Still happy with my Nexus-S 4G

**Zorachus** · 09-24-2011, 11:54 AM

I have to say I am still pretty happy with my Nexus-S 4G. I am loving the stock/vanilla Android OS, after trying many different ROMs and launchers, I always seem to go back to the "pure" launcher and style. I do have the Oxygen ROM which is the base Android OS just tweaked and stripped to be very fast with good battery life.

I was tempted to get the Sprint Galaxy S2, while it is a great phone, probably the best Android device for sale right now, it just did not seem night and day radically better than my Nexus-S. The S II still runs Gingerbread and looks so similar to my Nexus I don't see the need to get that phone right now. And my Nexus is not slow by any means. I am eagerly waiting for the reveal of the next Nexus-Three device with "Ice Cream", that would be the first to tempt me away, or at least get Ice Cream running stock on my Nexus-S.

If there is any beef with this phone, it is the radio/network, and Sprint's poor 3G service lately. Hopefully we get good news next month when the CEO of Sprint discusses the future network plans on Oct 7th.

**Shark_On_Land** · 09-24-2011, 12:04 PM

Reserved

Sent from my Nexus S 4G

**its_miller_time** · 09-24-2011, 01:43 PM

What clock weather widget is that? And wallpaper while we are at it...

**Zorachus** · 09-24-2011, 03:03 PM

Clock = SiMi Widget in Market
LWP = Mystical Grass in Market

I am not a big live wallpaper guy, but this one is so cool, very minimalistic And keeping the black and green theme that Samsung phones with Gingerbread were designed.

**chud** · 09-24-2011, 03:49 PM

Originally Posted by Zorachus

I have to say I am still pretty happy with my Nexus-S 4G.

I'm looking to add a line and have gone into the Sprint store twice to do the side by side comparison thing. I absolutely love the Epic Touch. Hands down it's a great phone and I won't get into the plusses or minuses here. BUT I just can't get over the fact that it doesn't seem like it's 198, 170, whatever dollars better than the NS4G. If it was my only device, sure, I'd probably go for it, but like I said there just seems to be way more value in the NS4G at their respective price points.

**crzycrkr** · 09-24-2011, 04:05 PM

Totally agree. None of the dual core phones really outperform the NS4G yet, so i don't see the point is switching. I put mine up against a friends new Bionic the other day and he was amazed that the NS4G was smoother. Just don't try to tell people on these forums with new dual cores that the Nexus is comparable...they'll call you a liar, lol.

**dwaynewilliams#WN** · 09-25-2011, 05:09 PM

Now with NFC support, the Nexus S 4G is worth even more.

**DizzyMaker#CB** · 09-26-2011, 08:37 AM

i just got mine a week ago, and i have been considering switching to a different device, like the GS2, evo 3d, or photon. but like stated earlier, none are night and day difference especially when you compare price point? $29 bucks is crazy cheap for this NS4g!!! however, my ONLY complaint is my service! i never have 4 bars , usually one bar... and my 3g is super spotty. dont even have 4g in my area... closest places are about 1 hour away to pick up minimal 4g coverage. however when i compare my NS4g to my uncles evo and his BB, they both have a better signal than my nexus on the same network... makes me wonder.

**6tr6tr** · 09-26-2011, 12:24 PM

My one complaint is that I notice the limitations of a non-dual core device when running Navigation and Pandora at the same time. Sometimes the two hiccup and there's issues with the Nav app taking a while to change the image or the sound skips a bit. The other day, the phone actually froze to where I couldn't even turn it off! I had to pull the battery.

**madeincanon** · 09-26-2011, 01:55 PM

I've had mine for about 2 months now, and I've been in love. Dev support is getting better with it being on AT&T now as well.

Oxygen is definitely my favorite ROM, but I've been on stock since the 2.3.7 update. Tweaking the colors in Voodoo make the already amazing screen that much better too!

**crzycrkr** · 09-26-2011, 03:20 PM

Originally Posted by 6tr6tr

My one complaint is that I notice the limitations of a non-dual core device when running Navigation and Pandora at the same time. Sometimes the two hiccup and there's issues with the Nav app taking a while to change the image or the sound skips a bit. The other day, the phone actually froze to where I couldn't even turn it off! I had to pull the battery.

Two applications at once are about the only thing that slows this phone down. Just as fast as dual cores till you hit it with two heavy apps like that.

**eblackman** · 09-26-2011, 06:52 PM

Hello everyone and sorry if this is wrong forum to post this but can someone please explain what ROM is and how does it work. I see the term OXYGEN ROM. Once again how does it work and will it make my nexus better? How do you do it?

**actionjackson22** · 09-26-2011, 07:09 PM

A ROM is basically what your phone runs on. In this case, if your not rooted, your running Stock ROM which is basically what google made, Stock Android. Now there are custom ROMS rather than stock. If you look in the Root and hacks section of this phone's forum, you can see a list of custom ROMS such as Deck's ROM or Oxygen. Custom ROMS offer more settings to tweak, sometimes better battery life, and other various features. Kernels are what connect the ROM to your physical phone's hardware. If you install custom kernels, like the matrix 7.5 kernel, you can see better battery life and even change how the colors work on your phone's display making it more bright and colorful. anyway THERE YOU GO! lol

**derwin** · 09-30-2011, 06:19 PM

my brother is a die hard iPhone guy and he was bragging about rumored upcoming features of iOS 5. he said that you could talk into your phone, say "go to McDonalds" and it will verbally guise you to the nearest location. i took out my Nexus S and flatly said "navigate to McDonald's" and Google navigation opened right away. he just sort of muttered something about Apple doing everything well and sort of shut up about it. hahaha

**BlackHawkA4** · 09-30-2011, 06:23 PM

Originally Posted by noapparentfunction

my brother is a die hard iPhone guy and he was bragging about rumored upcoming features of iOS 5. he said that you could talk into your phone, say "go to McDonalds" and it will verbally guise you to the nearest location. i took out my Nexus S and flatly said "navigate to McDonald's" and Google navigation opened right away. he just sort of muttered something about Apple doing everything well and sort of shut up about it. hahaha

My friend will say things like Meh! I had netflix first!

Showed him Sega Emulator. With Sonic. He goes I have Sonic. I said yea... but this IS Sega. Show him another game. "Is that streets of rage!" Yea... "Meh! I had netflix first!"

**jenluvs2sing** · 09-30-2011, 08:58 PM

I LOVE how iPhone people are always quick to point out how their phone is better than yours, regardless of what you have. Makes me giggle.

I've had mine just over a week, haven't really done all that much to it, I want to learn the basics before I go messing with ROMs and such, but I'll start tweaking eventually. It's what I always do.

**Paul627g** · 10-01-2011, 01:54 PM

Fruit phones will never compete with our Android devices. I will not explain my reasons why I say this its just my opinion and that's it

**BlackHawkA4** · 10-01-2011, 02:16 PM

Originally Posted by Paul627g

Fruit phones will never compete with our Android devices. I will not explain my reasons why I say this its just my opinion and that's it

There's no need to explain why to anyone who owns a Nexus and has rooted it. Maybe if you haven't but I still can't see that being the case. My friend with an old build of cm7 who loves his phone keeps talking about the iPhone though. Said he's bored. Be realllllll boring on an iPhone when you can't mess with things.

I wish I knew how to build my own ROMs.

**Paul627g** · 10-01-2011, 04:16 PM

Building your own roms is not that tough Blackhawk. You seem very in touch things from reading you're posts around here. I think you would be very capable of some mods and changes to crate your own version of a ROM.

**BlackHawkA4** · 10-01-2011, 04:25 PM

Originally Posted by Paul627g

Building your own roms is not that tough Blackhawk. You seem very in touch things from reading you're posts around here. I think you would be very capable of sound some mods and changes to crate your own version of a ROM.

I know I could do it if I knew how to do it; but, I don't know how to do it, lol. If someone had a well articulated guide/manual on how to do so I'm sure I could figure it out. I did a quick search earlier with no such luck of finding one. Anyone know of a really good one?

**borgey401** · 10-01-2011, 07:08 PM

Originally Posted by BlackHawkA4

I know I could do it if I knew how to do it; but, I don't know how to do it, lol. If someone had a well articulated guide/manual on how to do so I'm sure I could figure it out. I did a quick search earlier with no such luck of finding one. Anyone know of a really good one?

Not too sure if you like Cyanogen or not (best ROM ever in my opinion) but here's a post on a script that will help you build from CMs source code. Pretty easy if you know the basics and have Linux. Of course you can make your own tweaks to it too and compile it.

**BlackHawkA4** · 10-01-2011, 07:31 PM

Originally Posted by borgey401

Not too sure if you like Cyanogen or not (best ROM ever in my opinion) but here's a post on a script that will help you build from CMs source code. Pretty easy if you know the basics and have Linux. Of course you can make your own tweaks to it too and compile it.

Love CM, lol. Yes, I have linux.

But see, I don't know what's going on there. I don't like scripts either. I like doing it on my own so I understand what I'm doing. I'm looking for more of a step by step build from scratch on my own straight from the source type deal.

**Paul627g** · 10-01-2011, 09:18 PM

Originally Posted by BlackHawkA4

I know I could do it if I knew how to do it; but, I don't know how to do it, lol. If someone had a well articulated guide/manual on how to do so I'm sure I could figure it out. I did a quick search earlier with no such luck of finding one. Anyone know of a really good one?

Blackhawk, your best method to learning how to work on your own ROMs is to start with a deodexed stock build then start playing around with some of the flashable mods and stuff. Download them, extract them and see what inside is different when compared to untouched AOSP so you can see the changes and pick up on stuff. Since the Nexus is AOSP things are pretty simple and basic. Most of your physical "looks and theme" changes are going to be performed in the framework-res.apk in the drawable-hdpi folder. The framework-res.apk also holds the key to most/many of your edits and changes to most ROMs. Going into the res/values/ directory holds most of your key xml files to edit things, make color changes, etc.. Also a good program to use to compare files and see the differences in things is WinMerge.

Jerry Hildenbrand here at AC has written a very basic but yet informative guide a while back to getting started with ROMs and working with them. I would take a look at that and also look into some of the other threads that people like Dreamsforgotten from ACS has done over at XDA on guides to theming and working with APK Manager which is used to decompile/recompile a ROM which is required when you start working with code and theming of a ROM.

General ROM FAQ (A lot here you probably know already but its still worth a good read because Jerry points out a bunch of key things to getting started with working on ROMs)

(This is a great read, I know its aimed at the Samsung Epic 4g but it gets you started also with the basics of themes, how to work with the tools required for ROM development and how to set them up properly)

I know your probably saying to yourself I'm not interested in themes on a ROM but technically unless your really modifying code and actually creating something from scratch and doing major changes then really your just "theming" a ROM. The definition in the hacking world of a true ROM dev is one who really is digging into source code, doing massive xml and smali code edits and changes.

Maybe something here I posted will help you in your journey and feel free to bounce questions off me, I'm not as familiar with things on the Nexus and AOSP yet but I have done alot of work on the Epic 4g with custom ROMs/themes and know my way around things fairly well.

Good luck!

**BlackHawkA4** · 10-01-2011, 09:55 PM

Cool. Thanks a lot. Ill take a look at all that stuff. Really. I just wanted to take a stock rom and take the few things I really miss from cm7 over.

I could probably mess around with the 2 and figure it out and just mash them together. But I wanna really get into.

I look at that stuff when I get a chance and mess around.