HTC Vivid vs Samsung Galaxy S II Skyrocket
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Sizing up evenly with 8-megapixel auto-focus cameras in the rear, the Vivid actually complements its camera with a dual-LED flash – while the Skyrocket is accompanied with only a single one. However, it would seem that the Vivid is more equipped on paper in the photo-taking department because it features backside illumination and a wide-angle F2.2 lens for wider aperture.
Looking over both sunny and nighttime samples, we need to give the HTC Vivid the slight advantage in terms of overall photo quality with its 8-megapixel auto-focus camera – albeit, the two are still able to take some decent looking shots. Despite the purplish hue that’ evident with the Vivid’s outdoor and indoor shots, it packs the sharper looking visuals between the two. However, it’s able to clearly establish itself as the better one mainly because the Skyrocket’s low lighting/nighttime shots are diminished by the noise and graininess that clutter its production.
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Samples shot with the HTC Vivid | |||
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Samples made with the Samsung Galaxy S II Skyrocket | |||
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Strong | Medium | Low light |
Indoor samples | ||
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3ft | 5ft | 7ft |
Darkness with flash | ||
HTC Vivid | ||
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Strong | Medium | Low light |
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3ft | 5ft | 7ft |
Darkness with flash | ||
Samsung Galaxy S II Skyrocket | ||
HTC Vivid Sample Video 1:
Samsung Galaxy S II Skyrocket Sample Video 1:
HTC Vivid Sample Video 2:
Samsung Galaxy S II Skyrocket Sample Video 2 :
Multimedia:
Presentation-wise, the music players on both devices are nearly identical with their layouts – as they display the common set of items on-screen. However, when we look at the total package, the Vivid sports some added benefits with its music player widget and better access with its lock screen. Cranking their volumes to their maximum settings, the Skyrocket has the slightly stronger audio output with its speaker – though, it’s very minimal. Nevertheless, they both produce robust and strain-free tones with their speakers.
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The Sense music player found on the HTC Vivid | ||
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Samsung's TouchWiz music player | ||
There’s no kidding that the two are more than equipped to play our test video that’s encoded in DivX 1920 x 1080 resolution, but the Skyrocket’s Super AMOLED Plus display is able to enchant us more with its punchy color production.
Fortunately, their microSD card slots are unoccupied, which means that we can insert cards up to 32GB in size to supplement their respective internal storage. With the Vivid, it offers 8.83GB of total internal storage out of the box – with another 3.7GB reserved for apps. On the other hand, the Skyrocket’s internal memory is broken down to 11.25GB for storage and 1.78GB strictly for apps.
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26 Comments
5. biophone posted on 14 Nov 2011, 11:03 0 0
Me want sgs3. I played with the sgs2 in depth and aside from touchwiz I love it. Sprint verison fyi. So sgs3 im sure will be great. Htc has dissapointed lately with their poor bat life but i do love sense. moto hasnt been on par with sammy either. Unless the ip5 has 1.5ghz dual core 4g lte 4 inch display and great bat life i am going to get the sgs3 and root touchwiz off.
7. hunted posted on 14 Nov 2011, 11:23 0 0
we can expect SGS3 soon and not iphone5. By the time apple release iphone5 samsung may go to Galaxy s5, who knows
9. biophone posted on 14 Nov 2011, 11:30 0 0
Well sammy just realesed the sgs2 in the states so dont hold your breath it may be awhile. The sgs3 hasnt even been realesed around the world yet and it took a while for it to get to the usa so i would expect a good time to pass before we get it. Anyway when I am due for an upgrade the sgs3 and iphone 5 should be the heavyweights on verizon.
16. KingKurogiii posted on 14 Nov 2011, 16:13 1 0
oh would you look at that. even Phone Arena thinks it's worth $50 to get away from the combination of Sense and Snapdragons. xD
18. Nathan posted on 14 Nov 2011, 17:03 1 0
I'm going to go with the Samsung Galaxy S2 Skyrocket, the LG Nitro HD seems tempting but the LG part is the turn off.
20. snowgator posted on 16 Nov 2011, 14:30 0 0
One of these two are most likely the phone I get for my wife if we stay on AT&T. She is all in on a huge screen (she has a friend that she wants to beat, and her friend has a 4.3". I find that really, really amusing!!) and she wants the best camera on a phone as well. She also needs a flash player. Kinda lean to the Vivid only due to most reviews raving about the camera.
21. rayjones09 posted on 21 Nov 2011, 23:09 0 0
I used all the GSII variants on AT&T and noticed they don't have macro mode for the camera. Has anyone else noticed this?
22. KingKurogiii posted on 21 Nov 2011, 23:33 0 0
i got to take a look at both of these yesterday and i liked the feel of the Vivid more. the Skyrocket felt like Samsung at their near worst. xP
23. fervid posted on 23 Nov 2011, 13:24 0 0
Wasn't the Vivid initially advertised as 60FPS 1080P? I look at specs now and it shows 30FPS and 60FPS is only 720P???
24. runtan posted on 02 Dec 2011, 02:04 0 0
Thank you for a truly thorough review. I'm going to go with the Samsung too. But, I think I always was anyway. It came down to the fluidity of the platform. Thanks again!
25. jmblaney86 posted on 14 Jan 2012, 20:10 0 0
i have the Samsung Galaxy S2 and if i knew a month later theyd come out with the Skyrocket i would have definately waited for the fast Skyrocket. With that said i have never really liked Samsung due to the fact they are absolutely the slowest in Android update releases. Since September when i purchased this phone i have loved ever second of it, unfortunately i had some wear and tear issues with the charging port, i use it alot at work and like an idiot ill keep charging cord plugged into port while putting phone in pocket, so that was only issue i had which was clearly my fault, i sent it into geek squad to be fixed which i know thats another topic for different time but if it canot be fixed and they replace phone i will go with skyrocket. my girlfriend wants new phone which is why i went searching for reviews and due to this i think she will end up coming over to samsung with me, even tho she has this weird sense that having same phones is wierd... yea you know now what i deal with on a daily so thanks to this review im definagtely going to do whatever i can to update my galaxy s2 to skyrocket.
26. oFreddEo posted on 26 Feb 2012, 22:25 0 0
Galaxy S2 for the Display (Super Amoled Plus) and htc for music (SRS inhancement, Beats Audio etc.)
27. icecoldusa posted on 07 Mar 2012, 16:28 0 0
I got a Samsung Skyrocket, I thing its a waste of money, right now 100 more than Galaxy S2 and HTC Vivid, but I am learning not to buy Samsung phones, because they promise but they never update the software, they instead make a new device with the new hardware. I always have Samsung and it never got updated to the new software, not even the infuse, so I go with the HTC VIVID, I just replaced my Skyrocket for the Vivid, and I am not looking back.
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