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
- Samsung
- Nexus S
- Gingerbread
- Android 2.3
- Mobile
Performance
We’ve already seen that Hummingbird is a competent performer in the Galaxy S line of devices, but haven’t gotten to see how that performance changes with the updated Dalvik VM that 2.2 (and thus 2.3) brings. Android 2.3 doesn’t bring as big of a performance boost, and it’s hard to tell in the first place given the lack of any other Hummingbird devices running Android 2.2.
Regardless, performance overall is around where it should be. I’ve included numbers from the myTouch 4G which I’ve begun testing, and Vivek’s G2 as these show performance of the new 45 nm Snapdragons which is also competent. Adreno 205 comes close to but falls short of PowerVR SGX 540 in every case. Note that Neocore is now clamped by vsync across both the new Snapdragons and Hummingbird - those numbers literally are the cap.
We also continue to see the strong lead in Linpack from Qualcomm Snapdragon’s much faster FPU which neither of the A8s can catch. That said, Hummingbird does see a jump over the numbers it posts running Android 2.1.
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Manabu - Wednesday, December 15, 2010 - link
For who write in japanese, the Simeji keyboard loads by default in a mode with arrows, buttons for cut & paste, etc.evan919 - Tuesday, December 14, 2010 - link
You guys write some of the best mobile reviews on the web.About the GPS performance. GPS w/ WiFi location works well on my Galaxy S Captivate. However, relying on standalone GPS is where the problems come. Is there a way you can just use standalone GPS on the Nexus S and report back on GPS performance using Google Navigation?
Brian Klug - Tuesday, December 14, 2010 - link
Awesome to hear, glad you enjoy them!So I just turned WiFI-augmented location services off, reset the phone (powercycled), and then fired up GPS test in my office. It took under 10 seconds to get full 3D GPS fix and seems completely fine SNR-wise. Looks good to me.
-Brian
HMTK - Tuesday, December 14, 2010 - link
And how good does this thing sync with Exchange? I'm getting a new smartphone and if 2.3 is a lot better than 2.2, I'll wait.blueF - Tuesday, December 14, 2010 - link
Great review Brian. I always wait for the anandtech reviews before making a decision on buying a phone. Also I was wondering if the Nexus S has a gorilla glass screen. I have so far been unable to find any reliable info on that.Brian Klug - Tuesday, December 14, 2010 - link
So I've been trying to find out whether the Nexus S has gorilla glass myself, but haven't found anything definite. I'll update if I do find out, however ;)-Brian
tjcioffe - Tuesday, December 14, 2010 - link
swype's keyboard has arrow keys. swipe from the swype symbol to the SYM key right next to it.vshah - Tuesday, December 14, 2010 - link
have you considered running battery life tests without task killers running? if android is constantly restarting processes only to have them killed by the task killer, it could be skewing results. if you ran the numbers without the task killer, i'd like to see those. is that standard practice for all android battery life tests?Thanks for the review...i'm still not sure whether or not I should upgrade from my N1
Brian Klug - Tuesday, December 14, 2010 - link
So system panel doesn't constantly kill tasks like other task killers. I kill everything before I start the test, allow things to launch again, and then unplug them from the power and the test begins.We've been pretty consistent doing this for all of our Android battery life tests. ;)
-Brian
vol7ron - Tuesday, December 14, 2010 - link
That's good to know, I thought this was a new scanner feature of the phone. Thanks for clarifying.