Google Nexus S smartphone video review

Although i usually don’t write about mobile phones here on tlbhd.com , I enjoy posting video reviews for the devices I manage to get my hands on, especially since in most cases we’re talking about top of the line touchscreen smartphones, like the Google Nexus S we have here.

The Nexus S come as a successor for a phone that revolutionized the market back when it was launched, the Nexus One. While that one managed to impress with its top notch hardware and features, most of them unique at that time, you can’t say the same thing about the Nexus S. Still, the S remains a top of the line smart-phone and probably one of the best you can get on the market right now, just that there’s no longer a big any gap between it and the competition.

In this post we’re going to take a quick look at the Nexus S and a pretty thorough video review showing most of its features and a quick look at Android 2.3 Gingerbread (more details about the OS in this other clip I’ve posted).

I’m not going to get into details about each particular aspect of this device. I do however have to mention a couple of things about construction, speed, OS and battery life.

Google Nexus S

First, the Nexus S is built by Samsung, so resembles quite a lot the Galaxy S we saw a couple of months ago. There’s the same plastic body (only a tad thicker) and the big AMOLED display (a 4 inch 480 x 800 px screen this time). The front face is not flat, but slightly curved, so will make using it a bit more comfortable (at least that’s what the producers claim). Overall quality seems high, but that plastic body doesn’t feel too sturdy and will for sure scratch easily. And I’m not sure how well will it be able to handle drops and shocks… But hey, if you spend a small fortune on a smartphone you could at least get some proper protection for it too.

Plastic body feels quite fragile and scratches easily

Front face is slightly curved

Specs wise, there’s almost all you’d want on the Nexus S: fast hardware (1 GHz Cortex A8 Hummingbird processor, 512 MB of memory and 16 GB storage space – can’t be upgraded, as the phone doesn’t support any kind of such cards), good connectivity (Wi-fi N, Bluetooth, 3.5 G, GPS), decent camera (5 MPx, flash, only shoots DVD quality movies, no HD ones) and good enough battery life (I would say around 50% better than the Galaxy S, so enough for a full day’s use).

Projected battery life os good for a phone in this class: will last an entire day

And there’s the OS: Android 2.3 Gingerbread which does not quite bring many changes over Froyo, but offers some improvements both in the back end and the front (with tweaked UI, widgets and menu functions).

In terms of speed, the Nexus S is fast. Tests place it right towards the top as one of the most powerful phones on the market right now, but that won’t last for long, as Tegra2 mobile devices like the Motorola Atrix 4G are just around the corner. Still, touch experience is very smooth and apps run fast, even when running quite a bunch of them simultaneously.

Test prove the Nexus S is fast

For more details, check the two clips below, both part of the same review I shot last week for the Google Nexus S.

All in all, like I also said at the beginning of the post, the Google Nexus S is definitely a good mix, a device you should at least consider if on a market for a top mobile phone. It’s not the fastest, the cheapest, the easiest to use or the most solid built, but does provide good value for the money. Still, I doubt it will have the same success as its predecessor, the Nexus One, although that Google logo on the back will certainly attract some fanatics.

tlbhd.com looks good on this smartphone

What’s your input on this one? Would you get one of these over the competition, including the iPhone 4, Motorola Droid X or the newcomers (Motorola Atrix 4G, LG Optimus 3D)?

PS: More pics with the device are available below as well.