Front View

The S II’s front panel is black and unassuming as it bears only the T-Mobile brand.

The S II’s camera is an 8-megapixel picture-shooting beast, aping AT&T’s and Sprint’s models. The device captures and plays back video in sparkling 1080p HD.

Like its brothers, T-Mobile’s S II is super thin, measuring only 0.37 inches thick. That’s thicker than AT&T’s model, which is 0.35 inches and a tad thinner than Sprint’s Epic 4G Touch at 0.38 inches. However, we love the black back of T-Mobile’s model. Though slightly textured for better gripping, it’s far smoother than the rough, granulated feel of its brethren.

One of the cool, if not somewhat spooky aspects of moving from one Android handset to the next is the platform’s ability to use the cloud to let users move content from one phone to the next. For example, when we logged into this T-Mobile S II with our Google account, our previous wallpaper from other S IIs popped up, along with some of our apps.

That’s no mistake or Photoshop trick. Netflix is preloaded on T-Mobile’s S II.

Netflix performed admirably once we logged into the app with our existing password.

In case Netflix doesn’t do it for you, or you require more entertainment on your smartphone, you may subscribe to watch T-Mobile TV, one of the many preloaded entertainment apps on this phone.

Indeed, T-Mobile touts its TV app and others in its own Bonus Apps section. This is an advertising component disguised as a widget built into the phone to present bloatware that users may or may not want.

One bonus app includes Zinio Reader, which provides access to color magazines.

Another is the popular Slacker Radio, which offers free access to streaming radio. This includes ESPN sports programming and millions of songs. The S II may not come with Facebook or Twitter for Android preinstalled, but it sure does have entertainment covered.

Like AT&T’s and Sprint’s S IIs, the T-Mobile S II comes equipped with the TouchWiz UI for customizable widget action.

Unlike AT&T’s and Sprint’s models, the T-Mobile S II comes strapped with near field communications (NFC) capabilities. Ideally, this means the phone could be used with Google’s Wallet mobile payment service.

Finally, the device comes with Qik for video chat, when paired with the S II’s 2MP front-facing video camera. Qik is always a pleasure to use on Android devices. The S II is no exception.