Any product is incomplete with its set of accessories and Samsung’s Galaxy S II is no different. We manage to get our hands on Galaxy S II’s official Desktop Dock, MHL Cable and an HS3000 Bluetooth Stereo Headset. HS3000 Bluetooth Headset.
HS3000 Bluetooth Headset
The HS3000 Bluetooth headset unlike most Bluetooth headsets we’ve seen, is a clip-on device and needs a regular set of 3.5mm earphones needs to be attached. Good thing is Samsung bundles it which are similar to the Galaxy S II’ in-ear earphones but without the line-in mic (as mic is integrated with the clip-on Bluetooth device). Packaged contents include the Headset, earphones, microUSB charger and different sizes of ear buds.
The headset itself is packed with buttons like the Call button on the front, volume buttons and music playback buttons covering the sides along with the Power On/off and Mode button. Mode button is nothing but to tweak preset equalizer settings to enhance music.
HS3000 uses Bluetooth 3.0 profile, apt-X codec and multi-pairing support. The audio quality is good if not best with the bundled earphones but since Samsung has integrated a 3.5mm headphone jack, you can easily integrate any headphones of your choice.
Finally the voice prompt is a handy feature but it’s a thing which you really wouldn’t miss if it were not present.
We’re awaiting the Indian price of the headset but it can be bought internationally for an equivalent price of around Rs. 2,100.
Desktop Dock
The Desktop Dock is one of the official accessories available for Galaxy S II (I9100). The Dock has a very simple design and allows using the phone in portrait as well as landscape mode. The Dock does not draw any additional power but has given the microUSB port and speaker line-in port in case a user wants to charge the phone or use an external speaker or headphones. There’s also a speaker grill located at the back to amplify the sound coming from the phone’s loudspeakers and volume buttons on the right side.
Good thing about this dock and the phone is that you don’t have to tell the Galaxy S II that it’s in a docked state. As soon as the phone is docked, the docking app automatically opens giving a somewhat large view of the time, date and weather. The dock app also shows a few app shortcuts at the bottom which you can hide if you want, remove or add new ones.
Desktop Dock goes for a price of around Rs. 2,000.
MHL Cable for TV-out
Galaxy S II is one of the few devices to support MHL (Mobile High-Definition Link). The advantage of MHL over other standards is that it helps to output HD content via the microUSB port of the device.
The design of the MHL cable for Galaxy S II is an interesting one. One end of the small cable is attached to the phone’s microUSB port, the other end has a normal HDMI port wherein you can put the HDMI cable attached to your HDTV.
The cable also has a spare microUSB port, which is quite instrumental in the cable’s working. To make the cable work, you need to charge the phone via this microUSB port. Failure to do this won’t allow you to start the connection. Although charging via an AC adapter is preferable, I used the TV’s integrated USB port and it worked just fine.
Just like Galaxy S II detected the docked state with the Desktop Dock, the phone will detect TV-out as soon as you’ve attached the necessary cables. Full HD videos work nicely as also playing Angry Birds on a large screen or watching YouTube videos. The setup is a no-brainer and works as is.
Unlike the original Galaxy S that supported TV-Out via the 3.5mm AV jack, Galaxy S II’s TV-Out works only via MHL, making it a must-have accessory if you watch a lot of HD movies from the phone.
The MHL cable is priced at Rs. 1,399.
nice, I definitely want the mhl when SGS II comes to the US
nice, I definitely want the mhl when SGS II comes to the US