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Android 2.3 (more deliciously and seasonally appropriately known as "Gingerbread") isn't a huge overhaul of Google's mobile operating system, but the whole interface feels more refined and more responsive. In addition, Google has built some notable new features into the operating system.
NFC Support
The most intriguing feature of Android 2.3 is its support for NFC (near field communication) chips. And the first phone to ship with Gingerbread, the Samsung-built Nexus S, contains that invisible NFC chip.
Essentially, NFC chips can turn your phone into a sort of credit card. Ideally, when you wave your phone in front of a retailer's sensor, your purchase will immediately be placed on your account.
Unfortunately, I couldn't test this feature of the Nexus S in a real-world situation, because no applications support mobile payments yet. Google did provide us with a card containing an embedded NFC chip. Holding the Nexus S up to the card immediately took me to a YouTube video about the phone. I can imagine location-based apps like Yelp and Foursquare, and deal-of-the-day-type apps like Groupon, wisely taking advantage of this technology.
Keyboard and copy/paste
I've never been a fan of the standard Android keyboard. The keys on the standard keyboard are simply too small and cramped for me to comfortably bang out a long text or email message.
Android 2.3 reshapes the keyboard keys to be more rectangular than square, and there's more spacing between keys. I found the redesigned keyboard to be easier to use, but still imperfect. For me, between the Android 2.3 keyboard and the Apple iOS 4 keyboard, the iPhone wins.
Then again, you can't download Swype to the iPhone. One nice enhancement with Gingerbread is that you can simultaneously press Shift and a letter to get a symbol or number, no need to switch between modes.
Another neat feature is the ability to use your voice to correct words as you type. You simply press and hold the incorrect word, and then select the dedicated voice control key (it looks like a microphone) on your keyboard. Then say the correct word and cross your fingers that Android understands it. In my hands-on tests, this feature worked pretty well, but I'm unlikely to use it very often.
Copying and pasting are also much easier in Android 2.3 than in 2.2. You can quickly select text by simply pressing and holding a word. You can then adjust the chunk of text you want to select by dragging the arrows that appear around the text. The method is incredibly easy and effective.
Camera app
I'm a fan of the camera app in the native Android 2.2, so I was excited to try the new version in Gingerbread. The most notable feature of the updated app is support for multiple cameras on a device.
You click a small icon at the bottom of the screen and then choose the front-facing camera or the back-facing camera. Overall, the camera app is simple and straightforward, and I really hope that manufacturers don't try to replace it with their own custom apps on future phones.
I'll cover the image quality of the Nexus S in the full review coming soon.
New management apps and menus
Android 2.2 was faster than Android 2.1, but the price of that boost in speed was reduced battery life. Google has addressed this issue by making Android 2.3 more power efficient. The software also provides a new nifty battery menu that shows monitors how much power you're using and estimates how much time you have left before you'll need to charge again.
There's also a new shortcut to the Manage Applications menu on the Home screen and in the Launcher, so you can quickly check to see which applications are currently running on your phone and how much power each app (like Gmail or Voice Search) is consuming; then you can close one or more of them if necessary.
The new Downloads application gives you quick access to any file that you download from your browser, email program or other app (such as Amazon MP3). This feature came in handy as soon as I began loading my phone with content.
Other tweaks and features
There are many small tweaks scattered across the user interface. When you link your Google account to your phone, the 3G icon turns green.
The notification bar and other areas of the interface are black instead of white. And when the phone goes to sleep, a cool little animation shrinks the screen, making your phone look like an old-timey TV switching off.
For the last few days we’ve been using the Google Nexus S, manufactured by Samsung, with the new Android 2.3 “Gingerbread” operating system. This is a phone that was designed with direct input from the Google Android team. And like its predecessor, the Nexus One, which was released in January 2010, it has a “clean” install of Android. That means there is no additional software layer from third party OEMs or carriers to interfere with the user experience. Like the Nexus One, this will become the reference phone for this generation of Android.
Unlike the Nexus One, the phone was not built from scratch – the starting point was the Samsung Galaxy S, released earlier this year. And Google will not be selling this phone directly to consumers. They say that experiment is over, and this phone will be available initially at Best Buy in the U.S. (on T-Mobile) and Carphone Warehouse in the U.K. Google says the phone is currently expected to be available starting December 16, although pre-orders might be taken earlier.
The phone does not fail to please. It is significantly faster than the Nexus One (and most current generation phones), has a high-end AMOLED 400 x 800 resolution screen that is second only to the iPhone 4, and is NFC-enabled. Like all Android phones it is dead simple to set up, assuming you use Gmail, Google Calendar, Google contacts, etc. But it’s Google’s various apps, some of which are unavailable for the iPhone, that make it the best phone on the market today.
The phone has a sleeker design than the Nexus One, although its generic black plastic case doesn’t exactly scream for attention. The case also feels somewhat cheap, unlike the solid feel of the iPhone and some previous Android phones. But it is very thin and light – just 4.55 ounces (slightly heavier than the Galaxy S). The phone’s dimensions are 63mm x 123.9mm x 10.88mm (slightly thicker, taller and wider than the iPhone 4, and with a larger screen). It is significantly svelter than the EVO or the Droid X, previous generation Android phones that we thought were too bulky.
Hardware:
The Nexus S uses the 1 GHz Hummingbird processor, which absolutely zooms and also seems to handle running multiple apps and background processes well compared to previous Android devices we’ve used. The 4 inch Super AMOLED 480×800 touchscreen has very deep blacks and viewing angles and is, as we said above, second only to the slightly smaller but higher resolution iPhone 4 display.
Battery life is good – much, much better than the dismal HTC EVO. We’ve been getting 6+ hours of heavy voice/data usage on the removable 1500 mAh Lithium Ion battery. Google’s official specs are up to 400 minutes of talk time on 3G, 841 minutes on 2G, and standby time of 428/714 hours on 3G/2G. That may be somewhat enthusiastic, but battery life is certainly not a big problem compared to other devices we’ve used this year.
The phone has both a rear facing 5 megapixel camera, with a flash, as well as a VGA front facing camera. Both performed well. The phone also has a gyroscope, accelerometer, compass, proximity sensor, haptic feedback and a light sensor. It comes with 16 GB of internal flash memory; there is no expansion slot.
Wifi, GPS and bluetooth all behaved flawlessly.
And, as Google CEO Eric Schmidt hinted at during Web 2.0 Summit, the Nexus S has Near Field Communication (NFC) built in — a new feature that Gingerbread adds support for. At this point you probably won’t have many reasons to have it activated (you can shut it off to preserve battery), but NFC is likely to prove very important over the next couple years. Eventually, the technology will allow you to use your phone in place of a credit card by simply tapping the phone against special sensors in retail stores. NFC will also allow for phones to swap data between each other with a minimal amount of hassle, as soon as developers add support for that (the Nexus S chip supports both read and write operations). This is basically future-proofing the phone, and a year from now I expect that most Android phones (and likely iPhones) will be shipping with NFC.
Google’s noise cancellation software is also present. When combined with the excellent audio hardware it results in very high quality calls. In test calls from my car the recipient said they heard very little background noise – the iPhone in particular performed terribly in a similar test.
So far, not one dropped call.
Software:
We’ve been a big proponent of using Android phones along with Google Voice and other Google apps. It makes setup of a new phone very easy – a minute or two at most – and we both continue to use our existing Google Voice phone numbers for inbound and outbound phones. The Nexus S comes with the Google Voice app pre-installed, saving additional minutes.
But the main event is Gingerbread operating system, which comes installed on the phone. No, the UI hasn’t seen a ground-up redesign (that’s coming in Honeycomb), but it’s improved in a lot of small ways, like the switch from a drab gray to a black notification bar (which actually helps save battery).
It comes with old crowd-pleasers like the on-the-fly creation of Wi-Fi hotspots. And Google has also iterated on the user interface, particularly the keyboard. It’s not as polished as the iPhone, but text entry is significantly faster than previous Android phones, with less errors. It is also much better at predicting words, and copy-and-paste has been improved as well. If the iPhone is 8/10 on text input, the Nexus One is probably 5/10 and the Nexus S is a solid 6/10.
Gingerbread also supports VoIP/SIP calling.
Best of all, of course, is the fact that the Nexus S is a clean install of Android, and a pure Google experience. There is no messy third-party software to muck things up.
The Nexus S Experience:
We can write all day about a phone, but the real test with us is whether we continue to use it after a post. The EVO and the Droid X were quickly forgotten for us. Michael tested the iPhone 4 but its lack of point to point navigation and unwillingness to play well with Google Voice made him ultimately give it up after a month and move back to the Nexus One (Google Voice has finally made it to the iPhone, but it isn’t as deeply integrated into the OS as on Android, and probably never will be). The Nexus S will almost certainly be his go-to phone for the next few months. Michael is leaving today for a week in Europe, and taking only this phone with him. The fact that it’s unlocked means he can add a sim card once he is in Paris and continue to use it without extravagant additional charges.
Google’s voice search/input applications and Google Navigation continue to make Android phones in general significantly better mobile devices than the iPhone. Conversely, Google continues to flail on media, and the device is not any better than previous Android phones at dealing with stored music. That’s why Michael will also be bringing an iPad to Europe, which integrates perfectly with iTunes.
The bottom line is this. If you are an iPhone user this isn’t going to make you switch. If you’re an Android user you will want this phone more than any other. If you’re currently neither, we recommend that you go with the Nexus S. It is better than the iPhone in most ways. What you lose with the slightly less impressive screen and iOS’s slightly slicker user experience you will more than make up for with the Nexus S’s ability to actually make phone calls that don’t drop and Google’s exceptional Navigation and voice input applications. The fact that the phone is unlocked and can be used abroad with other carriers is also a very big plus.
Google shook up the Android world with the Nexus One, throwing down the gauntlet to manufacturers to step up their hardware game and pushing the open-source platform to the bleeding edge of smartphone functionality. Now the search giant is back with its second self-branded device, the Nexus S, a Samsung-made handset with a few unique features of its own. Is this the best Android smartphone today, or just another Galaxy S sibling? Check out the full SlashGear review after the cut.
Hardware
With the Nexus S, Google shifted its allegiance from HTC – who produced the Nexus One – to Samsung. It’s perhaps a timely move, too, echoing Samsung’s recent announcement that the company’s phones have seized the top sales spot in the US Android marketplace. That’s primarily down to the success of the Galaxy S family of devices, a range with which the Nexus S shares significant overlap.
Out goes HTC’s over-engineered metal chassis and matte-finish casing, replaced by Samsung’s glossy black plastic. It’s a design decision that has earned the Nexus S some criticism, but in the hand it doesn’t feel cheap. There are only a few grams between the two devices, but we prefer the lightweight Nexus S and a willing to make the trade-off. Samsung’s weight distribution also makes a significant difference to hand-feel; the HTC-made myTouch 4G feels far heavier, despite only a minor difference on paper, predominantly because of how the handset is balanced.
Up front is Samsung’s 4-inch Super AMOLED display running at 800 x 480 WVGA resolution, just as on the Galaxy S. As ever it’s a beautiful, color-saturated panel with inky blacks and crisp edges; in daily use, there’s little difference between it and the iPhone 4′s Retina Display, despite the Apple handset’s greater resolution. New with the Nexus S is the so-called Contour display technology, a single, curved fascia that leaves the handset with a slight chin. It reminds us of the curve of the Palm Pre, or indeed a revisiting of the original G1 design, finessed to suit Android’s own improvements. Samsung hasn’t confirmed it, but we don’t believe this is Corning’s Gorilla Glass, since from what we’ve heard the company hasn’t made curved panels of their toughened glass suitable for smartphones.
Although it’s not a huge arc, the Contour shape does make single-handed use more straightforward: we were able to hold the Nexus S a little further up and still reach the touch-sensitive buttons – bizarrely in a different order to those on the Nexus One – under the display. Going back to the Galaxy S felt foreign afterwards. The curvature also helps avoid screen scratching, lifting the display off of the table when the handset is placed face-down. On the front there’s a VGA-resolution camera for video calls, while on the back there’s a 5-megapixel autofocus camera.
Hardware controls are limited, with only a power button on the right edge and a volume rocker on the right; no camera shortcut key, sadly. Ports have all been shifted to the bottom of the phone, with the 3.5mm headphones jack next to the microUSB port for charging/syncing. We prefer the placement of the audio port, since it keeps the headphones cable out of the way. Gone, though, are the Nexus One’s dual-microphones, which helped the smartphone with noise reduction, and the color-changing trackball; in fact the Nexus S lacks any sort of LED indicator light.
Also gone is the microSD card slot; peel off the battery cover and you’ll find the SIM reader and a 1,500mAh battery – the same capacity as that in the Galaxy S, but physically a little smaller – but no way to augment the 16GB of onboard storage. It’s unclear whether this is a conscious move by Google to push Android handsets in the direction of Windows Phone (and iPhone before it), a compromise Samsung were forced to make in order to fit in NFC, or something else.
NFC – or Near Field Communications – is the newest of the Nexus S’ wireless connectivity options, and it joins WiFi b/g/n and Bluetooth 2.1 (not, as in the Galaxy S, Bluetooth 3.0) for short-range communication. Cellular connectivity, like with the original Nexus One, supports quadband GSM/EDGE and triband UMTS/HSPA (900/1700/2100): that means T-Mobile USA and broad European/Asian carrier support. Unfortunately it also means no AT&T 3G in the US, and no support for T-Mobile USA’s faster HSPA+. Perhaps, again, it’s a matter of fitting hardware into a finite space, but when Nokia can include pentaband UMTS/HSPA in their recent handsets, we wonder why Samsung can’t do the same. Google may well end up releasing an AT&T-specific Nexus S, but the inability to roam between the two key US GSM networks is a frustrating limitation.
Similarly frustrating can be GPS performance; we haven’t observed the dire positioning problems originally found on the Galaxy S, but at times the Nexus S proved simply incapable of getting a GPS lock: we drove for around 30 minutes of open, clear freeway and the handset continued to show “Searching for GPS.” The issue is intermittent, however, with the phone not liking it if you try to get a fix while moving.
It’s a shame, because performance in general from Samsung’s own 1GHz Hummingbird processor is swift and satisfying. It’s paired with 512MB of RAM and 1GB of ROM, and while it may not be a dual-core chip like the Tegra 2 – which we’re expecting to show up in handsets like the LG Star come early 2011 – the Nexus S is still very fast. Google could’ve chosen a Tegra 2 or other dual-core handset to launch Gingerbread, but the Nexus S shows it’s simply not necessary: the Samsung does a fine job showing off the performance of Android 2.3 on a single-core processor. Unfortunately we could only run benchmarking tool Quadrant once – the Nexus S scored over 1,600 – as the app crashed on subsequent attempts.
Software
While Android went through its share of significant updates, particularly in the jump from 1.6 to 2.0, the progression from Froyo to Gingerbread is less dramatic. That’s not to say it’s a meaningless upgrade, of course; simply that Android is already a solid, well-developed platform in its own right.
The Nexus S appeals as a pure Google experience, something many users are looking for in the hope of seeing earlier OS updates, and the untampered Gingerbread UI is the most usable to-date. The color scheme has been tweaked, with the grey status bar replaced by a black version; rather than being merely aesthetic, it also reduces power consumption. The call screen is much slicker than before, and call logs are now threaded like emails; you also get all of Google’s usual Android apps, including the recently updated Gmail app, and the promise of v5.0 of Google Maps with its 3D city rendering and offline caching when it’s released imminently.
Demo of Google Maps in Android 2.3
The tweaks continue throughout the OS. There’s a new, dedicated download page which shows everything you’ve pulled down onto the phone, and a new battery page which augments the previous horizontal usage bars with a matrix showing power consumption over the course of the Nexus S’ uptime. It’s not entirely polished, however. On some occasions we were unable to add app shortcuts to the homepage. We’d also like to see the ability to set different times for when the display shuts-off and when the phone actually locks, as on the DROID X.
Gingerbread’s biggest change is in text entry and editing, with a refresh both of the on-screen keyboards and of how copy/paste is handled. The latter, despite being something taken for granted on traditional computers, still remains controversial on mobile devices: Microsoft omitted it completely in Windows Phone 7, and it took Apple years to get it right for iOS. Google’s approach falls short of the consistent UI on the iPhone, though it’s an improvement over Froyo. Instead of double-tapping to select a word, the new Gingerbread method is to tap and hold; you then get easily dragged highlight cursors. Unfortunately, it seems the new system is yet to propagate throughout the OS, as some apps continue to offer the old double-tap method.
It’s a shame, because the keyboard is much improved. Google has added multitouch support, meaning you can now hold down a modifier, such as the shift or number buttons, with one finger and tap at the changed layout with another. The keys themselves are a little smaller than on the Froyo layout, though it’s not an especially dramatic change, and Google’s auto-correct and predictive systems are strong and reasonably accurate. Voice control also works well, though you’ll still need a network connection for the servers to crunch your dictation.
As with Froyo, Gingerbread supports Flash Player 10.1 for in-page video and games in the Android browser; oddly, though, we had to install the Adobe package ourselves, since it wasn’t pre-loaded. The Hummingbird CPU and Gingerbread’s own enhancements kept things running smoothly, with less of the sluggishness in scrolling and panning that we’ve occasionally seen in 2.2 when using Flash, but also appears to have introduced some issues of its own. Some Flash sites simply refused to work, such as Dropcam’s live video streaming, whereas we had no problems whatsoever viewing them on a Froyo handset.
Near Field Communications (NFC)
Near Field Communications looks to be one of Google’s key drives for 2011, a short-range wireless technology that will – eventually – allow for two-way communications between devices. We say eventually; at present, all the Nexus S’ chip can do is read tags, such as the Google Places business sticker bundled in our reviewers’ pack. They, Google expect, will be snapped up by companies keen to link their online presence in with the real world – simply run the new Tags app on the Nexus S, hold the phone near the sticker, and you get whatever information is encoded on it popping up on your handset. That could be a link to a website, online video (as in the case of the bundled sticker) or a contacts entry.
(Watch NFC in action in hands-on video below)
In the future, though, there’s a lot more potential for NFC. Once Google unlocks the functionality, you should be able to exchange data – such as your contact details – by holding two handsets near each other. You’ll also be able to write to NFC tags, potentially creating your own smart business cards to hand out. There are undoubtedly security concerns still lingering over the technology, but with Google betting strongly on the system there’s plenty of motivation to get that ironed out.
Camera & Multimedia
As with the Galaxy S family, Samsung has used a 5-megapixel camera for the Nexus S, complete with auto-focus and an LED flash. The biggest difference is in the UI, with Gingerbread bringing a new camera control layout, which makes much more sense for everyday use. Quality is also strong, a little better than on the Galaxy S, though as ever the low-light performance with the LED flash is heavily dependent on whether you’re in the sweet spot of not-too-close, not-too-far-away. It’s actually easier to get stronger low-light shots with the flash turned off, in fact.
Video, meanwhile, is underwhelming, being limited to 720 x 480 resolution whereas the Galaxy S manages 720p. It’s perhaps a concession to the non-expandable storage – 720p HD takes a fair chunk of memory space – but remains an obvious gap on the spec sheet. Still, the clips the Nexus S can produce are “good enough” for a phone, though you’re unlikely to be replacing your Flip camcorder with the new handset.
Nexus S sample video
As with the missing 720p support, there have been complaints over the Nexus S lacking either HDMI connectivity or DLNA streaming. While some users will certainly rue their omission, we can’t say we’re particularly disappointed not to have them onboard. Although we’ve had HDMI ports on smartphones before, we’ve only ever used it a handful of times and on several occasions encountered problems with the TV we’ve connected it to anyway. Similarly, DLNA remains a niche option, with consumers uncertain on both what it is and how to use it, and it demands a compatible device (whether TV, STB or other). Neither is a deal-breaker, we’d wager, to most users.
The front-facing camera will take stills but, at VGA resolution, they’re hardly impressive. Instead it’s intended for video calls, though the glaring absence is any sort of video chat functionality baked into Gingerbread itself. Apps like Fring and Tango do take advantage of it, however, and will work over WiFi and 3G, unlike Apple’s WiFi-only Face Time. Still, we can’t see video calling on Android reaching a tipping point until Google packages the functionality in the core OS.
Phone & Battery
Despite lacking the Nexus One’s microphone array, audio quality on the Nexus S is particularly strong. Callers reported hearing us loud and clear, despite whatever ambient noise was around us, while the Nexus S’ earpiece and speaker were both loud and crisp even at the highest volume settings. Obviously you’re limited to T-Mobile’s 3G network in the US, though you could still use an AT&T SIM for GSM/EDGE calls and data. Another option is VoIP, with native SIP support baked into Gingerbread. You’ll need an account with a VoIP provider, of course, but with that – and assuming your carrier doesn’t mind data use for VoIP purposes – you can bypass regular calls altogether.
Battery life, meanwhile, is also much improved. We’re not sure if it’s the UI tweaks, Gingerbread’s own frugality, Samsung’s power management or something else – most likely a combination of all these factors – but the Nexus S bucks the trend for high-powered Android smartphones to run out of juice sooner rather than later. A full charge from 0-percent to full power took 4hr 15min, and we managed a full day with extensive use without needing to top the Nexus S up. Some apps proved more hungry than others, however, and Gingerbread’s new battery monitoring tools helped pick them out: Twitter app Seesmic proved one such culprit. We’ve spoken with Google about the perhaps excessive full charge time, and have been told that subsequent recharges should be faster as the battery is conditioned.
Wrap-Up
The Google Nexus One was a game-changer among Android devices, and it set a blueprint for hardware that has persisted throughout 2010. The Nexus S, meanwhile, has a tougher challenge: a balance between hardware and software that, the search giant hopes, will shape the development and feature-adoption of future Android devices from third-party manufacturers. With Gingerbread, Google has hit the reset button on a worrying trend of increasingly power-hungry handsets, and that’s something we particularly hope new devices continue.
Google’s other big investment will take more time to mature: NFC. With applications limited at present – Google’s Places stickers are currently only available in one trial market in the US – it’s going to be a harder sell for manufacturers than, say, a higher resolution camera or faster processor. Nonetheless, Google isn’t the only company pushing for it: Apple has several patents for NFC-related mobile technologies, such as payments and digital event ticketing, and rumors persist of an NFC-enabled iPhone refresh in 2011, while Microsoft has long been touting NFC in its vision of the future.
There’s the potential, then, for Google to shape the NFC field by virtue of being first to market, but only if it can persuade other Android device manufacturers to follow suit. Happily, the Nexus S is a strong contender in the smartphone space whether or not NFC catches on, though it remains to be seen how 2011′s dual-core handsets will change the field once again. There’s a compelling argument for the Nexus S, especially if you want your future OS updates sooner rather than later, but we’re also keen to see how Gingerbread affects the performance of similarly specified Android handsets on the market today. It’s the best Android device around, and a strong alternative to the iPhone 4, but a big part of that appeal is – at the moment – the rarity of the platform it runs.
But the main event is Gingerbread operating system, which comes installed on the phone. No, the UI hasn’t seen a ground-up redesign (that’s coming in Honeycomb), but it’s improved in a lot of small ways, like the switch from a drab gray to a black notification bar (which actually helps save battery).
