Google Nexus S

Love the Nexus S. So fast and lovely display. Switched from an iPhone, definitely prefer the Nexus S as its faster and the apps are better quality I think than the iPhone apps, especially maps.

Great handset, had to get it as it was the first with the latest OS update for Android. At first I was a little unsatisfied with the speed of contacts look up. On the 'out of the box' version 2.3 I found indexing over 1000 contacts to be worse than the Nexus One. However I pushed 2.3.4 on to this device and Boom - we're off to the races!

Overall this is a great handset, better battery than iPhone, more functionality than iPhone (maps, turn by turn directions etc...) and all the usual great Android apps.

Definitely recommend this handset, however now that the Samung Galaxy S2 is out, I'd prob give that a whirl.

The approach for Android has never been one that focused heavily on the media side of things, and that's not really been upgraded for Android 2.3.

There are a couple of tiny tweaks, but if you're looking to get a dedicated media phone, this handset (screen aside) isn't going to give you pause compared to something like the iPhone 4.

Music

Remember the stock Android music player from the T-Mobile G1? Well, not a lot has changed since then, although the UI is a little more attractive now.

The main music display is still mostly album art and easy-to-press buttons for music skipping, but there's not a lot more to talk about than that.

We're not seeing an equaliser (although they do drain the life out of your battery) and there's nothing more exotic than a party shuffle mode to get excited about.

Sonically, the Google Nexus S holds its own - bass levels are, at times, non-existent, but for the most part it's eminently usable as a music player.

One irritating thing the Android OS will do to your music: if you've gone through and sorted out your iTunes collection, downloading artwork from Apple's server and the like, the Nexus S won't recognise the picture (because it doesn't tag in the metadata).

Instead, it will choose a file with a picture on it, and tag every single song that doesn't have a picture embedded with that image instead, leading to a very amateur-looking media player.

Video

Video on the Google Nexus S looks superb thanks to the WVGA Super AMOLED screen, rocking a full 800 x 480 resolution count.

At full power, the brightness is definitely acceptable for viewing in most situations - we pulled it out on the street and managed to watch footage no matter what the conditions (although we wouldn't recommend it).

Sadly, the weather we're having means we couldn't try it in direct sunlight, but under a lamp it was just about visible; that 1.5x brightness increase seems to be correct.

Video format support is something more of a worry though, because we weren't able to view the full range of our movie test selections by a long way.

We were told that DivX was supported, but our movie simply wouldn't play. Neither would AVI files, although MP4 seemed to be just tikkity-boo, as you'd imagine, as were 3GP formats.

However, don't go thinking WMV will be an option. It's not, unless you download another media player. The same can be said for video aspect alteration - if something is showing up in 4:3 in the standard Android Media player, it's staying that way, which is irritating for ripped DVDs that may have gone slightly wonky in encoding.

Anyway, you can use this Blu-ray Ripper(http://wannasoft.com/Pavtube-Blu-Ray-Ripper/) and Video Converter(http://wannasoft.com/4Videosoft-Video-Converter-Platinum/) to rip Blu-ray DVD and convert video files for Nexus S or other Android phones. They do work great.

Photo

The Google Nexus S has the same media playback gallery as before - namely it looks awesome, but is pretty much useless.

Don't even think about using this for finding your videos, because the grid view will only show you thumbnails, so working out the names is nigh on impossible unless you head into the file and check the details.

Photos are a little better, since you can see the one you're after with a minimum amount of fuss, and in a nicely scrollable view as well that tilts into a third dimension under your finger.

However, if you've got a few folders in the Nexus S, you'll have trouble tracking down your pictures at the start because every repository will load up. We'd rather the Nexus S came with a proper file manager or a very simplistic gallery - this is too halfway-house for our liking.

Awesome product - love it!

Overall I like the speed of the operating system, the boost in productivity the phone gives you, the ability to customise and apply widgets to your favourite Google services like YouTube and maps and finally the free Sat Nav feature.

As a marketing leading smartphone this is great value for money.

It's my first Android handset and I've been using an iPhone4 prior to the Nexus S so I feel like I'm in a pretty good place to compare how the latest smartphone on Android compares.

Firstly the price to buy the handset outright is particularly competitive and makes it attractive when put up against the iPhone4. The look and feel of the phone is pretty swish too however one of it's strengths of being lightweight makes it feel a little cheap in comparison to the iPhone4.

Secondly I'm afraid that the phones mainstream apps such as facebook, foursquare, BBC and many more just aren't quite as slick or advanced as their iPhone4 brothers. This is an annoyance coming from being an avid app user on iOS.

What does stand out in the Nexus S' favour is the sophisitcation and integration of all Google apps on the phone. They are beautiful, fantastic and a dream to use! Free turn by turn navigation from a phone, priceless. Access to YouTube videos with one swipe and one touch from your phones touch screen is impressive (does your TV turn on this quickly??) and finally reading emails using a Gmail account is just like the desktop experience.

I could go on, but better still read other people's thoughts and opinions. All I'd like to emphasis is that if you were to buy this phone for yourself in the first half of 2011 you'll have something in your pocket that is cutting edge and truly has a wow factor. By the second half of the year you may well have a device that utilising NFC is your wallet as well as phone opening you up to another world of mobile possibility and potential.