Wrekopi: 10 years ago, the Samsung Galaxy S2 changed my life in ways I couldn't imagine

On April 4th 2022, it will have been ten years since I bought my Galaxy S2 — the first Android smartphone I ever owned. Buying a phone felt like an insignificant decision, just a way to pass the time while I was stuck indoors with a broken foot for several months. Little did I know that buying that phone would be the first step toward a new goal in life.

My knowledge of mobile technology in 2012 was limited. At the time, I was using a Samsung Omnia Lite, which ran Windows 6.5, and I only bought it because I assumed that Microsoft's product would be superior to anything else. Once I realized just how wrong that assessment was, I put more effort into researching my next purchase, reading and watching reviews, and comparing multiple phones.

I narrowed my choices to two devices — the year-old Galaxy S2 and the six-month-old iPhone 4S. Both could be had for around the same price from Amazon, but ultimately the S2 won me over with its inclusion of a Micro SD slot. 16GB of internal storage wasn't going to hold all of my music in the days before streaming, and I wasn't going to pay extra for a 32GB iPhone.

The first things I noticed about the S2 was the massive 4.3-inch display and how ridiculously thin it was. The S2 was almost half the thickness of the Omnia, and it's still slightly thinner than my current Galaxy S22 Ultra. Things only got better as I switched the phone on, largely thanks to the capacitive touch screen. The old Windows phone still used a resistive panel and was a nightmare to use, so switching to a vibrant and responsive AMOLED display felt game-changing.

The move to Android was a marked improvement, too, with the Android Market offering thousands of apps I'd never seen before. Having a device in my hand that could quickly access any information I wanted, play all of my music, and take photos of my friends and family truly changed how I spent my day.

It was a preinstalled app that made a true impact in my life — Google+. I'd never used social media before, so this app I'd never heard of that came with my phone was an introduction to the wider world.

It was here that I started to follow Android Police and its founder Artem. I can only imagine how annoyed Artem must have been as I tagged him on screenshot after screenshot asking, "Is this new?" about a change to a Google app or new version of Android.

I started writing long posts about the phone and apps I used on Google+, and eventually, a friend I met on the site who invited me to write for a small blog he'd created called littlegreendude.com. Here I discovered my love of writing, and I'm proud of what we achieved, especially attending Google I/O Extended in London back in 2016.

Blogging on Google+ and LGD gave me confidence in my ability to the point I could finally work up the courage to ask Artem for a job here at the beginning of 2020. By this point, I'd finished studying Automotive repair at college, and it was obvious that my health wouldn't let me pursue that career. Joining AP was nerve-wracking and certainly not something I'd imagined doing when I opened a little black phone box back in 2012. But two years later, I'm glad this is where life brought me.

I wasn't the only person who bought and loved a Galaxy S2. By 2013 Samsung had over 40 million units--a huge number, even by today's standards. Of all the phones to launch in 2011, only one sold better than the S2 — the iPhone 4S.

I remember a friend of mine who worked in a Vodafone store at the time telling me about the moment his branch got a Galaxy S2 demo unit. It was the first phone that felt as fast in person as it looked in all the advertisements.

The S2 delivered a lot of phone for the money, but that wasn't the only reason it sold well. This device marked the start of Samsung heavily investing in marketing. It became infamous for releasing ads that mocked the iPhone and its users, and that all started here.

The advertisements are hard to watch now, but at the time, they were effective. One of the reasons the S2 made my shortlist of phones to buy is the number of ads I remember seeing back then. I'll never forget seeing "Transformers: Dark of the Moon" at the movies and watching the ad above play three times before the film began.

The Galaxy S2 is ancient at this point, but that hasn't stopped it from continuing to be a popular device. Two years ago, while I still worked in retail, I knew someone who used one as their daily driver. Besides the poor battery life, it was capable of everything they expected from a smartphone. The development community is going strong, too, with an Android 12 ROM being released in January.

After the Galaxy S2, I stayed with Samsung for a while until the S4 turned out to be a bit of a mess, and I switched to Nexus and Pixel phones instead. Even during those Google years, I'd still pay attention to Samsung's releases every year, hoping that the software problems that had driven me away would be fixed one day.

That finally happened in 2019 when I returned my Pixel 3XL for a Galaxy S10+, and I'm glad that I did. My Pixels were unreliable — I had enough warranty replacements to know my Parcelforce driver by name. Samsung had refined its bloated software into something enjoyable to use, just as my old Galaxy S2 had been. Since then, I've owned each Samsung flagship, and I don't see myself switching away again. These phones are well built, packed with useful and enjoyable features, and most importantly — reliable.

From a sixteen-year-old who'd barely ever used the internet to someone who spends almost all of his time connected to it, my life has changed a lot in ten years. Buying a Galaxy S2 opened up a world of possibilities that I couldn't have imagined back then, and looking at where I am today, I'm happy with how things turned out.