Re:Phone Review » Nexus S » Ugly, Buggy, Slow
by runjake on Friday December 17, 2010 @12:53PM
(#2016998)
I spend quality time with many phones. I've had a good amount of time to mess with nearly every flagship Android phone out there. I normally use an iPhone 4, but obtained a Nexus S. It's fantastic.
- Noticeable faster than the Nexus One/Droid Incredible/Droid X/myTouch 4G, perhaps due to 2.3 or the hardware, who knows. The one thing it makes clear to me is that not all 1 ghz Android devices are the same, or even similar in performance. Android and apps seem to be taking Apple's lead and tapping the GPU and other coprocessors more and more.
- It's a very attractive device to me, but I like minimalist design. It doesn't feel cheap at all, but I can see how people used to the iPhone 4 could feel that way.
- The curved screen isn't really a selling point, but it's a nice aesthetic and it fits your face better when on a call.
- I think that technically, it's thicker than the iPhone 4, but it seems thinner to me, perhaps due to the rounded edges.
- The display is beautiful. The Retina display doesn't compare at all. The NS's colors are beautiful and the added 0.5" screen size really helps. As an aside, the screen seems closer in size to the iPhone as opposed to a 4.3" device like the Droid X or Evo.
- It doesn't feel cheap to me at all, but I can see where other people used to the iPhone 4 are coming from.
- The Android keyboard is still far behind the iPhone's. Far. Fortunately, I have the Swype Beta and it works great on the Nexus S. I think Swype blows away everything else, including the iPhone keyboard. It's hard convincing my brain that Swype doesn't count as a killer app.
- I have not experienced any lag whatsoever. The thing is a rocket.
- No AT&T 3G sucks, but I'm rarely out of wifi range and don't listen to streaming media on the go. I save on battery life (3G uses more power). That said, if an AT&T 3G version came out, I'd Ebay this in a heartbeat and get it, if only for infrequent tethering.
- Google Maps/Navigation works wonderfully on EDGE due to the new vector-based scheme. Formerly, on other devices, EDGE couldn't always keep up in Google Nav, so I'd be driving across a blank screen.
- No LED for notification. This probably won't bug iOS users a lot, but it'd be nice to have. Many people suggest NoLED as an alternative, but I found it inelegant and uninstalled it.
- Text input on Android is still a mess. How you copy/paste or select text, or in some cases type depends on the app you're in. It's not even sane across Google apps.
- The camera photos are adequate. You can take a good picture of an 8.5x11" piece of paper and read all the text. It's not as good as the iPhone 4, though. Autofocus could improve slightly. The camera (and video camera) perform pretty well in low light.
- I like that the search button is usually contextual in the app you're in.
- Google Maps. The iPhone currently cannot compete at all.
- Overall I'm left with the impression that this is a more capable device than the iPhone. I can do a whole lot more with it.
- Battery life is very good. Not quite as good as what I get with the iPhone 4 but very close. It's very good, unlike the mytouch 4g, Evo, Incredible, etc.
- According to a Google engineer's tweet, this device is not capable of 720p video. The SoC isn't capable, and there wasn't enough room on the board to add a media processor. If I find the direct link, I'll update this post. The 480p video is very smooth, and I assume 30fps. It's very smooth, unlike the crappy 20-25fps of many other Android devices.
- Again, no AT&T 3G like the T-Mobile Vibrant is oddly capable of. I'm using my AT&T micro-SIM is a DIY adapter, but I've also tried an AT&T SIM from an Android device. The Vibrant's trick ain't working here.
- As of now, NFC is completely useless. You can turn it off, much like wifi, its a checkbox in the settings. Yeah sure, NFC will be on every phone in a year, but I have no desire to further integrate myself with advertisers, and at a time when I'm considering using cash instead of my debit card, e-payments aren't all that attractive either. At some point, I hope some interesting hacker/maker projects bubble up to make this useful.
- At this point, it's not clear to me how NFC tags are better than QR codes. I can post or reproduce QR codes anywhere, even on the web. I don't have to be at a specific physical location to scan it. For now, I'll just stick with QR codes.
I'd be happy to answer any questions people have, drop me a reply.
- Noticeable faster than the Nexus One/Droid Incredible/Droid X/myTouch 4G, perhaps due to 2.3 or the hardware, who knows. The one thing it makes clear to me is that not all 1 ghz Android devices are the same, or even similar in performance. Android and apps seem to be taking Apple's lead and tapping the GPU and other coprocessors more and more.
- It's a very attractive device to me, but I like minimalist design. It doesn't feel cheap at all, but I can see how people used to the iPhone 4 could feel that way.
- The curved screen isn't really a selling point, but it's a nice aesthetic and it fits your face better when on a call.
- I think that technically, it's thicker than the iPhone 4, but it seems thinner to me, perhaps due to the rounded edges.
- The display is beautiful. The Retina display doesn't compare at all. The NS's colors are beautiful and the added 0.5" screen size really helps. As an aside, the screen seems closer in size to the iPhone as opposed to a 4.3" device like the Droid X or Evo. - It doesn't feel cheap to me at all, but I can see where other people used to the iPhone 4 are coming from.
- The Android keyboard is still far behind the iPhone's. Far. Fortunately, I have the Swype Beta and it works great on the Nexus S. I think Swype blows away everything else, including the iPhone keyboard. It's hard convincing my brain that Swype doesn't count as a killer app.
- I have not experienced any lag whatsoever. The thing is a rocket.
- No AT&T 3G sucks, but I'm rarely out of wifi range and don't listen to streaming media on the go. I save on battery life (3G uses more power). That said, if an AT&T 3G version came out, I'd Ebay this in a heartbeat and get it, if only for infrequent tethering.
- Google Maps/Navigation works wonderfully on EDGE due to the new vector-based scheme. Formerly, on other devices, EDGE couldn't always keep up in Google Nav, so I'd be driving across a blank screen.
- No LED for notification. This probably won't bug iOS users a lot, but it'd be nice to have. Many people suggest NoLED as an alternative, but I found it inelegant and uninstalled it.
- Text input on Android is still a mess. How you copy/paste or select text, or in some cases type depends on the app you're in. It's not even sane across Google apps.
- The camera photos are adequate. You can take a good picture of an 8.5x11" piece of paper and read all the text. It's not as good as the iPhone 4, though. Autofocus could improve slightly. The camera (and video camera) perform pretty well in low light.
- I like that the search button is usually contextual in the app you're in.
- Google Maps. The iPhone currently cannot compete at all.
- Overall I'm left with the impression that this is a more capable device than the iPhone. I can do a whole lot more with it.
- Battery life is very good. Not quite as good as what I get with the iPhone 4 but very close. It's very good, unlike the mytouch 4g, Evo, Incredible, etc.
- According to a Google engineer's tweet, this device is not capable of 720p video. The SoC isn't capable, and there wasn't enough room on the board to add a media processor. If I find the direct link, I'll update this post. The 480p video is very smooth, and I assume 30fps. It's very smooth, unlike the crappy 20-25fps of many other Android devices.
- Again, no AT&T 3G like the T-Mobile Vibrant is oddly capable of. I'm using my AT&T micro-SIM is a DIY adapter, but I've also tried an AT&T SIM from an Android device. The Vibrant's trick ain't working here.
- As of now, NFC is completely useless. You can turn it off, much like wifi, its a checkbox in the settings. Yeah sure, NFC will be on every phone in a year, but I have no desire to further integrate myself with advertisers, and at a time when I'm considering using cash instead of my debit card, e-payments aren't all that attractive either. At some point, I hope some interesting hacker/maker projects bubble up to make this useful.
- At this point, it's not clear to me how NFC tags are better than QR codes. I can post or reproduce QR codes anywhere, even on the web. I don't have to be at a specific physical location to scan it. For now, I'll just stick with QR codes.
I'd be happy to answer any questions people have, drop me a reply.