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"Used since Google launched it, loved it ever since!" on by K-Rivera
Pros: + AMOLED display of the Nexus One is great
+ Web browsing is smooth and easy
+ Built in speaker on the Nexus One is adequate
+ 5MP camera with single LED flash, Pictures are clear
+ Video recording is just adequate
+ Hardware quality is above averageCons: - Vibration is a bit noisy
- Keyboard is in serious need of revampingSummary: I jumped into android with a G1 on T-Mobile shortly after it came out and have been quite pleased with the android operating system overall. I upgraded to the Nexus One the day it became available for order on Google's website. I'm writing this review from the point of view of someone who has probably above average computer skills and the want/know how to do deeper customization of their phone (ie, loading cyanogen roms, creating custom icons/skins, etc).
Update URL
I've been using my Nexus One for over a year and have been very happy with my purchase. I primarily use it for work, reading/sending e-mails, conference calls, viewing spreadsheets and other documents. Exchange e-mail support was completely lacking on android at launch, but a few months after launch some apps began to support it. Nitrodesk's Touchdown app was what I started using as they were one of the first apps to give true exchange support and I continue to use it today even though exchange support is added to the built in e-mail application. Touchdown offers quite a few more in depth features than the built in e-mail application and I found it well worth the $15 or so I spent for a life-time license.
Display: 8/10
The AMOLED display of the Nexus One is great, though some of the newer phones such as the Samsung Galaxy S (in all it's carrier specific variations, but specifically the Vibrant since my roommate has one) have even more brilliant displays thanks to the next generation Super AMOLED technology. The main thing you'll notice on the Nexus One display is that the blacks are truly black, not a silvery-grey like on a typical LCD screen. If you prefer using darker themes/wallpapers (and I do) you'll also have the added advantage of improved battery life. Compared to the display of the iphone4, colors I feel are a bit more rich on the Nexus One, but the iphone offers greater clarity due to a higher dpi display.
Performance: 9/10
At the time it was launched, the Nexus One was hands down the best android device on the market performance wise. Today, it is still for most people going to have more than enough processing power to do the day to day things they want out of their phone. Web browsing is smooth and easy (though flash does slow down the browser a bit, I still prefer to have support for it and the option to easily shut off flash rather than no flash capability at all). The trackball comes in handy when trying to navigate small links nested closely together on a page. I don't play a lot of games on my phone, but the few I've played ran smoothly (Angry Birds for example ran great). Opening spreadsheets/PDFs/word docs in most cases only takes 2-3 seconds, even large spreadsheets with over 5k rows open in a matter of seconds and scroll smoothly (using Documents To Go).
Call Quality: 9/10
I've never had a dropped call on my Nexus One. The earpiece is loud enough for my needs, though if I'm in a noisy area such as a bar it can be difficult to hear even with the volume up all the way. That being said, people on the other side can hear me perfectly fine even if I'm in very noisy surroundings. The secondary mic on the back of the phone serves for noise canceling and apparently does an excellent job since I've never had someone comment about background sounds during a call. The built in speaker on the Nexus One is adequate, but by no means stellar. For voice calls it's fine, but for the playing of music or movies it's really lacking in that it doesn't get very loud and is more tinny than other speakers on similar phones (my roommate's Samsung Galaxy S Vibrant for example has MUCH better speaker sound quality).
On Screen Keyboard: 6/10
I loved my G1's physical keyboard and could type 50-60 wpm with fewer errors than I can with the Nexus One virtual keyboard. While the iphone's virtual keyboard is definitely superior to the stock android keyboard, I still far prefer a physical keyboard if I'm going to be typing up a lot of text. I've used Swype and SwiftKey as replacement keyboards and both offer superior usability than the stock android keyboard. Swype was good at reducing typos but overall was slower for actual word input. It however did provide better one hand support. SwiftKey is my keyboard of choice as it offers a superior keyboard for regular text entry (ie, using two thumbs in landscape mode) and it's predictive text engine is superb making it where after a few weeks of use it can guess what word I'm entering or going to enter next about 75% of the time which reduces my overall number of keystrokes greatly.
Battery Life: 7/10
My G1 had pretty bad battery life. I ended up getting a 2200mah battery for it because it was draining so quickly, this added quite a bit of bulk to the phone but let me go without a charge for about 24 hours under regular use. The Nexus One comes with a 1400mah battery and I can typically go about 16 hours without having to plug it in. A typical day for me involves about 2 hours of calls, sending/receiving around 100 e-mails, checking Twitter (via Twidroyd) once or twice, sending/receiving ~10 text messages, and sending/receiving 50+ messages over Google Chat. I always have 3g connectivity enabled and enable wifi while at work or at home. At the end of the day when I get home my battery is at about 30% so I plug it in when I go to sleep each night. Compared to my friends with an iphone, that's a noticeably bigger drain. My biggest recommendations for people trying to squeeze more battery life out of their Nexus One would be to use the auto-brightness setting (further configurable through the Cyanogen ROM) and to use dark backgrounds (or even just a plain black background). These two things will easily let your battery last a few more hours a day. When checking what most consumes my battery life, it's almost always the display. So anything you can do to reduce the amount of power being consumed by the display will do a great deal to increase your battery life.
Camera/Video Recording: 7/10
The Nexus One has a 5mp camera with single LED flash. Pictures are clear, though tend to have warmer than true color tones. Video recording is just adequate, with frame rates being a little lacking and the picture slightly fuzzy. I'm not sure of the actual video resolution on the Nexus One, but videos are not nearly as clear or fluid as my roommate's Galaxy S which records at 720p.
Hardware Quality: 8/10
The overall hardware quality of the Nexus One is above average. I've never used a case/screen guard and until a couple months ago, never had a scratch on the screen or a chip/scratch on the chassis. However, I ended up dropping my phone on to a concrete floor with it landing screen side down. That resulted in a pair of small scratches on the top of the screen and a couple of very small scratches on the side of the aluminum casing. I regularly carried my phone in my pocket with my keys, and before that drop never had any scratches on the device. Compare this to a friend who has an iphone 3gs the back of which is riddled with scratches.
Overall: 8/10
I'm overall very pleased with my purchase of the Nexus One. It's been an excellent phone for me offering great functionality as an actual phone, while also being above par in terms of multimedia capabilities. That being said, I am looking to upgrade to the HTC Sensation 4g once it becomes available on T-Mobile this June. I don't have any complaints about my Nexus One or a real reason to give it up, but I'm itching to try out the Sensation and I feel it is really the successor to the Nexus One instead of the Samsung Nexus S which really just looks like a repackaged Galaxy S with a couple extra features.
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Updated on Nov 13, 2011
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Enjoy! -
"2 Steps Forward from Blackberry, and 1 Step Back" on by pcorning
Pros: The flexibility of a touch-screen phone and its available apps make for a huge step up. The phone is much easier than a Blackberry to configure (except for Exchange). Sound quality is good. From the case to the screen, the phone looks good.
Cons: You can't get full Exchange sync yet. The phone takes a minute to boot. It's slippery in the hand. Some controls are balky, and answering a call takes a finger swipe instead of a simple button push.
Summary: I moved up from a Blackberry Pearl Flip (8220), so the Nexus is a big change. The first thing I noticed as I started to configure Nexus was its beautiful screen. Then I was grateful for well-designed menus, and the Android Market which let me add functions very quickly and easily.
After a few days, this is a great entertainment device, but a miserable phone.
I knew that Exchange integration would be tough, had done enough research to settle on Nitrodesk's Touchdown app, which loaded and immediately started pulling down mail, contacts, calendar and task information (no notes, though). It took around 20 minutes to get everything loaded over WiFi.
It's great to have a large, bright screen. Web pages are readable now, though the reviewers are right about the need for multi-touch (Apple's pinch-and-zoom system where you can expand, contract and re-orient images or web pages by using two fingers at a time) - the Nexus One's browser's zoom control is awkward.
The phone's settings menus are very well done. Call forwarding is easy to configure (at least on T-Mobile). Some configuration choices are mis-placed (the Google Voice application's settings control whether GV or your carrier controls the outgoing calls, which can lead to confusion).
Android Market makes it easy to download new apps, and the apps are useful (from Kayak, to Fandango, to Google's Sky application for identifying constellations). Be careful with exotic VOIP apps, though - I had to rebuild the phone after one of them corrupted the phone's basic calling functions.
Simple telephone calls are tougher than they should be. To answer you have to swipe your finger across the screen - tougher than just stabbing a button, and you'll probably miss a couple of calls. To call is easy enough, but it's not as fast as hitting a Blackberry call button and starting to type a name in the text box. There is no classic telephone ring tone - just a bunch of hip-to-goofy tones that you may not feel comfortable hearing in conservative business meetings.
Don't get this phone if you want full Exchange compatibility and the most efficient way to make phone calls and read email. Blackberry is better for these things. But if you want to use more of the Internet while on the go, and especially if you find yourself relying on lots of Google web applications (Picasa, Gmail, Voice, etc.) the Nexus One is a good way to expand your mobile computing power.
Updated on Jan 11, 2010
* Looking up contacts is an ordeal. The voice recognition doesn't work well for names. Screen typing is erratic. You can't set your contact list to display by last name. God help you if you're looking up someone named Steve Vanzini, and forget about making calls when driving.
* Battery life is well under a day of regular use - sure, you can extend it by turning off all the services you bought the phone for, but then why use this phone?
Other - cutting and pasting text is near impossible. Support has been criticized in the news, but T-Mobile and HTC were helpful and quick with me. Google Translate is a miraculous app, as is their Sky app for constellations. Boot-up has improved to around 30 seconds (as Cleoz point out, that's faster than a Pearl 8220 - especially when you consider how bogged down Blackberrys are while they download mail).
Leaning toward sending it back. Glad I didn't engrave it.
Updated on Jan 11, 2010One more thing: Cell connections are very weak with the Nexus One so far. T-Mobile is tough enough with a Blackberry, but Nexus is losing connections much more frequently.
Updated on Jan 12, 2010The noise cancellation works very well for outdoor calls. In two calls from a busy streetcorner yesterday (buses and UPS trucks growling by), callers said that all they could hear was something that sounded like a softly rushing water in the background.
Contacts and the Touchdown program are still giving me fits. If you're a Blackberry owner you'll miss the option of having all received and sent mail, plus SMS, in a single folder. You never know if a mail's been sent. Touchdown's Send button will probably be right over the phone's Home button when you send a message. Sometimes the phone will revert to the home screen without your knowing whether the message has been sent. With no record in your inbox, you're clicks and minutes away from confirming in the sent folder. Sigh.
Updated on Jan 14, 2010The phone's navigation feature is very strong. You can just tell the phone "Navigate to 4817 Mission Street in San Francisco," and then a couple of clicks later you're on your way with a detailed map and instructions on the beautiful screen. A terrible speaker on the Nexus One doesn't detract much from the joy of this feature.
By the way, you can also tell the phone to "Navigate to the nearest gas station," or "Find the closest Japanese restaurant." And you'll get a map of where you are, showing cluster of relevant destinations around you. Amazing.
Updated on Jan 14, 2010There *are* multi touch applications available for Nexus One (and Android in general). The Dolphin browser lets you magnify or diminish a web page by pinching or spreading two fingers on the screen. It is also better in other ways than the base Android browser, and there's a free version available in the Android Market.
B&B Gallery lets you pinch and zoom your photos. No rotation, though. It isn't as slick otherwise as the Google Gallery app.
On this evidence I would expect to see more multi touch applications coming soon for Android phones.
Had to call HTC yesterday about the dreaded keyboard problem (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_JCSEnkntEI - fixed after a battery-out reboot). Their support rep picked up in 30 seconds, offered to send me a new phone if we couldn't solve this quickly. (888) 216-4736 - the number's not secret. No idea why the press is going on and on about Nexus One support problems.
Updated on Feb 4, 2010Used it for a 90-minute speakerphone call today. It took around 40% of the battery. The N1's speaker is much worse than a Blackberry's (tinny, distorted), but the other side reported that we sounded fine to them. Battery life is always a worry (but same for iPhone, from what I hear). There are no spare batteries available yet (on order, not shipped). T-mobile started routing my support calls directly to HTC after they figured out I had an N1, which became annoying when the update screwed up my call forwarding options. So why do I still have this thing? It's fast. The Dolphin browser is a treat to use. There's great integration with Google's various services. I am using it to send only around 20 emails each day a day, so I can take Touchdown's terrible Exchange sync and the N1's occasional keyboard fritzes. Will hit the road next month and find out how it functions under higher message loads.
Updated on Feb 20, 2010NAVIGATION - Works well for turn-by-turn navigation, even if the speaker is pretty weak. Navigation sucks a lot of battery power, so bring a car charger when you go. And if you will be traveling beyond the range of the cellular network you're better off with a Garmin, since navigation relies on online data updates, not on maps stored in your phone.
CAMERA - Picture quality is still so-so. Auto-focus makes photos very crisp, but colors are cold (the camera does offer a white balance control). At least the camera starts very quickly (CNET says about 2x as fast as an iPhone. I say fast enough).
Updated on Feb 20, 2010NAVIGATION - Works well for turn-by-turn navigation, even if the speaker is pretty weak. Navigation sucks a lot of battery power, so bring a car charger when you go. And if you will be traveling beyond the range of the cellular network you're better off with a Garmin, since navigation relies on online data updates, not on maps stored in your phone.
CAMERA - Picture quality is still so-so. Auto-focus makes photos very crisp, but colors are cold (the camera does offer a white balance control). At least the camera starts very quickly (CNET says about 2x as fast as an iPhone. I say fast enough).
Updated on Feb 20, 2010DESKTOP DOCK - This $50 addition, now available from Google, turns your Nexus One into a clock radio that plays MP3s (stored on the phone), Pandora or other Internet radio stations, all while charging your phone. It has significantly increased my happiness with the Nexus One.
Updated on May 23, 2010Just installed the Android 2.2 update. Among other things, it speeds up Nexus One by up to 5 time (great), allows for applications to be updated automatically and stored in removable memory (expanding app space by hundreds of times), improves the camera and lets the phone turn into a wireless hotspot to share your 3G data connection. It's like having a new phone.
Android phones sold by carriers may wait months for this upgrade, making Nexus One the phone to have if you want the latest and greatest out of Android, even though newer models feature better screens, keyboards and HTC's Sense interface, which cleans up Android a bit.
Android 2.2 has apparently added Exchange calendar sync capabilities. If the built-in email client can somehow keep user login info for more than a week at a time (it's terrible), this will be a big improvement.
Finally, the Nexus' power switch is going bad. A known issue on Google's Nexus One forum. Possibly looking for hardware exchange now. -
"Integrated Google Services leave the iPhone in the Dust" on by defacto2010
Pros: Integrates with Google services (Gmail, Finance, Chat etc)
Fast and responsive (sports a 1GHz chip)
3.5G and HSDPA support for fast internet (not found on the iPhone)
Run multiple applications simultaneously (not available on the iPhone)
5MP cameraCons: Some users may prefer a keyboard, although the virtual keyboard is very good on the Nexus One;
Marketplace has yet to offer as many applications (although managed to find everything I need including SatNav applications free)Summary: Have previously owned an iPhone, HTC Diamond and Nokia N95. I've engaged in mobile phone development on such platforms as Windows Mobile (C#), iPhone (Objective C) and Android (Dalvik Java) - I've had some experiences which suggest that the Android Operating System is at present the best Mobile Operating System available for mobile devices. We were just waiting for the right device to kick things off and the HTC Nexus One is that device...
If you intend to use a mobile phone for just phoning, the Nexus One is not the so-called "phone" for you. Something simpler may be more applicable. What the Nexus One is, is a fully fledged computer and in that sense you could consider it like any Netbook or Laptop on the market - you should expect the Nexus One to do everything your Netbook or Laptop can do, but with a smaller screen.
The most important benefit of the Nexus One is it's integration of Google Services, like Gmail, Chat, Finance, Maps and other social networking applications like Facebook and Twitter. Services can be synchronised providing seamless interaction with the Internet services you are used to. The technological improvements are not lost on the user either. The 1GHz Snap Dragon chipset provides a very responsive experience and the capacity to use 3.5G, HSDPA standards and WiFi for fantastic internet connectivity is excellent and (3G and HSDPA are not found on the iPhone making the internet sluggish). The Nexus One (being Android) allows for multiple concurrent applications to run (Apple disallow this). I found the device to survive very well for 20 hours (with WiFi and GPS on). These features can be switched on and off easily to save battery power. Not only a good all round consumer device, it provides a great platform for developing applications as well, not requiring signing like both Apple iPhone and Nokia applications.
Other applications like Google Voice and Speech-to-Text are also provided and surprisingly good given that they are new technologies. Speech-to-Text is quite accurate allowing a user to talk to the Nexus One instead of entering text into text fields using the virtual keyboard. Music can be accessed through the Google Player, Spotify or the Amazon MP3 Store.
Almost everything is customizable and if you're really so crazy about multi-touch, multi-touch will be available in Europe but not in the US due to Apple patents. Installing and un-installing applications from the Marketplace is easy and quick.
All in all, a completely different experience than what I've had with other phones and a glimpse on a bright future for the Android Operating System - definitely a device worth heavy consideration. -
"Google Calendar Sync works great!" on by blind_ferret
Pros: The Android platform needed to move to the 1 GHz Snapdragon with a screen at least as good as the iPhone 3GS. They've done it. Android has arrived. Now on to Tablets, Netbooks, and Car Systems (Ford).
Cons: How to get this in the hands of the average joe, hasn't quite been smoothed out.
Summary: The secret / paradigm of the Android O/S is:
1) You Sync your Outlook Calendar with iGoogle/Calendar (applet on the Google Lab, & option), then its automatically Sync'd with the Android phone (2-way).
2) You manage your contacts in Gmail (iGoogle/Gmail) and they are automatically Sync'd with the Android phone (2-way).
Now the missing piece, "the Outlook/Contacts to Gmail/contacts"
- A Google Lap applet to sync Outlook Contacts to iGoogle/Gmail/contacts, which would then be automatically Sync'd with the Android phone (2-way).
Its this paradigm,
Microsoft Outlook\(Contacts, Calendar) Sync's with iGoogle\(Contacts, Calendar), which Sync's with Android phone.
Google, is just a little late filling in the missing link.
- Calendar works Great! (love it)
- Contacts is a little late to the party. -
"Has multi-touch---get "Dolphin Browser" and see!" on by MaxLaw
Pros: Easy to navigate and use. Gmail & Google calendar ease of setup. Bbrilliant screen, fast processing, light weight, lots of apps, works well on 3G . Voice text (messaging) is amazing! This 61 year old geek loves this phone!
Cons: Cnet is wrong (see below)
Only had this 8 days so learning curve is slightly steep, but have figured everything out thus far except how to look up something in the far future (6 months) on the calendar. Probably my ignorance only.Summary: Multi-touch is there, as can be seen by downloading "Dolphin Browser" (free) from Marketplace and using it as another browser (if not set as the default, you get a selection window when going to the Internet). So, maybe Google did not want to flaunt the Apple folks, who tend to be litigious. As to the CDMA, it is my understanding from another website that the Nexus One has the CDMA built in, but not activated--mainly due (no doubt) to T-mobile and AT&T (like the rest of the civilized world, such as Europe) being GSM.
Kinda sloppy on your facts there, Cnet!
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