First hands-on experience with Nexus S

Google and Samsung jointly released the first Android 2.3-powered Nexus S earlier today. As the second product in the Nexus series, what praiseworthy strengths does this phone have?

TechCrunch obtained this new device a few days in advance and has already shared its usage experience. Although manufactured by Samsung, Google's design team was also directly involved in the development process. Like the Nexus One, this phone emphasizes a pure Android experience, meaning that it will not feature any third-party OEM or carrier customizations or applications. Just like the Nexus One, the Nexus S will become the new benchmark for Android phones.

Unlike the Nexus One, the Nexus S did not start from scratch; its hardware specifications are almost identical to those of Samsung's Galaxy S. Google no longer sells directly online but instead collaborates with carriers and retail chains for distribution.

The appearance of the Nexus S is more stylish than the Nexus One, being very thin and light, weighing a total of 129 grams with dimensions of 63x123.9x10.88mm. It features an overall curved design, including the screen.

The Nexus S uses Samsung’s 1GHz Hummingbird processor, which offers significantly improved speed for interface scaling and multitasking compared to previous Android devices. The 4-inch Super AMOLED screen provides better contrast and wider viewing angles.

Battery life is also impressive. During testing, the 1500mAh battery lasted over 6 hours under heavy voice and data communication use. The new system optimizes power management, extending battery life.

Features such as a 5-megapixel camera, flash, VGA front-facing camera, haptic feedback, three-axis gyroscope, gravity sensor, digital compass, proximity sensor, ambient light sensor all function properly. WiFi, GPS, and Bluetooth work without issues. The phone comes with 16GB internal storage, so there is no MicroSD card slot.

Google's newly developed noise-cancellation software improves call quality. During testing, it was found to effectively reduce background noise, and no missed calls were detected.

Updates to the Gingerbread system mainly focus on details, such as changing the gray notification bar to a black background, which helps save power. Official Google applications like voice search and Google Maps are pre-installed without any third-party software interfering with the user experience.

WiFi hotspot functionality works normally, providing network connections for up to 6 devices. An optimized virtual keyboard includes the latest autocorrect and input suggestion features, along with a new copy-paste function, resulting in noticeably faster text input compared to previous Android phones.

Overall, the hardware features of the Nexus S do not bring much surprise. This new device primarily benefits from official Google support, offering users a new experience with the Android 2.3 system. Additionally, the retail price is around RMB 3500, and it is expected to undergo price reductions after launch, potentially dropping below RMB 3000 early next year.