How to take a Screenshot on a Samsung Galaxy S2 with ICS

When the Samsung Galaxy S2 first came out it was using the "Gingerbread" version of Android since then however the Galaxy S2 has been updated to "Ice Cream Sandwich" (or ICS). Whilst the update to ICS was a pretty big step forward it also changed a few things about how the phone operated, notably how a user took a screen shot.

 Originally to take a screen shot with the Samsung Galaxy S2
 a user had to press the Home Button and then swiftly press the power button, as described in our original guide.

Now however the user needs to press and hold both the volume down and the power button for around 2 seconds. After doing this the phone screen will "flash" and you will get a message like the one in the screen shot on the right with the phrase "Saving Screenshot..."  This means your screenshot is taken.

A few seconds after the "Saving" message you will see a new message saying "Copied to clipboard" then you are all done and the image is saved. From here you can either "Paste" the image into an e-mail or message (as long as it's still in your clipboard) or go into your gallery and find the "Screenshots" folder, where the screenshots will now be stored in.

Note-This isn't as easy as the old method, so you may find yourself needing practice. The best advice is to hold both buttons until the screen flashes, if the volume shows on the screen however try again.

How to take Screen Captures with the Samsung Galaxy S2

Although it's not a necessity for most, some phone users do ask “is it possible to take a screen shot of my phone?”

The answer is simple. Most of the time it is indeed possible to take print screens or screen captures of mobile phones. Depending on the actual phone however you may need to find yourself doing very different things. Most phones require you to download a computer program and have the phone and computer connected by a USB cable to use your computer to take the screen capture. This is how many websites take the screen captures for things like phone reviews and showing off features.

Rather than looking at the overly complex system involved in what the programs do we will look at how Samsung phones take screen captures. This feature has been in the most recent Samsung's including the Samsung Wave and now the highly acclaimed Samsung Galaxy S2. The way the Samsung phones take screen shots, or as they are known by some as "screen captures" or even "print screens",  is incredibly simple and is actually an in-built feature that seems to be lacking in almost all the other phones.

By holding the “Home” button and pressing the “lock” button at the same time you will manage to use the secret “Screen capture” function of the phone which will take a print screen of the phone exactly how it is. The quality of this is far superior to using another phone (or camera) to take a picture and for people who want to use a picture of the screen this is an almost valuable tool.

If you are successful when you try the phone will vibrate and a message will appear on the phone saying “Screen captured. Saved as image file”. These image files can be found very easily on the phone by looking in the Screen Capture folder of the phone for use later on.

Quick tips:
If at first you find your phone locking or going to the menu just try again.
Hold the "home" button for a slight moment before pressing the lock button (to stop the phone from locking)

Hopefully this guide will help you take screen captures with your Samsung Galaxy S2 smartphone.

Edit:
I've noticed a few people finding this place through google (hi folks) with one person googling "Screen capture directory"

The directory will be something along the lines of Computer\GT-I9100\Phone\ScreenCapture when connected to a Windows 7 computer. On the phone by it's self they can be found in Gallery\ScreenCapture. Hope that helps you with making the screen capture function of the Samsung Galaxy S2 as useful as it is for me.

For those wanting to know about the quality of image from a screen capture all the pictures of the Samsung Galaxy S2 screens have been done via this method of screen capturing.