8 mega pixel camera, complete with 1080p HD recording and playback. The pictures this phone produces are truly fantastic- much better than the ones I have taken on my digital camera. Quality wise, my videos have been unbeatable. The Galaxy S2 boasts an All-share technology-I'm able to share all my pictures and videos, literally at the click of one button.

The Samsung Galaxy S2 features Samsung's Kies Air so that you can organise smartphone things from your computer via WiFi. The phone aslo has a 'live panel' feature.

Another one of my favourites is the navigation system. Where Sat-Navs often let you down, this one never has. It detects your location super-fast and directs you around busy locations, showing you on the map, and speaking to you at the same time.

This phone has a 'voice command' feature where you can tell it what you want it to do and then it does it. I've never really seen the point in this, as you have to press buttons in the first place, then if it doesn't understand you then you have to keep repeating yourself or editing things- creating more work than if you'd done it manually in the first place.

The Galaxy S2 has an FM radio, game hub (which has excellent graphics), internet, emails, calculator, marketplace for downloading games and apps, plus loads loads more.

My phone is currently linked up to my emails and I had to download the Facebook application (you have to have/set up a googlemail account in order to activate this).

I got my phone free on a contract, but this phone currently costs about £400-£430 when purchased on Pay-As-You-Go.

The are three disadvantages of this phone from my perspective:
* The amount of updates which are sent to this phone. Every other day there seems to be an update which I need to install, which gets tedious at times. On the few occasions I have ignored the updates, my phone hasn't worked particularly well. If you can get around all the updates then this phone is definately for you.

*The battery life. I do use this phone quite a lot throughout the day, but I have to charge my phone at least once throughout the day. Obviously when a phone has as many features as this, the battery life isn't going to last forever, but a little longer would be good. My advice if you do purchase this phone and are going to use it a lot is to always make sure you have an in-car charger with you.

*The common fault which showed up on my phone two days ago. It showed a yellow warning triangle with a thermometre and wouldn't turn on. After speaking to Samsung I was told this was a common fault and that I may lose everything I had on the phone, unless I could get it to turn on with a charger. After several hours I was able to do this-but it could have been the other way. As my phone was less than a year old I was sent a replacement within 24 hours- but I will always make sure I back-up my phone more often just incase.

I would recommend this phone if you want to be able to do everything at the click of a button. If you just want a simple phone that you won't have to update- then this one is not for you!

Summary: An amazing phone with a few things that let it down