Motohiro Takayama

iPhone 4 -> Nexus S

Since the iPhone 4 I had been using for a year got broken on both front and rear glasses, I started using Nexus S (OS 2.3.6) for my main mobile phone. Outlined an impression of 5days trials.

Pros

In a word: convenient.

• Asynchronous. Just after pressing a button to send a tweet, I can safely switch to see Facebook. I do not have to wait for single task to be completed.
• Intent. We can choose the destination of what we take with a Camera app. Openness to the future, for the developers, facsinating.
• Widget. My home screen has Google quick bar, Remember the milk tasks, and Calendar. I don’t want to see the badge count saying just how many tasks I have today, or what day today is. To glance at everything at once is useful to catch the whole context.
• Map app has bicycle direction navigation.
• Car navigation speaks.
• Developer friendly. we can launch an app by adb command from command line.
• Submitting an app is painless and fast since there is no review.
• Gentle in shape. iPhone 4 is solid, and Nexus S is rounded.

So so

Call quality is as good as iPhone 4.

Cons

• Font. I love Hiragino on iOS. I know it could be better if I rooted though.
• Japanese Input method. Simeji is well crafted, but it requires two or three more taps to switch IM than iOS does.
• Address Book. Sync between Address Book in Mac and Contact List in GMail is just a nightmare.
• Misses Omni Focus. I’m back to the days using Remember the Milk after 2 years.
• Official Twitter app does not support the pic.twitter.com photo sharing.
• Edge network is so very slow. I installed the micro AT&T SIM for iPhone 4 to the mini SIM slot of Nexus S. After several trials, it worked well. However, it can just connect to the Edge network, not 3G.
• No built-in timer app.
• No good instapaper app
• I’m always screwed up in editing UI layout on Eclipse.

Overall, I’m satisfied with its functional aspect. I would lean to purchasing Galaxy Nexus over iPhone 4S, especially if they provided SIM free one.