I got NS after using BB Bold for a year, and using Pre for a year prior to that, being a loyal Palm smart phone user since 2005. My first two weeks with the phone were challenging, frustrating and full of surprises. However, after three weeks trial and errors, experiencing some of the problems that everyone here complain about, reading many Nexus S forums and posts, and setting up many functions and apps on my phone, I finally feel great about my phone and my decision to get this phone. Being new to the platform, setting up this phone was cumbersome and complicated when compared to other phones and platforms, in my opinion, due to all the extra features that the phone offers. I am going to breakdown my challenges and give my mini review below for anyone who might experience the same problems and dilemmas dealing with Nexus S.
Form factor: I wasn?t too crazy about the form factor first, especially since this was my first phone with no keyboard. Coming from BB bold, materials looked too cheap, however, it only took few days to get over this issue and actually start appreciating the design and use of materials by Samsung in order to make the phone so light and thin, and above all give it the concave design. The size is a perfect size for a smart phone (no wonder it?s dimensions are so close to iphone) and it fits and feels great.
No keyboard: I always hated the idea of giving up the keyboard, and I don?t like sliders because of their size and thickness. First week I was so frustrated typing on the screen to the point that I was thinking about going back to BB, until I started using the speech to text and voice command features on the phone. English is my second language and I have an accent, and until now I never had a positive experience with voice command (trust me, I tried so many times). I don?t know if it is Andriod, or the phone, or combination of both, but the damn thing gets my commands 90% of the times right! Last few days I almost have not typed at all, I am texting, searching, and almost doing everything using speech to text function. This is truly the future of mobile computing and keyboards and history.
Phone, call quality: Call quality is great. As a phone, this is the best smart phone that I have owned or tested.
Battery life: First two weeks it was all downhill. By the end of my second week I was only getting 6 to 8 hours before I had to charge the phone. It was never good to begin with. I did everything that you can imagine, tried every tip that I found online. Finally came across a post which suggested to hard reset the phone, let it completely run out of battery after reset, and then charge it to the max. According to the post the phone get can get some sort of a software bug when we don?t charge them fully followed by the discharge first time out of the box. I don?t know if this is true or not, but it worked perfectly for my phone. Before I load up my phone with all the apps, widges and craps again, I was getting two full days of battery life with modest use!!! Now I am getting full day of use with tons of apps, email clients, widgets, GV and extra. If you have a problem with your battery life, just hard reset your phone and try again.
Wifi and radio: absolutely no issues here. It is as good as my BB and better than Pre. 4g works fine. I get around 3.2 MB download speed most places that I go here in Southern California.
Hotmail: I tried few email clients, including k9. I always had some issues. I finally tried gmails IMAP to get my hotmail emails, and it works great. I highly recommend to anyone who wants a perfect integration of hotmail to android phone to consider it. You can find more info by following this link: How to Forward Hotmail to Gmail | eHow.com
Corporate email: I have to use Good for Enterprises. I am not a huge fan, it keeps my outlook contacts separated from my personal, also no integration with other programs, calendars or email clients. Again, it took me a while to get used to it, and this is a trade off that I had to make in order to ditch my BB. Besides integration issue, it works flawlessly. Hopefully they will improve the app going forward.
Contacts: Had some issues with my contacts due to Good app. I moved all my contacts to gmail, and once again, I am very happy with my decision. It is much easier to maintain my contacts, and it is easily accessible from everywhere. I am also very impressed with how well it is integrated into google voice and other applications.
Google Voice: This is probably one of the best, if not the best, features of the phone. I tried GV back in 2009 on my pre, I didn?t like it back then. Now, with Nexus, I can?t say how happy I am with this service. Everything works as advertised, almost no issues what so ever. The only issue that I had was receiving a text message after one hour delay. Hopefully that was a onetime issue. If you are not using it, you don?t know what you are missing, just give it a try and I promise, you won?t look back.
Screen: Amazing screen, no complain, I don?t have any problems viewing in bright sun. The only issue is when looking from the sides you see a reflection, which is not a big deal. I use auto adjust and it works great. I had issues with the touch screen?s responsiveness. The problem went away after I did the factory reset.
Camera: Again it works great for me. I am coming from BB and Pre, so compare to those two phones, camera is a huge upgrade. I have a small kid and like to have a good camera on my phone. I am happy with the current camera, of course, would be nicer if we get HD, but then again, it is not a deal breaker for me.
My only negative comment about this phone is the lack of LED notification light. I really wish they include it for next versions of the phone. "noled" and other apps do not work with Goods for Enterprises. Also it is not that visible when I get a missed call or VM. It helps, but it is not a replacement for LED. The other non-positive experience that I had so far is using the front camera. Skype doesn?t support it yet, and google talk is not that good.
Overall, I am extremely happy with my phone and highly recommend it to anyone. No phone is a perfect phone, and there are always some tradeoffs. To me, the balance of the features, physical design and form factor, and specifications, is almost perfect and I wish Samsung keeps the design and the same approach for the future Nexus phones.
Form factor: I wasn?t too crazy about the form factor first, especially since this was my first phone with no keyboard. Coming from BB bold, materials looked too cheap, however, it only took few days to get over this issue and actually start appreciating the design and use of materials by Samsung in order to make the phone so light and thin, and above all give it the concave design. The size is a perfect size for a smart phone (no wonder it?s dimensions are so close to iphone) and it fits and feels great.
No keyboard: I always hated the idea of giving up the keyboard, and I don?t like sliders because of their size and thickness. First week I was so frustrated typing on the screen to the point that I was thinking about going back to BB, until I started using the speech to text and voice command features on the phone. English is my second language and I have an accent, and until now I never had a positive experience with voice command (trust me, I tried so many times). I don?t know if it is Andriod, or the phone, or combination of both, but the damn thing gets my commands 90% of the times right! Last few days I almost have not typed at all, I am texting, searching, and almost doing everything using speech to text function. This is truly the future of mobile computing and keyboards and history.
Phone, call quality: Call quality is great. As a phone, this is the best smart phone that I have owned or tested.
Battery life: First two weeks it was all downhill. By the end of my second week I was only getting 6 to 8 hours before I had to charge the phone. It was never good to begin with. I did everything that you can imagine, tried every tip that I found online. Finally came across a post which suggested to hard reset the phone, let it completely run out of battery after reset, and then charge it to the max. According to the post the phone get can get some sort of a software bug when we don?t charge them fully followed by the discharge first time out of the box. I don?t know if this is true or not, but it worked perfectly for my phone. Before I load up my phone with all the apps, widges and craps again, I was getting two full days of battery life with modest use!!! Now I am getting full day of use with tons of apps, email clients, widgets, GV and extra. If you have a problem with your battery life, just hard reset your phone and try again.
Wifi and radio: absolutely no issues here. It is as good as my BB and better than Pre. 4g works fine. I get around 3.2 MB download speed most places that I go here in Southern California.
Hotmail: I tried few email clients, including k9. I always had some issues. I finally tried gmails IMAP to get my hotmail emails, and it works great. I highly recommend to anyone who wants a perfect integration of hotmail to android phone to consider it. You can find more info by following this link: How to Forward Hotmail to Gmail | eHow.com
Corporate email: I have to use Good for Enterprises. I am not a huge fan, it keeps my outlook contacts separated from my personal, also no integration with other programs, calendars or email clients. Again, it took me a while to get used to it, and this is a trade off that I had to make in order to ditch my BB. Besides integration issue, it works flawlessly. Hopefully they will improve the app going forward.
Contacts: Had some issues with my contacts due to Good app. I moved all my contacts to gmail, and once again, I am very happy with my decision. It is much easier to maintain my contacts, and it is easily accessible from everywhere. I am also very impressed with how well it is integrated into google voice and other applications.
Google Voice: This is probably one of the best, if not the best, features of the phone. I tried GV back in 2009 on my pre, I didn?t like it back then. Now, with Nexus, I can?t say how happy I am with this service. Everything works as advertised, almost no issues what so ever. The only issue that I had was receiving a text message after one hour delay. Hopefully that was a onetime issue. If you are not using it, you don?t know what you are missing, just give it a try and I promise, you won?t look back.
Screen: Amazing screen, no complain, I don?t have any problems viewing in bright sun. The only issue is when looking from the sides you see a reflection, which is not a big deal. I use auto adjust and it works great. I had issues with the touch screen?s responsiveness. The problem went away after I did the factory reset.
Camera: Again it works great for me. I am coming from BB and Pre, so compare to those two phones, camera is a huge upgrade. I have a small kid and like to have a good camera on my phone. I am happy with the current camera, of course, would be nicer if we get HD, but then again, it is not a deal breaker for me.
My only negative comment about this phone is the lack of LED notification light. I really wish they include it for next versions of the phone. "noled" and other apps do not work with Goods for Enterprises. Also it is not that visible when I get a missed call or VM. It helps, but it is not a replacement for LED. The other non-positive experience that I had so far is using the front camera. Skype doesn?t support it yet, and google talk is not that good.
Overall, I am extremely happy with my phone and highly recommend it to anyone. No phone is a perfect phone, and there are always some tradeoffs. To me, the balance of the features, physical design and form factor, and specifications, is almost perfect and I wish Samsung keeps the design and the same approach for the future Nexus phones.
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