Having written two previous articles about Android 2.3 Gingerbread and the Google Nexus S, I can present to you my long-awaited verdict on Google's second generation "superphone."
In short, the Nexus S was a real disappointment for me. There wasn't a great deal of excitement flying around the blogosphere about this device, but I was excited. I expected the device to feature one of the next generation dual core processors; having seen the pictures, I wanted the Nexus S to destroy the opposition, so to speak. When it was released, however, myself and a few others were underwhelmed by its specifications. Sure, it was running Gingerbread, but is Gingerbread a colossal leap forward for Android? No, it isn't.
Being Samsung-manufactured, the Nexus S has a distinctly plastic feel; a stark contrast to the gorgeous metal back of the (HTC-manufactured) Nexus One. It's light, which may appeal to some, but for me the quality didn't live up to the standard that one would expect of this type of device. The NFC capabilities (which you can read about here) of the Nexus S are pretty cool, but right now it's a virtually useless feature. The camera is also your average 5 megapixel job, with the usual autofocus and flash. However, it doesn't record HD video and the microphone is, like many other Android devices, awful.
While the Nexus S does bring some exciting new features to the table, it doesn't do anything amazing. It is by no means a bad phone; it's fast, has a great screen, has a reasonably good camera, and is nice to hold. The logical evolution of the Nexus phones would be to go from the Nexus One to the Nexus Two, right? Well, that brings me onto my main point: I don't believe that this is an outright successor to the Nexus One. Android 3.0 Honeycomb will be released sometime next year, so what will be the first device it ships? Just because we now have a Nexus S doesn't mean that there cannot be a Nexus Two.
Being Samsung-manufactured, the Nexus S has a distinctly plastic feel; a stark contrast to the gorgeous metal back of the (HTC-manufactured) Nexus One. It's light, which may appeal to some, but for me the quality didn't live up to the standard that one would expect of this type of device. The NFC capabilities (which you can read about here) of the Nexus S are pretty cool, but right now it's a virtually useless feature. The camera is also your average 5 megapixel job, with the usual autofocus and flash. However, it doesn't record HD video and the microphone is, like many other Android devices, awful.
While the Nexus S does bring some exciting new features to the table, it doesn't do anything amazing. It is by no means a bad phone; it's fast, has a great screen, has a reasonably good camera, and is nice to hold. The logical evolution of the Nexus phones would be to go from the Nexus One to the Nexus Two, right? Well, that brings me onto my main point: I don't believe that this is an outright successor to the Nexus One. Android 3.0 Honeycomb will be released sometime next year, so what will be the first device it ships? Just because we now have a Nexus S doesn't mean that there cannot be a Nexus Two.
Comments
Post a Comment