Nahno McLein

(translation: choose the S2 if it needs be inexpensive, the sensation for design and the nexus if you like tech stuff)

People seem very happy with the Sense of the HTCs - I played with it from friends and was very impressed, too. Reviews also seemed to prefer this skin above all others. On the other hand, I don't know HTC that well whereas I had good experiences with Samsung phones.

I know they improved the battery for the XE but I heard many complaints about the predecessor concerning this. Three of my friends who have an HTC are content but they are all women and don't know much about the other choices. Not trying to make this a sexuality-based decision but the design of the HTC seems to be very female oriented. The Galaxys just seem a bit more in my direction.

From a conversation on facebook, I realised and was confirmed by Twitter entries that the Nexus is similar to the Iphone 4S full of glitches that are sure to be resolved fairly quickly. I also feel more comfortable with a sophisticated, proven version. Then the 4.65 screen of the Nexus - I think even that's too big for me; I do work my phones with one hand quite often. Everything feels a bit safer with SII - the physical button for example as I've never had a touch screen phone before. It's hard to trust in that right away.

The worst of the Nexus is still the camera. My cousin has the SII and was stunned by its performance camera-wise. It intrigued me. He also said the overal performance compared to earlier smartphones he's had is purely amazing. The Nexus is leading on tables now but I haven't heard similar statements about it from reviewers. The SII is simply outstanding which is maybe not the best way to go for a smartphone; however, it has ALL the features I want, so it seems like a perfect choice for me.

Additionally:

Samsung Galaxy SII is the cheapest one and as a student I have to look at that too. The HTC Sensation XE is available for 475 Euro and the Samsung Galaxy Nexus for about 529 Euro. The SII I can get for 399 Euro and maybe even cheaper when looking more into it.
A huge thing for me as well: you can get the SII in white and as most people will either already have the black SII or buy the Nexus for Christmas, I might have the advantage of standing out a bit with that one. Decision made, I think. And it feels good. Now I'm excited and want to buy it.