As we mentioned, the Nexus S packs in a formidable amount of tech into its small frame (2.48 inches by 4.87 inches, and 0.42 inches thick, in case you were wondering). Any device loaded up with a 1GHz Hummingbird CPU is sure to get our attention, and the performance we've been seeing with the S is nothing short of awesome. On a Neocore benchmark, we scored a terrific 55.6fps, and general use of the OS is lightning fast with nary a hiccup in sight. We also haven't run into any memory issues, and though having 16GB of storage onboard is nice, we would have liked to see a microSD option here as well. Still, the method which Gingerbread utilizes the installed flash memory is excellent, and for those of you who can live with a finite amount of space, this won't be an issue.
Besides the storage and CPU, the device sports a Super AMOLED display at 800 x 480 (235 ppi) which looks gorgeous (if slightly yellowish) to our eyes. The device also has its fair share of wireless radios, including tri-band HSPA (900, 2100, and 1700MHz), and quad-band GSM / EDGE (850, 900, 1800, 1900MHz), WiFi 802.11b/g/n, Bluetooth 2.1+EDR, A-GPS, and that NFC chip you've been hearing all about. There's also a gyroscope, accelerometer, and digital compass inside. We were a little disappointed to discover that Samsung didn't include a notification light on the device -- we like the reassuring blip telling us we've got an email waiting.
As far as that NFC chip is concerned (pictured above), right now there's not a lot to test it with, though Google is hoping that devs will find all kinds of uses for it. Right now it's read only, so you can't write to the device from a target -- that's a security measure right now. When we spoke to reps, they told us that there were three methods of using NFC: read, write, and exchange. Exchange sounds interesting, because it would (in theory) allow you to simply swipe your phone against or near another NFC device and swap contacts (or other info).
We did see some strange issues with the display -- while it does look handsome in most settings, we noticed some strange inconsistencies in the panel against certain colors or tones. It was particularly pronounced on solid gray backgrounds (as you can see above). We're not sure the cause of the problem (or if it was simply an issue with the device we had), but it was somewhat troubling. One other thing of note -- we noticed a few missed or latent presses on the touchscreen which occasionally led to stuttery behavior or an opened item that we didn't mean to tap. It's hard to say if this was a software or hardware issue (and we know that sometimes Android devices can be particularly finicky when syncing). It wasn't a deal-breaker by any means, but we saw the issue rear its head a handful of times, and felt it was worth mentioning.
From : http://www.engadget.com/2010/12/10/nexus-s-review/
No comments:
Post a Comment