

Fred Wilson's Nexus S Review - davidykay
http://www.avc.com/a_vc/2010/12/nexus-s-review.html

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Supermighty
I was hesitant at first to get the Nexus S. It wasn't much better on paper
than the Vibrant Galaxy S I owned. So far I've been very happy. The experience
of a clean 2.3 install is amazing. The carriers are shooting themselves in the
foot by installing bloatware and the handset manufactures are shooting
themselves in the foot by modifying the skin.

I could have waited for 2.3 from Samsung but I lost faith in them. Too many
promises broken over time. TouchWiz is junkie and to much to support. Samsung
doesn't care about keeping the experience up to date, they'd rather I just buy
a new phone. So I'm voting with my dollars and getting a phone from someone
who will update it. (I do see the irony in that Samsung actually manufactured
the Nexus S)

But I also am apprehensive about the Nexus S. There is no Best Buy in my town
that sells T-Mobile service. I had to argue with the cell phone sales rep who
told me the only way to get one was to order online. Turns out they were in a
closet behind another box. How is a non-technical person going to behold the
beauty of such a phone when it's not even out on the show floor.

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51Cards
"...I love my Nexus One and was hesitant to replace it but the Nexus S looks
like the exact same phone, just better..."

Same phone? Really?

I was really looking forward to the S to replace my N1 but no matter how I
slice it I keep coming up disappointed on the hardware. No SD slot, no
trackball/touch-pad, no notification light, all items I use regularly. I
really want to continue the pure Google experience and immediate updates but
as of today I prefer the Desire Z specs over this phone by a significant
margin. I am feeling really torn so I'm going to keep the N1 for awhile I
guess.

~~~
drivebyacct2
I am surprised at the feature regression yet, my Droid has no trackpad, I have
never used the D-Pad, the same SD card has been in my phone for a year and
then some.

The notification light is a bummer though.

~~~
51Cards
i have to travel a lot and I load up the N1 with Movies, etc. for
entertainment on the road. 16 Gig internal is nice but it's just not quite
enough, not to mention to have to load it via USB (I pop the card out when I
want to put on large media). Even 8 Gig internal with an 32Gig capable SD slot
would have been a dream.

~~~
drivebyacct2
Yeah, I don't mean to encourage removing features like that, I just suspect
that most users don't mind or care and more importantly, I'm willing to
sacrifice a lot for some good ole pure AOSP with an unlocked bootloader.

~~~
51Cards
Yes, I suspect you're right. When I get a chance I will put one in my hand and
play with it for sure. I just really hoped the Nexus series of phones would
always imply 'no compromise / this is the new high bar'.

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SandB0x
To anyone looking to get a Nexus S in the UK:

The link from <http://www.google.co.uk/nexus/> takes you to:
[http://www.carphonewarehouse.com/mobiles/mobile-
phones/NEXUS...](http://www.carphonewarehouse.com/mobiles/mobile-
phones/NEXUS_S_FROM_GOOGLE)

Here, the Pay As You Go model is £549.95 and the Pay Monthly model is free
from £30/month with the usual low low usage caps (and in some cases apparently
no internet allowance included at all?).

However the sim-free model is a slightly more reasonable £430, on the same
website. The page is harder to find. I have absolutely no idea why anyone
would order the PAYG "model" (as in it's exactly the same phone) instead of
this + a free sim card from any provider.

[http://www.carphonewarehouse.com/mobiles/choose-
tariff/NEXUS...](http://www.carphonewarehouse.com/mobiles/choose-tariff/NEXUS-
S-FROM-GOOGLE/HANDSET/)

By the way, I've been using the giffgaff sim-only network for a month and
recommend you take a look. Unmetered internet usage is the big one.

~~~
bsk
Don't forget to go through quidco or top cash back ;-)

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dave1619
I tried a Nexus S demo phone the other day, and was disappointed (comparing it
with an iPhone 4). The Nexus (and most all Android) phones are jerky compared
with iOS. It's also not as responsive. An example, when I zoom in to a webpage
it takes a second to respond and then it zooms with a jerky motion. Android
doesn't seem to respond as fast to swipes as well. I've had the G1, Nexus One,
Evo 4g... and they've all been horrible to me. The biggest advantage Android
has over the iPhone is price and a wide selection of handsets. I'm hoping
Android 3.0 will bring a big design overhaul.

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zmmmmm
>An example, when I zoom in to a webpage it takes a second to respond and then
it zooms with a jerky motion.

I just sat here trying to reproduce that on _any_ normal web page and
couldn't, on my Nexus One. No matter where I go I get perfectly smooth zooming
synchronous while I'm pinching, no kind of lag or delay whatsoever. The only
place I got anything remotely like lag was by turning Flash on and going to a
flash heavy web site. I can't imagine that the Nexus S is worse than the Nexus
One.

Are you _sure_ you were really using a Nexus S?

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jsz0
Try loading up a dozen home screen widgets and running some memory/CPU
intensive things in the background. It really depends on exactly what you're
running. On my HTC Eris, which is of course a much slower phone, the phone is
basically unusable if Google Navigation is running. Every screen tap takes at
least twice as long to register so I have to mentally shift into a lower gear
to accommodate it.

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fredliu
I'm not sure the perceived "improvements" (especially regarding to the speed)
is due to hardware or software upgrades, as NS is still the only official 2.3
game in town.

Hardware wise, Nexus S doesn't have a spec that can totally blow you away. But
when N1 came, it was clear that N1 was the king, and it was so for quite a
while.

~~~
drivebyacct2
The speed improvements are both. Hummingbird is a crazy beast but the low
level touch improvements are showing. There is visible lag on my Mom's stock
Droid 2.2 phone with few apps. Running a preliminary build of CM+AOSP 2.3 on
my Droid is unbelievable. Same CPU speed, but my Droid now handles like a
Droid X. It's truly, truly crazy.

The UI enhancements are subtle but have a huge effect. This feels like a
bigger upgrade than 2.0 -> 2.2 was... (and this is just a AOSP build two days
after source was released).

~~~
Estragon
This is quite exciting. Do you have notes on how you installed 2.3 on your
droid? The lag from 2.2 drives me crazy, particularly when I go to the
homescreen. (It did force me to learn the keyboard shortcuts for switching
between applications, though.)

~~~
drivebyacct2
(Oh I forgot the new software keyboard rocks too).

Come to #koush. mtwebster has a very initial build. Google Apps won't apply
correctly, but there is also a link floating around to a rather large patch
that you can install after the initial build that gives you an old version of
Gapps, but the Market updated instantly and I got all updated Gapps.

I can see if someone has written something up yet, if not I can throw
something together, or, like I said, if you drop by #koush people will help
you.

~~~
Estragon
Thanks, I will definitely check koush out in a couple of days. (Traveling at
the moment, and can't afford to break my phone for now.)

~~~
drivebyacct2
Oh, well in that case, in a few days any info I'd give you would be out of
date. Better builds with better gapps will be available very very soon.

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kenjackson
The difference between the Nexus One and Nexus S is that when the Nexus One
came out not only was it the best spec'ed Android phone you could get, but it
would be the best spec'ed for some time.

While I think you can argue that the Nexus S is the best spec'ed Android phone
today (and I think there's an argument to be made against it, with phones like
the Epic 4G that includes 4G support, while the S doesn't have HSPA+, a really
odd omission), it seems pretty clear that this will be pretty short lived...
we've already seen leaks of phones like the Optimus 2X that will be out
shortly

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tvon
I feel like there isn't a lot of weight in being the best spec'd phone, seeing
as how it's generally a short lived title (as you point out).

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gcheong
Seems like much of this review is describing how, "once you get over problems
X, Y and Z", it's very close to being like an iPhone.

~~~
ghempton
All he said was that there is a higher learning curve to the bottom buttons
and that purchasing apps was slightly more difficult. All of this was in self-
contained in a single paragraph.

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pkulak
The lack of HD video recording absolutely blows me away. How could they
_remove_ features from the Nexus S line? Make the damn thing a half millimeter
thicker if you have to and it will still be thinner that the old version plus
a Flip video.

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tocomment
Is he saying a feature of the camera is tha t you can attach a shot of the
photographer into each photo eg using both cameras at once?

If so that's awesome.

~~~
Toucan
I think it's more likely that he means taking a photo of yourself is easier
with the front camera, as you can see the image on the screen as you do it.

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tocomment
So to buy this would I order one from best buy and then buy the tmobile
prepaid? The tmobile website seems to imply I need to activate a phone first?

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barake
Easiest way is to buy the device at Best Buy and then go to a physical
T-Mobile store and setup an account. Go prepaid or request the deprecated
"Even More Plus" plan - they still can set one up if you ask. Saves you about
$10/month.

~~~
bioweek
So prepaid works? They allow it? Also are there any issues with keeping my
AT&T phone number with the prepaid plan?

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barake
You shouldn't have any problem with porting (unless you're under contract) or
using a prepaid plan. "Even More Plus" plans are still available though no
longer advertised and may save you $10/mo.

Also consider the T-Mobile reseller Simple Mobile. $60/mo gets you "unlimited"
service.

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ryanto
I've been using the nexus s for a few days and I enjoy it. The biggest problem
I have is the lack of notifications. No blinking leds or anything.

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mr_november
NoLED app on market, check it out. Apologize for posting this twice in the
thread but I wanted you to see this suggestion if it is a big pain-point.

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joshu
Blah. I have a droid and I want to microwave it on a dail basis. Weird
crashes, wrong apps launch when i press their apps, etc.

~~~
drivebyacct2
Let me guess, running Motorola's stock ROM? I'm so sorry for you. Funny, my
mom uses her Droid all the time for gaming, emails, news, and doesn't even
manage to have the problems you're having.

"Wrong apps launch when I press their buttons". What? Come on, I've never
heard of that and have no idea how that would even be possible unless you're
using LP/ADW.Launcher's custom shortcut functionality...

EDIT: I think I know what people are referring to, especially after reading
one of the child comments here... when you are using an App, it can use an
Intent to launch an Activity of another application to provide some piece of
data. If you leave during that flow and come back to the original app... it
can appear that you are still in the secondary app launched by the first.

It's not the "wrong" app, you just left the application in an awkward place
and Android is trying to help you out.

~~~
joshu
Most frequently, I will hit the messaging app and it will go into Twitter,
rather than the SMS app. I am not sure that is the same thing.

~~~
jackowayed
I had something similar happen to me on my Incredible once or twice. I can't
remember if I hit Twitter and it went to GMail or vice versa.

It's odd that Twitter was involved for both of us. I wonder if they're doing
something weird ... though I don't know any
android.permission.CONQUER_OTHER_APPS permission in the API.

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martythemaniak
I liked the last paragraph. iTunes really is a terrible part of the iOS
experience.

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aristidb
I hope the Nexus S will be available in Germany and other countries. :)

