Google Nexus S review

Look:
Technology:
Performance:
Value for money:

Good: android 2.3 performance, super AMOLED screen, Pure Android, Good screen size, number of usability updates
Bad: No micro-SD card slot, low quality video camera, no HSPA, no HDMI/DLNA
Recommend: Yes

Googles Nexus S has already created much hype in the market just like other products of Google which are the talk of the town as soon as their announcement is made. Manufactured by Samsung, Nexus S has continued the legacy of Google for developing pure Android phones. As the market is already saturated with Android phones with even the manufacturer Samsung having developed a series of Android phones it really becomes difficult nowadays to review and differentiate these Android phones. But we can still say that Nexus S is definitely a different phone in many ways. Being a Pure Android mobile it is a blessing for developers and looks like Google intended it so rather than making a mainstream focus OS. Nexus S does not need to shout out loud about its power, the power shouts out itself, the phone is powered by a 1 GHz Hummingbird CPU, a 4 inch, 800-480 curved super AMOLED display, 512 MB of RAM, 16 GB storage, dual cameras- at the back of 5 Megapixel and at the front a VGA camera. But the bigger attraction than the hardware is the latest Android Operating system, Android 2.3 or the Gingerbread. This new android has some updated UI features.

Hardware of Google Nexus S

The design is quite inspired by Samsung Galaxy S. The frame is curved and sits nicely in the hand.If you see the front screen and glass properly you would notice a small concave curve which is given to give a natural and nice feeling when touching the mobile to your face.There is a small chin sprouting at the lower half which is given so as the handset adjusts properly in your hand.

Like all the Android phones except Motorola Charm is display is all screen except for the earpiece space.A closer look at the screen reveals the light and proximity sensor along with the VGA camera. On the bottom of the phone is the headset socket & the micro-USB port, on the left side is the volume rocker and on the right is the power button.Though it was unnecessary but looks like the developers have gone out of the way trying to make Nexus S sleek and different from other android mobiles even if they had to shift the ports away from its common position. Nexus S has been filled with different techs and their supports.Inspite of having  a small frame (2.48 inches by 4.87 inches and 0.42 inches thick)the handset is no small performance due to its 1 GHz Hummingbird processor. During general use we found the speed extremely fast and the Neocore benchmark has been clocked at 55.6fps.The 16 GB internal memory is enough for most users and being a flash memory in a latest Android phone the space usage is properly optimized but some would have definitely preferred a expandable memory option.

As the pictures tell you the Super AMOLED touchscreen looks nice though a bit of yellow. The resolution of he screen is 800x480 (235 ppi). There is also a digital compasss and gyroscope in it in addition to the regular high end Android phones of accelerometer, Wi-Fi, radio etc. What Samsung forgot is the blip system notification for a new email.

The display is mostly good with a few defects reported in th panel when introduced against certain colors specially solid gray colors. This problem might no be common and is maybe limited to some handsets only.

The NFC is write protected and thus you will only be able to read on smart-enable objects.

Audio of Google Nexus S

The audio is one of the best in the mobile phones we have reviewed. Music experience of the speaker is loud and clear and the sound quality and loudness on the earphone is unmatched. The sound is not only loud it is crystal clear so as that it will carry far even in noise. The call quality and network coverage we found were descent. On US networks the download speed can vary upto 2Mbps.

Camera of Google Nexus S

The photo quality was not as we expected. The camera is definitely not high quality with washed out and grainy images when the background was well lit. May be it is a defect in the ISO settings or possible that white color balance is not properly set.

In fact the images were better when the background was in low light with high detail. This was better than many smartphones we have reviewed.

We definitely didnt expect this but the video quality is not at all good, moreover the is no HD option. the highest quality video i was able to shoot was of 720x480 pixels. This is really a big disappointment.

The front camera being VGA I didnt expect much and was neither disappointed. The images were grainy and had extremely low resolution.

Battery Life of Google Nexus S

Nexus S has a 1500mA battery having a good 20 hour of life when used continuously like I did to review it. You can consider it will run more when compared for call time and even much more for standby time backup.

Software of Google Nexus S

Nexus is not making headlines because of its hardware it is the buzz because of its latest operating systemAndroid 2.3 Gingerbread.  Dont think that I mean a total new OS. Androids are upgraded not changed. Not all is changed in this latest Gingerbread Android. Also these changes are background changes which will improve more of your mobiles performance rather than for beautifying it. But there are definitely some notable upgrades and changes worth looking at.

User Interface of Google Nexus S

Google has made some changes for the cleaning up of the Android and has also added some tweaks which are appreciable. The display screen, more specifically the icons, windows shade and some other applications have been given a more mature and sophisticated look. The shades are now mostly black and grey colored them with a green highlight. Google has worked to improve the user experience as well. If you sync your Gmail account with your Nexus S then the status bar icon will go from green white color to green.

Another update is that when a list is more than one page long then when you will reach the end of the page the screen shows a burst of orange color. The menu has been made quite transparent making it look like glass on the background. You will be able to graphically monitor the processes going on your phone using the task manager and the battery meter is also graphical. Google has also added a menu option just on the task manager may be due to the popularity on third party apps to kill processes. If you are in a hurry it is quite a shortcut method to navigate.

Google has also provided with new live wallpapers but I personally recommend not using these on either your smartphone or even your PC as they eat up on the performance which could had rather fastened up your work.

One of the biggest changes Google has one is on the onscreen QWERTY keyboard, adding number of new functionalities like word suggestion, selection, copy and paste. Also, late then never, the company by use of a new threading technology has finally added the functionality for multi-touch behavior. This functionality will allow you to complete a word and slide your finger to the spacebar.  Maybe Google developers forgot one thing that after adding a symbol most people usually return to the ABC option so they should have automatically set this functionality which is present in other Operating Systems but here it just maybe slipped out of their minds! You would have to toggle to get back to the QWERTY again.

Nowadays all companies have made improvement in word suggestion during typing then how can we expect Google to remain behind? There are some good improvements in word suggestions including new markers to select from the various text options. But it still has a long way to go. Moreover the text selection option varies at different places. Like in the browser you have t first press for long to bring up the anchor, then drag to select and click in the middle to copy but when you want to edit text you need to first long press, then wait till the contextual menu pops up and then you have to click on select word. If you try to select in the messages then only the whole text will be selected and in Google reader it is worse, you just cant select!! If you thought the worse was over then wait, I am coming to it. In your email for selecting a text here is the process:-

• click the menu key,


• select "more,"


• select "select text,"


• finally drag a small cursor to select text

I have no doubt about the power of the new OS, it is just amazing but the finishing just need a bit better finishing.

New Apps for Google Nexus S

Not much has been added in this category but there are a few worth noting.
Tags which is a NFC app records all the links that you have collected at a single place. Just like email in Gmail you decide to whether to star it or delete it.
Another one is Download which collects the info about anything you have downloaded from the browser at a single place so that you can see it source, time or some other information later if you want. It is just similar to a download manager without the ability to download but with the ability to keep the info about all the download through the browser.

Under the Hood

As previously mentioned the most improvements in Android 2.3 or Gingerbread in not on the display but in the background.

First of all there is a integrated support for VoIP/SIP calling provided by Google through which you can access your favorite service directly from the native menus.  Though less people use it but there are those who will be impressed.

But what excites me the most is that it looks like Google has worked to make Gingerbread a full power gaming gadget. It has improved the OS with some new APIs and development tools which improve the support native code and it will ultimately lead to higher level games.