HTC Nexus One by Google (unlocked)

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 average

Cons: - Vibration is a bit noisy
- Keyboard is in serious need of revamping

Summary: 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).

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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