2010 February

The Nexus One

photo credit: owaief89

Firstly, some background. I’ve been an iPhone 3G user for almost 2 years, getting one almost immediately after they were released here in New Zealand. A great phone, no doubt. The app store was wide-ranging, easy to use with quality work for good prices.

As happy as I was with the iPhone, experiencing the “walled garden” when you wanted to escape wasn’t much fun. I wanted to store files, use non-App store applications, tether with more data-friendly networks – but I couldn’t.

A geek at heart, I kept a close eye on what was going on in the world of Android. For the longest time I remembered the worst of my days using Linux, and the reluctance of having that experience on my phone. That, coupled with the fact that the early Android handsets were woefully underpowered (much like the iPhone was) relegated me to the sideline for some time.

Hearing about all the fun my acquaintances were having with their Magic’s – rooting, flashing, tethering and all the other dirty-sounding verbs, I decided I wanted in to the Android world.

A friend of mine signed a contract with their carrier and got a subsidised HTC magic, which he sold to me. The phone was good, perhaps a little limited hardware-wise, but I loved the heavy Google integration and the apps were pretty good. About this time, my iPhone’s screen died – it must have been a sign! No turning back.

So I got myself a Nexus One. I won’t go over the specs, but will go over the subjective things I’ve come across with the phone.

Screen

The screen looks fantastic. The resolution is very high, photos and video’s look stunning. The touch side of things is also very good – sensitive and responsive. The only thing I noticed is that the colour can sometimes seem off – the more brighter colours apear blown out. Also, the phone is difficult to use in direct sunlight. Both these issues are side effects of the AMOLED screen chosen for the Nexus One.

Hardware

The phone is quick. No delays, no waiting, no keyboard lag. All things that were present with the iPhone and the Magic. Web pages render very quick and the radio used in the phone supports the very best connections available in Vodafone NZ’s network.

Operating System

The phone comes with Android 2.1. Android has travelled a long way since 1.x and is a very functional and usable system. Tight integration with Google, Exchange and Facebook brings your life to the phone. It now has multi-touch support in the browser & maps which should help kill the bugbear a lot of switchers worry about.

App store

The Android market has also grown a lot. There are many apps to choose from and most iPhone apps have an equivalent on the Android Market. Albiet a lot of Android apps aren’t as polished as their iPhone counterparts. Android has a lot of problems to solve for it’s developers – having to develop over dozens of different devices is going to start causing problems, and the time they spend on that is the time that Apple’s using to polish and add features to it’s SDK.

So overall, very impressed with the phone and I feel that I’ll be using it for some time – or at least until the new shiny comes along