Nexus S

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

by tomerico • 16 years ago

364 260 16 years ago

ninifat• 16 years ago

Is there a price anywhere?

vladev• 16 years ago

No. I don't think Google will be selling the device themselves, like they did with the Nexus One. They will rather rely on external partners.

pyre4• 16 years ago

From the consumer landing page someone else linked to:

After December 16, Nexus S will be sold unlocked and carrier-independent initially through Best Buy stores in the U.S. and after December 20 at Carphone Warehouse stores in the UK.

{update} It looks like instead of selling the unlocked phone themselves, and selling carrier-locked phones in carrier-controlled retail outlets, they are using external partners to push the unlocked phone this time. At least they are learning from their mistakes. Presumably Best Buy will do some marketing for the phone (compared with the lack of marketing for the Nexus One).

fhars• 16 years ago

Since it is an upgraded Samsung Galaxy S, I'd expect it in the same price range, mavbe sligthly higher.

dotBen4• 16 years ago

Upgraded internals, sure, but the removal of the fold-out keyboard seems a backwards step given the overall dimensions of the unit isn't much different.

rquirk• 16 years ago

The UK Carphone Warehouse has it listed as 550 pounds unlocked, which is about $860 or 650€.

shrikant• 16 years ago

From http://www.whatmobile.net/2010/12/google-nexus-s-launches-ex...:

Pre-ordering is available later today from www.carphonewarehouse.com or www.bestbuy.co.uk and this is almost certainly the only way you’re going to get hold of one before the new year. The handset will be free on £35/month contracts, or available SIM-free for £549.95.

I'm not sure of US/T-mo pricing though.

brkumar• 16 years ago

Best Buy has announced that Nexus S will be available on Dec16th for $529 (unlocked) and $199 (with T-mobile contract). More info at - http://www.bby.com/2010/12/06/best-buy-mobile-partners-with-...

ukdm• 16 years ago

TechCrunch review: http://techcrunch.com/2010/12/06/google-nexus-s-review/

StavrosK2• 16 years ago

HTC Evo's battey life is dismal? I have a Desire HD (the European equivalent) and I get two days of normal usage. Of course, I never use it normally, as I'm always browsing websites or playing games, but I did when I attempted it.

However, I do imagine that the AMOLED display will not draw as much power, so it might indeed last longer.

ebtalley• 16 years ago

Oh yeah, the battery on my EVO doesn't last much more than a couple hours. Even sitting overnight will drain the battery 30% it seems. Even with that its such a better phone than any other I have used on sprint.

CountSessine3• 16 years ago

http://images.anandtech.com/graphs/graph4045/34360.png

from a recent review by Anand:

http://www.anandtech.com/show/4045/lgs-optimus-7-samsungs-fo...

Also, AMOLED will only be more efficient if you view dark screens more often than bright ones, which I don't think would be true for most web browsing.

Update: eliminated shortened urls.

jsz02• 16 years ago

HTC tends to bundle undersize batteries with their phones. It's possible the Euro Desire has a larger capacity battery.

xorglorb• 16 years ago

1GHz CPU, 512MB RAM...

Kind of sounds like the iPhone 4 (from July) with NFC support and a built-in VOIP client.

ctkrohn• 16 years ago

Kind of sounds like my Powerbook G4 from a couple years ago. Pretty remarkable how quickly things change.

andybak• 16 years ago

The specs are nearly identical to the Galaxy S/Captivate etc.

sourc3• 16 years ago

Yes, as a former owner of Galaxy S, it is pretty much the same phone but I used to love that phone. Now using a myTouch 4G and appreciating the screen quality of the Galaxy.

pyre4• 16 years ago

And?

By comparing it to the iPhone 4 are you implying that it shouldn't be release because Apple 'scooped' them on these specs. They should just kill the project and redesign with better specs in an attempt to 'beat Apple?'

mike-cardwell2• 16 years ago

The Nexus One also had a 1GHz CPU and 512MB RAM, and came out before the iPhone 4.

What's your point?

drivebyacct27• 16 years ago

The Hummingbird is a whole new beast though.

robin_reala• 16 years ago

Actually, the iPhone 4 hums along at 800mhz.

kayoone• 16 years ago

Apple has brought out new Macbook Airs without any fancy i3/i5 processors...people should understand that there more to a device than just hardware specs. How many times have we seen great specs and a failing device...

elai• 16 years ago

It's because nvidia and intel can't play nice and apple decided using the nvidia built in gpu/northbridge and an older cpu generation is a better comprimise than going with intel's inferior gpu/northbridge.

andreyf• 16 years ago

The product release landing page is here: http://www.google.com/nexus/

Quite a simple/beautiful HTML5 design, IMO.

brown9-23• 16 years ago

This is a giant tangent but - what is HTML5 about this site?

cryptoz• 16 years ago

Well for one, the whole thing is HTML5 given that the page's DOCTYPE is

    <!doctype html>

I don't have time to look deeper right now.

cdr• 16 years ago

I'm guessing "not flash" - on most sites a few years ago (and probably still today) a product page like that would've definitely been flash.

sgentle• 16 years ago

CSS transitions. Webfonts. Doctype.

[Edit: data attributes]

peng• 16 years ago

The design is quite amateurish. The curvature of the header crowds out the (overly-busy) logo and makes me gag. The drop shadow for it cuts off abruptly at the sides, instead of fading into white. The 'S' for Nexus S is flimsy and generic. In fact, all the icons on the site are pretty ugly.

The site does have simplicity going for it. Apple just seems to execute so much better in this area.

s3graham• 16 years ago

That's funny, my first thought was that it looked exactly like an Apple product page, almost embarrassingly so.

tc• 16 years ago

Since I know that many Googlers follow HN, I just want to say:

Thank you. Thank you for ensuring that a clean, root-able, modern phone is available for developers and all those who like to fully own the devices they purchase.

StavrosK2• 16 years ago

Do Australians get a kick out of hearing that a phone is rootable? I am led to believe that the word means something entirely different there...

T-zex2• 16 years ago

This just means that you can do with your phone anything... anything.

anarchitect2• 16 years ago

Rootable like a beaut sheila!

hugh3• 16 years ago

No, but we do get a kick out of Americans who talk about rooting for their favourite team.

That's the trouble with America; many of my favourite pickup lines are unusable there. For instance:

"Have you ever tripped over a log?" "No" "How about a root?"

gcb10• 16 years ago

Why do you think this will be rootable?

Also, The nexus one barely was (in the sense that you couldn't replicate a os Build as done by google with the provided source code)

runjake2• 16 years ago

Because:

1. The Nexus One was.

2. This phone will be targeted at devs once again, many of which can use such functionality.

drivebyacct27• 16 years ago

It had an unlockable bootloader and openly flashable recovery. Additionally, Google themselves have responded to the complaint that the builds are missing some bits. They have taken steps to remove those hooks as being necessary, and some of the pieces of the bootstrap are not their property to place in AOSP.

That having been said, CM had a build running on his Nexus One within hours of source being released...

sandGorgon2• 16 years ago

cyanogenmod any ? http://forum.cyanogenmod.com/forum/33-google-nexus-one/

(Forums currently down because everyone must be flocking there)

dotBen4• 16 years ago

Um, almost all Android phones are rootable and can run custom firmware builds (certainly all HTC's and most Samsungs).

Find instructions at http://forum.xda-developers.com/wiki/index.php?title=Main_Pa...

(Just making the point, you don't HAVE to buy a Nexus line of phone for this)

prodigal_erik• 16 years ago

Is that policy or merely benign neglect? I keep seeing comments to the effect that a certain HTC model has been rooted, implying it's an accomplishment that was in doubt or at least troublesome. I feel obliged to support the vendor that openly decides to treat me like a tool-using human being pour encourager les autres.

rryan• 16 years ago

Almost all Android phones are rootable in the same sense that the iPhone is rootable -- only by virtue of an accidental security flaw. The Nexus One/S are the only Android phones where root is not a privilege you have to take back from the manufacturer by force.

barake2• 16 years ago

Basically any Android device can be rooted and flashed but how difficult it can be is the problem. The HTC Vision (T-Mobile G2) has a complete copy of it's ROM on board to "restore" if you flash the phone. Motorola has also done a good job of locking bootloaders.

It won't be surprising if these "security" measures keep escalating as carriers try to find new ways to extract revenue, such as charging extra for tethering.

grav1tas• 16 years ago

I have an older HTC Sprint Hero, and it is root-able in the sense that rooting the phone is possible. However, doing so requires me to download old firmware for the phone from sources (ie files posted to Mediafire or the like) that I don't trust. While I will contend that Android is more customizable than say, iOS, to say that all, many, or most the phones are root-able and thus the platform is more customizable for this reason doesn't follow for me. You can jump through the hoops and jailbreak your iPhone with probably less trouble than it would take to root my Hero. You can also just root the HP/Palm Pre by following the community steps, but there really aren't any other platforms other than iOS or Android are there :P.

For the record, I came to Android from WebOS, and the experience has been very painful. I want my Pre back.

old-gregg• 16 years ago

You also have to thank T-Mobile. That's the only sane carrier in the US who lets you buy plans without bundled phone loans, i.e. if you don't need to borrow $500 for a phone you just get a plan without loan payments rolled in.

chc• 16 years ago

The only reason I switched from T-Mobile is for the iPhone. If Android is in a good enough place when this phone dies, I might switch back, because T-Mobile knows how to treat customers and the other carriers just don't.

Calamitous7• 16 years ago

Ugh. Before you thank T-Mobile, try actually signing up for their contract-less service. I literally spent two hours on the phone, and they still managed to screw up almost every aspect of my plan. Many other aspects of the service become more expensive, nullifying the (minimal) cost savings, and the activation fees are outrageous. Additionally, they will never allow you to sign up for T-Mobile contract again.

In short, they try to neuter the no-contract option in any way they can. I am actively regretting it right now, and the only upside is that I'm looking for a different carrier, and I don't have to worry about early-cancellation fees.

trotsky10• 16 years ago

Maybe you are discounting these guys as not being sane, but I just recently found out that Virgin Mobile USA (a Sprint owned MVNO) has recently added a smart phone no contract option with an extremely reasonable monthly fee - $25/mo for unlimited* (5.5gb) data, unlimited texts and 300 minutes - and tops out at $60/mo for unlimited minutes. It's far from perfect, though as they don't allow non-VM phones and their only android choice is the decidedly mid/low end samsung intercept (2.1 eclair, evdo rev 0 only) for ~$150-$200 but I still thought it was impressive to see any sizable dataplan for $25 all in. They also offer no contract usb 3g for $40 - $20 less than sprint charged me for years on contract, and $10 less than I recently paid for a verizon backed MVNO no contract usb data plan.

They apparently have legendarily bad customer service though.

On the subject, does anyone know if there are any high end sprint targeted phones that are exploitable to the point of being able to change whatever UMTS/WCDMA uses for identifying numbers that you might be able to convince a hardware specific MVNO like this to enroll a phone that wasn't their own?

jfb• 16 years ago

I'm on the record as an iPhone partisan, but I am very happy that Google is doing this. The world needs more phones designed for people and not for carriers.

Calamitous7• 16 years ago

I'd also like to render my thanks for an awesome OS and phones. I feel bad that my T-Mobile experience is squatting at the top of the comments, and I don't want people to get the wrong idea-- I still love my Android phone, and my next phone will also be an Android-- probably a Nexus S. :)

seanalltogether• 16 years ago

As well as a swappable sim card that works across multiple carriers. I bought the original nexus because I travel a lot and i didn't wanted to play the hacking game with a phone to get it to "just work" across multiple countries.

rsuttongee• 16 years ago

The phone looks great and is everything I want in a smart phone - especially the up-to-date OS that is unencumbered by a custom UI. However, the timing of this announcement is terrible.

If google really wanted to win over people who feel trapped in the walled garden of iOS, they should have made some sort of announcement about this phone back in June/July when millions of people were exiting their 2 year iphone 3g contracts. I know I certainly would have waited for it if I had known, but as it is now I'm stuck with AT&T for another cycle.

adambyrtek• 16 years ago

The phone was released when there was something to release, complaining that it didn't happen half a year ago doesn't make much sense. Not to mention that December is usually considered a perfect time for releasing new gadgets.

lawfulfalafel• 16 years ago

What a nice thing to say.

trotsky10• 16 years ago

"Near Field Communications (NFC)"

So the ability to both emulate a contactless smartcard and interrogate passive rfid devices. Pretty damn cool - the ability to open doors/start cars/unlock computers/pay for stuff just with your phone without resorting to bluetooth/wifi hacks or addon hardware. Also opens you up to lots of potential applications for extra information in the real world on things that otherwise don't have barcodes.

aw3c2• 16 years ago

* open doors/start cars/unlock computers/pay for stuff just with your phone*

Another reason why Android badly needs proper security like encryption of the whole system. I am really scared about losing my phone already and it only contains private information, no keys or money or anything like that.

trotsky10• 16 years ago

I believe this technology is usually implemented smart card style, ie in a tamper resistant package with an integrated cryptographic processor. So while yes, you could lose it it wouldn't be (reasonably) copyable - and you'd be in a similar situation to if you lost your keys or your credit card. In this case you'd need to revoke the keys, similar to changing your locks or credit card numbers. I also believe the contactless payment functionality should at least have an option (or require) a separate PIN.

metabrew• 16 years ago

Hell yes, my number one most desired feature for android is proper strong encryption of the whole system.

I'm reticent to cache any passwords on there or store useful but sensitive data on my phone since I can't easily encrypt it (unlike my laptop).

mclin2• 16 years ago

Are rfid cards used for payment on any subway systems in the states? If so can you already use that card for payment in shops etc?

trotsky10• 16 years ago

They're used in some subways - boston & new york at least - though I don't know if these are just trials or if they've perhaps ended. You definitely can't walk into a merchant and expect a contactless payment though - I'm pretty sure merchant roll outs so far have been limited to pay at the pump trials.

jeffclark• 16 years ago

You can store payment or your monthly pass on the MBTA card in Boston.

It's been live for a few years, so I'm pretty sure it's not a trial run.

dannyr• 16 years ago

In the San Francisco Bay Area, the Clipper card can be used on Caltrain, BART, and Muni.

trotsky10• 16 years ago

It seems this implementation is receive only - so not nearly as cool as I thought.

qeorge• 16 years ago

Nice! I have an N1, love it, and was apprehensive about my options going forward.

gcb10• 16 years ago

Wow. You love the buggy touch screen?

And the fact that google gave zero support for the phone, to the point of shutting down the community help forum.

Amazing.

eli4• 16 years ago

My Nexus One touchscreen works fine. And the one time I called tech support it seemed acceptable.

nailer3• 16 years ago

You're being very agressively downmodded, but you should have provided a link to prove what you were talking about (I own a HTC Desire, which uses the same touch screen as the N1).

In short: N1 and HTC Desire have major, unfixable multitouch issues: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pU0R9tdodw8

mortenjorck• 16 years ago

As this is a product page and not a comparison matrix, why does it specifically call out the omission of some features like infrared and physical keyboard? Not that I don't appreciate Google being forthcoming about what they chose to leave out (though who expects IR anyway?), but it seems an odd marketing choice.

Jach• 16 years ago

I've never owned a cell phone so I may be ignorant, but isn't IR used all over the place for apps that want to scan barcodes or those fancy encrypted images to download an app off a webpage?

eli4• 16 years ago

No, those use the camera.

wvenable4• 16 years ago

No, the camera is used for that. IR was used for what bluetooth is used for now.

francoisdevlin• 16 years ago

You're getting that confused with the QR barcode format.

nuclear_eclipse2• 16 years ago

Because it's built on a standard format that allows you to compare the Nexus S alongside all the other Android phones that you can browse from that same interface. Eg, compare the Nexus S to the T-Mobile G2 and you will see that one has a physical keyboard and the other does not.

abrahamsen• 16 years ago

It is supposed to be a "neutral" page for comparison, e.g.

http://www.google.com/phone/detail/sony-ericsson-xperia-x10

If it is a marketing page, it is marketing for Android as a whole, not specifically for Google branded Android phones.

The marketing page for this particular phone is here:

http://www.google.com/nexus/

The tech spec there doesn't list missing features

http://www.google.com/nexus/#!/tech-specs

dotBen4• 16 years ago

One of the reasons it might make a point of saying no keyboard is that the rest of the Samsung family of phones the Nexus S has come from do have keyboards.

The Nexus S looks identical to my girlfriend's Sprint Samsung Galaxy S but hers has a flip out keyboard and this doesn't, but the dimensions are pretty similar. I was expecting this to have that too when I first saw a picture.

Supermighty• 16 years ago

The only Galaxy S phone with a keyboard is the Epic on Sprint. The others (Vibrant, Fascinate, Captivate, and the I9000) do not have keyboards at all.

mclin2• 16 years ago

IR is used a lot in japan to exchange contacts with people you meet. For English speakers it's not that hard to punch in someone's email, but since email addresses have to be roman characters, it's actually a pain for non-english speakers. Thus IR. A new Sharp Android phone was just released on Au that I think is the first android phone with this feature.

jrockway• 16 years ago

But you can just share your contact card as a QR code, which is easily recognized by even the cheapest Japanese phone.

It's Contacts -> <Contact> -> Menu -> Share -> Barcode Scanner.

darren_• 16 years ago

> but since email addresses have to be roman characters, it's actually a pain for non-english speakers.

Er, no, not at all (well, possibly for the very old?). Roman characters are everywhere in Japan, no-one has any problem dealing with them (pronouncing the words they form? different story).

It's more that exchanging contact details is a lot more work in Japan - number, mail address, name in kanji, name readings (yes, you need these, even if you're Japanese/a native level speaker). Mail addresses are frequently really long and sprinkled with non-alphanumerics. Name kanji are a pain too - there's lots of homophones, so if someone tells you their name you often need to check with them which kanji it is.

Basically: it's almost impossible to convey your contact details verbally, so without IR, you usually wind up just swapping phones for a few minutes (luckily, in Japan you can be pretty carefree about handing your multiple-hundred-dollar phone to a stranger).

Contrast with the situation until recently in the west, where it was usually just a person's name (that you probably knew how to spell already) and a number, and you can kind of see how IR would be a big deal in Japan and not elsewhere.

iPhones have seriously broken contact exchange for young people in Japan, since almost everyone has one, and thus no-one has IR anymore. There's probably money to be made fixing it but so far the only solution I've seen other people actually have on their phones is Bump, and it's never really worked well for me.

drivebyacct27• 16 years ago

Because it is a comparison matrix. The page you're looking at is there standard template in the Android Phone Gallery. If you just look at the special Nexus Tech Specs page, it doesn't highlite its missing features.

arantius• 16 years ago

> As this is a product page and not a comparison matrix, why ...

Because you're wrong. It is a comparison matrix, and not a product page. http://www.google.com/phone lists many different android phones, by many different manufacturers, and offers comparisons.

The Nexus S product page is http://www.google.com/nexus

jared3142• 16 years ago

Still no FM Radio. I don't understand why it is so hard to get that feature.

powrtoch2• 16 years ago

Requires extra hardware, and I have to imagine that the vast majority of people would prefer to listen to their 16 GB of mp3s. I think you're just in the minority on demand for this feature.

nfg• 16 years ago

> Requires extra hardware

Are you sure? For comparison the iPhone uses a Broadcom BCM4325 http://www.broadcom.com/products/Bluetooth/Bluetooth-RF-Sili... for Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, this chip also can also do FM Rx. Of course that functionality isn't exposed...

goatforce5• 16 years ago

...and FM radio is free to listen to and Apple will quite happily sell you music from ITMS.

fsniper• 16 years ago

Nexus one has FM radio hardware. It's available with some custom mods. (like CyanogenMod 6.1)

sjs• 16 years ago

For those who have No Fucking Clue what NFC is: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Near_Field_Communication

powrtoch2• 16 years ago

I see what you did there.

cloudwalking2• 16 years ago

I think this is the coolest new feature, and I hope all new phones have NFC. RFID tags scan way quicker than QR codes, and don't rely on decent lighting (or an ugly code).

Further, NFC means the device also has it's own RFID tag. Visa: please replace my credit card with an app. Your card readers already have the near-field hardware!

potatolicious• 16 years ago

Printing something on a label/piece of paper is still orders of magnitude cheaper than embedding a RFID tag...

Also, Gingerbread does not support writing from the device (i.e., your phone cannot act as its own RFID tag), I'm supposing the hardware support is there, though.

ramchip• 16 years ago

There's a similar system already in place in Japan, it's quite impressive. You can link a credit card to your phone and actually use it like a ticket at train gates, or buy stuff and pay the bills at convenience stores by scanning the phone. Adoption seems to be a bit slow though, probably because of the risk of linking a phone to a credit card, and sheer habit.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osaifu-Keitai

alphabeat• 16 years ago

I wonder if it supports NFC such that I can replace all my swipe cards and it can identifying itself based on GPS. That would be pretty handy.

oomkiller• 16 years ago

VoIP and NFC certainly look interesting. Will the VoIP/SIP support allow me to interface with my PBX for mobile extension calling? I sure hope so!

Andys• 16 years ago

FWIW, i have been using VoIP with my original Android G1 all this time with the SIPdroid program. It works fairly well.

mrbill• 16 years ago

Other than NFC, more internal storage, and Gingerbread pre-installed, this pretty much has the same specs as my Nexus One, which I've been very happy with (no touch screen bugs here).

potomak• 16 years ago

I think NFC changes the rules of the game. This is why I'd call it Nexus N(FC)!

bkorte• 16 years ago

Ugh, Can't use it in my area of Canada. Need AT&T compatibility. Damn you, TMobile.

babblefrog• 16 years ago

You should be able to get a Samsung Captivate from Rogers, which looks to be very similar hardware-wise, though a couple of revs back in OS.

CountSessine3• 16 years ago

If we wanted a locked phone, there are many more options than the Captivate on Rogers. The whole point of this is to get a developer phone without carrier-specific garbage attached to it, a rooting procedure that's a bit easier than an iPhone jailbreak, and an OS that can be updated in a timely fashion when Google releases it. And for Canucks, this means living with Wind Mobile.

martingordon• 16 years ago

Yup, this blows. I was getting excited for the Nexus S as an unlocked supplement to my iPhone for when I travel abroad, but not being able to use it on AT&T 3G here in the U.S. is a dealbreaker.

brown9-23• 16 years ago

Connectivity

Quad-band GSM: 850, 900, 1800, 1900

Tri-band HSPA: 900, 2100, 1700

HSPA type: HSDPA (7.2Mbps) HSUPA (5.76Mbps)

AT&T doesn't work on any of these bands in your area? Which frequency do they use?

metageek5• 16 years ago

AT&T 3G is on 850 and 1900. So the GP would be able to use EDGE, but not 3G.

It's a little odd that a phone which clearly has the antennas to run on 850 and 1900 can't use them for 3G. (Yes, I know it's common. It's still odd.)

CountSessine3• 16 years ago

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UMTS_frequency_bands

AT&T doesn't work on any bands, period, in the poster's area - he's in Canada. Rogers, Telus, and Bell in Canada, and AT&T in the US, all operate HSPA (3G) networks on the CLR and PCS (850MHz and 1900MHz) bands.

900 and 1800 are Europe only GSM and DCS bands. 2100 can mean either the European IMT band or the US/Canada AWS band. 1700 denotes that US/Canada AWS band.

Anyways, it appears that the Nexus S only supports the GSM, IMT, and AWS bands for modern wireless communications (HSPA). That sucks because it means that in Canada you're stuck with Wind Mobile who have a terrible network.

TL;DR

The Nexus S isn't much of an option in Canada. Thanks, Google.

danramteke• 16 years ago

Hmmm. I wonder about much web surfing battery it has. There is quite a jump between talk time and standby time. I assume browsing uses up more battery than talking.

"Talk time 6 hours Standby time (max) 428 hours"

nodata2• 16 years ago

The Engadget review talks about talk time and internet usage as the same thing, so I guess 6 hours.

camiller• 16 years ago

<sarcasm> at least it is still on the United States largest super regional carrier available in all 49 of the states I am not living in. </sarcasm> sigh.

JulianMorrison• 16 years ago

That thing is a desktop PC. It happens to be phone shaped, but geez.

andre• 16 years ago

no freakin' keyboard

crocowhile7• 16 years ago

mmmh. I was not impress with the iphone 4 and I am not impressed with this either. I have a nexus one and the only thing that make me jealous with the S is the NFC. Are we reaching a plateau in mobile phone development?

jonknee• 16 years ago

How can you be impressed or not with a device you have not even touched? What about it isn't impressive?

slashclee• 16 years ago

I'm withholding my final judgment until I can play with one in person, but honestly, I kind of see the original poster's point. If you have a Nexus One, what do you get by upgrading to the S?

The Nexus One already has the 800×480 screen, the 1GHz processor (though it's an older Snapdragon instead of the newer Hummingbird SoC), the 512MB of RAM... Where's the dual-core CPU? The higher-resolution screen? The extra RAM? There's not a lot of incentive to upgrade here unless you need a curved screen or NFC.

crocowhile7• 16 years ago

Why do you think touching it would change my judgement? What should be impressing me? The shape? The weight? Snappier display?

None of them is worthed 600 pounds over my nexus one. Mobile phones development exploded in the last 3 years, now I have the impression they may just get a bit faster but I don't see anything really innovative coming. It's a legitimate observation, isn't it?

pxlpshr• 16 years ago

Contrary, only armchair commentary has plateaued.

mgcross2• 16 years ago

Under features, portable wi-fi hotspot is touted with no additional carrier fees. This currently works on T-Mobile with my Nexus one, but I assumed I was "getting away" with something. T-Mobile charges $15 for tethering/hotspot on other devices.

eli4• 16 years ago

According to this http://www.tmonews.com/2010/12/nexus-s-product-page-goes-liv...

US pricing is $529 unlocked and $199 with two years on T-Mobile

theBobMcCormick3• 16 years ago

I'm disappointed nobody seems to be discussing the curved display. Are there any other touchscreen devices with curved screens? If so, have any of you had any experience using one? I'm quite curious to find out out if that's a useful feature or not.

adolph• 16 years ago

Is the display itself curved or is the display cover?

theBobMcCormick3• 16 years ago

Supposedly the display itself is subtly curved. http://www.google.com/nexus/#!/features

aubergene• 16 years ago

The Palm Pre had a slightly curved display, it was pretty nice I thought.

mjs• 16 years ago

Really? If my original Palm Pre has a curved screen, it's basically imperceptible. (And if anything, looks to be convex, not concave.)

drivebyacct27• 16 years ago

I apologize, this is barely tangentially related... but I'm excited to endorse Google and T-Mobile...

I'm currently paying Verizon $40/month for an extra line on a family plan, and unlimited data with no tethering (though I do for free via CM6.1). I could have my own account with T-Mobile and get unlimited data for $50/month with no voice minutes.

I can use Google Voice and the Gizmo SIP Provider to be accessible via Voice Calls. I want the Nexus S. I am tired of Verizon, Motorola and HTC's nonsense with the locked NAND and the locked Bootloader. No new VZW phones have custom roms, in fact, hardly any since the Droid 1.

Go Google. Go T-Mobile. Thanks for not being (as) evil (as everyone else).

trotsky10• 16 years ago

I wish tmo wasn't the only major carrier without a 3g femtocell option. I can't even get tmobile 2g at my house.

marklabedz2• 16 years ago

I could easily overlook this if they rolled out UMA (aka Generic Network Access) on all handsets. Its been the saving grace for me on my Blackberry, especially in large convention centers with poor cell reception. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generic_Access_Network

commandar4• 16 years ago

The G2 got WiFi calling added with its first official firmware update, FWIW. I'd imagine the new Nexus will likely support this as well, nevermind the fact that 2.3 supports native SIP calling.

losvedir• 16 years ago

Watch out -- this was my thinking exactly when I went with an N900 on Tmobile. Unfortunately... didn't quite work out. The latency just kills calls unless I'm on Wifi. Pinging google.com, I get around 300-350ms latency on 3G and over a 1000ms latency on GPRS, which I have about half the time. In Boston, FWIW, not sure how it is elsewhere.

Now, that could just be the N900, which I'm growing more and more irritated by, but I think in this case it's more reasonable to blame the network than the phone.

windsurfer2• 16 years ago

I'd like to say that with my N900 on wind mobile in Canada, I get 200ms and skype is basically all I use. It works great!

commandar4• 16 years ago

I typically see 70-150ms pings when I'm on HSPA+. 200-300ms if I'm connected to UMTS 3G.

tocomment3• 16 years ago

Can anyone provide us with a step by step instructions on how to get this phone?

I'm really confused about buying a phone plan after I buy the phone.

pkulak4• 16 years ago

Wait until the 16th. Walk into Best Buy.

tocomment3• 16 years ago

Will I choose a carrier at Best Buy, or do I have to sign up later? What if no carrier supports it and I'm stuck with the phone?

compay• 16 years ago

Now, if only it could do HSPA on band 1900 so I could get 3G with it in Buenos Aires. :(

spaghetti• 16 years ago

Has anyone here cancelled their att iPhone service? i.e. gotten out of the 2 year contract early? I know this sounds ridiculous but I'd like to make the switch to T-Mobile and Android.

stanleydrew2• 16 years ago

I don't think that sounds ridiculous.

jcl• 16 years ago

It sounds like since the Nexus S runs stock Android it may not include the Swype text input system common on other Android phones -- practically a killer app for touchscreen text entry. Does anyone know if it will be available on the Nexus S (either preinstalled or as an add-on)?

cheald• 16 years ago

Swype may still be running their general beta, so there are APKs floating about that let you install it. I'm a SwiftKey guy myself, though.

eapen• 16 years ago

Seems really similar to the Samsung Galaxy S (Vibrant) and I am disappointed to see it doesn’t have the 1. roller ball 2. physical buttons (that you can feel) for home/back/menu/search 3. LED (for notifications)

Now, if only Samsung would upgrade the GalaxyS owners to 2.2 (as promised) or 2.3 (wishful thinking).

mklappstuhl• 16 years ago

Since it has bascially the same specs as the Galaxy S it would be really nice if Samsung would stop all there closed source/custom (Bada+)Android stuff.

I always waited for the opportunity to use a stock Android on my Galaxy S. Hopefully this will be possible soon.

klbarry• 16 years ago

Man, looking at that landing page, you cannot have a doubt in your mind that google has absolutely no style. Emotion is an important part of decision making too, Google!

nemik• 16 years ago

It's a shame the NFC support isn't complete. Supposedly can only read tags for now, not emulate them (though the NXP PN544 chip is perfectly capable of that).

http://developer.android.com/reference/android/nfc/package-s... is looking VERY sparse. Hopefully it gets completed soon.

ars2• 16 years ago

When it says "Three-axis gyroscope" does it actually mean "Three-axis accelerometer"? Or can I really use my phone to stabilize myself in space?

seiji• 16 years ago

Probably something like http://www.sparkfun.com/products/9070

iPhone 4 added one too: http://www.apple.com/iphone/specs.html

jagbolanos• 16 years ago

I guess it is a 3-axis gyro + 3-axis accelerometer so this would enable it as an inertial measurement unit (IMU).

The iphone 4 also has it http://www.apple.com/iphone/design/

riffraff• 16 years ago

am I the only want noticing the speech recognition feature "go to reddit" ?

Matt_Cutts• 16 years ago

I thought that was a cute touch.

jsz02• 16 years ago

I'm pleasantly surprised people aren't having a privacy freak-out over NFC yet. My concern is more practical: too many eggs in one basket. I feel like if NFC were to really live up to its hype I would need to keep a secondary device with me at all times as a backup in the same way I carry multiple credit cards and have a spare set of keys for my car. I suppose when it becomes a more mature technology that would be an ideal use for an older generation phone with NFC.

zmmmmm2• 16 years ago

Yes. I'm kind of puzzled and sad about NFC in general - at a technical level it seems to be basically trying to do the same thing as bluetooth, just with a different security profile. If they had somehow built this thing on top of a bluetooth profile we might have seen way more rapid adoption with backporting to all kinds of different devices - as it is, I don't expect to see this at a retailer near me for years.

mblakele• 16 years ago

Indeed. Losing a transit card is bad. Losing a credit card is bad. Losing a phone is bad. Losing all of these at the same time?

Yes, let's figure out a backup system.

maqr2• 16 years ago

I wish they would announce this sort of things months ahead of time. It's so hard to plan around contract renewals. I just bought a G2, but would much rather have had this.

zmmmmm2• 16 years ago

I'm mildly disappointed that it's only released on T-Mobile. I had figured that one reason to go with a Samsung device was that they already shipped a single core hardware set to every carrier, so there would be a low barrier to getting this thing on every carrier (or at least more than one). I guess this is not under Google's control, but still, I had hopes ...

mgcross2• 16 years ago

I am too. I've been on T-Mobile for years, and I'm relatively happy with their service, but 3G reception (although fast when I can get it) simply isn't on par with AT&T.

Aside from that, I just don't like the fact that even though my phone is unlocked, I can really only use Tmo or wifi for fast data.

eitland• 16 years ago

When will we see an international version?

mitjak• 16 years ago

Why is this an exciting phone? Genuinely curious. The specs seem the same as (CPU) or lower than (display resolution) than N1.

EDIT: My bad. Looks like the screen resolution is identical.

GeneralMaximus• 16 years ago

Shiny and plasticky is the signature Samsung look. Great hardware, great screen, but the handset itself ends up looking cheap. This is one reason I returned my Galaxy S, and now Samsung have done it again.

Edit: okay, the actual images don't look that bad.

r4ps• 16 years ago

No offline maps?! The Google boys need to go out more and see how the real world uses their phones. Very often, I found myself needing maps the most in areas with poor network reception (e.g., the Swiss Alps) and in places where data connectivity was not an option (e.g., London underground). I was very excited to hear about HTC implementing such a feature in their latest Sense builds and I hope Google will catch up and make it a native feature.

Edit: Okay, it seems they know about the problem and apparently the new version of Google Maps for Mobile will have some sort of offline caching capabilities. Hurray!

chrisbroadfoot5• 16 years ago

I suppose you didn't see this: http://techcrunch.com/2010/12/06/android-map-app-3d-compass-...

Raphael• 16 years ago

>16GB of memory

Not the clearest phrasing. 16GB solid state, 512MB RAM.

Nexus S

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