There’s no doubt about it. Android 2.3 (nicknamed Gingerbread) is the best Android release so far, and the Google Nexus S is almost certainly the best Android phone (possibly sharing the accolade with the HTC Desire HD.)

Before we get onto the hardware, let’s take a look at what’s new in Gingerbread and find out what makes this the operating system of choice for both smartphone newbies and hardcore modders. The first thing to say is that Android is a mature and powerful operating system with access to over 100,000 downloadable apps. Android has been given a facelift for version 2.3, with some minor changes to the user interface design. One of the key changes is the improved virtual keyboard, and this combined with system-wide changes to copy & paste functionality has made text entry much more pleasant than before. There is also support for an emerging technology called Near Field Communication (NFC). NFC enables your phone to read data from objects with NFC chips embedded in them. There are new audio effects too, such as reverb, equalization, headphone virtualization, and bass boost. Other additions include improved power management, increased speed and support for multiple cameras. The Nexus S runs naked Android, without any of the user interface layers that manufacturers like Samsung and HTC usually add to the operating system. In the past this may have been seen as a negative, but Android is now sufficiently mature to power a mass market phone in its pure form, and the advantage of running pure Android is that software updates will become available at the earliest possible opportunity, and can be installed automatically over-the-air.

When we turn our attention to the hardware, we notice very quickly that the Nexus S is almost identical to the Samsung Galaxy S. The Galaxy S has been the second most popular Android phone (after the HTC Desire) and in our opinion was the better of the two, so the fact that the Nexus S doesn’t offer much more than the Galaxy S isn’t too much of a problem. It’s still an exceptional phone.

There are a few differences between the Nexus S and the Galaxy S. The Nexus S is better equipped when it comes to photography, as it has a flash for the main 5 megapixel camera, and also makes use of Gingerbread’s multi-camera capability by adding a second front-facing video VGA camera. It’s arguably a better-looking phone too, with a specially designed Contour Display with curved glass and a smooth gloss black surface. It doesn’t have the metal body of the Apple iPhone 4 or the HTC Desire HD though.

One thing that it does have is the best display on any mobile phone. It’s a 4 inch display with a resolution of 480 x 800 pixels. This it shares with the Galaxy S. It isn’t quite as large as the screen on the HTC Desire HD, but it’s significantly bigger than the iPhone. But the thing that really sets it apart is the Super AMOLED technology, leading to a much brighter display, clearly visible in daylight and with superb colour saturation. In a Super AMOLED screen, the capacitive touch sensitivity is incorporated into the screen itself, instead of the touch sensitive layer being placed on top.

The Nexus S has a fully featured digital media player of course, with the benefit of a 3.5mm headphone jack, so you can connect your own headphones for the best audio experience. You can also pair the phone with a Bluetooth wireless stereo headset.

The Nexus S comes with assisted GPS with a digital compass. Being a Google phone it comes with Google Maps 5.0 with Navigation (free turn-by-turn GPS voice guidance), Places (info about tourist sites, restaurants, etc), Latitude and Google Earth.

The word nexus means “connection” and one of the primary aims of the Nexus S is to keep you connected to the world via the mobile internet. To this end it supports tri-band 3G with super-fast HSPA downloads of 7.2 Mbps. It’s Wi-Fi enabled and can also operate as a Wi-Fi hotspot enabling up to 6 mobile devices to share its internet connection. Web browsing is great, and there are Android apps for Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.

The Nexus S is one of the fastest phones currently available with a 1 GHz Hummingbird CPU and a dedicated GPU giving seamless video playback and game-playing. The processing power is backed up by a huge 512MB of RAM and 16GB of built-in memory. Unusually, there’s no support for external memory cards, but with this much memory included, this is unlikely to be a problem.

Battery life is generally challenging for modern smartphones, but the Nexus S is equipped with an enormous 1500 mAh battery, giving it the best possible battery life for a phone of its type. Still, you shouldn’t expect a device with so many capabilities to excel in this respect.

Now for the most difficult question. Is the Google Nexus S the best mobile phone currently available? Let’s answer it this way. It’s definitely in the top three, along with the Apple iPhone 4 and the HTC Desire HD. We think that it beats the iPhone in many ways, not least of which is price. The Desire HD has a larger screen and a better camera, but it’s a big and heavy device that won’t suit everyone. For these reasons, we’ll choose the Google Nexus S as our phone of the year for 2010. It’s available free on contract for