Nexus S and Android 2.3 Review: Gingerbread for the Holidays
by Brian Klug on December 14, 2010 4:08 PM EST- Posted in
- Smartphones
- Gingerbread
- Android 2.3
- Samsung
- Nexus S
Camera Analysis
If there’s anything to be learned in a straight comparison between the Nexus One and Nexus S, it’s again that megapixels don’t matter. I never was a huge fan of the Nexus One camera - there’s a strange undersaturation in some images, and that extra glare from having another layer of plastic between the lens and your object where grime could collect.
The Nexus S is overall much improved, but still not perfect. Again, the obvious analogue here is to the Galaxy S, but side by side quality on the Fascinate looks markedly superior in our lights-on test. With the lights off and the flash set to auto, the Nexus S is much improved. The reason is that the stock camera now correctly illuminates the object while running the autofocus routine - the result is that in the dark shots are now focused properly. Further, you get an idea for whether the flash reaches far enough to actually do any good. Kudos to Google for fixing this.
Even more Kudos, however, for adding some manual focus settings. Tap on the settings button, and you can select from Auto, Infinity, and Macro. Objects beyond hyperfocal distance are essentially in focus when the camera is focused to infinity, so if you’re shooting photos beyond a certain distance and don’t want to bother with wasting time focusing, infinity is super useful. Likewise, macro gets you the closest possible focus.
The back facing camera isn’t the best we’ve seen, but it’s an improvement from the Nexus One. In our lightbox test, there’s still a lot of missing dynamic range and detail in the texture on the Exacta camera, but there’s so much more contrast compared to the Nexus One.
I took photos in our bench location, in the light box with lights on and off, and then just casually while I carried it around.
There’s also a button along the row of other camera settings buttons for changing to the front facing camera. When you’re in the front facing camera, a few options go away. You can’t change resolution, and focus controls are also obviously gone since the camera is fixed focus. Resolution is VGA. Quality on the front facing camera isn’t spectacular, but then again the aperture diameter on that camera is barely 1 mm. The front facing camera also flips-images horizontally after capture.
What’s odd about the Nexus S is that video encoding is only 720x480, not the HD 720P we’re used to seeing with the Galaxy S. Video is encoded in H.264 with AAC audio, at an average bitrate of 3,664 kilobits/s on the back camera. The front camera records at 640x480 with the same codecs at just over 1 megabit/s.
I noticed that audio doesn’t quite sync up in the front facing camera video, which is a bit unnerving to say the least. The back camera is fine, and seems relatively smooth. Not having 720P is a disappointment, hopefully someone unlocks HD recording on the Nexus S same as was done on the Nexus One. It certainly isn’t a matter of the SoC not being powerful enough if Galaxy S can do it.
I took a video with the front and back facing camera at our usual location:
Rear Camera:
Front Camera:
And one more video in a different location per some commenters asking for an indoor to outdoor progression for gauging quality.
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Ullteppet - Wednesday, December 15, 2010 - link
First off, you guys deliver the hands down most thorough articles and reviews the internet has ever seen - and we're ever grateful for your unbiased, hard effort, keep it up!I didn't fully get the video recording though. First page table says it has 720p, but the camera pages states it lacks 720p. Is the table wrong or does it only reflect the potential of the camera, since the limitation seems to be in gingerbread? Reply
Brian Klug - Thursday, December 16, 2010 - link
Oops, you're indeed correct. The Nexus S lacks 720P video recording, at least out of the box with stock 2.3. I'm sure it'll be added in by the XDA-Devs within a few days at max.-Brian Reply
sicofante - Wednesday, December 15, 2010 - link
I know you're an American site and that Americans don't care that much about the biggest phone maker in the world (Nokia). However, since this is published in the worldwide web I believe your comparisons would be more useful to your worldwide audience if you included the newest phones from Nokia, such as the N8 or C7. Replyojisama - Tuesday, December 21, 2010 - link
I've also been refreshing the main page to see a review of N8 before Christmas, but apparently getting the review out in the time span between the release of the phone in October and Christmas was impossible. (Well, technically the article could still come out before xmas, but now it's too late to get the phone...)Well, apparently there will be an update for the phone soon, so hopefully this will be installed and tested before the article is released... Reply
rcocchiararo - Wednesday, December 15, 2010 - link
Swype has arrow keysSwyping forom "swype button" to "sym button" takes you to that keyboard. Reply
cece74 - Thursday, December 16, 2010 - link
I also miss the trackball on my Galaxy S.But I now use Swiftkey , a pretty good keyboard, and it also have arrow keys (press "123" then symbols : {&= key) to see it. Reply
JimmiG - Thursday, December 16, 2010 - link
Basically a Galaxy S (which was basically a Nexus One with a better screen and faster GPU), with a few extra features, unlike the Nexus One which was pretty revolutionary for its time.Of course, the Nexus One isn't even a year old, which isn't such a long time.. but sometimes it feels like the N1 was released in another decade considering how fast things have moved. I hope the Nexus 3 or whatever at least as a dual-core out-of-order CPU and other improvements. Reply
blueF - Thursday, December 16, 2010 - link
Well I purchased my Nexus S, and am very pleased with the phone. Scrolling is not as smooth as I was lead to believe, but still glad I purchased one. Replybobshute - Thursday, December 16, 2010 - link
Brian, are you sure on the 3G radio.The T-mobile Samsung Vibrant radio, although not advertised, is at least Quad band
It has the 1900 radio on by default for 3G on AT&T.
You can also turn on the 850 band in the service menu although it's not confirmed to work in 850 mhz only areas of AT&T coverage. Reply
Inuit - Saturday, December 18, 2010 - link
A new on-screen keyboard for Android from Keypurr has directional keys, and it is in the main screen (no need to flip to another screen). I am using Keypurr on my Galaxy S - and love it!In addition, it has large keys (almost twice as large as the standard keyboard) and very clever and up-to-date dictionary. I can type on it as fast as hardware keyboard, or type one handed. It also comes in black or white skins, has function keys, and more. I think Keypurr has some good short videos on their site: www.keypurr.com Reply