Google Nexus One Review

The guys from Engadget, who visited the Consumer Electronics Show, held in their hands, perhaps, the hottest novelty of the event - the Google Nexus One smartphone. I bring to your attention his review, as they say, in hot pursuit.
In intensity, rumors of a hypothetical phone from Google could only compete with the Apple tablet. Now that the curtain of rumors has been removed, we have a really interesting device. I have already given detailed characteristics of the new items from the official Google site, but what is it subjectively?

Design

The manufacturer of the Nexus One is, if someone does not know, Taiwanese HTC. Taiwanese did their best: the device looks stylish, expensive, much more interesting than the first T-Mobile G1 Google Phone. The forms are soft, discreet, without an emphasized "masculinity", but not too feminine. So you hear how people from Google beg HTC: “Do us something as stylish as the iPhone, but with your face!”
We can say that the task has been completed: the smartphone really looks original, you cannot call it an absolute iPhone clone. It guesses something from HTC, and something from Google. The case consists of two elements: the main panel is dark gray, it runs along the back and is quite soft to the touch. The second is lighter, but also harder, metal, it borders the screen. The smartphone is very thin for its impressive characteristics - only 11.5 mm . The color causes a mixed feeling: not everyone likes the gray-brown palette. It is still unknown whether Google is going to offer other colors. However, I think that I will be right if I say that the Nexus One in any case is hardly inferior in terms of the design of the iPhone, Pre or Droid.

Hardware

The heart of the smartphone is a fairly powerful gigahertz chip Quallcomm Snapdragon , memory - 512 MB and operational, and built-in. The filling is such that the head can go round: what are only three types of sensors (light, proximity and accelerometer). There is GSM (AWS and European 2100 MHz), Wi-Fi , AGPS , a microSD card slot , and the kit comes with a 4 GB card, and the maximum capacity can be 32 GB. In general, the phone is fast, but there is no fundamental difference with the Motorola Droid.
AMOLED-screen diagonal 3.7 inchesvery good. In terms of sensitivity, it does not differ from other google phones. The resolution is 480 × 800 , which is a lot, but it is 54 pixels smaller than the Droid (480 × 854). Not everything is in order and in the color rendition: the red and orange shades look somewhat overexposed, more brightly than on the computer monitor, which is clearly visible on the web pages. However, this often happens on AMOLED screens. In bright light, the screen is clearly poorly visible, here Google and HTC did not make a revolution.
Unlike the Droid, the Nexus One has a trackballlocated under the keys, which may seem a little inconvenient, but Hero users are familiar with this arrangement. On the left side there is a joystick to adjust the sound. Above - the button to turn on, it also activates-deactivates the standby mode. On the other hand, there is a 3.5 mm audio jack , next to it is a microUSB port , a microphone hole and some other connector, the purpose of which is difficult to determine at a glance. On the back of the smartphone are located, as expected, the camera and flash.

Yes, another important point: the display in the Nexus One is not multi-touch! Those who are used to the iPhone and other multi-touch devices, to their original gestures and fun games, will be hard to adapt to the Nexus One. Because of this, some programs do not work, for example, the NES emulator NESoid. Quite a strange move on the part of Google, given the intense competition with the iPhone.

Camera

Let me remind you that the Nexus One camera is a 5 megapixel sensor , an LED flash , 720 × 480 video at a speed of 20 frames per second . The speed of the camera is very decent, the quality of the pictures is also at the level: they are detailed and without chronic problems for HTC, characteristic of other models. Focusing is incredibly fast.
Google did the right thing by improving the Gallery app . The dull legacy of the first models is almost no longer felt in the new version, now it is a very nice and friendly application with a large number of options, such as panoramas and slide shows.
A few more pictures:
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Telephony

As a phone, the Nexus One is fundamentally no different from most models for GSM. The sound is quite loud, the reception is not bad, the interlocutor is heard well. However, the Motorola Droid has higher sound quality when talking.
In terms of 3G reception, the Nexus One is as good as the iPhone, but both of them lose to Verizon phones, in particular the Droid. For example, at John F. Kennedy Airport, testers could not talk on either the Nexus One or the iPhone, and the Droid worked just fine. Perhaps the problem is precisely in the operator: Nexus One was tested on AT&T. In Las Vegas, where the exhibition was held, all three phones worked on 3G the same way. The average download speed for 3G data in the Las Vegas area was 559 Kbps: a very expected and good result.

Software

The operating system is the latest Android 2.1 , partially upgraded in the bowels of Google. In these upgrades, the most interesting moments lie. Many even thought that for the first time we would see “real Android,” true to the true spirit of Google, while all the other Google phones did not fully correspond to this spirit.
Reality turned out to be more prosaic. In essence, Android 2.1 is not much different from version 2.0.1, which now runs the Motorola Droid. Google’s branding is so inconspicuous that it even surprised many. I will mention some of them.
Firstly, it’s home screen navigation. Apparently, Google did some work on the bugs and took into account numerous complaints regarding the home screen. The situation with him was really not a pleasant one. In 2.1, the paradigm of navigation through the bowels of the smartphone is slightly changed. Google completely abandoned the leaving box, which previously stored application icons. Now, instead of it, a simple house icon with which you can access application icons from any screen: they seem to approach the user, after which they can be scrolled with funny three-dimensional animation.
Further, Google increased the number of available home screens from three to five (apparently following the lead of Sense and BLUR). The result is a cross between the iPhone and webOS. Special points help you understand where you are. With a long press on a point, a kind of card leaves with miniatures of all home screens that you can immediately switch to: It's nice that Google takes care of the first impression that the user receives from the device, strives to make it extremely friendly and easy to learn. Although the changes mentioned are essentially cosmetic, they successfully solve a number of problems that the platform suffered from before. But the problems remained. The outdated and overly overloaded music player has not changed much. Virtual keyboard


although better than in previous models, but still suffers from inaccuracy. And then Google decided to surprise us: on the Nexus One there is a fundamentally new text input method, unprecedented previously on Android - voice . However, he works with varying success. While this technology, frankly, is damp.

Some results

Nexus One is a good smartphone, it is indisputable, however, it can not be considered a milestone, a new era, etc., which many people insisted on before. This is a good Android smartphone with advanced hardware, but it has no obvious advantages over the Motorola Droid. Of course, if Google wants to engage in popularizing the platform, then this is the right device at the right time: host processor, excellent screen, sleek design, exotic features like proximity sensor. It has everything that is called a geek effect. On the other hand, the lack of a multi-touch display is frankly puzzling.
In the US, the Nexus One will sell for $ 529.99 . If the Russian price does not change significantly, then it will almost certainly be sold with us much better than the iPhone.

Material translationEngadget .