The last few days we’

For the last few days we’ve been using the Google Nexus S, manufactured by Samsung, with the new Android 2.3 “Gingerbread” operating system. This is a phone that was designed with direct input from the Google Android team. And like its predecessor, the Nexus One, which was released in January 2010, it has a “clean” install of Android. That means there is no additional software layer from third party OEMs or carriers to interfere with the user experience. Like the Nexus One, this will become the reference phone for this generation of Android.

The Nexus One

Unlike the Nexus One, the phone was not built from scratch – the starting point was the Samsung Galaxy S, released before this year. And Google will not be selling this phone directly to consumers. They say that experiment is over, and this phone will be available at first at Best Buy in the U.S. and Carphone Warehouse in the U.K. Google says the phone is currently expected to be available starting December 16, even though pre-orders might be taken previously.

The phone does not fail to please. It is significantly faster than the Nexus One, has a high-end AMOLED 400 x 800 resolution screen in other words second only to the iPhone 4, and is NFC-enabled. Like all Android phones it is dead simple to set up, assuming you use Gmail, Google Calendar, Google contacts, etc. Now it’s Google’s various apps, some of which are unavailable for the iPhone, that make it the best phone on the market today.

The phone has a sleeker design than the Nexus One

The phone has a sleeker design than the Nexus One, even though its generic black plastic case doesn’t specifically scream for attention. The case as well feels somewhat cheap, unlike the solid feel of the iPhone and some previous Android phones. Now it is very thin and light – just 4.55 ounces. The phone’s dimensions are 63mm x 123.9mm x 10.88mm. It is significantly svelter than the EVO or the Droid X, previous generation Android phones that we thought were too bulky.

The Nexus S uses the 1 GHz Hummingbird processor, which thoroughly zooms and as well seems to handle running multiple apps and background processes so then compared to previous Android devices we’ve used. The 4 inch Super AMOLED 480×800 touchscreen has very deep blacks and viewing angles and is, as we said above, second only to the slightly smaller now higher resolution iPhone 4 display.

The phone has both a rear facing 5 megapixel camera

The phone has both a rear facing 5 megapixel camera, with a flash, as so then as a VGA front facing camera. Both performed so then. The phone as well has a gyroscope, accelerometer, compass, proximity sensor, haptic feedback and a light sensor. It comes with 16 GB of internal flash memory; there is no expansion slot.

And, as Google CEO Eric Schmidt hinted at while Web 2.0 Summit, the Nexus S has Nearly Field Communication built in - a new feature that Gingerbread adds support for. As late as this you probably won’t have many reasons to have it activated, however NFC is likely to prove very important over the straightway couple years. In the end, the innovation will allow you to use your phone in place of a credit card by simply tapping the phone against special sensors in retail stores. NFC will as well allow for phones to swap data between each other with a minimal amount of hassle, as shortly as developers add support for that. This is at heart future-proofing the phone, and a year from however I expect that most Android phones will be shipping with NFC.

Google’s noise cancellation software is as well present. When combined with the excellent audio hardware it results in very high quality calls. In test calls from my car the recipient said they heard very little background noise – the iPhone in particular performed terribly in a similar test.

We’ve been a big proponent of using Android phones along with Google Voice and other Google apps. It makes setup of a new phone very easy – a minute or two at the most – and we both continue to use our existing Google Voice phone numbers for inbound and outbound phones. The Nexus S comes with the Google Voice app pre-installed, saving additional minutes.

The main event is Gingerbread operating system

But the main event is Gingerbread operating system, which comes installed on the phone. No, the UI hasn’t seen a ground-up redesign, however it’s improved in a lot of small ways, like the switch from a drab gray to a black notification bar.

It comes with old crowd-pleasers like the on-the-fly creation of Wi-Fi hotspots. And Google has as well iterated on the user interface, particularly the keyboard. It’s not as polished as the iPhone, now text entry is significantly faster than previous Android phones, with less errors. It is as well much better at predicting words, and copy-and-paste has been improved as so then. If the iPhone is 8/10 on text input, the Nexus One is probably 5/10 and the Nexus S is a solid 6/10.

Best of all, clearly, is the fact that the Nexus S is a clean install of Android, and a pure Google experience. There is no messy third-party software to muck things up.

We can write all day about a phone, however the real test with us is whether we continue to use it afterwards a post. The EVO and the Droid X were quickly forgotten for us. Michael tested the iPhone 4 yet its lack of point to point navigation and unwillingness to play then with Google Voice made him ultimately give it up afterwards a month and move back to the Nexus One. The Nexus S will almost truly be his go-to phone for the then and there few months. Michael is leaving today for a week in Europe, and taking only this phone with him. The fact that it’s unlocked means he can add a sim card once he is in Paris and continue to use it without extravagant additional charges.

Google’s voice search/input applications and Google Navigation continue to make Android phones in general significantly better mobile devices than the iPhone. On the oher side of the coin, Google continues to flail on media, and the device is not any better than previous Android phones at dealing with stored music. That’s why Michael will as well be bringing an iPad to Europe, which integrates perfectly with iTunes.

The bottom line is this

The bottom line is this. If you are an iPhone user this isn’t going to make you switch. If you’re an Android user you will want this phone more than any other. If you’re currently neither, we recommend that you go with the Nexus S. It is better than the iPhone in most ways. What you lose with the slightly less impressive screen and iOS’s slightly slicker user experience you will more than make up for with the Nexus S’s ability to in fact make phone calls that don’t drop and Google’s exceptional Navigation and voice input applications. The fact that the phone is unlocked and can be used abroad with other carriers is as well a very big plus.