{"id":20251,"date":"2011-12-16T01:00:37","date_gmt":"2011-12-16T01:00:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mobilefun.co.uk\/blog\/?p=20251"},"modified":"2011-12-15T13:55:06","modified_gmt":"2011-12-15T13:55:06","slug":"samsung-galaxy-s2-desktop-sync-and-charge-cradle-with-hdmi-out-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mobilefun.co.uk\/blog\/2011\/12\/samsung-galaxy-s2-desktop-sync-and-charge-cradle-with-hdmi-out-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Samsung Galaxy S2 Desktop Sync and Charge Cradle With HDMI Out Review"},"content":{"rendered":"
With the Samsung Galaxy S2 packing a powerful 8MP camera capable of shooting stunning full HD video it\u2019s just as well it comes with 16GB of onboard storage as standard; but what about when you want to share all your photos and videos with your friends? True it has an impressive array of features for sharing and uploading your recordings but it also has one rather well kept secret.<\/p>\n

Instead of a normal USB port the Samsung Galaxy S2 has a Mobile High-Definition Link (or MHL) port, which allows you to plug all manner of things into it. The best use I\u2019ve found though, is to plug that big TV in your living room in via an HDMI adapter to play back all those videos back on a massive display the way they were meant to be viewed.<\/p>\n

One of the best solutions I\u2019ve found is to use a mobile phone dock<\/a> with an HDMI output which allowed me to output holiday videos to a 40\u201d TV at 1080i resolution. Seeing them on a large screen really demonstrates how good the camera on the S2 is. Of course it isn\u2019t just things you\u2019ve recorded yourself, with the ability to stream and download videos and films from YouTube and – more recently – Android Market.<\/div>\n

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Samsung Galaxy S2 Desktop Sync and Charge Cradle With HDMI Out<\/p><\/div>\n

The dock I used felt well built and had some weight to it, which is handy considering the S2 certainly doesn\u2019t! When docked the phone sat at just the right angle to still use it when placed on my desk, and didn\u2019t budge when using the touchscreen or home button.<\/p>\n

In order to fully test the dock I downloaded and watched a film from Android Market, and whilst the lack of an HD option was a bit annoying (but perhaps something we can look forward to in the next year or so as Android devices start sporting HD displays) it still played really well, and looked and sounded great. The Galaxy S2 being as powerful as it is of course this didn\u2019t surprise me!<\/p>\n

Throughout my testing of the dock I did experience one problem I couldn\u2019t quite eliminate, which was that my Wi-Fi signal would drop out when docked and outputting via HDMI. This wasn\u2019t a massive bother as I was still able to download extra content beforehand (the film downloaded straight off Market and could be rewatched for up to 48 hours after the first viewing), and obviously all of my holiday films were already on the phone\u2019s memory; however it did rule out streaming which would have been useful. Admittedly though, streaming aside, if you\u2019re watching a film you probably don\u2019t need an internet connection!<\/p>\n

Pros:<\/strong><\/div>\n

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    \n
  • Watch films and home videos from your Galaxy S2 using just a normal HDMI cable.<\/li>\n
  • Demonstrate to your friends your (not so) amazing skills on Angry Birds.<\/li>\n
  • Charge your phone while it\u2019s docked so it never runs out of power when you need it.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    Cons:<\/strong><\/p>\n

      \n
    • Wi-Fi signal dropouts made streaming impossible.<\/li>\n
    • The Galaxy S2 appears to only support 1080i, which (some claim) lacks the full quality of 1080p. This is a limitation of the handset however; not the dock.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n\n\n
      \n
      <\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      With the Samsung Galaxy S2 packing a powerful 8MP camera capable of shooting stunning full HD video it\u2019s just as well it comes with 16GB of onboard storage as standard; but what about when you want to share all your photos and videos with your friends? True it has an impressive array of features for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[311,762,6],"tags":[5299,6643,202,6645],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mobilefun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20251"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mobilefun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mobilefun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mobilefun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mobilefun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20251"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.mobilefun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20251\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20255,"href":"https:\/\/www.mobilefun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20251\/revisions\/20255"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mobilefun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20251"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mobilefun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20251"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mobilefun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20251"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}