Introducing Nexus S with Gingerbread | Hacker News Reader

Introducing Nexus S with Gingerbread

googleblog.blogspot.com

78 pointsbarredo30 comments

I don't want to sound too critical of it, but it doesn't seem as compelling as the Nexus One was. When the Nexus One came out, it had an 800x480 display which was higher than most devices at the time, it had a 1GHz processor which was considerably faster than competitors, a 5 megapixel camera, 512MB RAM, etc. This new Nexus S doesn't seem to improve on that formula much: same processor speed, RAM, megapixel camera, screen resolution.

Plus, I think there are more compelling options for T-Mobile right now. Both the myTouch 4G and HTC G2 have HSPA+ allowing for much faster speeds than the HSPA that the Nexus S will come with. Plus, I feel that the 2-color-per-pixel model that Samsung is following with its AMOLED displays makes the devices a lot less useful for my primary purpose: text. AMOLED displays don't have the smooth text that is available on all non-AMOLED 800x480 class devices.

The Nexus One was a big leap forward. It doubled the specs we were used to seeing on processor and RAM, was higher-res than anything except the Motorola Droid, and it included a top-notch camera for the time. The new Nexus S seems like it's playing catchup and is, in fact, not as nice as competing devices.

Now, not having to deal with (Samsung|Motorola|HTC|LG) for OS updates and not having their or (Verizon|AT&T|Sprint|T-Mobile)'s crapware installed on it would be really nice. I guess (for me) I'd just rather get a device that supported HSPA+, had a 3-color-per-pixel display, more RAM (the myTouch 4G has 768MB), etc. The hardware isn't severely lacking in any way, it's just the type of hardware that was average for a phone coming out in July of this year.

Can't find the numbers right now, but I'm pretty sure clock for clock, hummingbird is significantly better than snapdragon.

The GPU also matters a lot. One reason why the iPhone feels so awesome despite the somewhat slower CPU is that it's GPU blows 80% of android GPUs out of the water. Once again, I'm pretty sure the GPU performance (if its anything like the Galaxy S) utterly destroys the Nexus One.

The Galaxy S (which uses the 1GHz Hummingbird processor) benchmarks faster on the Quadrant test (which does test 3D performance) than the Nexus One with Android 2.1, but slower than devices like the Droid X. It's likely that the new Nexus S would be faster than the Nexus One, but not as fast as many other devices that have been out for a while.

So, it is an upgrade, but it's below what has already come out from other manufacturers - in contrast with the Nexus One which was an enviable top of the line device when it came out.

EDIT: In fact, the Nexus S looks pretty identical to the Galaxy S sans the Samsung software.

Supposedly there is some sort of issue with the Quadrant test in particular on the Galaxy S. With the fix (the "lag fix") the Galaxy S tops the field.

The Galaxy S is a fantastic device. It is essentially a higher clocked version of the iPhone 4.

Sure, just minus the software. ;-)

We're talking about hardware.

Has the Android UI been rewritten to use the GPU? One of the main reasons why scrolling/panning always feels smoother on the iPhone is that the user interface rendering uses the GPU whereas Android does not. If the Nexus S has a fantastic GPU and the UI doesn't use it, that kinda sucks.

http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=6914

No. Honeycomb will likely be the first to use GPU UI rendering.

The N1 w/2.2 is extremely fluid, with minor stuttering that is attributable to garbage collection (the thing is endlessly pausing to do GC). 2.3 includes a highly optimized concurrent garbage collection so that should strongly improve.

However honestly I think it's one of those things that matters a lot if you're, to put it impolitely, dicking around, but becomes irrelevant when you're using it as a tool day to day. Similar to how everyone using a Kindle for the first time hits back and forward a bunch of times and complains about page flip times, whereas to actual readers it just doesn't matter.

The Nexus One's goal was to be a new baseline, one above the crappyphones of 2009, and one which would set the base requirements for Gingerbread.

That's done now, the goal of the Nexus S is not to create a new baseline (which would make no sense), it's to be that baseline, mainly for developers.

16Gig, no expansion slot? Awwww... +1 for the large internal memory but -1 for no expansion slot. I run a 32Gig SD in my Nexus One and load it up with video when I travel. I also load it via a card reader and not USB. That is the ONE thing I find highly disappointing about this new model. Rest looks good.

Side-by-side feature comparison with the Nexus One: http://www.google.com/phone/compare/?phone=nexus-s&phone...

Tangential question, does anybody know the song used in the commercial in the bottom video?

le sans culotte - 'Allo 'Allo http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4fb5uxIWPfg

I wonder why they used the Cortex A8? It seems like the A9 has been around long enough to use, but maybe Samsung's Orion is not really ready or it is a cost / power issue?

Does anyone know if Google intends/expects to sell more of these than the N1? Or is it primarily a developer-focused device?

Looks to be more of a consumer-focused device, but I can't help but feel that it's more so an effort to bolster Android branding/perception than it is to sell devices.

Nobody is talking about the new NFC (near field communication) features?

Looks good, though I wish they were a bit more original than nicking Apple's "S" suffix. The 3GS, while being a soft consonant, was dissimilar enough that it worked. Nex-us -ess. Blegh.

Anybody know the RAM spec?

http://www.google.com/phone/detail/nexus-s

512MB ram, 16GB internal storage

Ah, thanks. I was on the phone's homepage and it wasn't listed.

Given the manufacturing partner is Samsung the "S" may be related to their Galaxy S line.

I think the "S" stands for Samsung.

Next Success?

The phone is part of the Samsung Galaxy S range of phones which is where the S comes from.

Don't worry, I don't think they are trying to rip the iPhone branding off.

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