Google Nexus S

The Google Nexus One was a fine handset scuppered by Google's insistence on selling it solely through its own store – cue thousands of anguished message board posts from users starved of customer support. This, the first handset with Android 2.3, is hardly a radical update, but it is at least listed on Flipkart and Infibeam, which is better than shady grey market deals.

Design

The Nexus S has been built by Samsung, which knows a thing or two about hardware design, and Google's Android 2.3 OS is better than ever, so this has plenty of promise. However, while the plastickiness has been dialled back significantly compared to the Samsung Galaxy S, it still feels less weighty and looks less handsome than the iPhone 4.

The handset is “vanilla” Android and lacks the contact and social networking integration of third-party skins such as HTC Sense, although arguably it runs a little faster as a result.

Display

Generous without being oversized, the four-inch, 800x480 screen is exceptionally bright and sharp. AMOLED technology provides an excellent contrast ratio and reasonable viewing off-axis, while performance in daylight is actually better than on many LCD screens.

HD movie clips look particularly good, with impressive contrast. With a 1GHz Hummingbird processor and 512MB of RAM the Nexus S never feels sluggish. A dedicated graphics chip means no slow-down even while streaming content from YouTube. Flash videos have no issues with lag, although quality isn't always fantastic.

The touchscreen is generally very responsive too. On picture-rich websites, pinch to zoom can be a little sluggish but this is not an issue on the majority of sites. Still images taken with the five-meg camera are good without being fantastic. The flash does a decent job of illuminating dimmer rooms but the shutter isn't lightning quick and there's no dedicated camera button. The 720x480 video is less competent, being soft, blocky and generally disappointing.

Performance

Battery life on our sample was more impressive, easily lasting into a second day of web browsing, music playback and calls. Finally, Google's improved the virtual keyboard, with more space between the keys, more intelligent auto-correction and multi-touch support so you can quickly swap between numeric and alphanumeric keyboards.

Our verdict

SIM-free, the Nexus S is cheaper than the 16GB iPhone and offers a comparable if not quite equal experience. Its only problem is that the market is now awash with high quality Android handsets, and we're not convinced that an NFC chip and three-axis gyroscope are enough to turn heads its way. Still, as criticisms go, “Yet another excellent Android phone,” is hardly damning, is it?

Love - Very quick, excellent screen, slick interface

Hate - No microSD slot, no HD video capture, disappointing build for the price, manages to be hugely competent without being especially exciting

This material is translated or reproduced from T3 magazine and is the copyright of or licensed to Future Publishing Limited, a Future plc group company, UK 2011. Used under license. All rights reserved

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