The Nexus S 4G sounded like a good idea 2 weeks ago... afterall, I had had my Epic repaired & replaced through store insurance more than 5 times! one of the store techs offered me the option to trade my Epic in for the new Nexus S 4G.
the NS4G is being offered with Gingerbread but at a cheaper price for a reason. Most of the Android phones today have custom versions of the Google Android OS, and they have more customizable options, and have options that make the phone easier and more pleasant to use. The NS4G is being offered at a lower price bc the phone can be shipped w the basic version of the current Google OS, without first having to be customized by the phone manufacturer, which costs money. The NS4G does come with Gingerbread, the most current version of the OS, but it is so stripped down to the really basic version of the Android Operating System, which at times makes u remember that you usually get what you pay for!
The phone doesn't come with "any" of the Sprint Android applications, some of which you probably don't want, but some of which really kill the user experience and make you wish the phone was not so basic! You don't have the option of using Sprint Visual Voicemail at all. Instead you have to either opt for the third party VVM app, "Youmail" or the Google Voice Visual Voicemail app. There are some very irritating drawbacks to Sprint's collaborated version of the Google Voice VVM app. As it is, with the Nexus, at the present time, you can't type lobg text msgs... Each SMS msg you type is limited to 160 characters... So if u have a lot to say, sending your message will be time consuming and annoying!
In addition, using Google Voice as your voicemail replacement isn't just "that..." It also makes texting even more frustrating! Your text msgs will show up in Google Voice (and markedly disorganized), and they will also show up in the messaging app. Each time you get a text you will get two notifications for the same one msg, which also can get confusing and annoying... There are ways to sort of work around this issue, but the problem still liners and is very annoying!
Google claims the phone will be faster because it doesn't contain all the Sprint apps and Samsung apps that come with the Epic, however this simply isn't true. In my opinion, google is just trying to have a phone that is more officially branded with the Google name.
The battery is definitely better on the Epic without a doubt, in my Opinion. Another very annoying feature is the adsense of an SD Card slot. So the phone only comes w a built in 16GB memory sd-like-non-removable card, meaning you can't expand the amount of storage memory on the phone, and if your phone breaks, you can't just remove an SD memory card and re-implant it into another device! Very annoying!
The only thing I really like about the NS4G is the sleek/thin apparatus/design, due to absence of qwerty keyboard, and the nifty ringers! the most annoying issue is the limited short text msging problem, and absence of the ability to choose to use sprint's own visual
voicemail. Google Voice, aside from its kinks and still existing flaws in functionality, can also
be extremely tempermental in it's original setup and when attempting to integrate your Google Voice account and phone number with your Sprint account and phone number.
Id go with the Samsung Galaxy S Epic OR, I'd ultimately splurge and just go for the new Samsung Galaxy S II Epic!
I also own an HTC Evo, which I do really like, but the battery life is horrifically pathetic and the phone has been on the market for far too long. This is Brett, and if you have any Questions, feel free to contact me!