The face off between the Google Nexus S and the HTC Desire HD is a battle of the epic Android phones. Ahead of our full review of the Google Nexus S we’re putting the HTC Desire HD and the Google Nexus S stat to stat, pitting the two against each other to see if Google can beat what’s arguably the best Android on the market right now, the HTC Desire HD.
Screen
The HTC Desire HD has a 4.3 inch 480 x 800 WVGA LCD touchscreen. The Google Nexus S is sporting a curved ergonomic screen that’s designed to fit around your face better than a standard phone. The screen itself is a four inch super AMOLED display. The former Nexus S feature is cute, if a little odd, and Google are enjoying telling us that it’s a world first for smartphones. The real clincher here is the super AMOLED screen. This means it will be a touch brighter and crisper than the HTC Desire HD, and for that reason, the Nexus S wins.
Power
The Google Nexus S is powered by a 1GHz Hummingbird processor with 512MB RAM, which Google reckons gives Nexus S owners “one of the fastest and most seamless user experiences available”. But if it’s speed that Google reckons it shines at, then the HTC Desire HD is one of its greatest challengers, packing a 2nd generation 1GHz Snapdragon processor, and 768MB of RAM. We found it to be incredibly fast, and said in review that you’d struggle to trip it up. We’ll see if the Nexus S manages to beat the HTC Desire HD, but with smaller RAM the Nexus S loses on paper.
Software
The Google Nexus S will be the first smartphone out in the wild that’s running Android Gingerbread 2.3. The HTC Desire HD on the other hand, runs Android Froyo with the HTC Sense skin, which is widely accepted as the best of the bunch when it comes to Android skins, and comes with nice tweaks like universal search, by way of the Search Anywhere app. HTC hasn’t said whether the HTC Desire HD will get an upgrade to Android 2.3 yet, but if it does it’ll be a long time coming for anyone on a network, as it has to be pushed through extensive network testing before being pushed out to users. Gingerbread adds a refreshed user interface, and an improved keyboard, which is much needed.
Camera
On paper, the HTC Desire HD should be packing a stellar camera. It’s got 8MP, an LED flash, and 720p video. Unfortunately, it’s a lesson in how megapixels are not the full story. We found it performed poorly indoors, and colours were often washy. The Google Nexus S has fewer megapixels, with a 5MP rear facing camera with autofocus and flash, plus a front facing VGA camera for video calls, but if the lenses are better, it could still beat the HTC Desire HD.
Extra Features
The HTC Desire HD comes bundles with the free remote online service HTC Sense.com, which lets you track the location of your HTC Desire HD, force it to ring if it’s on silent, plus wipe data remotely and leave a lost and found message on the screen. The Google Nexus S has nothing like this, but it does come with NFC tech, which we write about earlier in the week. NFC is contactless technology, which brings contactless payments and travel using your Google Nexus S that little bit closer. It also opens a big shiny new door to advertisers, although they’ll need your permission before they ping you any ads or promotions. We don’t care so much about NFC. What we do care about is finding lost phones, so the HTC Desire wins this one.
Verdict
There’s very few smartphones that look like coming close to the Google Nexus S, but the HTC Desire HD is one of them. How they stack up we’ll see once we’ve got our full review out, but until then, these two look very closely matched, and if the HTC Desire HD gets a Gingerbread upgrade, they could be neck and neck.
