Hands On with Samsung Galaxy S 2 Plus - Contains BCM28155 SoC
by Brian Klug on January 11, 2013 10:08 PM EST- Posted in
- Smartphones
- Samsung
- Broadcom
- Galaxy S II
- Mobile
- Trade Shows
- CES 2013
Earlier in the week Samsung announced the Galaxy S 2 Plus, a rather strange late-cycle update to the SGS2. The device is pretty much what you'd expect, and contains similar specs to the existing SGS2 — 1.2 GHz dual core SoC, 4.3-inch SAMOLED Plus WVGA display, Android 4.1.2, and quad band HSPA+ 21.1.
What was unknown about the Galaxy S 2 Plus was which SoC was inside. Originally I assumed this was just a respun Exynos 4 inside, but while I was at Broadcom's booth I noticed the Galaxy S 2 Plus on display, and noted that it includes a BCM28155 SoC inside.
BCM28155 consists of two 1.2 GHz ARM Cortex A9s alongside a two core Broadcom VideoCore IV solution. I'm unclear about fabrication process but suspect 40nm TSMC or so. The entire Galaxy S 2 Plus is one big Broadcom reference design as well, and I'm told this time Samsung finally ditched the discrete Fujitsu ISP in the place of Broadcom's on-SoC ISP. GLBenchmark 2.5.1 was already installed on the device, likely by a customer, however I had trouble getting the device to complete a run. The SGS2 Plus felt speedy, however, I wasn't able to do much in depth benchmarking.
Source: Samsung (Product Specs)
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StormyParis - Friday, January 11, 2013 - link
Given the size disparity between S2 and S3, it makes sense to keep both. My sister is looking at smartphones, and finds the GS3 way too big.CoreDuo - Friday, January 11, 2013 - link
I'm curious what the battery life is like compared to the original Exynos-based GS2. A bit of a shame that GLBench wouldn't run because I'm also interested in seeing how the dual VideoCore IV performs compared to the Mali 400 MP.twotwotwo - Friday, January 11, 2013 - link
Maybe this is all about having an option that's very cheap for Samsung to produce, and exists because the S3 Mini won't do it for all customers? (Or all carriers?) The business factors behind some of these decisions are always a little mysterious to me.mustafa.muhammad - Saturday, January 12, 2013 - link
I found this on their GLBenchmark website:GLBenchmark 2.5 Egypt HD C24Z16 - Offscreen (1080p):
S II plus 1289 Frames
S II 1475 Frames
S III 1872 Frames
For Onscreen which is more important to the user experience:
GLBenchmark 2.5 Egypt HD C24Z16 - Onscreen:
S II plus 2150 Frames
S II 1737 Frames
S III 1890 Frames
http://www.glbenchmark.com/compare.jsp?benchmark=g...
RaLX - Saturday, January 12, 2013 - link
Is that an iPhone 5 on the fifth picture?hmaarrfk - Saturday, January 12, 2013 - link
Looks too wide to be an iPhone. I looks like a blatant copy of the iPhone design though.....hmaarrfk - Saturday, January 12, 2013 - link
Am I the only one getting more and more confused with phone names?What will it be next year "Samsung Glalaxy SII Ultra", "Ultra Plus", "Galaxy SII Plus II"????
I think a smaller phone would have done very well with the name "Samsung Galaxy Mini" but they messed up that brand with a non high end small phone......
xaueious - Tuesday, January 15, 2013 - link
http://glbenchmark.com/forumentrydisplay.jsp?type=...Broadcom has a modified driver that breaks the benchmark test dating back to the Galaxy Y running the same GPU.
skydive - Thursday, May 9, 2013 - link
I just came here from http://gadgetinsiders.com. I think the Galaxy S2 Plus is a nice addition to the Samsung's smartphone portfolio, still the build quality of the device could be better.