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Fred Wilson's Nexus S Review

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Re: Fred Wilson's Nexus S Review

#11

Post by drivebyacct2 »

51Cards wrote: post #6

"...I love my Nexus One and was hesitant to replace it but the Nexus S looks like the exact same phone, just better..." Same phone? Really? I was really looking forward to the S to replace my N1 but no matter how I slice it I keep coming up disappointed on the hardware. No SD slot, no trackball/touch-pad, no notification light, all items I use regularly. I really want to continue the pure Google experience and immedi…

I am surprised at the feature regression yet, my Droid has no trackpad, I have never used the D-Pad, the same SD card has been in my phone for a year and then some.

The notification light is a bummer though.

Re: Fred Wilson's Nexus S Review

#12

Post by drivebyacct2 »

fredliu wrote: post #2

I'm not sure the perceived "improvements" (especially regarding to the speed) is due to hardware or software upgrades, as NS is still the only official 2.3 game in town. Hardware wise, Nexus S doesn't have a spec that can totally blow you away. But when N1 came, it was clear that N1 was the king, and it was so for quite a while.

The speed improvements are both. Hummingbird is a crazy beast but the low level touch improvements are showing. There is visible lag on my Mom's stock Droid 2.2 phone with few apps. Running a preliminary build of CM+AOSP 2.3 on my Droid is unbelievable. Same CPU speed, but my Droid now handles like a Droid X. It's truly, truly crazy.

The UI enhancements are subtle but have a huge effect. This feels like a bigger upgrade than 2.0 -> 2.2 was... (and this is just a AOSP build two days after source was released).

Re: Fred Wilson's Nexus S Review

#14

Post by drivebyacct2 »

gcheong wrote: post #3

Seems like much of this review is describing how, "once you get over problems X, Y and Z", it's very close to being like an iPhone.

What are you talking about? I only see one complaint and it was that purchases are hard. Maybe relatively, but I can buy an app in less than 30 seconds, certainly not that hard.

He compares it to an iPhone experience. Personally, I don't prefer the iPhone experience and I think this is the most polished and responsive Android yet. I think it is smooth like the iPhone but without sacrificing the UI/navigation paradigms and organization that I've come to love about Android (and coincidentally, many iOS->Android converts find they enjoy after getting over the initial "but it's not how the iPhone/Win7/Mac/whatever works" feelings).

To elaborate, everyone has expressed disappointment that this wasn't the major re-GUI that everyone was expecting, but the touches of color and black-ification is really quite nice when you see it in person. The light highlite at the bottom of a scrollable list, the new notification bar and consistent icons... it all feels really really nice on my Droid. I can only imagine how gorgeous it is on an AMOLED screens where the black is really black.

Re: Fred Wilson's Nexus S Review

#15

Post by drivebyacct2 »

joshu wrote: post #13

Blah. I have a droid and I want to microwave it on a dail basis. Weird crashes, wrong apps launch when i press their apps, etc.

Let me guess, running Motorola's stock ROM? I'm so sorry for you. Funny, my mom uses her Droid all the time for gaming, emails, news, and doesn't even manage to have the problems you're having.

"Wrong apps launch when I press their buttons". What? Come on, I've never heard of that and have no idea how that would even be possible unless you're using LP/ADW.Launcher's custom shortcut functionality...

EDIT: I think I know what people are referring to, especially after reading one of the child comments here... when you are using an App, it can use an Intent to launch an Activity of another application to provide some piece of data. If you leave during that flow and come back to the original app... it can appear that you are still in the secondary app launched by the first.

It's not the "wrong" app, you just left the application in an awkward place and Android is trying to help you out.

Re: Fred Wilson's Nexus S Review

#16

Post by kyleslattery »

joshu wrote: post #13

Blah. I have a droid and I want to microwave it on a dail basis. Weird crashes, wrong apps launch when i press their apps, etc.

I've had a similar experience with my Droid (as has my girlfriend). It's super flaky, and it feels like it has gotten worse over time, rather than better.

Whether it's the hardware or Android, I'm not sure, but what I am sure of is that I won't be buying another Android phone when my contract's up. I just don't want to risk having another phone as glitchy as this one.

Re: Fred Wilson's Nexus S Review

#17

Post by 51Cards »

hugh3 wrote: post #8
51Cards wrote: post #6

"...I love my Nexus One and was hesitant to replace it but the Nexus S looks like the exact same phone, just better..." Same phone? Really? I was really looking forward to the S to replace my N1 but no matter how I slice it I keep coming up disappointed on the hardware. No SD slot, no trackball/touch-pad, no notification light, all items I use regularly. I really want to continue the pure Google experience and immedi…

I was really looking forward to the S to replace my N1 Why were you really looking forward to replacing a phone that still works with a new one that's basically the same?

Primarily so I could be rid of two the main problems with the N1: - hardware flaw in the touchscreen sensor - 196 Megs internal application storage is pitifully small

I also hoped for: - more speed - better battery life from a newer generation screen / CPU - all the new toys :)

Re: Fred Wilson's Nexus S Review

#18

Post by 51Cards »

drivebyacct2 wrote: post #11
51Cards wrote: post #6

"...I love my Nexus One and was hesitant to replace it but the Nexus S looks like the exact same phone, just better..." Same phone? Really? I was really looking forward to the S to replace my N1 but no matter how I slice it I keep coming up disappointed on the hardware. No SD slot, no trackball/touch-pad, no notification light, all items I use regularly. I really want to continue the pure Google experience and immedi…

I am surprised at the feature regression yet, my Droid has no trackpad, I have never used the D-Pad, the same SD card has been in my phone for a year and then some. The notification light is a bummer though.

i have to travel a lot and I load up the N1 with Movies, etc. for entertainment on the road. 16 Gig internal is nice but it's just not quite enough, not to mention to have to load it via USB (I pop the card out when I want to put on large media). Even 8 Gig internal with an 32Gig capable SD slot would have been a dream.

Re: Fred Wilson's Nexus S Review

#19

Post by drivebyacct2 »

51Cards wrote: post #18
drivebyacct2 wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am surprised at the feature regression yet, my Droid has no trackpad, I have never used the D-Pad, the same SD card has been in my phone for a year and then some. The notification light is a bummer though.

i have to travel a lot and I load up the N1 with Movies, etc. for entertainment on the road. 16 Gig internal is nice but it's just not quite enough, not to mention to have to load it via USB (I pop the card out when I want to put on large media). Even 8 Gig internal with an 32Gig capable SD slot would have been a dream.

Yeah, I don't mean to encourage removing features like that, I just suspect that most users don't mind or care and more importantly, I'm willing to sacrifice a lot for some good ole pure AOSP with an unlocked bootloader.

Re: Fred Wilson's Nexus S Review

#20

Post by fredliu »

drivebyacct2 wrote: post #12
fredliu wrote: post #2

I'm not sure the perceived "improvements" (especially regarding to the speed) is due to hardware or software upgrades, as NS is still the only official 2.3 game in town. Hardware wise, Nexus S doesn't have a spec that can totally blow you away. But when N1 came, it was clear that N1 was the king, and it was so for quite a while.

The speed improvements are both. Hummingbird is a crazy beast but the low level touch improvements are showing. There is visible lag on my Mom's stock Droid 2.2 phone with few apps. Running a preliminary build of CM+AOSP 2.3 on my Droid is unbelievable. Same CPU speed, but my Droid now handles like a Droid X. It's truly, truly crazy. The UI enhancements are subtle but have a huge effect. This feels like a bigger upgr…

That's true. But I'm still a little bit underwhelmed by the raw horse power packed into NS, at least not as impressed as when N1 came out. Hummingbird may be the fastest on the market right now, but I'll probably bet on the next dual core 1.2 Ghz snapdragon phone for my next upgrade.
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