Google Nexus S vs Apple iPhone 4

Introduction:

Garnished with the fact that it's been given the Google branding, the Nexus S could arguably be the flagship Android device out there with the determination to fend off the heated competition from the iPhone 4. Only fittingly, both the Apple iPhone 4 and Google Nexus S aim to strive for glory as these two phones are quintessentially considered to be the cream of the crop in the industry. In fact, they're no slouches in any way as they pack on intricate hardware under the hood to establish themselves as worthy devices that will intrigue and capture the attention of consumers. As we place these two smartphones on a collision course with one another, it's going to be interesting to find which one will have the heart and performance to stand tall once the dust settles.

Design:

If you stop and think about it for a second, it's undeniably telling that the Apple iPhone 4 presents itself as the more premium feeling device between the two. That's because it employs durable feeling materials, like its brushed stainless steel band and glass like exterior, which undoubtedly is capped off with its striking industrial design. Whereas the Google Nexus S sticks to having a minimalistic appearance with its all plastic body – which unquestionably happens to be a bit more prone to scratches. The Nexus S is slightly lighter in weight, despite its blatantly larger sized dimensions. Naturally, both are considerably more streamlined over other smartphones as the iPhone 4 sizes up at 0.37” thick and the Nexus S measures in at a healthy 0.43” thick. Thankfully, the Contour Display of the Nexus S discretely  sprinkles a dash of personality to its typical looking form factor.

In terms of displays, these two smartphones feature the latest and greatest that have their own unique strengths to instantly wow anyone. Even to this day, there isn't anything else out there in the market that produces better looking colors than Samsung's Super AMOLED panels. In fact, the 4” capacitive touchscreen of the Nexus S hits the perfect sweet spot with its WVGA (480 x 800) resolution and support for 16.7 million colors. Needless to say that its output is stunning as colors magnificently jump out – while still retaining plenty of details. Conversely, the 3.5” Retina Display of the iPhone 4 takes the cake in pixel density since it packs a resolution of 640 x 960 pixels. Granted that it's smaller, its high resolution makes even the tiniest of details jump out with sharp corners to make it easy on the eyes to view. But honestly, it's going to take a keen eye to distinguish any difference in detail between the two displays as they both offer great viewing angles and shine brightly.




One of the most frustrating parts about the Google Nexus S has to be its four capacitive buttons beneath the display because they're not all that distinguishable. Even with its back lighting on, it's still extremely weak and makes for some difficulty even in low lighting conditions – not to mention the occasional accidental press. In contrast, the single home button of the iPhone 4 is instantly visible and offers a springy feel when pressed – meaning it's the preferred method between the two.

On the left sides of both phones, we find their decently sized and pronounced volume rockers – a thin looking one with the Nexus S and separated ones with the iPhone 4. And when they're pressed, they do offer a substantial amount of feedback to make sure you hit them. With the iPhone 4, we also find a latch that conveniently places the phone in vibrate/silence mode.

Between the two, we actually prefer the feel and placement of the dedicated power button of the iPhone 4 as it's located on the top edge and is accompanied with a springy feel. Even though it's an improvement over other Samsung Galaxy S devices out there, the power button of the Nexus S isn't as prominent – but luckily manages to offer a decent response when pressed.

Interface & Functionality:

Yet another bond that these two high-end smartphones share is their commitment to exhibit a sense of speed with their respective platforms. They are no slugs in any way since the iPhone 4 features a 1GHz Apple A4 processor and the Google Nexus S boasting a 1GHz Cortex A8 Hummingbird processor. So yeah, you can easily sense their affinity for speed and responsiveness by simply navigating around their interface or by witnessing the smooth kinetic scrolling of long lists. Moreover, applications basically launch as soon as you activate them from the main menu. Once you've experienced their peppy performance, it's pretty clear that it would be difficult to go back to using something that doesn't live up to the speeds established by both handsets.



If there's one thing that's still lacking with iOS 4, it has to be the fact that it's fairly skimp in terms of personalization. In reality, the only things you can modify with the iPhone 4 are simply things like the placement of the icons and the wallpaper – and that's it! Oppositely, Android 2.3 Gingerbread on the Nexus S shows off plenty of flare with its magnitude of personalized decorations – such as live wallpapers, widgets, shortcuts, and folders. Not only is Android 2.3 Gingerbread visually more appealing on the surface, but there's just so much creativity that one can do with it over the unchanged appearance of iOS 4.

For those heavily into social networking, the Nexus S proves itself to better integrate various aspects with the platform. Granted that you can get your fix by simply downloading dedicated apps like Facebook or Twitter on the iPhone 4, the Nexus S takes it one step further by integrating the social networking accounts of friends with your address book. So if you happen to click someone on your address book, it'll display their recent status message or tweet on top of the usual set of pertinent information. Moreover, you can place specific social networking widgets onto the homescreen that offer additional functionality like posting your own status message.

By now, everyone is probably aware of the ridiculously great on-screen keyboard of the iPhone 4. Although buttons might not be as big enough for some, it exhibits a responsive rate that makes typing effortless – not to mention the help of its accurate auto-correct and predictive text features. However, the new keyboard layout of Android 2.3 Gingerbread works great too – even faster for some. That's due to the implementation of numbers into the first row of the keyboard which essentially lessens the time required to type numbers. Nonetheless, we find both on-screen keyboards to work very well and enable anyone to speed type without any problems.



Since it's a Google device, the Gmail experience on the Nexus One is superior to what's offered by the iPhone 4. Now, even though setting up accounts is such a breeze with both devices, the Gmail experience with the Nexus S tastefully combines a good chunk of elements found with its desktop version. From searching emails to being able to archived them, you'll find yourself being more productive in sifting through emails on the Nexus S. However, we adore the iPhone 4's ability to reply to an email by using any account you have on the handset. So if you get an email in Gmail, you can easily choose to reply back with your Yahoo account.

Seeing that both devices feature front facing cameras, video calling would undoubtedly be a must have with both devices. Still, we find FaceTime to be far ahead in terms of usability over the multitude of services offered by Android. Sure you'll be required to use it via Wi-Fi only, but the instant transmission of FaceTime far exceeds the sometimes choppy look of Fring's service on the Nexus S. However, the quality of taking self portraits are pretty much dead even for both devices.


In the gaming department, we find both packed with a built-in gyroscope to enhance the way you play games as it'll adjust to the slightest of movements. However, only the iPhone 4 can offer a decent amount of quality gaming titles right now, while the Nexus S and the rest of its Android brethren are still waiting for their fix.

A feature that's available in the Google Nexus S, but is nowhere to be found with the iPhone 4, is the NFC chip which will enable you to use your phone to make payments through a contact-less process. Not that this option is available right now, but it's presumably coming in the near future.



Internet and Connectivity:

Endless amount of time can be spent surfing the web with both smartphones since they operate at a high level of performance. Now if it weren't for Flash support with the Nexus S, the web browsing experience would literally be at a deadlock. Not only do complex pages load quickly and properly, but both handsets feature smooth scrolling, accurate rendering, multi-touch gesture support for zooming, and the ability to open pages on separate windows. However, the speed of scrolling with the Android browser drops a little bit whenever Flash content is playing, while naturally that's not an issue with mobile Safari on the iPhone 4. In the end, the only other thing you'll be facing is whether or not you prefer the larger display of the Nexus S or the more detailed looking quality of the iPhone 4.



Packing support for GSM frequencies, you can essentially carry along either smartphone with you on your international travels. Domestically, the iPhone 4 operates on 3G with AT&T's network while the Nexus S supports T-Mobile's 3G bands.

Camera & Multimedia:

Although they both sport 5-megapixel cameras, their capture results differ vastly as the iPhone 4 reigns supreme in this category. In fact, it manages to outshine the Nexus S in just about every situation you find yourself in. Moreover, touch focus on the iPhone 4 makes it relatively easy to choose the focus level you want – but it can get annoying in trying to combat its exposure. But with the Nexus S, you'll simply have to rely on the virtual shutter key to snap shots. Overall, the iPhone 4 takes sharper looking images which are supplemented with their spot on accurate looking colors. Additionally, low lighting shots are also better with the iPhone 4 seeing that you get slightly more grainy looking shots and lackluster color reproduction with the Nexus S. Finally, the LED flash of the iPhone 4 is far better at illuminating shots with its moderately better looking results.

When you're presented with a device that packs 720p video capture versus something that shoots in DVD-like quality, there's no arguing that the iPhone 4 is going to provide better looking visuals with its high definition capture. Granted that both shoot at the rate of 29 frames per second in good lighting, the Nexus S drops to a sluggish 16 fps in low lighting conditions – which is a far cry from the 23 fps rate of the iPhone 4. Furthermore, touch focus during recording on the iPhone 4 aids in keeping your videos looking sharp at all times – which is lacking with the Nexus S.

Apple iPhone 4 Sample Video:



Google Nexus S Sample Video:



Surprisingly, there isn't much innovation to be found in either music player interface since they're basically recycled from previous editions of their platforms. With that in mind, cover flow with the iPhone 4 still stands to be the more visually alluring interface versus the standard and unchanged look of the stock Android music player.



Whichever device you side with, you can sleep well knowing that they're equipped in handling the task of playing high-definition videos. However, some will probably gravitate towards the Google Nexus S simply for the fact that it offers a larger screen with its Super AMOLED display – and you can't forget the saturated looking colors! Nevertheless, the iPhone 4 presents itself as worthy vessel in offering the same fluid playback experience. So whatever the case, you can expect nothing short of a fantastic experience in watching videos.



At $200 with a contract, you'll find both smartphones packed with the same 16GB of internal storage. Unfortunately, you can't supplement that amount with microSD cards, but Apple does offer a 32GB version of the iPhone 4 for $300 on-contract.

Software:

Out of the box, there aren't that many preloaded apps found on the Apple iPhone 4, but rather, you'll only find the bare essentials. Being the Google branded device it is, the Nexus S boasts the usual set of Google apps – these include Google Maps, Google Earth, Google Voice, and Google Talk. However, taking a stroll through their associated applications stores will ultimately provide you a treasure trove of offerings to suffice your needs. Even to this day, we still find iPhone apps to be somewhat more polished than their Android counterparts. In addition, Apple's device easily steals the show when it comes to pure quantities.

Are you lost? Or do you happen to need directions to get you to your destination? Well then, you shouldn't look any further than checking out the Google Maps app on the Nexus S because it offers a substantial amount of depth over its iOS counterpart. Not only are you treated to things like free voice guided turn-by-turn directions, but Google Maps for Android supplements its backing with support for Latitude, Buzz, and 3D maps – all of which aren't offered by the iPhone. Needless to say that FREE navigation with the Nexus S will easily gain the attention of consumers all around.

Performance:

If you want a clear calling experience, then you'll want to pick up the Nexus S as it offers better calling quality because of its natural sounding voices on both ends of the line. Regrettably, there is some noticeable amount of static noise that can be heard through the earpiece of the iPhone 4 which tends to muddy down conversations. When switching to the speakerphone, the Nexus S delivers a stronger output while the iPhone 4 displays some evidence of distortion at the loudest volume.

In our experience, these two high-end devices set the bar in terms of battery life for smartphones as they easily rise above the crowd in this category. With normal usage, we managed to get out 1 ½ days before they required charging. We accomplished this by managing our applications and manually setting the brightness to slightly below the middle setting. Obviously, light users can expect a bit more juice while heavy users will more than likely get close to a solid day of usage. Still, it's amazing that they're able to provide ample battery life over other smartphones on the market – especially when they're all touch devices.

Conclusion:

If there's one thing you can sleep easily about at night, it has to be that both smartphones will continue to receive the latest and newest updates. Being the kind of developer phone it's made out to be, the Google Nexus S provides users the complete control of the entire platform – which is great if you're into hacking your device. Furthermore, Android 2.3 Gingerbread closes the gap in the speed performance of the platform versus iOS 4 on the iPhone 4. It also manages to radiate a sense of customization with its interface which provides a personalized experience over its competitor.

But it appears as though that the Apple iPhone 4 showcases its prowess in the multimedia department as it excels in taking photos and videos. And while it doesn't have the level of customization that Android offers, iOS easily provides the user with a much better app support to diversify and enhance the experience. When you consider its $200 on-contract pricing, there's no arguing that the premium feel of the iPhone 4 stands taller. All in all, its well rounded performance and continuous set of polished features would more than likely appeal to a broader audience than the Google Nexus S.

Google Nexus S vs Apple iPhone 4 Video Review: