As the first mobile phone ever, the Googls Nexus S is running Android 2.3 "Gingerbread" which is the latest version of the operating system. It also has the next version of the Google Maps application installed
Google Maps Mobile 3D is another feature added to the familiar Google app. 3D rendering requires a lot of processing power and Android 2.3 has addressed this by optimizing the OS for 3D usage.
Performance was one of the 2.3 improvements and this is what's changed in 2.3:
Faster event distribution — The plaform now handles touch and keyboard events faster and more efficiently, minimizing CPU utilization during event distribution. The changes improve responsiveness for all applications, but especially benefit games that use touch events in combination with 3D graphics or other CPU-intensive operations.
Updated video drivers — The platform uses updated third-party video drivers that improve the efficiency of OpenGL ES operations, for faster overall 3D graphics performance