Must Know Tips & Tricks For The Galaxy S II

The Galaxy S II is Samsung’s latest
and greatest superphone and judging
by the rate at which these things are
selling, very soon millions around you
will have a one. The device packs a
dual core 1.2 Ghz processor, a 4.3″
Super AMOLED Plus display, runs
Android 2.3.3 out of the box with
Sammy’s TouchWiz 4 on top.
TouchWiz is Samsung’s custom UI
layer that differentiates the SGS 2
from the myriad of other Android
slabs and Samsung has managed to
add enough value to it to make it a
very welcome addition. Some of its
benefits become obvious, but some
tweaks and shortcuts that can make
your experience even better are
tucked away. This post aims to
showcase a bunch of tips and tricks
that every SGS 2 user should know.
Some of these might even work on
older TouchWiz devices.
Hit play and tell us in the comments
section if you think I’ve skipped any
must know shortcut/tip!
If you can’t see the video embedded
above, hit this link to go to YouTube.
If you’d like to read instead of watch
the video, read on.
Quick Calls & Texts: Once you have
the contact you want to call or text in
front of you, instead of entering it and
then carrying out the operation, you
can simply swipe left to place a call or
swipe right to enter a text.
Homescreens: TouchWiz supports
upto 7 homescreens and jumping
between them can quickly become a
problem, but you can easily pinch to
get an overview and then quickly
jump to the screen you want.
Screenshots: Taking screenshots on
Android devices is a pain, but on the
Galaxy S2, you can simply hit home
button and then the power key while
holding onto home to take a
screenshot. You can then see them in
the Gallery.
Brightness Adjust: The notification
bar can serve as a brightness scroll on
the Galaxy S 2 if you are not using
the auto brightness option. Just hit
the notification bar, hold for a second
and swipe left to decrese and right to
increase the brightness. This is one of
my favourite tweaks.
Browsr Text Wrap: Out of the box the
Galaxy S2 doesn’t automatically
reflow the text in the webpage if you
zoom in. But if you just goto settings
and check the ‘auto-fit pages’ option,
all is well again.
User Agent Change: The browser lets
you change the user-agent without
needing an extra app, just type
‘about:useragent’ and you can choose
between the iPhone, Nexus One,
Desktop, Galaxy S or even enter a
custom string.
Pinch Based Tab Switching: While you
are viewing a webpage, just pinch out
and you will be shown the other tabs
that are open, or you can even open a
new one. Handy, finally possible on
the Galaxy S2.
Custom Fonts: The Galaxy S2 comes
with inbuilt support for custom fonts.
Just goto Settings -> Display -> Screen
Display -> Font Style and choose from
the three options or follow the link to
download more from the Android
Market.
Change Bottom App Drawer: Its just
easier to explain if you watch the
video, around the 03:28 minute mark.
Quick Slider: Whether you are in the
homscreen or the app list, just roll
your finger over the dots at the
bottom of the screen and see the
screens fly by. Beautiful and
functional.
Video Lock: Pressing the power
button in video player locks the
screen, now you can hold the device
any way you like, no accidental
presses.
Testing Mode: *#0*# in the dialer
enters the LCD test mode, useful if
you are hunting for dead pixels or a
few other things.
Search Key: The SGS2 like the SGS
doesn’t have a dedicated search key
that all other Android devices have,
but if you long press menu, it doubles
as a search key and pulls search up,
wherever you need it.
Quick Dialing: On the dial pad spell
the name of your contact and see it
popup, great when you need to make
a quick call.
Bluetooth Mouse: The SGS 2 supports
using a bluetooth mouse, the
functionality is more of a proof of
concept vis-a-vis being actually useful.
TV out presents a useful senario.
Any others you would like to add? Let
us know in the comments section
below!
Further reading – Our In-Depth
Samsung Galaxy S2 Review.