Quick look at the Google Nexus S phone

A few days back I had the pleasure of seeing P K Gulati again, when he told me about his latest toy- the Google Nexus S. "Show me!" was my immediate response and not only did he oblige, he let me play with the phone for a few days. Now while I usually take my review units (that are usually from Jumbo) and use them extensively for a few days, I only really used this phone for an hour or so as I was too scared of banging it up, or worse... getting so comfortable with it that I didn't want to give it back. Either way, this review is more of a short synopsis of my first impressions of the phone with the time that I got with it.

If you've read my review of the Samsung Galaxy S or have ever seen or played with the phone, you'll see that the Nexus S is extremely similar to the device. It's got the same plastic feel as the Galaxy S, which I seemed to love at that time, but don't really fancy too much now. The phone also has a 1GHz Hummingbird CPU, 512 MB of RAM, a gorgeous 4 inch 800 x 480 Super AMOLED screen, 16 GB of storage and a 5 Megapixel rear and VGA front-facing camera. On switching on the device though, I could immediately tell that the device had the new software- the much talked about Android 2.3 AKA Gingerbread. It just seemed a little more "polished" and snappier that the Galaxy S, and could handle stuff much faster and smoother.

While the OS is the big story about the phone, people expecting a huge difference from other Android devices are probably likely to be disappointed The icons look a little better and there are a few minor but not really notable changes to the software that I noticed while playing with the phone, but that's about it. The keyboard is also different and seems a lot more intuitive than the iPhone keyboard, but I guess that just boils down to personal taste. Apart from that, there was nothing really new on the device, and everything seemed to work just fine which incidentally, may actually be why the Nexus S is my most favourite Android phone to date.

The beauty of the Nexus S in my opinion, is that it does things just as the way it's supposed to. I had my contacts and calender and email up and running in 2 minutes flat, without any other problems that I went through on my Galaxy S or HTC Desire. I'm personally tired of getting phones that start up in Arabic and take me half an hour to figure out how to get them back in English, during which time the foreign OS actually becomes a nightmare to use rather than allowing me to marvel at it's abilities. The Nexus S is beautiful on Start up and refreshingly quick and easy, which is more due to the fact that it has been bought from the US. Also since Android allows for a lot of customizations, HTC and Samsung have in the past butchered the Operating System beyond recognition, often adding heavy cosmetic changes onto the software, or localizing it to have tons of extra unwanted software taking up too much space on the device. The Nexus S is a pure Google device and shows off the Operating System the way it's supposed to be used- which, it turns out, is quite impressive. Again, I didn't get too much time to play with the phone, but if the reviews online are anything to go by, others seem as impressed as me and aren't hesitant in crowing the Nexus S, the best Android phone on the market today.

I'd like to thank Prashant Gulati for kindly parting with his new toy before he had a chance to fully play with it... Any gadget lover knows how excruciating that can be. If you've found this review informative, please be a part of his already large Twitter follower base and follow him here.
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