Samsung Google Nexus S - Review

“The Samsung Google Nexus S mixes form and function to create a top-notch smartphone. Just beware its unpredictable battery life and temperamental touchscreen”

An Google Android Gingerbread smartphone

Nexus S: A big improvement on the Nexus One

The Nexus S is Google’s second stab at a smartphone, its first smartphone - the Google Nexus One - having failed to achieve the same sales and cult following as the Apple iPhone 4.

While some criticised the Nexus One for its dull looks, the Nexus S is anything but - featuring a curved glass “Contour Display” that sees either end of the screen bend slightly upwards.

This banana-esque curve is also useful because it means the phone’s screen doesn’t get scratched if you accidentally put if face-down onto a rough surface, as I did.

Special recognition also goes to the screen’s anti-glare coating, which let me watch videos, look at pictures and play games on the smartphone whilst outside.

The touchscreen is also extremely bright and crisp, but occasionally didn’t recognise my fingers - possibly a fault of the special anti-glare coating.

Underneath its eye-catching bodywork is Gingerbread - the very latest version of Google’s Android operating system (OS).

Gingerbread adds a slightly more refined layout than previous versions of the OS, an intuitive copy and paste feature and a tool for discovering which apps and phone features are draining its battery most quickly.

Nexus S(black) £0.00

50 min Unlimited texts

£15.50

The updated OS also allows the phone to “cache” Google Maps, meaning places, such as Greenwich, that I’d looked at while the phone had an active 3G connection could then later be recalled offline.

This isn’t the same as having an entire map of the UK saved to the phone’s memory - something the Nokia N8 offers - but it’s a start.

Good looks, lots of features

A palm-friendly design, apparently

Nexus S comes pre-installed with pretty much every Google tool going: Google Maps, Google Earth and Google Navigation - a satnav app good enough to replace your TomTom. I also found Google Places handy for finding nearby points of interest, such as coffee shops.

Apps opened very quickly, but shutting them down wasn’t very straightforward and something I’m sure caused the phone’s battery to wear down needlessly quickly.

As a mobile internet smartphone, the Nexus S is ok. Websites download quickly, auto-scale to screen’s width and, although its iPhone-style multi-finger zoom was sometimes a little juddery, I was generally satisfied by the smartphone’s web performance.

The 5Mp camera aboard the Nexus S performed well - but not outstandingly - in most conditions. It lacks the plethora of pre-set shooting conditions that high-end cameraphones, such as the HTC Desire HD, usually offer. I’d still be happy to use the phone as an everyday camera, nonetheless.

A camera shortcut key would have been nice though, especially for those times when rare photo opportunities crop up.

Just don’t get carried away with taking photos - or putting music and movies onto the phone, for that matter - because the Nexus S only has 16GB of internal storage and no slot for Micro SD memory cards.

Google apps

Picture quality was satisfactory

As an actual telephone the Google Nexus S is superb. Much of this is down to the noise-cancelling microphone that filters out the everyday background noises often blamed for poor sound quality when making outdoor mobile phone calls.

And finally, if you’re wondering why I haven’t mentioned the Nexus S’ support for contactless payment until now it’s because the feature, as cool as it is, isn’t yet supported by a single UK shop, bar or restaurant.

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