Trying out the Nexus S

I got a Nexus S today, and here are my initial thoughts, when comparing it to my Nokia N900.

  • No LED indicator light.  This is driving me nuts.  It’s rather jarring to not be able to look at my device and know whether or not it needs my attention.
  • It’s FAST!  Opening applications is instantaneous, scrolling is smooth, no slow downs whatsoever after the first day.
  • Android multitasking is rather annoying coming from Maemo.  I’m not in love with how it works, its kind’ve like “every app is always open” and to switch back to an application you just reopen it.  Thats nice, but it doesn’t lead to any nice workflows with great multitasking.
  • There is a lot more application support in the android ecosystem, which is nice coming from Maemo.
  • The lack of a physical keyboard is going to take some getting used to.  I’m not particularly thrilled about the on screen keyboard quiet yet.
  • Installing applications is quick and painless.  Much less frustrating than on Maemo.
  • I can actually use the email client!  It has good search features!  It doesn’t take 20 minutes to load!  Oh happy day!
  • There are… ads….?  In my applications?  This is weird.  I don’t like it.
  • SUPER integration with all Google services, which is sort’ve a big deal for me now a days.

The Google services integration is actually the deal breaker for me, and is probably what will keep me on Android going forward.

Update: So I’ve been using the phone for a couple of days now.   Here are some more thoughts:

  • Battery life is ‘meh’.  I felt like i had a lot more control over the battery usage on the N900 — changing from 2G/3G, disconnecting from the network etc. where all much simpler operations on the N900.
  • Using the phone, just for day to day stuff, is a pleasure.  By far the most ‘fun’ to use where it ‘just works’ a very large percentage of the time.
  • Voice commands are simply *phenominal*.  “Send text to daniel Hi dan, want to meet for drinks?” actually works about 90% of the time!  Or  “Goto engadget.com” or “navigate to pizza” all work rather well.  It’s what voice recognition should be like.
  • The navigation app is slow and almost unusable.  Nuts.

2 thoughts on “Trying out the Nexus S”

  1. Fascinating! I find myself in the opposite position…that is coming to the Nokia N900 from an android phone (though hardly the Nexus ) I personally find the N900 to be a much more enjoyable phone than my android phone (although, I think that this is more of a reflection on Sony Ericsson and the crappy job they did with the Xperia X10 rather than a true reflection on Android as a mobile OS) The reality here is that, much like the Nexus, the N900 is a phone that comes automatically ‘unlocked’ The biggest issue that I had with the Android was how much control AT&T had over my experience. With the Nokia N900, I feel that I can give them the finger. There is not really all that much they can do (other than dismal service) to my experience on the phone.

    Reply

    1. Most interesting. Perhaps the lessoned learned here that, though operating systems may differ and some platforms are nicer than others:

      An unlocked “native experience” phone is ALWAYS superior to a locked-down carrier-garbage infested phone, regardless of which OS the two are running.

      Reply

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