My google nexus s review

[tousif]

Its time for the review.. Its time for me to review my GOOGLE NEXUS S..
I spend a week with my nexus s and m overall happy wid my phone..
Lets start wid the review.

1. 1st comes the design.. I don’t know y many people doesn’t like the curved display of nexus s.. but I loved it a lott and m very happy wid the design of my phne. The phone overall looks very good

2. 2nd comes the display. I haven’t seen the AMOLED display till nw. so I wont be able to say the diffrnce between AMOLED and S-LCD. But for me I m happy wid the display of my phone. It’s very clear and feels real. And sunlight visibility is also good. I kept the phone on auto-brightness mode and I don’t hv any problem with the display..its good at all times. Touch response is damn good in the phone. But I didn’t like the home button in the screen when we go to menus. We have a capacitive home button so y v need an extra home button on screen. It cud have saved some space and 4 more menus cud b seen at a time.

3. 3rd comes the android. Preinstalled plain vanilla gingerbread looks good. And I got preinstalled 2.3.3 and vry 1st day itself I got updated to 2.3.4. I love the android and its usability. Don’t know how sense UI in htc works but plain android is not bad too. Its good.

4. 4th is the voice quality. Nexus s is nt dumb. It has a good volume. Bt as far as I saw Samsung phones are not much louder. At 50% of volume u wont hear anything. And as u increase above 50% then u start hearing a bit. At max nexus s performs good. Earpiece volume is also fine using with the provided earbuds. But I tried als with my apple headphones and it performed much better with it. I installed equilizer app and voice quality improved a bitt.

5. 5th is the camera. Though u r not given with the zoom option but the clearity of camera is good enough to tke nrmal pics..

6. 6th is applications. Nexus s being a google phone doesn’t come with many inbuilt apps. So u need to download them from very first day. The first 2 apps u need to download to ur phone and which are very essential are “advanced task killer(ATK)” and “apps2sd”. These are the must have apps. Ithout them its hard to survive. ATK helps u a lott to free ur Ram or else u vl find urself getting lagged in no time. When v talk of apps I didn’t liked the inbuilt messaging feature. It didn’t give any enter key while typing. So I installed “go sms pro” a damn good messaging app. It has lots of functions which inbuilt memory app don’t have.

7. Next comes the memory. It comes inbuilt with 16gb of memory. But in real 1gb is internal memory wherein the apps are installed at times and rest 13.3gb usb storage. 16gb is more than enough for me coz I don’t c any videos and also m not a big fan of music.

8. I think there shud have been extra 256mb of ram coz 512mb ram is divided betn cpu and gpu. And in one hour or so u vl c some background apps getting strted automatically and eating ram. So u need to keep freeing ur ram regularly. I don’t know y apps get strted in background everytime. I tried many ways to stop them frm strting but still cant get it done. Can anyone help me in that. One thing I noted today is ur ram keeps getting low and low even if u keep stopping the apps. So atlast I hd to restrt my phone to get the necessary ram back.

9. I wont be rooting my phone for nw coz I m waiting for next uptate i.e ice cream sandwich. Vl b intresting to c wat more features will b included in the update.

10. I would like to tell about the signal strength nw. network signal is always good. But the wifi signal strength of the phone sucks. Even at the same room whre my wifi modem is kept the phone doesn’t shows full signal.. and it constantly keeps going up and down. I wud like to say that my apple ipod performs much much bettr.. the signal strntg is best of my ipod and it works great.

11. The most imp thing is battery backup. At 1500mh the battery performs damn gud. If u use ur phone just for calls and sms(i.e 10-12 calls per day and 100-200 msgs a day) then u surely vl get backup of more than a day. So overall the phone has a gud battery backup.


So the conclusion is that NEXUS S is overall a very gud phone with decent battery backup and plain vanilla android. It lacks in the radio which can be activated thru custom roms.

Personally I liked the phone very much bt I must say that if GOOGLE NEXUS ONE was 10 step ahead of the competition NEXUS S is just a single step ahead.

Hey guys suggestions are alwys welcome.. i know that i didnt say everythng abt the phone. but m not professional so thts all i cud say for nw.

Help me to love my NEXUS S more and more…and also help me wid apps tht I cud install to improve the usabilty.

[dharmil007]

nice 1
repped.

As far aS the RAM goes, i Have heard from revies that in NexuS s which has GingerBread manages the RAM perfectly, u wont get any Lag times & any hiccups in phone.
dId u experience any Hiccups/lAg ????

& i Havent heard any WiFi issue for NexuS s, i Think that maybe there mayBe some problem in ur Router or Mobile.

[tousif]

@dharmill007
i guess m not the only one to complain abt the wifi issue, chek it out here

Nexus S WIFI Issue - Google Mobile Help

and yup phone lagged once aftr a week of use.so i restarted it.and it was ok then.

[dharmil007]

@dharmill007
i guess m not the only one to complain abt the wifi issue, chek it out here

Nexus S WIFI Issue - Google Mobile Help

and yup phone lagged once aftr a week of use.so i restarted it.and it was ok then.

tHNx buddy f0R this help.
Now i m ThinkinG taht should i but it or not ??
& moreover there is no other phone as good as NexuS s in 20k price bracket

[hotshot05]

Dont use Task Managers too much for Android 2.2 and above.
The android subsystem keeps the Applications in memory so that when the user starts it again, the app can be started very fast. Android is built like that.
The apps which are kept cached in memory, they remain there in suspended state. So they don't even eat battery.

[tousif]

@dharmill007
i still think at 20k this is the phone u shud get.
if u wont b using wifi frequently or even if u vl use the wifi with the router not very far away then it very gud.
coz even if the wifi signals were up and down i cud easily and fastly browse thru web.

[sinoop_joy]

tousif,
Do you have the store's seal or anythinng written on the Samsung Warranty leaflet ?

[red dragon]

You DO NOT need ATK to free up RAM.
Does it play mkv or xvid/divx out of the box?
Can you install 3rd party media players like mobo player?

[sinoop_joy]

divx n mkv are not supported natively.

Bt you can install mobo player or rock player or any other player from android market.

[tousif]

@sinoop
Wat do u mean by stores seal?? R u talking abt the sealed box??
And no nothngs written on warranty leaflet...

[dharmil007]

@dharmill007
i guess m not the only one to complain abt the wifi issue, chek it out here

Nexus S WIFI Issue - Google Mobile Help

and yup phone lagged once aftr a week of use.so i restarted it.and it was ok then.

did u try going to the samsung store for this kinda issue ???
i m sure they would have something to tell about this issue

@ sinoop_joy
did u also experience WiFi issues with NexuS s ????

You DO NOT need ATK to free up RAM.
Does it play mkv or xvid/divx out of the box?
Can you install 3rd party media players like mobo player?

then how do u free RAM if the fone lags ??

[tousif]

@dharmill

no i didnt goto samsung store or service centre for this...
vl i get the solution thre? i dont thnk so

[dharmil007]

@dharmill

no i didnt goto samsung store or service centre for this...
vl i get the solution thre? i dont thnk so

i Think u will
or
atleast not the solution then u will get an answer to waht this dump people samsung are saying !!
But i Think giving a visit to samsung is worth a try


& moreover one of my friends also has NexuS s, he tells that he doesnt have any problem with WiFi, he is 24hrs on WifI & never faces any problem

[tousif]

@sinoop
Dont worry abt the warranty card very much.
I cnfirmed with ebay india... just go to ur nearest service centre along with warranty card,bill and phone and get the seal from service centre..go within 2weeks.

[sinoop_joy]

^ thanks tousif for the info..
I did ask samsung about this and they said for online purchases, they dont want that store's SEAL/STAMP.
Nyway i'll go to the service centre. I dont trust samsung guys that much (Dnt know why).


@dharmil007:
I too face some problems with the wifi range like tousif. But i can't confirm on that. Cauz the router i have is a b/g one from BSNL only. I dont have any other router to test

Note: My Micromax Q75 also shows similar signal strengths for the same points.

[tousif]

hey sinoop_joy
hows ur phone doing.. and r u happy wid the phone.. do share ur exp with phone and apps u installed..
and btw are u gonna root ur phone

[sinoop_joy]

Phone is K. And i love it.
But just today i had a problem with the camera. It froze for some time and display went off for sometime. Some photos i clicked were missing when i checked.
And the camera quality is not that par.

Also at times i get slow response cauz of the low memory.


And about the apps, currently i'm trying out most of the free apps out there.
I started with the list you mentioned in the review.

And i must say Go SMS is one must have app.

Multimedia : Audio
Winamp
Songbird
Itag

Multimedia : Video
Rock Player
MX Video Player


Keyboard:
Better Keyboard 8

System tools:
apps2sd
Advanced task manager

Office tools:
Evernote
PDF


Phone management:
Contact analyser 2(Another useful app. I dont have to manually search for duplicates or have to manually merge 2 contacts)

Utilities:
XE Currency

Camera App:
FXcamera

Connectivity Options:
Wifi File Transfer
My phone Explorer


File Explorer:
FS Explorer

Tasks:
Taskos

Browsers:
Firefox
Opera

Antivirus:
ESET Mobile Security RC


Games:
(Ohh no.. I dont wanna type that long list )


And, first i thought i wont root for the first few months. But now with the problems i face with the low memory and the need for installing some apps, i think i'll root soon.


tousif,
Do you use any Screen guards ?
I dont wanna compromise my oleophobic coating and the nice display by using screenguards. But i dont wanna make any scratches too. (Confused whether i should get any screenguards or not)

Share your app list too. And do tell me if u r also facing any camera issues.

[dharmil007]

O my god.
Such a lot of issues with Nexus S
i M totallly confused now .

Since there no thread to disccuss & share experience of Nexus S
i Think that this sohuld be made Official thread for Nexus S users

for the users of Nexus S to share & discuss theier experience, bugs, apps, games & lots more.

what say ?????

[tousif]

@sinoop


No i didnt face any problm wid d camera till nw...my camera is workng fine
And i hve a long list of games installed in my phone..for nw i hv a total numbr of 22games installed.till nw.
@dharmill
Yaa it shud be official nexus s thread..so tht nexus s users can discuss thr problems and experience...

[a2mn2002]

hows the battery life ?

[tousif]

Batery life is gud u can say... for a nrml user the battery vl long atleast upto 30hrs..with jst textng and calls and a bit of browsing

[sinoop_joy]

^same here..

Hey tousif, which keyboard do you use ?
I just replaced mine to Smart Keyboard. It is a nice keyboard. You should try it out

Also did you try any HD videos ?
Which player you use ?
I tried some player and most of them had problems with mkv file. The only one stood out was MX video Player in s/w decoding(fast mode).
can u suggest any better one ?


Test file info:
*** VIDEO INFO ***
Input Type : AVC1(GVC)
Input Size : 1280 x 544
Output Type : YUY2
Output Size : 1280 x 544
FrameRate(Frame/sec) : 0.00 (24.00)

*** AUDIO INFO ***
SampleRate(Sample/sec) : 48000
BitRate(Bit/sample) : 16
Channels : 6
KBitRate(KBit/sec) : 0

It was a 720p bluray rip file.

[red dragon]

Did you try mobo player?

[reddead]

hey where can i get a nexus in 20k???
needed one for diwali but it is out of stock everywhere!
local vendors selling it for a 20k ++ price

[sinoop_joy]

@red dragon:
Yeah.. I did...
but as i said the only player that managed to play that file without much lag was MX player.

@reddead:
Me and tousif bought it from here...

BRAND NEW SAMSUNG NEXUS S WITH VAT PAID BILL + WARRANTY | eBay

You may consider this one.
Place the order soon. This guy sold 10 phones within a day @Rs.19450 :-O.

[sinoop_joy]

Did u try this ?

New Nexus S 2.3.6 OTA Update Rolling Out (GRK39F), Reportedly Fixes Tethering - Here Is How To Install It Manually

2.3.6 manual update...

[tousif]

Sorry guys I was out of town frm many days so cudnt catch up wid u
Btw I got 2.3.6 OTA update....
Dont knw exactly wat has changed in my phone bt for sure I can say it has improved my wifi connection.

M using swpke keyboard ryt nw. And m hpy to upgrade it over the given keyboard. Letters are big nw and I do less typing mistakes coz of it

Is thre any way tht i cud download apps from android market in my pc and then later transfer it to my phone.

[sinoop_joy]

I read somewhere the best method thats available now is

go to 4 shared.com,
search with " app_name + apk " Eg. "Smart Keyboard apk"
download and transfer ..

[dharmil007]

Sorry guys I was out of town frm many days so cudnt catch up wid u
Btw I got 2.3.6 OTA update....
Dont knw exactly wat has changed in my phone bt for sure I can say it has improved my wifi connection.

M using swpke keyboard ryt nw. And m hpy to upgrade it over the given keyboard. Letters are big nw and I do less typing mistakes coz of it

Is thre any way tht i cud download apps from android market in my pc and then later transfer it to my phone.

u Can check out Android OS Zone

& hey has anyOne here tried installing Custom Mod on their Nexus S ???

[tousif]

dharmil007
did u buy nexus s.?