Nexus S
Encyclopedia
The Nexus S is a smartphone
co-developed by Google
and Samsung
and manufactured by Samsung Electronics
. It was the first smartphone to use the Android 2.3 "Gingerbread" operating system, and the first Android device to support Near Field Communication
(NFC) in both hardware and software. This was the second time that Google worked with a manufacturer to produce a phone, the first being the Google Nexus One
by HTC
.
. Google officially announced the phone on their blog on December 6, 2010. The phone became available for purchase on December 16th in the US and on December 22nd in the UK.
The Super AMOLED
version of the phone is the GT-I9020 and it is based on the Samsung Galaxy S hardware, the principal hardware differences being the absence of support for an SD card and the addition of a near field
chip. The alternate SC-LCD (Super Clear LCD) version of the phone is the GT-I9023 which is meant for the European (non-UK) market.
In May 2011 Sprint
introduced its Nexus S in the US. Unlike the T-Mobile version, the Sprint Nexus runs on its WiMax
4G network.
Also in March 2011 Vodafone released a white version of the phone on its web store in the UK.
In the United Kingdom, unlike the Nexus One, which was sold through Vodafone UK only, the Nexus S is sold through the Carphone Warehouse and is available on the Vodafone UK, O2 UK, T-Mobile UK, 3 and Orange UK networks.
In India, Samsung has officially announced sale of the unlocked version with Super LCD screen i9023, which will support all GSM-based carriers throughout the country,
In Canada the Nexus S became available at most carriers in April 2011 in two versions, one for Telus/Koodo, Bell/Solo, Rogers/Fido/Chat-r with 3G frequencies 850/1900/2100MHz, and the other for Wind/Mobilicity/Vidéotron, using 3G frequences 900/1700/2100.
In Australia the Nexus S became available in both black and white.
based CPU core with a PowerVR
SGX 540 GPU. The CPU core, code-named "Hummingbird", was co-developed by Samsung
and Intrinsity
. The GPU, designed by Imagination Technologies
, supports OpenGL ES
1.1/2.0 and is capable of up to 20 million triangles per second.
) and 16 GB of NAND
memory, partitioned as 1 GB internal storage and 15 GB "USB storage". The phone does not support additional storage capacity.
WVGA PenTile
matrix display manufactured by Samsung. In markets outside Australia, Canada, US, and UK, a Super LCD
is supplied instead.
application. This currently makes the phone impossible to use for many banking applications and other applications that typically require accessing the "SIM card" or "SIM application" menu on a mobile phone.
gave the Nexus S an 85% rating and summarized it as a "cool, innovative device with an eye to snatch Apple’s smartphone crown."
An AnandTech review praised the display, NFC
tag reader, and Android Gingerbread operating system, but criticized the lack of 720p video recording, HSPA+ baseband, and external storage support.
A TechRadar
review praised the Nexus S for fixing the GPS problems experienced with the Samsung Galaxy S: "The good news for those looking to upgrade from the Samsung Galaxy S – the GPS issues have been resolved, in that you can actually now get a signal with no problem."
CNET
's review was enthusiastic about the display, operating system, and performance, but noted wrongly that the device can only be used with T-Mobile in the U.S. and is not 4G compatible. Like AnandTech, CNET criticized the lack of 720p video recording, HDMI output and external (SD Card) memory support. CNET also criticized the "rather fragile" feel of the phone, the lack of LED notifications, and the few new features over the Nexus One.
Some Nexus S users have experienced an issue causing frequent random repeat firing of the capacitive buttons (especially the Search button) when using GSM 3G service. Affected users say the intermittent issue renders the device unusable, and have complained to Samsung, Google, and carriers like Rogers, Fido and AT&T.
Following national media coverage of the issue in Canada, Google released Android 2.3.6 (build GRK39C) in early September 2011 in order to resolve the voice search bug. Unfortunately, this build introduced a new bug which prevented the phone from being able to tether. Upon the discovery of this bug, Google quickly pulled that update build and re-released Android 2.3.6 as build GRK39F a few weeks later. This final build resolved the bugs that affected the voice search and tethering functionality .
On October 19, 2011 (October 18, 2011 in the Americas), Google unveiled the successor to the Nexus S, the Galaxy Nexus
Smartphone
A smartphone is a high-end mobile phone built on a mobile computing platform, with more advanced computing ability and connectivity than a contemporary feature phone. The first smartphones were devices that mainly combined the functions of a personal digital assistant and a mobile phone or camera...
co-developed by Google
Google
Google Inc. is an American multinational public corporation invested in Internet search, cloud computing, and advertising technologies. Google hosts and develops a number of Internet-based services and products, and generates profit primarily from advertising through its AdWords program...
and Samsung
Samsung
The Samsung Group is a South Korean multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Samsung Town, Seoul, South Korea...
and manufactured by Samsung Electronics
Samsung Electronics
Samsung Electronics is a South Korean multinational electronics and information technology company headquartered in Samsung Town, Seoul...
. It was the first smartphone to use the Android 2.3 "Gingerbread" operating system, and the first Android device to support Near Field Communication
Near Field Communication
Near field communication, or NFC, allows for simplified transactions, data exchange, and wireless connections between two devices in proximity to each other, usually by no more than a few centimeters. It is expected to become a widely used system for making payments by smartphone in the United States...
(NFC) in both hardware and software. This was the second time that Google worked with a manufacturer to produce a phone, the first being the Google Nexus One
Nexus One
The Nexus One was Google's flagship smartphone manufactured by Taiwan's HTC Corporation. It became available on January 5, 2010 and uses the Android open source mobile operating system...
by HTC
HTC
-Companies:*HTC Corporation, a Taiwanese manufacturer of handheld devices*Harrisonville Telephone Company, a telephone company in Waterloo, Illinois*Horry Telephone Cooperative, a telephone cooperative in Horry County, South Carolina...
.
History and availability
The Nexus S was demonstrated by Google CEO Eric Schmidt on November 15, 2010 at the Web 2.0 SummitWeb 2.0 Summit
The Web 2.0 Summit is an annual event, held in San Francisco, California, featuring discussions about the World Wide Web. The event was started in 2004 by Tim O'Reilly, who is also widely credited with coining the term "Web 2.0"...
. Google officially announced the phone on their blog on December 6, 2010. The phone became available for purchase on December 16th in the US and on December 22nd in the UK.
The Super AMOLED
Super AMOLED
Super Active-Matrix Organic Light-Emitting Diode or Super AMOLED is a display technology mainly for use in mobile devices such as mobile phones...
version of the phone is the GT-I9020 and it is based on the Samsung Galaxy S hardware, the principal hardware differences being the absence of support for an SD card and the addition of a near field
Near Field Communication
Near field communication, or NFC, allows for simplified transactions, data exchange, and wireless connections between two devices in proximity to each other, usually by no more than a few centimeters. It is expected to become a widely used system for making payments by smartphone in the United States...
chip. The alternate SC-LCD (Super Clear LCD) version of the phone is the GT-I9023 which is meant for the European (non-UK) market.
In May 2011 Sprint
Sprint Nextel
Sprint Nextel Corporation is an American telecommunications company based in Overland Park, Kansas. The company owns and operates Sprint, the third largest wireless telecommunications network in the United States, with 53.4 million customers, behind Verizon Wireless and AT&T Mobility...
introduced its Nexus S in the US. Unlike the T-Mobile version, the Sprint Nexus runs on its WiMax
WiMAX
WiMAX is a communication technology for wirelessly delivering high-speed Internet service to large geographical areas. The 2005 WiMAX revision provided bit rates up to 40 Mbit/s with the 2011 update up to 1 Gbit/s for fixed stations...
4G network.
Also in March 2011 Vodafone released a white version of the phone on its web store in the UK.
In the United Kingdom, unlike the Nexus One, which was sold through Vodafone UK only, the Nexus S is sold through the Carphone Warehouse and is available on the Vodafone UK, O2 UK, T-Mobile UK, 3 and Orange UK networks.
In India, Samsung has officially announced sale of the unlocked version with Super LCD screen i9023, which will support all GSM-based carriers throughout the country,
In Canada the Nexus S became available at most carriers in April 2011 in two versions, one for Telus/Koodo, Bell/Solo, Rogers/Fido/Chat-r with 3G frequencies 850/1900/2100MHz, and the other for Wind/Mobilicity/Vidéotron, using 3G frequences 900/1700/2100.
In Australia the Nexus S became available in both black and white.
Processor
The Nexus S has the Samsung Exynos 3110 processor. This processor combines a 45 nm 1 GHz ARM Cortex A8ARM architecture
ARM is a 32-bit reduced instruction set computer instruction set architecture developed by ARM Holdings. It was named the Advanced RISC Machine, and before that, the Acorn RISC Machine. The ARM architecture is the most widely used 32-bit ISA in numbers produced...
based CPU core with a PowerVR
PowerVR
PowerVR is a division of Imagination Technologies that develops hardware and software for 2D and 3D rendering, and for video encoding, decoding, associated image processing and Direct X, OpenGL ES, OpenVG, and OpenCL acceleration....
SGX 540 GPU. The CPU core, code-named "Hummingbird", was co-developed by Samsung
Samsung
The Samsung Group is a South Korean multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Samsung Town, Seoul, South Korea...
and Intrinsity
Intrinsity
Intrinsity was a privately held Austin, Texas based fabless semiconductor company; it was founded in 1997 as EVSX on the remnants of Exponential Technology and changed its name to Intrinsity in 2000...
. The GPU, designed by Imagination Technologies
Imagination Technologies
Imagination Technologies Group plc is a British-based maker of a mobile graphics and microprocessor chip technology primarily known for its PowerVR graphics and Pure DAB radio divisions...
, supports OpenGL ES
OpenGL ES
OpenGL for Embedded Systems is a subset of the OpenGL 3D graphics application programming interface designed for embedded systems such as mobile phones, PDAs, and video game consoles. OpenGL ES is managed by the not-for-profit technology consortium, the Khronos Group, Inc.- Versions :Several...
1.1/2.0 and is capable of up to 20 million triangles per second.
Memory
The Nexus S has 512 MB of dedicated RAM (Mobile DDRMobile DDR
Mobile DDR is type of double data rate synchronous DRAM for mobile computers.-Original LPDDR:...
) and 16 GB of NAND
Nand
NAND may stand for:*Nand , an Indian classical raga.*Logical NAND , a binary operation in logic.**NAND gate, an electronic gate that implements a logical NAND....
memory, partitioned as 1 GB internal storage and 15 GB "USB storage". The phone does not support additional storage capacity.
Screen
The Nexus S is the first device to use a 4 inches (101.6 mm) slightly curved glass touchscreen, described by Google as a "Contour Display", with a Super AMOLEDSuper AMOLED
Super Active-Matrix Organic Light-Emitting Diode or Super AMOLED is a display technology mainly for use in mobile devices such as mobile phones...
WVGA PenTile
PenTile matrix family
PenTile matrix family refers to a family of patented subpixel matrix schemes used in electronic device displays. PenTile is a trademark of Samsung....
matrix display manufactured by Samsung. In markets outside Australia, Canada, US, and UK, a Super LCD
Super LCD
slcd is a display technology used in modern smartphones such as later revisions of the Droid incredible and Droid Incredible 2....
is supplied instead.
Variants
| Model Number | Notable Features | Released In |
|---|---|---|
| i9020 or i9020t or GT-i9020 or GT-i9020T | 900/1700/2100MHz UMTS, sAMOLED | May 2011 |
| i9020a or GT-i9020A | 850/1900/2100MHz UMTS, sAMOLED | May 2011 |
| i9023 or GT-i9023 | 900/1700/2100MHz UMTS, Super Clear LCD | TBD |
| NS4G or d720 or SPH-D720 | 850/1900/2100MHz UMTS, 4G WiMAX, sAMOLED | TBD |
SIM Toolkit
The Nexus S's version of Android "Gingerbread" does not include the SIM toolkitSIM Application Toolkit
SIM Application Toolkit is a standard of the GSM system which enables the Subscriber Identity Module to initiate actions which can be used for various value-added services....
application. This currently makes the phone impossible to use for many banking applications and other applications that typically require accessing the "SIM card" or "SIM application" menu on a mobile phone.
Critical reception
The review by The RegisterThe Register
The Register is a British technology news and opinion website. It was founded by John Lettice, Mike Magee and Ross Alderson in 1994 as a newsletter called "Chip Connection", initially as an email service...
gave the Nexus S an 85% rating and summarized it as a "cool, innovative device with an eye to snatch Apple’s smartphone crown."
An AnandTech review praised the display, NFC
Near Field Communication
Near field communication, or NFC, allows for simplified transactions, data exchange, and wireless connections between two devices in proximity to each other, usually by no more than a few centimeters. It is expected to become a widely used system for making payments by smartphone in the United States...
tag reader, and Android Gingerbread operating system, but criticized the lack of 720p video recording, HSPA+ baseband, and external storage support.
A TechRadar
TechRadar
TechRadar is an online publication focused on technology company which looks and reviews the most available tech today. TechRadar is owned by the Future plc company, the sixth-largest in the United Kingdom. It has a great number of reviews. Such as: Tablet Computer, Smartphone, PC, Macintosh,...
review praised the Nexus S for fixing the GPS problems experienced with the Samsung Galaxy S: "The good news for those looking to upgrade from the Samsung Galaxy S – the GPS issues have been resolved, in that you can actually now get a signal with no problem."
CNET
CNET
CNET is a tech media website that publishes news articles, blogs, and podcasts on technology and consumer electronics. Originally founded in 1994 by Halsey Minor and Shelby Bonnie, it was the flagship brand of CNET Networks and became a brand of CBS Interactive through CNET Networks' acquisition...
's review was enthusiastic about the display, operating system, and performance, but noted wrongly that the device can only be used with T-Mobile in the U.S. and is not 4G compatible. Like AnandTech, CNET criticized the lack of 720p video recording, HDMI output and external (SD Card) memory support. CNET also criticized the "rather fragile" feel of the phone, the lack of LED notifications, and the few new features over the Nexus One.
Issues
Google was notified about a bug that caused random reboots on Nexus S phones on January 4, 2011. The company acknowledged the bug on January 11, 2011 and released a fix on February 22, 2011.Some Nexus S users have experienced an issue causing frequent random repeat firing of the capacitive buttons (especially the Search button) when using GSM 3G service. Affected users say the intermittent issue renders the device unusable, and have complained to Samsung, Google, and carriers like Rogers, Fido and AT&T.
Following national media coverage of the issue in Canada, Google released Android 2.3.6 (build GRK39C) in early September 2011 in order to resolve the voice search bug. Unfortunately, this build introduced a new bug which prevented the phone from being able to tether. Upon the discovery of this bug, Google quickly pulled that update build and re-released Android 2.3.6 as build GRK39F a few weeks later. This final build resolved the bugs that affected the voice search and tethering functionality .
Successor
On October 19, 2011 (October 18, 2011 in the Americas), Google unveiled the successor to the Nexus S, the Galaxy Nexus
Galaxy Nexus
The Galaxy Nexus is a touchscreen slate Android smartphone developed by a partnership between Samsung and Google. The phone and operating system were developed collaboratively by engineers from both companies. It is the third generation successor to Google’s previous flagship phones, the Nexus One...