Nexus S: Using the most effective Google Android Phone [Video]

Android has never felt more alive than it does on the Nexus S . It’s fast. It’s cocksure. It’s, well, incredible.

Here’s our quick impressions after an hour or so of dicking around with the Nexus S and Gingerbread.

Likey

• It’s so fast. It is largely due to the software-in spite of everything, the processing guts are basically similar to the millions of Galaxy S phone already available in the market. It’s the first time Android’s felt as fast as the iPhone on modern hardware. There isn’t any stuttering, no lag-just pure, nimble response, whether it’s popping open an app or reacting to a slightly. It’s how Android should feel.

• That details matter. The orange glow once you hit the top of a listing. The old-fashioned TV-style power down animation whenever the screen goes off. It’s the small print that make Mactards love Apple; it makes the experience feel complete and fuzzy, like wrapping yourself in a blanket of dead animal fur.

• The most recent UI. Google’s famous for user testing a billion shades of blue . All brain, no vision. The brand new UI-with a lot of orange and green on black, a flattened, more two-dimensional aesthetic that feels very 80s cyberpunk-seems like it was designed by a individual or two, not debated by a committee. It’s a bit gutsy. Some people will hate it. And it’s still not fully wrapped around the full Android experience. But I dig it, and what it’s going for.
• It’s the first time I haven’t loathed typing on the stock Android keyboard.

No Likey

• Why does the Nexus S feel so cheap? It’s better than the common Samsung phone-the curve is sweet and natural-but like some of the other Galaxy S phones, the look, feel and build quality just don’t measure up to the parts or software inside. Glossy, chintzy plastic shouldn’t be appropriate here. Even the year old Nexus One feels markedly dearer and future-y, like a high quality, crafted piece of technology. Put otherwise in relation to feel and build quality: iPhone 4 > Nexus One > Nexus S. (Though the distance between the N1 and NS is way bigger than between the iPhone 4 and Nexus One.)

• The Contour Display is verrrry subtle. This isn’t a dislike, it’s more like a hype-buster. It’s a superb screen, though it gets rather yellow with power saving turned on.

• Some aspects of Android could still use a little bit more love and care to feel less like a PC and more like a phone for humans. As an instance! It’s nice that the app manager shortcut is built into the primary menu pop-up. Nevertheless it’s still a type of weirdly incomprehensible list of stuff.

• A nitpick, but Samsung’s stubbornness placing the lock button on the proper side of the phone-as opposed to the tip, like most phones-continues to bother. The most recent arrangement of the four main Android buttons isn’t optimal, either.

More coming.

Awesome music by Killabite , used with permission.

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This post is tagged: gingerbread, impressions, orange and green, orange glow, samsung phone