For a few months now I have been in the market for a new smart phone. For about a year now I have been using the Apple 3GS.  This phone is very functional, but boy is it slow.  So the time has come to get a new faster smart phone, and it looks like it is going to be the Samsung Galaxy S2.

This article is not going to be an in-depth review of the Galaxy S2, instead I am going to give a write up of exactly why I am going to buy this phone, when there is plenty of strong competition out there, including the iPhone 4S.

To start with , I have to admit it just looks amazing.  It is large, sleek and has a bright vivid screen.  Not only that but the screen is protected by Gorilla Glass, if you don’t know what that is, imagine glass but WAY stronger.  In drop tests, crush test, scratch tests, and more Gorilla Glass often remains unscathed even when the iPhone 4S screen has been shattered and smashed to pieces.

The speed of the Galaxy S2 is exceptional.  while you can still be left waiting even on the iPhone 4S, the Galaxy S2 offers twice the amount of memory, and a slightly faster processor. Although, keep an eye out for different models of the Galaxy S2 on different carriers, annoyingly some are less powerful than others, and have different button locations.  This is particularly important to remember when you are looking for Galaxy S2 cases.

I have held both the Samsung Galaxy S2 and the iPhone 4S in my hand, and although the iPhone 4S is a HUGE improvement over the 3G, there is still a litlte lag when I compared it to the Samsung Galaxy S2.

Another useful feature is that the Samsung Galaxy S2 has a MicroSD port, so you can quickly swap out memory cards if you are a photography buff!

The biggest downside of the Samsung Galaxy S2 has to be the app store for two reasons. Firstly, I will lose all the Apps I bought for my iPhone.  This is not a huge deal, but it comes to around $50.  The second thing is that the android app store is not as large as the iStore. This means I am going to be more limited in niche applications.

In most other respects the Galaxy S2 and iPhone 4S are similar, there are plenty of small differences between the devices I could fight over, but a biggie is that the Galaxy S2 supports Flash.  Something that the iPhone has still not incorporated even after years of consumer complaints.