I think you are very mistaken, let's find out how.


1. Camera: The SGS2's camera is actually better than that of the N9's and it also allows full 8Mp quality shots in its full screen ratio, whereas the N9 offers only 7Mp shots in full screen ratio and 8Mp only in the 4:3 ratio.

SGS2's camera is also sharper in the pictures that it takes, especially when you compare full screen with full screen. Furthermore, if you take a picture on both devices and zoom in to the maximum, you will see the S2 retains sharpness whereas the N9 becomes grainy/noisey.

So in actual fact the SGS2 has a much better camera than the N9, but do not take my word for it, test if for yourself or see comparison videos of this widely available online.



2. Display Now I do not see how this is even a possible comparison, put an N9 next to an S2 and the display is so obviously superior in the S2. But let's not go for user perception, I will outline the facts once again.

SGS2 Super AMOLED Plus display, known to be the best display at its time of release, surpassed only by the Super AMOLED Plus HD display.

N9, even though launched many months after the S2, comes with an outdated OLED display.

The display in the S2 is again far far superior technology.

Now granted the N9 has a higher PPI (251) vs the S2 (218), but that is not because it has a better display, the display technology used in the S2 is much more superior to that of the N9, but being a bigger display (4.3) vs the N9 (3.9) it has a lower PPI as pixels are spread over a larger screen size. I have yet to see where this makes a significant difference, but yes the N9 does have better PPI, not a better display.


3. Radio: I am not sure what radios you are referring to that are better in the N9 than the S2. So far in most components the S2 radios are better and in other cases they are the same, there is not one radio in the N9 which is better than the S2, that I am aware of.

S2 has HSDPA+ (21.1 Mbps) vs the N9 HSDPA (14.4 Mbps).

S2 has better Bluetooth radio (3.0) vs the N9 (2.3).

The wifi radio in both are the same.

Cell reception on the S2 is crystal clear and loud enough in outside use. I have never had any issues with voicecalls or quality of these calls.

The N9 also has clear reception but the calls themselves are not loud enough and it becomes very difficult to hear outside.

I am not going to list each radio compononent, you can google this for yourself but the bottom line is, the radios in the S2 are actually better than the N9 and in other cases, the same, but there is not even one in the N9 that is better.


4. Battery: Now battery is a very subjective matter, it comes down to personal usage and personal perception. So I will try to again outline the facts and avoid personal interpretation as this varies from one user to the next.

Looking at the S2 battery (1650 mAh) vs the N9 (1450 mAh) this pretty much tells you that the S2 battery is better, as it has a much bigger capacity. Even if it was 1451 mAh, it would still be better. More is more, no arguements.

Now let's take a look at how these batteries are used.

Granted the N9 has a smaller display which means in theory it does not require as much power consumption for the display. However it also has a single core processor which means it is not as battery efficient and can drain battery power fast at times where the clock is near maxed, which is easily seen when the N9 hangs and lags in many situations.

The S2 has a much bigger display so you would think the N9 has the battery efficiency advantage in this case, however the Super AMOLED Plus displays are known for the power efficiency vs older displays even larger ones are much more efficient than smaller older displays. This technology has been commended all over and you can again find this out for yourself.

The S2 also has dual 1.2Ghz A9 processor which even today is one of the best chips released (soon enough we will see better ones but the Exynos 5250 A15 will reclaim the crown once more). And again, a proven fact is that a dual core faster processor is more efficient on power because the stress of the OS and tasks is spread across multiple, more efficient cores. This means the OS never hangs, or lags, the SGS2 itself has never lagged for me and the cores have never needed to reach maximum clock speed.

They are much more efficient with the battery and require much less power consumption than the CPU in the N9.

This coupled with the better/more efficient display means not only does the SGS2 have a better battery (200mAh extra makes a huge difference, check the N900 battery thread) but how this juice is used is much more power efficient than the N9 allowing less battery draining in the S2.

Currently on stock firmware, I can use my S2 for 4 hours of music playback per day (to and from work and at the gym), 1.5 to 2 hours of browsing per day (wifi or 3g), at least 30-45 minutes of voice calls per day and over 200 text messages per day being sent, after all of this I will only drain 50% of the battery by the end of the entire day (full 24 hours) including standby/idle time.

So, I can repeat this usage twice, for a full 2 days (48 hours) on one single charge before needing to charge again, at this time I will still have a few % left, or be right at the end of the battery charge, either way it lasts 48 hours at least before needing a fully charge done and that is perfect in my eyes.

The most I have got is 2 days and 12 hours with the above usage however, to be fair, the last 12 hours were mostly standby time, with maybe 20 mins of wifi/3g browsing and probably an hour of music playback.

I have attempted to test the same usage with the N9 to make an actual comparison and have so far been unsuccessful.


Conclusion: So the hardware superiority of the S2 over the N9 that I outlined in my orignal post, is an actual fact.

Furthermore, the OP asked what phone would be better suited from a developement point of view, as the OP stated that custom kernels, ROMs, Mods, Tweaks, UI enhancements etc. greatly appealed to them.

So in my post I was actually outlining most of the hardware advantages that the S2 has over the N9 which would be directly beneficial from a developement perspective.