The Google Nexus S-4G is the fourth generation of Google’s first mobile smart phone. It is known as being the first phone ever to run Androids latest operating system, Gingerbread or Android 2.3.4, as well as being the first system to integrate Google Voice. The phone was officially released in May 2011.
The phone is available in black only. It is 123.9mm in height, 63mm in width and 11.2mm in thickness. It weighs approximately 129 grams, so the phone is quite slim and light. The back of the phone is bare except for the silver Google symbol and the Samsung symbol. The back has mild ridges so the user is less likely to drop it. There is also a dip on the bottom of the phone on the back side in order to make ease of handling the Nexus while during talk time.
The Nexus has a 4” AMOLED display. AMOLED is an acronym for “Active Matrix Pixel Mapping Organic Light-Emitting Diode”. Basically an AMOLED display does not require a backlight system as it only lights up the pixels that are showing content. The light comes from an organic compound that lights up due to electronic currents. Furthermore, if there are no electronic currents in that section then there is no light. It is a bonus of the AMOLED screen that it saves battery life. The AMOLED screen is also not affected by direct sunlight. The phone has an on screen keyboard that allows for multi-touch, which allows the avid “texter” to type quickly.
As stated before, the Google Nexus S-4G is the first system to have Android 2.2.4 for an operating system. The device is run with a 1GHz Samsung Hummingbird Processor. With a combination of the two, the Nexus has gained a reputation of being an efficient and fast smart phone.
What is innovative about this phone is that it is the first device to integrate Google Voice. Google Voice is an online phone service similar to Skype only better. Voice allows for the user to combine all of their numbers on to one account. This basically means that you could have all of your phone calls forwarded to one device even though you multiple phone lines. The Nexus was the first to initiate Google Voice on to a handset.
The phone is equipped with a 5 megapixel rear-facing camera. The camera includes auto-focus and an LED flash. There is also a front-facing VGA camera that is 0.3 megapixels. Its use can be for general picture taking, but also video chats. The video from the 5MP camera has a resolution of 720 x 480, which is not HD quality, but definitely DVD quality.
The battery life of the Google Nexus S-4G is quite awesome compared to its competition. With the combination of the AMOLED screen and the new Android OS, the 1500mAH battery can last up to 6 hours with consistent talk time. That said, with general use you could probably get 20 hours out of the phone easily.