

Phone Review » Nexus S » Ugly, Buggy, Slow - jph
http://sixarm.com/about/phone-review-nexus-s-ugly-buggy-slow.html

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runjake
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.

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nuclear_eclipse
As a point of disagreement, coming from the Nexus One, other than the comment
about the phone feeling a bit cheap due to the plastic body, everything else
on the phone seems fantastic.

The screen is beautiful, responsive, and I don't see any fishbowl effects. The
curve of the screen is actually really nice because it both makes it easier to
reach the top of the screen and makes it noticeably more comfortable when
making calls. The colors on the screen are amazing: the black notification bar
even matches the black housing so well that it literally looks like the
notification icons are displayed on the plastic shell rather than the screen
itself.

To me, the Nexus S is noticeably faster than the Nexus One, in both software
and network speed, and I rarely notice any jitters. I've made plenty of calls
with the phone already and have never had the dialog error he describes. All
of the hardware buttons work perfectly fine for me, so if he does indeed have
a broken phone, that shouldn't be a knock against the Nexus S itself, only
Samsung. And how is lacking tech support (which is par for the course with
Google-designed phones) being listed under "buggy"?

~~~
metageek
> _And how is lacking tech support (which is par for the course with Google-
> designed phones) being listed under "buggy"?_

It increases the impact of the bugs.

~~~
runjake
It does? I think you'll have better luck reporting bugs and getting them
resolved with the Nexus S than you would with say a Verizon Droid X where
you've got to 1) figure out WHO you report the bug to as an end user, and 2)
ensure it makes its way through the hall of fingerpointing so that it will get
to an engineer who can fix it.

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ditojim
This article is amateur hour. Let me show you...

This is one of the examples given why the nexus s is "Ugly":

"The software has a pervasive lime green and flourescent orange color theme.
Some people may like this; I personally prefer more subtle colors and will
change the theme."

And here is one on why it is "Buggy":

"Tech support is non-existent so far. T-Mobile doesn't support this phone
because it's a Best Buy exclusive, but Best Buy just says "you'll need to ask
Google"."

And finally one of the reasons it is "Slow":

"T-Mobile says my Nexus S needs service to fix the broken Home button, which
means mailing the phone to Google and waiting for Google to mail back a
replacement phone. This could take several days or more, which is much slower
than a normal same-day in-store T-Mobile replacement."

~~~
bad_user
What do you mean it's amateurish?

Writing style != the importance and truth value of points made. So is he wrong
or not?

Btw, color theme, look and feel, tech support, service: all of them important.

~~~
mcknz
There's not enough here to draw your own conclusions about the phone -- it is
simply a personal reaction and reads as such. Better reviews are more
detailed, and balance the pros and cons to make a recommendation one way or
the other.

~~~
yardie
I've read a lot of reviews of tech. Basically, if the device breaks down
during the review that is what gets written. Then it's up to the PR or someone
in the company to get a replacement out right now. This is how it is at
Consumer reports, Engadget or NYT.

------
fredoliveira
I have one main point that bothers me about 99% of multitouch phones they're
making these days (and the reviewer says this is present on the Nexus S too):
they still haven't figured out scrolling properly. How can it be that my first
iPhone had stellar scrolling with no real slowdown, and so many years later no
competitor product seems to have nailed it also?

~~~
mberning
This is absolutely my #1 complaint about android after going from an iPhone to
a nexus one. Even though the hardware is probably 4x more powerful than my old
iPhone, the scrolling still manages to be significantly slower and less
accurate. With the iPhone the illusion is complete - that your finger is
connected to something physical that you can move effortlessly. With android
you are acutely aware that you are working with a rough approximation of
something physical. It may or may not behave as you intend.

~~~
thristian
I assume Apple got there first and filed as many patents as they could.

~~~
bad_user
That hasn't stopped Google from adding multi-touch.

Another thing that bothers me is that many (expensive) phones feel like being
made from cheap plastic.

So I'm inclined to believe that many phone makers are just clueless imitators.

~~~
moe
_Another thing that bothers me is that many (expensive) phones feel like being
made from cheap plastic._

That's because they _are_ made from cheap plastic.

I'd really love to know why on earth they don't use better materials on all of
their high-end phones.

I mean, sometimes they get it right and use a nice rubberized material. And
then they blow it again, like on the Galaxy S where the plastic back-over is a
harsh insult to the otherwise excellent hardware.

Is that rubberized plastic really so much more expensive?

You don't need to reach to the expensive glass or metal to make a phone feel
less like a kids toy!

------
EastSmith
I am going to change my HTC Hero soon and read lot's of reviews for new
Android phones. Am I the only one who sees the title of this review plain
WRONG?

Ugly? Does not seems to be ugly to me.

Buggy? 1st problem is with T Mobile, 2nd and 3rd are some bugs which every new
OS release has(this is first Gingerbread phone), 4th problem is well - not a
problem.

Slow? 1) Scrolling - perhaps software fix. 2) T-Mobile 3) 3G or 4G - when you
buy the phone I suppose you know you are buying 3G phone, no?

~~~
bad_user
If you've got your own opinions nobody is going to convince you otherwise :)

Personally I don't like the look and feel of Galaxy S, and I guess this phone
is no different.

~~~
andybak
Well I would say 'significantly different' from the pictures I've seen. Same
materials used though so you might have a point there.

------
CrazedGeek
Another review, which calls it "the best Android device available right now":
<http://www.engadget.com/2010/12/10/nexus-s-review/>

------
brown9-2
_Tech support is non-existent so far. T-Mobile doesn't support this phone
because it's a Best Buy exclusive, but Best Buy just says "you'll need to ask
Google"._

This could be a really big problem for the phone - sounds like the same exact
tech support woes that lots of Nexus One owners reported. In 2010 how do
companies not realize how detrimental it is to the customer experience to not
provide an easy, clear way to get support for a product?

 _The data speed is terribly slow compared to the other new T-Mobile phones
like the MyTouch 4G. This is because the Nexus S uses the older, slower
network (3G-speed HPSA) whereas the MyTouch 4G uses the newer, faster network
(4G-speed HPSA+)._

Don't you need to pay extra each month for T-Mobile's 4G/HPSA+?

~~~
chapel
No it is just apart of their network, if you are in the area that has it, you
get it for free if your phone supports it.

As far as support, I agree it is an issue but not one for me. I love my Nexus
One and have had no issues, but then again I am not a typical user and
honestly without a more mainstream approach the Nexus phones aren't meant for
regular users.

------
peregrine
Samsung does not know how to make phones. I got burned bad on the Galaxy S and
this one looks like a continuation of that line.

~~~
nhoj
What was it that you didn't like about it?

~~~
peregrine
For one the plastic casing was as cheap as you can get. I dropped my phone
once while getting out of my car less then a foot off the ground and the thing
looked like I threw it against the wall.

Second the gps did not work, this was not an uncommon issue, so uncommon that
T-Mobile replaced my phone no questions asked for a G2.

Third the software they put on the phone, while not an issue for this phone,
was slow, buggy and hard crashed my phone at least once a week. This coming
from the G1, running community build roms, which hard crashed maybe twice in
the 2 years I owned it.

~~~
keltex
Here's a fix for the GPS problem:

[http://cellphonesignal.net/google-nexus-s-a-gps-system-
leaks...](http://cellphonesignal.net/google-nexus-s-a-gps-system-leaks-
sometimes.html)

~~~
peregrine
Thats interesting the Nexus S has the same issue. And while this fix put a
band-aid on the problem it in no way fixed the issue at all. And sometimes it
actually made it worse.

