Google first presented the Nexus series both in order to ease application programming to its own development teams and in order to sell mobile phones directly, without the need for outsourcing devices to mobile providers. The main characteristics of this series is the lack of “cosmetics” that manufacturers tend to ornate their phones with, exceptionally frequent updates to Android OS, as well as a certain feeling of owning an elite device. The first device in this series, Nexus One, saw the light of day on 5th January 2010, and Google’s manufacturer of choice for promoting it was HTC. Regardless of the qualities of this device when it appeared, it wasn’t greeted too warmly by the mainstream market, and was withdrawn during the course of last year.
However, Google didn’t cease to provide the buyers of this model with technical support and system updates, which made the fan base quite faithful. The announcement of the second generation of these devices stirred up the hive, even more so because of the fact that it was Samsung that was supposed to show what they can do this time around. The name of this new device is very cunning - Nexus S, implying that Samsung’s flagship model Galaxy S was used as the hardware base for this model, albeit with a few changes.
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The thing that definitely raises attention is the curved front surface, created by a very inventive and high-quality shaping process of the glass covering the display. The display itself isn’t curved, and by the time you’ve noticed this, you’ll also have noticed the first visible flaw of this device - the display isn’t Super AMOLED, but a much less attractive Super Clear LCD. Nexus S is a bit narrower, but also a bit thicker than Galaxy S, and for a good reason - unlike its predecessor, it has a flash next to the camera, the lack of which was the predecessor’s main flaw. The extra weight of only a few grams with a differently shaped device on the whole does wonders; Nexus S leaves an impression of a much more robust and compact phone. Below the display, one can find four sensor keys, with the additional key used for instant search, depending on the currently active application. These keys are not very bright, which is good in a dark environment, but not very much so under direct sunlight, which tends to make them barely recognisable. The side button layout has remained exactly the same, and as much as we liked the fact that the microUSB connector has been placed on the bottom, we disliked the fact that it’s right next to the 3.5 mm headphone connector, although this has more to do with our “usual ways” than any actual drawback. Under the cover, there’s a rather small battery, albeit thicker than usual, but with the same capacity. Surprisingly enough, there’s no extension slot for microSD memory cards. Although this decision is partially justified by the spacious internal memory, we prefer having the ability to extend it, even if we’re never going to actually use it. The materials used to manufacture the phone are very similar, which means that this phone keeps the epithets originally attributed to Galaxy S: attractive, elegant and with a penchant for fingerprints.
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Right after the very fast system bootup, we were greeted by the large display; a Super Clear LCD one, as we’ve already stated, as Samsung seems to have struck certain difficulties in manufacturing a sufficient number of Super AMOLED ones. As expected, the display is among better ones it its class, bright and with good viewing angles, but with a weaker contrast and a black that tends towards grey. Another thing was sacrificed for beauty as well - the glass is no longer of Gorilla-type, which makes it more sensitive to scratches and bumps. After the OS has been initialised, it becomes clear why this phone is Google’s pride. Firstly, it uses the latest version of Android OS, 2.3.3, codenamed Gingerbread. The most pronounced changes are visual ones - menu icons aren’t overly colourful as usual, but instead uniformly grey. There’s no “manufacturer-optimised” custom launcher, which will be a plus to many, although the stripped-down UI may seem poor to some. Tiny details are many, such as the effect when the display turns off (simulating the way those old CRT TV sets used to turn off), or the display edge behaviour when you’ve reached the end of the list. The phone is extremely fast, responds to all commands in the blink of an eye, and most importantly, didn’t show any bugs throughout the testing process. We were somewhat surprised by the rather poor software package, as neither Adobe Flash nor a video player were preinstalled. Naturally, all this is quickly made up for by visiting Android Market, and works flawlessly afterwards. The funny thing is that the YouTube app did come preinstalled. Google’s products are Google’s products, after all.
