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SpecEagle review · Google

Nexus S review: The 2010 Samsung-built Nexus — the first Android phone with NFC.

SpecEagle Editorial·Dec 2010·$529
Overall
12/100
Class rank
#3 of 4
Tier
Flagship
Buy?
Look elsewhere
The verdict, up front

The 2010 Nexus that brought NFC to Android.

The Nexus S launched Gingerbread and introduced NFC to Android phones. A foundational device — long obsolete, historically notable.

01Display

34/100

34/100 is one of the weaker display results among flagship phones of 2010 — 23 points under the average. Check the rows below before buying for this.

TypeSuper AMOLED, curved Contour Display
Size4.0 inches
Resolution800 × 480 px (233 ppi)
ProtectionCurved glass

02Camera

22/100

22/100 is one of the weaker camera results among flagship phones of 2010 — 23 points under the average. Check the rows below before buying for this.

Main5 MP, autofocus, LED flash
SelfieVGA
Video480p @ 30 fps

03Performance

8/100

8/100 is one of the weaker performance results among flagship phones of 2010 — 33 points under the average. Check the rows below before buying for this.

ChipsetHummingbird S5PC110 (45 nm)
CPUSingle-core 1 GHz
GPUPowerVR SGX540
RAM512 MB
Storage16 GB

04Battery

30/100

30/100 is one of the weaker battery results among flagship phones of 2010 — 21 points under the average. Check the rows below before buying for this.

Capacity1,500 mAh (removable)
Wired~5 W
WirelessNo

05Build

36/100

36/100 — right at the average for flagship phones of 2010.

06Value

24/100

24/100 — right at the average for flagship phones of 2010.

What works
  • First Android phone with NFC.
  • Launch device for Android 2.3 Gingerbread.
  • Distinctive curved "Contour" display.
  • Clean stock Android.
What doesn't
  • Single-core chip; 512 MB RAM.
  • No microSD; 480p video only.
  • Software ended at Android 4.1.
  • Discontinued — a vintage device.

How this review is built: every section score, spec row and comparison on this page comes from SpecEagle's tracked catalogue — scores weight measured specs against the 4-phone cohort of flagship devices released around the same time. We don't publish invented lab anecdotes. Spot an error? .