Google Nexus One phone Reviews
- Friday, January 8, 2010, 4:11
- Cell Phones
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So friends, the Google Nexus Phone is finally stripped off to bare and all the secrets of its are now bare to stare. Though the Droid, the G1, the Hero and other smartphones running Google’s Android operating system have already kept us in awe with their prepossessing features and leading-edge features, the Nexus One stands alone among all of them.
Manufactured by HTC, the Nexus One, at present, is the standalone handset in the market which runs the 2.1 version of the OS and it is also for the 1st time that any phone is being put for sale as unlocked or carrier-free. So, the mobile phone can directly be purchased at Google itself for $529, while if you buy it from T-Mobile on contract, then you will have to shell out $179. So is the Google Nexus One Phone of fanboys’ dreams?
On the feature front, the mobile phone comes built-in with a stunning 3.7-inch AMOLED display including an elegant OS to match and has been elegantly crafted to appeal mobile phone freaks all over the world. The slim handset also boasts of a fast 1.0-GHz processor, which allows you to operate the cell phone snappier and faster than the Motorola Droid.
But still, as nothing is perfect in this world, similarly, the Google Nexus either has some quirks, from tepid call quality to an infrequently error-inclined typing experience; which may make you knock at other Android phones as the 2.1 software can also be availed in other Android phones as well. On the whole, the Nexus One cannot be considered as an iPhone killer, but still, it grabs the attention of all and sundry as the best Android phone available for T-Mobile.
Design
Well, if we look at the design of the Google Nexus One, the gripping mobile phone, with its slickness and elegant design, makes other phones look down & out-dated. The Nexus, instead of following the hard-edged corners of the Motorola Droid, takes on the head-on features of the iPhone by coming in a curvy shape. The subtle curves of the Nexus One flatten the iPhone out on the bottom and top, and provide less boxy experience to users.
The handset, at its bottom, comes with four buttons and a trackball that are quite like the Droid: Menu, Back, Search and Home. Besides, HTC’s very known tracking ball is also lying below the handset. The phone also has an earpiece at its very top, which means you don’t have to make any extra efforts to adjust it. The device is additionally featured with the space amount of the screen, which occupies a whopping 3.7”.
Physical Dimensions Vs iPhone and Motorola Droid
The Google Nexus One is incredibly sexy and its sexiness is felt when you hold it in your hands. Though it is just a little slimmer than the iPhone (11.5mm vs. 12.3mm), about half the size. The sides and back of the handset come amazingly coated in Teflon that makes you feel like rubbery. Though looks hard, but is quite soft to touch.
The handset, on its external portion, also has some more buttons, such as volume rocker on its top left side, at its top is a power button.
Android 2.1
The Nexus One is also the first phone, which runs Android 2.1, offering an enhanced or augmented visual experience. It comes with five home screens, which can be customized with live or moving wallpapers instead of the static widgets and shortcuts. Motorola has also given this kind of homescreens attention to its Cliq and Motoblur interface that uses variant screens to display a variety of widgets. This OS, as with Android 2.0, also comes built-in with Google Maps Navigation (Beta) including free turn-by-turn directions.
Few of these live wallpapers, like a galaxy theme, only give high-resolution background movement, while others, like the leaves-floating pond, are interactive. Besides, the phone can also be tilted to produce ripples pretty similar to a screensaver in Microsoft’s Touch Pack for Windows 7.
The Home Screen Background Images of the Google Nexus Phone has been most-talked or most blogged about feature in the mobile-world. The animated background images of the phone are called Live Wallpapers, such as; Galaxy, Magic Smoke, Grass, Plar clock, Spectrum, Many, Nexus, Water, VU meter, Waveform.
Besides, the Android 2.1 also comes featured with voice search. Though, it was available in the version 2.0 too, but in the newest OS, voice search is supported by every text field, allowing users to speak rather than type their tweets.
Applications
These days, all are wacky about the GPS systems, but why would I buy a Garmin GPS or iPhone app when the Nexus One has Home Car application. The default application, once opened, consists of 5 different options; Navigation, View Map, Voice Search, Contacts as well as Search. The Navigation button is the most exciting part of this application. As and when the button is selected, a Google Maps comes for you, which asks for your end point address and location. As the demanded information is placed in it, a full set of directions, like your cars navigation system offers, is served before you. It really works great!
However, as far as gaming applications are concerned, Google still needs to do more as here it cannot beat the iPhone, which, I would surely and soundly say, is really great. But not to worry, the developers at Google have tightened their belts and would certainly hit the market with a big bang in the near future.
Performance and Speed
The Nexus One, with a1.0-GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor, keeps itself apart from the Motorola Droid, which subsumes a 550-MHz ARM Cortex A8 CPU. The Nexus One is a little faster than the Droid as far as their response time is concerned. While testing the Nexus One, on tapping icons, takes not more than a sec to respond, while the Droid takes one or secs. Besides, the accelerometers of both the handsets were also tested to see how much time they take to respond. So, when the Nexus or Droid were tilted’ the former did it in just 1-sec, while the latter did it in about 2-secs.
The Nexus, while redrawing maps, completed the task in almost 2-secs, while the Droid took just 2-secs in showing the first pieces of the new map sections, but loaded the screen in about 8-secs.
Last but not the least in order to see Nexus’s speed of loading heavy sites was also tested on the T-Mobile’s 3G network. As a result, the Nexus One did faster than the Droid. The heavy sites, such as laptopmag.com, ESPN.com, or many more, were loaded within just 6, 19, and 7 secs, correspondingly. While, for loading the same sites, the Droid took up to 12, 33, and 16 secs.
The other connectivity options of the Nexus One are’ GPS, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.1 +EDR, which offers wireless streaming of music to headphones.
Camera
The Nexus One is built-in with 5MP camera, which boasts of LED flash and mechanical autofocus. The camera isn’t just the camera, but it also works as the back cover of phone.
The handset jumps to landscape mode as the camera mode is prompted and allows you to snap a shot. You can also shift from camera to video camera, or view previously captured images. The screen has a bar on its left side, providing extra options for you. On dragging it, you find setting for White balance, Flash mode, Store location, Picture size, and Color effect. The pictures captured with these options come fully under your control.
But still, the iPhone is comparatively better than the Nexus if the camera quality of both the handsets is analyzed. The iPhone employs natural colors, but the Nexus One lacks it. The Nexus One is good to play with its settings, but if you are looking for perfect images I would recommend you to go for the iPhone.
Besides, the video quality of the Nexus One also cannot come up to the iPhone because the former one boasts of shooting at 27FPS. Unfortunately, the Nexus One falls flat here as it offers just an average video and photos quite like the HTC’s devices and Motorola Droid. The iPhone is the king of this area.
Speaker
The Nexus One has a pretty cook sound quality. Though louder than iPhone, it isn’t fully crispy. The location (on Nexus’ back) of the speaker is also a little problematic as if you keep it in your pocket; there is a possibility of missing call. Plus, if the speaker is covered with any fabric, the sound is almost gone. Looking at the quality of speaker and sound, it seems Google wanted to cut costs, and instead of providing better-quality sound, it came up with a loud speaker.
Buying Options: Unlocked or Subsidized
The Google Nexus One is available to grapple directly from Google (google.com/phone), in terms of a carrier-free or unlocked for $529and on a 2-year contact via T-Mobile for $179.
The phone will shine at Verizon Wireless in the spring. Being GSM, the Nexus One (only the unlocked version) can also be brought to AT&T, but unfortunately, the handset is not attuned with AT&T’s 3G service. For now, only the U.S., costumers can avail the Nexus One, but is expected to hit the selves of the UK, Singapore and Hong Kong very soon.
Conclusion
As a final point, the Nexus One is lightweight, slim, fast and fulfilling to use. Its visual improvements and faster speeds, as compared to other Android handsets, like the Droid, are hard to beat. The Nexus One is made special thanks to the Android 2.1 software that someday would pave its ways to other Android contraptions.
In the meantime, the experience of clumsy typing and just okay call quality may lead the mobile phone bugs to switch to the slower or bulkier Droid, whereas the UI, a physical keyboard and focus on social networking may lead some phone bugs to switch over to the Motorola Cliq, but still if you are in quest of a huge screen with top-quality performance, then the Nexus One is the perfect device for you.
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