All droids are equal but some droids are more equal than others. Google it. You’ll get the Nexus One. There are around 50 smartphones and tablets running Android today. That’s right, out of all the offspring they fathered with the Open Handset Alliance, Google finally have one to proudly call their own.
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What does it mean? Well, not that the ones we’ve seen so far are some poor half-blood droids but the Nexus One is supposed to be THE thing. For one, it’s the first Snapdragon-powered Android and it shows. The Nexus One is wickedly fast. The WVGA touchscreen is a treat to look at and it’s only the second AMOLED display to find on an Android handset. D1 video is sure to sweeten the deal too, and perhaps so will the Live Wallpapers.
Awash in rumors well before launch, the Google Nexus One was officially revealed in January 2010 and it became available right after the unveiling event. Of course, the first units were to sell only in a very limited number of countries (UK, Singapore and Hong Kong).
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Anyway Google are to start shipping their Nexus One through various carriers across Europe, starting with Vodafone this spring. That’s about the time when Verizon subscribers will be getting a CDMA version of the device. Google have a phone to sell, so it’s a fair guess they’ll be seeing to it that everyone can have it. Now, will everyone want to? Let’s see.
Key features
- Quad-band GSM and dual-band 3G support
- 7.2 Mbps HSDPA and 2 Mbps HSUPA support
- 3.7″ 16M-color capacitive AMOLED touchscreen of WVGA (480x 800 pixel) resolution
- Android OS v2.1 with kinetic scrolling and pinch zooming
- Slim profile and some great build quality
- Qualcomm Snapdragon QSD8250 1 GHz processor
- 512 MB RAM and 512 MB ROM
- 5 MP autofocus camera with LED flash and geo-tagging
- D1 (720 x 480 pixels) video recording @ 24fps
- Wi-Fi and GPS with A-GPS
- microSD slot, bundled with a 4GB card
- Accelerometer and proximity sensor
- Standard 3.5 mm audio jack
- microUSB port (charging) and stereo Bluetooth v2.1
- Trackball navigation
Main disadvantages
- No DivX and XviD video playback
- No Flash support for the web browser (update is on the way)
- No smart and voice dialing
- Somewhat clumsy camera interface and limited camera features
- No dedicated camera shutter key
- Non hot-swappable memory card
- No FM radio
- The soft keys below the display are somewhat unresponsive
The Google phone has HTC fingerprints all over it. We just had the pleasure of the HTC Desire at the WMC and we quite liked what we saw. There’s no reason to expect less of the Nexus One – quite the contrary in fact, a little bit of nepotism only seems right.
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The Google Nexus One won’t come with the HTC Sense of course, but who would’ve expected so! The Android 2.1 novelties will keep you busy enough anyway, but the first thing on everyone’s mind will be: Is there any special Google treatment the Nexus One is getting?
The latest of the Androids is in a way the firstborn, for all the good and the bad of it. It’s all in the name really: a name that will open doors but that carries a certain obligation too.
Will the Nexus One raise above its droid siblings or will it get lost in the crowd? That’s the kind of questions we’ll be trying to answer on the pages to come. You’re welcome to join: let’s see what the Google Nexus One is made of (and packed in, as well).
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Great retail package
You may’ve seen the Nexus One Desktop Dock. Guess what, it’s not in the box. But pretty much everything else is. Along with the handset itself, you get a USB charger, standard microUSB cable and a quick start guide.
There is also a one-piece headset with music controls. The more demanding among you will probably get a replacement. Fortunately, the supplied headset isn’t your only option since the Nexus One is kind enough to offer a 3.5mm audio jack.
Google Nexus One 360-degree spin
Friendly size is a key asset of every touch phone, especially with screens getting bigger by the month. The Nexus One boasts a 3.7” display but into our pocketability requirements. At 119 x 59.8 x 11.5 mm, the Nexus One is quite a pocket-friendly gadget. The Google phone weighs 130 g and its curved edges make it look smaller than it actually is.
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Design and construction
The Nexus One is made by HTC and it feels like Google didn’t have the face to ask them to really try and make it different. Or was it that HTC pinched the Google design and used it on a couple of their own phones. Whatever, the Nexus One is a solid, poised and good-looking gadget. We’re not sure though the uncanny resemblance to HTC Touch2 works in its favor.
Another inevitable lookalike is the HTC Desire. But there’s nothing out of the ordinary here: the Desire is HTC’s very own version of the Google phone with Sense UI and an optical trackpad instead of a trackball. The Desire has a subtle hint of a chin and hardware buttons, while the Nexus One goes for capacitive controls.
As most touchscreen devices, Nexus One hasn’t too much freedom to experiment with design but we’re happy Google chose to bet on quality materials and strong build. The slim and elegant body doesn’t take away from the solid gadgety look of the Google Phone, and the subdued color scheme is more than welcome.
The key design element of the Nexus One is the metallic front frame that extends asymmetrically around back. It’s got a soft brushed finish (could be teflon coated). The rear surface is rubbery and very pleasant to touch. It is slow to take fingerprints but when it does eventually get smudgy, the prints are very hard to clean.
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The screen seems to have no oleophobic layer (like the iPhone 3GS) and gets all smudgy in no time. Our main concern though is the really high level of reflection, which makes it nearly impossible to use outdoors in the bright sun.
Anyway, indoors it’s a brilliant performer, quite what you’d expect in an AMOLED screen. AMOLEDs don’t use as strong backlighting as TFT displays, which makes them power-efficient, plus image quality is superior. The Nexus One can’t really match Samsung’s Super AMOLED-packing Wave but is still a great performer indoors. It is the highly reflective surface and weaker backlighting that make it a bad choice for outdoor use.
As to screen sensitivity, the Nexus One reacts to the gentlest taps thanks to the capacitive technology. The 3.7” AMOLED unit boasts deep, vibrant colors and excellent contrast.
The typical Android controls (back, contextual menu, Home and search) are right below the display. They’re touch-sensitive virtual buttons so it all happens on the touchscreen with the Nexus One – if you don’t count the trackball.
What might be a bit of an issue is the keys are capacitive, so they’re not usable with gloves. The four keys seemed to occasionally play up – it may be a unit-specific issue but response wasn’t the best. Some of the taps just weren’t recognized.
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The trackball is underneath, and outside the touchscreen. It’s the only hardware control on the Nexus One. It’s not essential really – the touchscreen is more than enough to get you around the interface. We like trackballs though – the precise response and the nice tickle on the tip of your thumb.
The trackball can come in useful if you need to jump links on a webpage that’s zoomed out to the max. The other obvious application that puts it to use is the camera. The Nexus One hasn’t got a dedicated shutter key and users get to choose between two options: a virtual on-screen shutter and the trackball. If you go for the trackball, you’ll need to press to lock focus and release to capture.
Above the display you will only find the earpiece and two hidden sensors (proximity and ambient light).
Gallery: image zooming flawed by design
The Google Nexus One gallery automatically locates the images and videos, no matter where they are stored. Images and videos placed in different folders appear in different sub-galleries that automatically get the name of the folder, which is very convenient – just like a file manager.
Video player refuses to walk the extra mile
For some unknown reason, video playback has been one of the hardest things to do on an Android handset. First, there was no video player at all and then things started to get worse. No, we are kidding – the video player app found on the contemporary Android phones isn’t terribly bad it’s just that the supported formats a pretty limited.
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Pretty good audio quality
The audio quality of Google Nexus One is pretty impressive, the handset faring excellently in all parts of our test.
5 megapixel camera is nothing to rave about
On the hardware side of things Google Nexus One has a 5 megapixel camera module for a maximum image resolution of 2592 x 1936 pixels and a LED flash. It also packs a few extra features and settings not to be found on its Android predecessors.
D1 video recording
Video recording on the Nexus One is as good as we have ever seen on an Android handset as far as specs are concerned. D1 resolution (720 x 480 pixels) at 30 fps is where its capabilities end and we doubt its users will need much more.
Web browser stops just short of great: no flash support YET
The Nexus One is the Google Phone and an excellent web browser is a must. Web meets phone say Google themselves but, come to think of it, this is the standard these days. Anyway, with the exception of Flash, the browser performs brilliantly – no big surprise given the hardware specs and the latest version of Android.
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GPS navigation
The Nexus One comes with a capable GPS receiver, which coupled with A-GPS, gets a sattelite lock decently fast.
It comes as no surprise that Google Maps come preinstalled. Unfortunately, voice-guided turn-by-turn navigation through Google Maps is available in the US only. Still, even without Navigation, there is some kind of guidance: your route and current location appear on the screen so you’ll reach your destination eventually… assuming you can read maps of course.
