New Google Phone

AsSiMiLaTeD

I like my iPhone alot, but can't wait to test one of these out!

danger boy

Pauly wrote: »

word on the street is it will be very competitive with the iPhone in pricing.

PAuly

i can handle that..

Pauly

http://thenexusone.com/


patiently waiting....

This baby is gonna smoke the iPhone with its 1 GHz Snapdragon processor. OUCH


Pauly

Pauly

hell yeah.


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FLASH BABY

Pauly

dorokusai

Even the Droid is awesome....Google is coming to play, watch out Apple. You don't own them and their copyrights are wide open.

Pauly

From http://gizmodo.com/5432678/google-nexus-one-hands-on

Thanks to a clandestine meeting with a source, I got a chance to play with and try out the Nexus One. It's basically, from my time with it, Google's Droid killer. It's thin, it's fast, it's better in every way.

My source was very firm about no photography, and I didn't want to jeopardize anything on my source's end, so there are no photos, hence these photos are ones we've already shown you. But, based on all the leaked shots this week, plus the very pretty and very clear one last week from Boy Genius, everyone knows what the phone looks like already. Hell, there's even a complete UI walkthrough today that's on YouTube. So I'm going to focus on the experience, and how it compares to the Droid and the iPhone 3GS.


How it feels
The Nexus One is slightly thinner than the iPhone 3GS, and slightly lighter. No hard specs were thrown around, unfortunately, since Google didn't even let people who they gave the phone to know that. The back is definitely not cheap and plasticky, like the iPhone's backing, and feels like some sort of rubbery material. So, not smooth like the iPhone, but not as rubbery as the Droid. It's halfway in-between.

You can call the design the antithesis of the Droid: smooth, curved, and light, instead of hard, square and pointy. It feels long and silky and natural in your hand—even more so than the iPhone 3GS. There are also three gold contacts on the bottom designed for future docking (possibly charging?) use, but there aren't any accessories available for the phone now. It plugs in via microUSB at the moment.


That screen is damn good
Even though the screen is the same size and same resolution as the Droid, it's noticeably better. The colors are much more vibrant and the blacks are blacker, as evidenced by putting both side by side and hitting up various websites and loading various games. The pinks on Perez Hilton and the blues on Gizmodo just popped a lot more on the N1, and made the Droid (which was actually considered to have a great screen) seem washed out. The same feeling carries over when you compare the Nexus with the iPhone 3GS. And it's pretty damn bright, compared to the other two phones.

This is probably the best screen we've seen on a smartphone so far. Probably.

Why is it so fast?
Google just gave Motorola (and Verizon) a swift shot to the TSTS, because the Nexus One is astonishingly faster than the Droid. The speed dominance was most evident when we compared the loading of webpages, but even when you're just scrolling around, launching apps and moving about the OS, you could tell that there's a beefier brain inside the N1. I don't know the specs for sure, but there's talk of a 1GHz processor being inside, which would push it quite a ways above the 550MHz Arm A8 in Motorola's newest toy.

When comparing the three phones in loading a webpage over Wi-Fi, the Nexus One loaded first, the iPhone 3GS came in a few seconds later, and the Droid came in a little while after that. This was constant throughout many webpage loads, so it's indicative of something going on inside with the hardware.

I ran all three through a Javascript benchmark engine for some quantifiable numbers, and while the results were similar between the Nexus One and the iPhone 3GS, the Droid still came up at about 60% of the other two. Surprisingly enough, Mobile Safari on the iPhone scored better on the Javscript benches than the Nexus did, even though the Nexus was able to pull down and render actual web pages faster. Note that I didn't list actual numbers here, for privacy reasons.

That crazy video background
You've no doubt heard about the animated video backgrounds, but they're actually more than just animations: you can interact with them.


The default background is the square/8-bit like one shown above, where lines of colored squares come in from different sides of the screen. What's neat (even if it is superfluous and battery draining) is that you can tap anywhere on the desktop in a blank space and trigger dots to spread out from your tap. Basically, press anywhere to cause blocks to fly outwards. The same thing happens in the "water" background, except instead of blocks, you cause ripples in the water.

What's also neat are the two virtual sound meters, which act as a visualizer for whatever music you're currently playing on your phone. There's one analog one that looks like one of the old ones with a red needle, and a "digital" one that looks similar to ones you see elsewhere. Sorta neat in itself, but it shows that the interactive backgrounds can actually interact with apps, as long as one knows the other's APIs.

Other bits
The 5-megapixel camera is nice, and the flash works well enough for a flash on a phone, but it's not spectacular, as seen by early photos taken and uploaded online by Googlers. There is autofocus, and you activate it with the trackball on the face of the phone. There is no tap-to-focus as see on the iPhone 3GS.

There's no multitouch in the browser or in the map, but I think at this point that's more of a legal consideration than a technical one, since many phones that run Android have the capability of supporting multitouch on a hardware level.

Playing back music over the speakers sounded decent, but not great. It's definitely in need of a dock—like all smartphones—if you want to listen to music for a sustained period.

I didn't get a chance to call on it, because I wanted to keep this as anonymous as possible, and didn't want any sort of way to trace when I used the phone. From what other people say in their time with it, it functions fine as a phone, and should work as normally as other Android phones in the SMS/MMS department.

So what's this all mean?
If Google's planning on releasing this phone as their official Google phone, it'll certify them as the premium Android phone brand out there right now. Even though it doesn't have a hardware keyboard, it basically beats the hell out of the Droid in every single task that we threw at it. And face it, some people didn't like the Droid's keyboard because it was too flush and the keys were too unseparated with each other. N1's onscreen keyboard felt fine, and the speedy processor made sure that each key was interpreted well.

But in the end, it's still an Android phone. If you want Android phones, this is the one to get, provided Google goes ahead with the rumored plans of either selling it themselves or partnering with T-Mobile in a more traditional role. Droid, shmoid; Nexus is the one you're looking for.

dorokusai

Hopefully the FCC will put an end to the exclusive retail BS. The author seems very anti-Droid even tho' it runs the Google brain. What a douchebag. I bet he posted about all this on Facebook and updated his wesume' too.

Pauly

watching patiently from Googles Press Confrence

http://live.gizmodo.com/



Pauly

Pauly

at last

google.com/phone


I gotta wait a month and cand hardly stand it....



Pauly

exalted512

why do you have to wait a month? Is that the waiting time or just personal reasons?
-Cody

Pauly

exalted512 wrote: »

why do you have to wait a month? Is that the waiting time or just personal reasons?
-Cody

Cash flow reasons.....

They are shipping today...


Pauly

exalted512

Got ya. My contract with AT&T ends mid-February. My wife is still on her parents plan, it ends pretty quick as well. We'll more than likely be switching over after her contract ends.

I'll have to go by T-Mobile and ask if it would be more beneficial to transfer both over at the same time or if it would be the same just to add her later.
-Cody

Pauly

exalted512 wrote: »

Got ya. My contract with AT&T ends mid-February. My wife is still on her parents plan, it ends pretty quick as well. We'll more than likely be switching over after her contract ends.

I'll have to go by T-Mobile and ask if it would be more beneficial to transfer both over at the same time or if it would be the same just to add her later.
-Cody

No family plan as of yet. They are set to Indv plans at the moment. I just checked and im not eligible either cuz im on a Corp plan. Sure if i call and talk to them they can transfer me over.

Pauly

Toxis

thank you... I think you might've just unknowingly spent $179 of my money...

exalted512

Toxis wrote: »

thank you... I think you might've just unknowingly spent $179 of my money...

same here. Thanks a lot pauly!
-Cody

PhantomOG

sweet... its coming to Verizon (Spring 2010)

http://www.engadget.com/2010/01/05/verizon-getting-the-nexus-one-in-spring-2010/

SWFalken

greg2350 wrote: »

Stay away from the iphone yeah its cool looking has cool apps, cool interface.
but no video pictures look like crap, but to actually use as a phone to talk on it sucks. dropped calls, cant here either way, locks up. Gave my back after a week, Droid smokes the iphone in every way just my 2 cents.

My 3G doesn't take video, but it is a very good phone, contact manager, media player, calendar and the photos that it takes are really good for a fixed focus phone cam. All of these images were taken in less than perfect light for such a simple camera.

Pauly

Interesting article on how to pay now or pay later on the N1


http://lukehutch.wordpress.com/2010/01/05/the-cheap-way-to-pay-for-a-nexus-one-think-tco/



Pauly

ryanjoachim

I like this phone a lot, but for me personally the lack of a physical keyboard is a deal breaker.

Mike Kozak

I have the T-Mobile my touch 3G and I love it, not a bad phone

Pauly

ryanjoachim wrote: »

I like this phone a lot, but for me personally the lack of a physical keyboard is a deal breaker.

Id look into the Driod. I have a couple freinds that wanted the new 3GS but no keyboard so they went with Droid.


Pauly

bobman1235

ryanjoachim wrote: »

I like this phone a lot, but for me personally the lack of a physical keyboard is a deal breaker.

I said the same thing about the iPhone, but I bought it anyway and don't even notice the keyboard thing anymore.

BAD ASP

cmy330go wrote: »

Speaking from experience I can honestly say that the Android based phones are FAR more useful and powerful than the iPhone. I currently have both and iPhone 3GS (Business), and an HTC Hero (Personal). I had no idea how weak, and limited the iPhone was until I got my Hero. The Android OS is just plain awesome. Plus the UI from HTC is insanely customizable. Now I honestly only use the iPhone to take calls. Everything else: calender, to-do list, social networking, browsing, etc. is all better on the Hero. On top of that it's far cheaper. With Sprint I'm getting 3 lines w/ 1500 shared minutes, unlimited data, and text for $135 per month. Plus I get unlimited mobile-to-mobile calling regardless of the other person's carrier, and nights and weekends start at 7PM. So basically I barely even touch my 1500 minutes.

For anybody in the market, you owe it to yourself to check out the offerings from Android.

I just got the HTC Hero. This phone is foogin' unreal. It will take me until it is obsolete to figure it out!!!:D

MrNightly

BAD ASP wrote: »

I just got the HTC Hero. This phone is foogin' unreal. It will take me until it is obsolete to figure it out!!!:D

I just got the HTC Hero yesterday too! Wow is all I can say. This thing is SUPER slick.

It has taken me about 12 hrs to get used to the keypad touch thingy.. now i don't think I will ever go back to a keyboard. It auto corrects your spelling so you really only have to hit a key in the general area and it automatically selects what you meant to say. I think it's about 95% accurate right now... and my fingers aren't even adapted to the new format yet.

The apps are sweet as hell and easy to use. This is a keeper here! My first Android technology and to put it mildly, I am impressed.

I even downloaded the new star wars themes! Awesomeness. Pure Awesomeness. What more does a geek want with his phone?

What's an Iphone?! This thing rocks!!!

bobman1235

I'm definitely ready to ditch my iPhone for an Android based phone.

Pauly

bobman1235 wrote: »

I'm definitely ready to ditch my iPhone for an Android based phone.

I went ahead and got a Mytouch cuz they came down in price and rooted it and having alot of fun with Android. I spent too much on other toys to get the N1, but got a new Android phone non the less.


Pauly

ryanjoachim

bobman1235 wrote: »

I'm definitely ready to ditch my iPhone for an Android based phone.

I was looking at Android, but the Palm Pre Plus and WebOS won me over. I couldn't be happier.

AsSiMiLaTeD

Is AT&T going to coming out with an Android phone?

I tried the N1, but no 3G support on the AT&T network was a deal breaker for me

AsSiMiLaTeD

I do see the Motorola Backflip, but that one doesn't appeal to me

exalted512

I think at&t is supposed to be getting 5 new android phones this year...at least i think ive read that somewhere.

There's also rumor of the nexus one going through the loops to host 3g on at&t's network as well.

Meanwhile, I love my Nexus One. By far the best phone I've ever played with.

Smart phones in general have become amazing. I bought my first 'smart phone' a couple years ago and this thing is night and day over it. The GPS on them are amazing accurate. I have a cardio trainer app on my n1 and the gps is so accurate it shows when I cycling on the sidewalk vs when i was on the street on my way back.
-Cody