5 things you need to know about the Google Nexus One
We’ve got a box here at Stuff Towers. Every time someone says the words “iPhone killer”, in goes a quid. It’s very full. But at risk of completely cleaning out our bank accounts, here are five things to know about Google’s incoming… no, we can’t do it. Just read the list.
1. It costs around £400, SIM-free
If you can’t wait for UK service-providers to come up with contracts, you can get a Nexus One directly from Google's website. It costs $529 (about £325), plus about £80 in taxes and import duty, and doesn’t tie you to any particular provider – Google says the One will work “with most major GSM mobile providers worldwide”. Don’t want to risk it? Vodafone are gearing up to supply a subsidised version to users in Blightly; expect it to cost around the same as an iPhone.
2. It runs Android v2.1
The latest version of Google’s operating system is slick, pretty and powerful. You get moving wallpapers, a cool cube-shaped application grid and five homescreens (up from three); Flash support is imminent; and every text-entry box can be filled via speech-to-text tech. And, being a Google phone, its Gmail support is top-notch. Surely that’s it? Is it heck. Free satnav courtesy of Google Maps Navigation is in the offing too – but we're still waiting for it to be launched the UK. That's not to say a quick Google search wouldn't show you a quick workaround, of course...
3. It’s fast. Very fast
OK, so we don’t usually get all giddy and hair-twirly about CPUs, but the Nexus One’s 1GHz Snapdragon processor is a bit special. Leaving aside the fact that 1GHz chips were unheard of in even desktop PCs ten years ago, this processor endows the Nexus One with 720p video playback, and gives the handset enough oompf to run multiple applications at once. It makes the interface smooth and quick to navigate, too.
4. The camera trumps the iPhone’s
The One’s 5MP autofocus camera gives you two more megapixels to play with than Apple’s 3MP offering, plus it has an LED flash. It also captures video at 720x480 resolution at at least 20 frames per second. Geotagging is a given, courtesy of the One’s A-GPS capabilities.
5. There’s no multi-touch (not in the US, anyway)
Patent restrictions mean the US version won’t have multi-touch capabilities, but these conditions don’t extend to Europe – which means that, while it’s not a given, the UK version of the Nexus One when launched with Vodafone could potentially do iPhone-style pinches and twirls. If it does, Apple could be starting to sweat a bit…
And here’s a bonus one for you to mull over:
6. It’s not really Google’s first phone The Nexus One’s arrival has been surrounded by hype, halos and the fanfares of a thousand heavenly trumpets, but it’s not the first phone Google’s produced. The T-Mobile G1 appeared on this very site back in November 2008. It was revelatory at the time – a real alternative to the iPhone – but its early Android implementation looks stone-aged next to the One's, and its QWERTY, while fair, goes against the minimalist touchscreen grain. Our G1 verdict? Four stars. Could do better. We’ll see if Google managed it when we get a One in. Keep your eyes on Stuff.tv for a full test.
Comments
waspish
3 years ago
7. It's not the iphone.
vivivoo
3 years ago
It's not the iPhone and that's a good thing! There are so many benefits to having google android phone, it is so much more than a phone.
Drunken Max
3 years ago
I know its a bizarre question but what is it like as a phone? Signal pickup? call quality? dropped calls? 3g speed? We don't seem to care about the basics anymore
SergeAStorms
3 years ago
It's a phone? Is that so you can call everyone and tell them it's better than a iPhone. Can the Chinese authorities hack in to it?
machwh
3 years ago
The camera is not just higher-res (thankfully), it's better than most camera-phones out there. The lens is good, and the sensor is decidedly low-noise in good light. I've put a selection of images from the Nexus One at the following URL so people can see for themselves. The first image of each pair is a polished version (the bottom line so far as I'm concerned), and the second is the untouched JPEG, straight from the camera: http://www.markwheadon.com/blog/2010/01/photos-from-nexus-one-google-htc-camera-phone/ Cheers, Mark
machwh
3 years ago
Regarding the Nexus One as a phone -- I haven't used it enough to vouch for it holding calls well or not (it's not dropped a call yet for me but it's early days), but signal pickup seems to be good and call quality is excellent. I don't have 3G yet as it turns out that O2 pay-and-go + the Web bolt-on is //not// 3G (not something O2 document so far as I can tell). Mark
oldgrowler
3 years ago
i have the nexus one and its now my third android, i started with the g1 then went sim free htc hero and now sim free nexus and its definately the best so far, the screen is very good and will serve as a very handy sat nav when google release the free turn by turn over here in blighty, the battery is so far holding up an average 36 hours with medium/heavy use as its running facebook and twitter apps along with news and weather plus a couple of other widgets always updating every 30 mins, plus browsing,maps,games,email,phone calls etc etc. so im pleased with the battery life considering. i have used this in same areas as my hero and its signal seems to be better and call quality is very good, to all iphone users your right it doesnt have multitouch but its in there if google decide to allow or when app developers want to use it and to slate something for such a trivial point is sad, yes its handy as i had it on hero but it doesnt make a great phone that comes down to your personal requirements and for me i like the fact android gives me freedom to choose how i set my phone up,what i want running in the back ground etc. then there is the whole itunes sync which im not a fan off as i like to just drag and drop music,movies,photos but if you like sync that is possible with an app if thats your thing which is the whole point of android its your choice. so my over all impressions of the phone are great,yes there are things that it needs and that android in general needs but then the iphone is far from perfect too, any questions i will try to answer.
oldgrowler
3 years ago
i have the nexus one and its now my third android, i started with the g1 then went sim free htc hero and now sim free nexus and its definately the best so far, the screen is very good and will serve as a very handy sat nav when google release the free turn by turn over here in blighty, the battery is so far holding up an average 36 hours with medium/heavy use as its running facebook and twitter apps along with news and weather plus a couple of other widgets always updating every 30 mins, plus browsing,maps,games,email,phone calls etc etc. so im pleased with the battery life considering. i have used this in same areas as my hero and its signal seems to be better and call quality is very good, to all iphone users your right it doesnt have multitouch but its in there if google decide to allow or when app developers want to use it and to slate something for such a trivial point is sad, yes its handy as i had it on hero but it doesnt make a great phone that comes down to your personal requirements and for me i like the fact android gives me freedom to choose how i set my phone up,what i want running in the back ground etc. then there is the whole itunes sync which im not a fan off as i like to just drag and drop music,movies,photos but if you like sync that is possible with an app if thats your thing which is the whole point of android its your choice. so my over all impressions of the phone are great,yes there are things that it needs and that android in general needs but then the iphone is far from perfect too, any questions i will try to answer.
nickbu1
3 years ago
It does support multi touch, just can't use it for it's own apps, if you want pinch and zoom in web pages then you can go to the android Market and get an app that is called dolphin internet(or something like that) you can now use multitouch:) deffinately better than the iPhone I think.
Android 6.0
3 years ago
Multi-touch mod was released for the Nexus one last week.
glenmcl
3 years ago
Can anyone tell me if there is a push mail option out there for the Nexus? Our server downloads e-mail directly, so I have to use Emoze to push my e-mail from my desktop to my Touch Pro2.