Samsung Galaxy S II (black, T-Mobile)

Pros: Very speedy, Great UI, very light, very thin, huge screen is gorgeous, great camera, some very good samsung specific additions, battery has been great so far, 16GB internal memory + expansion slot, very nice headphones + inline mic included in box (I was

Cons: Thin and light but alot of surface area (but no more than needed for the screen), some non-removeable bloatware included (as always), some very minor user interface annoyances (but only because I was spoiled by cyanogen mod on my last phone).

Summary: To be honest, I had a hard time even coming up with the cons list because they are all such minor issues (but I felt I should write down something). This phone has been my best android phone to date - I started with a droid incredible which was a great phone for a year (espcially with cyanogen mod), and then switched over to tmobile and got a g2x. It was an okay phone, but I traded it in after a few days because of a bunch of problems it had. I was a little nervous about getting this phone, but now I'm incredibly happy I did.

I was worried about the samsung's custom touchwiz UI (after coming from htc sense and stock android), and for the first half a day I didn't like it, but it grew on me very rapidly. They have alot of clever and thoughtful elements in it that I noticed and they make a big difference.

The screen is huge and beautiful - pretty much the best phone out there for watching movies on. And unlike on my droid incredible (3.7 inch screen), I can actually use remote desktop on it to my computer for more than a few seconds without getting annoyed. How iphone users survive with a 3.5 inch screen I will never know. The CPU is fast and rarely do I ever notice lag on anything. The 1GB of ram helps alot - the big problem I had with the g2x was that while it was very fast, the 512mb of ram would fill up way too fast and then it would slow down to a crawl. No problem on the S2 (plus there is a samsung integrated task manager that is wonderful and easy to use).

One big surprise that I was very happy with was the samsung included "Kies air" app. When hooked up to a wireless network, you active at the app and then type in the IP and port number it gives you into a web browser. This opens up a Kies air interface (the phone is basically acting as a web server) that lets you access and edit everything on the phone. Photos, video, music, ringtones, bookmarks, messages, call log, contacts, files, and other various settings. You can download, upload, view, and edit all of these right from any computer on the same network as the phone without installing any software. Very very handy.

That covers most of it. The camera is very good (8MP still, 1080p video) and has some good shooting options (touch to focus, panorama, etc...). I'm not much of a phototaker, so I can't go too indepth. And lastly the 4G speed is very good. I live in Orange County (south of Los Angeles),and I get consistently good recent and data speeds just about everywhere around here (usually 8mbps down, 1-2 up). I haven't tried it out in LA, but I hear tests have gotten up to 22mpbs in areas with great reception (even 8 seems like overkill to me for a phone, but who am I to complain).

It also comes with a voice control app - different than the normal android one, but functions relatively the same. It's a little bit fancier, but nothing that puts it too far past the default android voice control (which is already quite nice).

The phone itself is very nice to hold. Extremely thin and light (noticeably lighter than my boss's iphone 4) but with alot of surface area. Even so, I have no problem fitting it in my jeans pocket. I have small hands, but no trouble using or holding it. The construction of the phone is great - it's plastic to keep the weight down, but the back surface is soft touch and feels very nice.

Anyway, overall, a very good phone. You can tell when you have alot of trouble coming up with a cons list. Fast, light, gorgeous, extremely customizable - high recommended.