Reviews

Google Nexus S review

The Nexus S, the latest Google-branded Android smartphone, is finally here. But is it any good? Read our review to find out.

11 Jan 2011

Support for Voice over IP (VoIP) calling is now built-in, although your company will need to use a service that supports the SIP standard. Users of Skype and other proprietary VoIP services still have to reply on separate apps for calling. Oddly the standard Android phone call doesn't seem to support video calling using the dual cameras.

We noticed some minor, but irritating bugs in Android 2.3. Connecting to a WiFi network for the first time often failed, requiring repeated attempts before a successful connection was established but once this initial connection was made, future connections occurred seamlessly. When the Nexus S is put to sleep with an app open and later awoken, the phone returns to the Android home screen rather than staying in the previously-opened app.

So what's our verdict?

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Verdict

Although it's not perfect, the Nexus S is the best Android smartphone yet, if only because it's currently the only one with Android 2.3. If you're buying SIM-free, then the Nexus S is the Android phone to get – it costs just £30 more than a SIM-free Galaxy S, our previous favourite. However, when purchased on a 24 month Vodafone contract, the Nexus S costs a total of £123 more than the Galaxy S – whether this is worth it to you depends on how much you want the camera flash and immediate Android updates.

Connectivity: GSM 850/900/1800/1900, 3G 900/1700/2100

Display: 800 x 480 pixels, 4ins

OS: Android 2.3

Camera: Five megapixels with flash rear-facing, 0.3 megapixels forward-facing

GPS: A-GPS

Processor: 1GHz Cortex A8 Hummingbird

Bluetooth: v2.1 + EDR

Wi-Fi: 802.11 b/g/n

Memory: 16GB internal

Dimensions: 12 x 63 x 124 mm

Weight: 128g

Battery: Li-Ion 1500 mAh