Nexus S or Evo 4G

I had an EVO 4G prior to my nexus so here is my opinion:

1. I'm not sure on GPS use since I didn't/don't use it much on my phones. I used GPS once on my Nexus and picked up location fine, used it a bit more on my EVO and performance was fine as well
2. Both phones offer good talk performance
3. If you want to use GV for video chat, the Nexus is your only option. The version of Gingerbread on the EVO doesn't support GV video chat and likely won't be updated
4. Both phones are fine for web browsing
5. Music is good on both phones, EVO's Sense based music player is more polished.
6. If you are new to Android, Sense is easier to use. With the scope of ease of use while driving both switch back and forth between apps in the same manner (Home Button, long press home button to show recent open apps)
7. For reliability, I tip my hat to the Nexus. In the year I had the EVO, I had to have it replaced 4 times for various issues, I've had my Nexus since May and I have no issues with it.
8. Screen on the EVO is a bit larger, both phones are similar in size, this one is up to you.

In my opinion, I would go with the Nexus. The EVO just got it's Gingerbread update and likely will not be getting the next big android release (Ice Cream Sandwhich). The Nexus S should be one of the first devices behind the next Nexus phone to get ICS. Even though both phones are 1GHZ, the snapdragon processor and Adreno 200 GPU is becoming dated. The Nexus's Hummingbird processor is far superior.

I'm using an EVO4G and have no real complaints but did go into the Sprint store yesterday and looked at the Nexus.

I'm not keen on the 4.3" screens as (to me) it makes the phone a little too big.
The Nexus is a bit smaller, has a slight curve in the design which makes talking (I use about 2K minutes a month) on the phone feel more comfortable and it was much lighter.

I have just recently switched from an Evo to the Nexus S.

Hands down the Nexus S battery is stronger. I was able to squeeze 6 hours of heavy duty work onto my Nexus S and it saw only a 60% decrease in battery. My EVO was averaging about 12 hours on minimal usage.

The biggest gripe I, and a number of other owners (Other Google Products - Google Mobile Help), have is that the signal strength for WiFi, 4G and 3G are all poor. My Evo always had full signal strength for 4G, 3G and Wifi wherever I went in NY and at home. With the Nexus S, I am consistently at 2 bars 3G, 1 bar 4G and 2 out of 4 bars for Wifi...even when standing next to the router.

The Nexus is much smoother and faster in terms of installing, loading and running applications. With multiple apps running, the Nexus S also trumped my Evo (expected).

The number of "bars" means nothing, it's the signal strength that maters. One phone model will show 1 bar at -90db while another may show 3. The user of the 3 bar phone says your phone sucks BUT since booth phones show -90db the signal is actual the same.

freshbasil said:

The biggest gripe I, and a number of other owners (Other Google Products - Google Mobile Help), have is that the signal strength for WiFi, 4G and 3G are all poor. My Evo always had full signal strength for 4G, 3G and Wifi wherever I went in NY and at home. With the Nexus S, I am consistently at 2 bars 3G, 1 bar 4G and 2 out of 4 bars for Wifi...even when standing next to the router.

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I have had an Epic 4g, an HTC Evo and now have a Nexus S 4g all on sprint.
Because no android phone is without sacrifice, you must choose the lesser evil(s) for your situation.
The issues with accelerometers and compass (any% failure = TOTAL FAILURE) plage the epic as well as the evo.
not that they fail 60% of the time but rather the compass only spins a portion of the 360 degrees required to have any value at all.
the same failures will apear for the sensors that measure pitch and roll.
But if the toys like sky maps or "street view" are not important then both are fine phones and will make good phone calls and handle data and GPS dependibly. (compass issues do not affect gps navigation at all)

the sensor issues are not out of the box but will creep in after a few days and are not repairable, (sprint traded my epic 4 times because they would reset it but the problem would not reset so after several new epic and 1 evo replacement and when that also failed and would not take a factory reset they switched me back to the epic and another epic then the nexus.

that is correct!!! 5 new in the box epics, one new htc evo all with the same issue. un-resetable issue!!!

If you use the GPS but not the fun sensors then the epic and evo are fine units, but do not expect to be able to use google sky maps, google earth or anything the requires the compass and accelerometers and other advanced features on the evo or epic.
The Nexus S 4g uses the sensors well but has connectivity issues.

being that GPS and phone call relibality are important to you, you may not want to get a Nexus S.
I chose the Nexus s because the toys are important to me, but signal issues with Each And Every type of antenna on the Nexus S are going to make You unhappy. GPS, Phone, Bluetooth, (and other reception antenns)

one out of 8 of my GPS navigations fail to locate satellites before I am due to my customer location. Yes 20 min and the GPS still can not find the satellites.
the phone and data connections fail just as often on the nexus but due to the total failure of the non gps sensors on the epic and evo made me choose the nexus anyway.
ALL smartphones drink battery juice like a hummer drinks gas but the nexus s is MUCH better on battery life. (not good, just much much better)
and the speaker phone is not at all loud on the nexus.
the amoled screen on the samsungs is much better, (more viewable) in
the bright or dim sun than the evo is.
The nexus' four standard android hardware buttons are always dim regardless of the conditions and are often invisible in any brightish sunlight.
They recomended the nexus because calendar appointments are important to me and they were not reliable on the epic.

MarkHirt said:

The number of "bars" means nothing, it's the signal strength that maters. One phone model will show 1 bar at -90db while another may show 3. The user of the 3 bar phone says your phone sucks BUT since booth phones show -90db the signal is actual the same.

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it is not the reading that I care about. it is that it can often take longer to find the gps satellites than it takes me to get to many locations and that i can not connect to my router outside of the same room. ( not an issue with my epic or evo or my blackberry or my laptop.
and voice searches fail 40% of the time because it "cant Locate Server) also not an issue with my other equipment or friends units.
I am not going by the indicators but rather by the failures I have daily with the nexus s.

joeplumber333 said:

I am not going by the indicators but rather by the failures I have daily with the nexus s.

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Then I guess you should switch back to one of the phones that worked better

Just got the NS4G and gave my wife my Evo4G. Gotta say this is one of the best phones I have used. Got it off Craigslist for 200$.

Evo is no slouch of a phone but this thing just runs too smooth. Maybe the lack of bloatware. I thought it wasn't that big of deal but I 100% wrong. It makes a huge difference in the snappiness of the device.

The screen is perfect of course. I do miss the big screen when watching movies or NFL games but the crispiness makes up for being smaller in size.

GPS works just as good as my Evo. I don't use Google however for it I actually prefer TeleNav. I love knowing the arrival time not just the miles.

Calls work just as good. I'm going to have this phone for a long time until I can get my hands on a Prime...but this phone may be keeping me with sprint for awhile.

Bigprimo said:

GPS works just as good as my Evo. I don't use Google however for it I actually prefer TeleNav. I love knowing the arrival time not just the miles.

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Just press on the ?min (lower left) and it will switch to arrival time

MarkHirt said:

Just press on the ?min (lower left) and it will switch to arrival time

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I'll try that thanks!

I just made the switch last week. I love my Evo to death, but when I activated this phone.. everything was smooth like butter. It was a whole new experience. The screen is amazing. My 3G speeds are faster with this phone as well. Battery life is comparable to my extended battery on my Evo. I'm loving it so far.

NexusSC400 said:

I just made the switch last week. I love my Evo to death, but when I activated this phone.. everything was smooth like butter. It was a whole new experience. The screen is amazing. My 3G speeds are faster with this phone as well. Battery life is comparable to my extended battery on my Evo. I'm loving it so far.

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I agree

Nexus has it's own issues, but alot better than the EVO IMO.

I don't like any HTC phone anymore as they really mess with the OS to put their proprietary stuff in. Motorolla and Samsung do the same thing but in my experience it's by far the worst with HTC. The primary reason the battery life is better on the Nexus is because there's no SenseUI (if you don't believe me, root an HTC phone and replace the OS with CM or similar vanilla and watch your time soar).

That being said, many users are experiencing issues with the GPS since the latest update (the one that adds Google Wallet). I've found a workaround is to have GPS Status (free market app) running in the foreground and use just the voice cues to navigate. Never lose signal that way so I think it's a software issue and should likely be fixed before long.

Or, you could wait and see if the Galaxy Nexus comes to Sprint. Personally I'm already drooling over that one.