Nexus One Android Smartphone Review

Now I know how the Bachelor and Bachelorette feel because I’m in love with two… smartphones. I’ve been using an iPhone on and off (on since last July when I purchased the 3GS) since it was originally released and our relationship has been sort of love hate. Love because of the apps. Hate because it does not have dedicated call send and end buttons. I haven’t been exclusive to the iPhone though. I am guilty of flirting with other phones, but they meant nothing to me and I continue to come back to the iPhone after a brief tryst. The G1hit my radar over a year ago and although I found it interesting, it didn’t go much farther than that. But things have drastically changed in the past year. As Apple continues to alienate users, Android has been gaining momentum. I thought it was high time I gave Android another try to see if it could win my heart from the iPhone. I purchased the Nexus One and now I find that I’m torn between two phones.

Hardware Specs

Processor: Qualcomm QSD 8250 1 GHz
Operating System: Android Mobile Technology Platform 2.1 (Eclair)
Memory: 512MB Flash, 512MB RAM, 4GB Micro SD Card (Expandable to 32 GB)
Cellular: UMTS Band 1/4/8 (2100/AWS/900), HSDPA 7.2Mbps, HSUPA 2Mbps, GSM/EDGE (850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz)
Wireless: Wi-Fi (802.11b/g)
Bluetooth: 2.1 + EDR, A2DP stereo Bluetooth
Display: 3.7-inch (diagonal) widescreen WVGA AMOLED touchscreen, 800 x 480 pixels, 100,000:1 typical contrast ratio
Camera: 5 megapixels, Autofocus from 6cm to infinity, 2X digital zoom, LED flash, Video captured at 720×480 pixels at 20 frames per second or higher, depending on lighting conditions
Dimensions: 119mm x 59.8mm x 11.5mm
Weight: 130 grams w/battery, 100g w/o battery
Battery: 1400 mAH battery, Charges at 480mA from USB, at 980mA from supplied charger
Talk time
Up to 10 hours on 2G
Up to 7 hours on 3G
Standby time
Up to 290 hours on 2G
Up to 250 hours on 3G
Internet use
Up to 5 hours on 3G
Up to 6.5 hours on Wi-Fi
Video playback
Up to 7 hours
Audio playback
Up to 20 hours

Package Contents

Nexus One smartphone
AC adapter
USB cable
Earbuds
Extra earbud covers
Quick Start guide

The Hardware

Note: Many of the images in this review can be clicked to see a larger version.

The Nexus One is much sleeker than the G1 ever dreamed of being. The metal frame has a Titanium finish that’s very stylish. The sides of the Nexus are rounded and smooth. The phone is very comfortable in hand and has a nice heft to it. It’s very solid and had no problems passing the Gadgeteer squeeze test. No creaks, cracks, or flexing was noticed.

The majority of the phone’s front is taken up by the gorgeous 3.7″ touch display. Below the display is a strip of backlit touch buttons and below them is the combination trackball, status LED.

Flip the phone over and you’ll see the 5mp camera lens and LED flash. The cover slides off to reveal the battery, microSD and SIM card slots.

The battery cover is plastic with a soft rubberized coating that keeps the phone from feeling slippery in your hand.

The volume rocker button is located on the Left side of the phone. This button has a low profile and weak tactile feedback, that makes it a bit difficult to locate blindly with your thumb during a phone call.

The bottom of the phone has a micro USB connector and electrical contacts for the optional desktop dock. The microphone is also located on the bottom. It’s the Black dot in the picture above. It’s interesting to note that the Nexus has an additional microphone that is located on the back of the phone.

The clickable trackball can roll in any direction without stopping. It can also be pressed to select items. In addition, it is an LED that will pulse to let you know that you’ve received an email, text message, etc.

On the opposite end you’ll find a standard 3.5mm headphone jack and the power button.

I mentioned the desktop dock above… It’s a $45.00 optional purchase that is a nice accessory to have. It will let you easily charge the Nexus, which is no surprise, but the cool thing is that the Nexus will enter a special screensaver mode when it’s sitting in the dock.

First of all the Nexus just rests in the dock. You don’t have to plug it in like you do an iPhone. The dock has 3 contacts that press against duplicate contacts on the bottom of the phone. When you place the Nexus in the dock, it will turn on and display the image you see on the Left. The time and weather are displayed. You can use the Nexus as a clock and alarm clock in this mode. You can also play slide shows of the images stored on the phone and play music. The dock even has an audio-out connector and comes with a 3.5mm to RCA cable if you want to connect it to external speakers.

If you leave the phone in the clock / weather view, it will time out and switch to the clock view that you see on the Right. Nifty 

Let’s talk about the display. It’s a very nice one. It is physically larger than the iPhone’s display and has a higher resolution. But as far as the whole AMOLED thing, if I set the iPhone and Nexus side by side, the displays both look equally great to me.

The main difference I notice is that the N1’s Black’s are darker and the colors are more vibrant. But when I compare the sensitivity of the touch screen, I give the edge to the iPhone hands down. To me, the action of flicking, scrolling, swiping and tapping feels easier and more accurate on the iPhone. Regarding the strip of touch icons below the display, they don’t feel nearly as sensitive as the rest of the screen. I constantly find myself stabbing at them in frustration sometimes when they don’t want to recognize my taps. Then sometimes I can barely touch them to activate them. I’m hoping a firmware update can fix this issue.

The Camera

The Nexus One has an above average (for smartphones) 5 mp camera that has auto focus and a built in LED flash. It would have been nice if there was a dedicated camera launch / shutter button on the phone, but you can use the trackball to snap pix, or use the onscreen shutter button.

 

Here are a few sample pics:

 

Macro capability is very good. I wish you could tap the screen to focus on a specific spot though (like you can with the iPhone – sorry).

By default, using the phone’s AGPS receiver, the location where a photo was snapped will be saved along with the photo. Unfortunately I found that the accuracy of the location data was really bad. Sometimes more than a few miles off. Not sure what the deal is.

Video is recorded with the .3gp format, at 720×480 pixels at 20 frames per second.

Video recording sample

Not sure why they didn’t go with mp4.

Phone Performance

I tested the Nexus on the AT&T network with 2G only. Yeah, yay me – not. AT&T call quality with the Nexus is just as crappy as call quality on all the other phones I test with the same network. I had my share of clicking, weird audio glitches, dropped calls, etc.

All that said, I had many good calls with good volume, clarity, etc too. So the bottom line is that I don’t know if the Nexus is any better or any worse than other GSM phone when it comes to using it as a phone.

Battery and Overall Performance

I haven’t been overly impressed with the battery life on the Nexus One. Even with 3G turned off, I am not able to get through more than 1-1.5 days without having to dock it for a recharge. This may should fine to most of you, but I don’t make many calls, don’t surf much and don’t watch video on the phone. My main activities are checking the time, reading a few emails, texting, browsing the marketplace for new apps and mostly reading eBooks with the FBreader app.

I did notice something really cool though… You can see what app or feature is using the most juice.

The About Phone option in the Settings app shows a scrollable list of things using battery life and the percentage used. Even more details can be found by clicking on the individual items. Nice touch!

System performance is snappy – as well it should be giving the 1GHz snap dragon processor that powers the Nexus. Apps launch very fast, scrolling lists is fast, going from app list to home screen is fast, it’s all fast. I have no complaints at all with performance.

The Software

So all in all, the Nexus One hardware is fantastic and I have few complaints. Now let’s get to the software. As most people will say, a device like a smart phone is only as good as the software that powers it. I’m a firm believer in that belief.

I’ve been very impressed with how much slicker Android 2.1 (Eclair) is over the original version of Android that I first played with on the G1. The difference is like night and day.

I appreciate the little details like the ability to turn the speaker on and off on the idle screen. Stuff like that make me happy.

But the #1 thing that makes me love Nexus One more than my iPhone is the ability to customize the 5 home screens. There are live wallapers like the one shown above, that animate and change depending on the time of day, widgets that give you instant access to important info like weather, news and upcoming appointments. You have the power to move widgets around, create a screen just of widgets or a screen with your favorite apps. The only thing you can’t do is have a different wallpaper for each of the 5 home screens. Seems odd that they left out that feature.

If the #1 thing I love about Android is the customization of the home screens, then the #1 thing I hate about Android is the quality of 3rd party apps. I felt the same way when I reviewed the G1 last year. Of course there are so many more apps available now than there were before. But, the overall quality of most apps still lags considerably behind apps for the iPhone. They just aren’t as polished. I’m not saying all apps are crummy… not at all. But when I went looking for comparable apps from my iPhone in the Android Marketplace, I came away disappointed. That said, with the surging popularity of Android, I’m very confident that this won’t be a problem for long.

While we’re talking apps, I have another complaint… The Nexus One only has 512MB of user storage for apps. Even though you can add a microSD flash card to the phone, you can not specify where apps are saved when you install them. This is a really big deal if you ask me. Yes, apps are small. But I haven’t installed all that many on my N1 and right now I only have 110mb free. Not good.

Unfortunately, my software related complaints aren’t confined to 3rd party apps. I found a few things that annoy me with the functionality of the stock apps. One biggie for me is that the built in Search app doesn’t search your google calendar items. Another is the lack of visual voicemail if you’re using the phone with AT&T. There’s also no notepad app to record quick text notes. No way to sync podcasts (I tried Google Listen, but it won’t let me sign in with my google for domains account).

Conclusion

Choosing between the Nexus One and iPhone is difficult for me because I really do love them both – for different reasons. I love the N1’s hardware. I love the size and feel in my hand,  the display, microSD card and customization. But the touch screen and touch strip really frustrate me. I can actually learn to deal with the last two things, but when it comes down to it, I find myself missing the iPhone apps. For that reason, I’ll be putting my SIM back into the iPhone. I’ll be keeping my eye on the Android scene though. Heck, I may even root my N1 and install a home baked ROM. The Nexus One and Android definitely haven’t seen the last of me.

[Source: The-Gadgeteer]

3DTV Roundup

They’re here…or should we say, almost here. As promised at CES  2010, the new 3DTVs are starting to appear at your local Best Buy store and there are more coming over the next few months. With  higher price tags and 3D programming in short supply, it remains to be seen whether or not now is the right time to buy a 3DTV. However, keep in mind that a 240Hz LCD TV with HDMI 1.4 and enough processing power to handle 3D decoding can  even make your 2D picture look better so until the next wave  of TVs with quantum dot displays and Ultra High Definition (UHDTV) resolution come along, 3DTVs should carry you  through the next few years.

Panasonic 3D Plasmas Are On Sale at Best Buy Plasma TVs have always been especially good at displaying high  refresh rates, now with 120 or 240Hz refresh rates necessary for 3D, plasma TVs which had been losing ground to the lighter weight, more energy efficient LCD TVs are now in demand.  We’re sure Panasonic is jumping for joy with the interest in 3DTV and resurgence of their plasma TVs. The initial 3DTV offering from Panasonic is available exclusively at Best Buy and consists of a Blu-ray 3D player, the DMP-BDT300  ($399.99), and their 50-inch TC-P50VT20 3D-enabled 1080p  plasma HDTV ($2499.99). You get one pair of active shutter 3D  glasses with the TV and you can buy additional glasses for  $149.99. Later this spring, Panasonic will offer a VT25 series of 50 to 65-inch 3DTVs that will be available from other resellers.  The TC-P50V20 was recently tested by HDGuru.com that called  it an “excellent HDTV,” and gave it 4 out of 5 hearts. The 3DTV package includes Panasonic's VIERACast platform, available on its 3D Blu-ray players that offers streaming services like Netflix, Amazon, Pandora and YouTube, along with BD-Live support and a WiFi adapter. The new, soon to be available, DMP-BDT350 Blu-ray player will add DLNA for easy home media sharing and is expected to cost $449.99.

Samsung 3DTVs Have the Right Features Samsung’s first of many 3DTVs have started to appear at retailers like Sears and Amazon. The Samsung UN46C7000 46-inch 1080p  3D LED backlit LCD, with 240Hz refresh, Internet connectivity with Samsung Apps and “AllShare” DLNA home networking is available  for $2599.99. A larger, 55-inch version, the UN55C7000 is available  for pre-order at $3299. We’ve read that Samsung is offering a limited time deal on a 3D  “bundle” that includes a $399.99 3D Blu-ray player or an $899.99  3D Blu-ray home theater system with two free pairs of glasses and a 3D version ofMonsters vs. Aliens.

Sony 3DTVs Won't Be Here Until This Summer Sony 3DTVs won’t be available until June (initially in Japan) but if you happen to live close to a Sony Style store you might be able to  get a sneak peek of the LX900, HX900, or HX800 series 3DTVs.  We’ve read that the 52-inch, HX903 version which includes two  pairs of glasses will sell for the equivalent of $3,875 when it goes  on sale in Japan on June 10th. We’ve also read that the first Sony 3DTVs will require you to buy an external infrared emitter to run the active shutter glasses for around $50 with extra glasses costing around $130 a pair.

LG 3DTVs Looked Good at CES 2010 LG has not yet released any pricing and availability yet for their 3DTVs but we hear the LX9900 will have LED backlighting, TruMotion 400Hz refresh, and LG Netcast which offers Internet  connectivity including access to YouTube and Picasa and will support DLNA for home media sharing. We read that we can expect to see 47-inch and 55-inch LG 3DTVs in mid-May. LG’s new 3D Blu-ray player, the BX580 offers features including HDMI 1.4, WiFi connectivity, and DLNA.

Third Party Glasses That Work With All Sets? XpanD has been providing Panasonic with their active shutter glasses and recently announced that they were going to be offering their glasses for sale for around $150 a pair. XpanD claims their glasses will work with most manufacturers using active shutter glasses. We’ll believe it when we see it although  we are aware of efforts to “standardize” glasses and we suspect  the signals to turn the “shutters” on and off shouldn’t be all that hard to interpret.

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Six of the Sexiest New Digital Cameras

The Photo Marketing Association (PMA) just held their annual show where new cameras have traditionally been introduced. Here's a run down of some hot new cameras announced at PMA or just before.

1. Samsung's Answer to the Powershot S90
            
The word from Anaheim was that Samsung is getting serious about cameras and looking to take on the big boys with a new line of compact cameras including this beauty, the TL500. It has a rather hefty price tag of $450 along with very impressive specs that include an ultra-wide angle 24mm Schneider Kreuznach, super fast F/1.8 aperture lens, dual image stabilization modes and the thing everyone was ooh'ing an ah'ing over, a 3-inch AMOLED display.


2. Sony Swimsuit Edition
          
Sony wowed the crowd at PMA with this $350 compact camera that features a 10X optical zoom, 25mm wide angle lens, big 3-inch LCD screen and as if that wasn't enough, it's dust proof and waterproof to 10 feet. Oh and did we also say it's freezeproof too?


3. Sony Concept Camera

It doesn't appear that Sony is ready to throw in with the micro four thirds alliance of Panasonic and Olympus quite yet but they are coming close with the camera they previewed at PMA . The Alpha camera has a big CMOS sensor which should make for some good low-light performance. It supports interchangeable lenses and it’s nice looking  too. Here's a video from PMA:

4. New Canon Rebel With a Cause
                
Here comes the replacement for the very popular Rebel T1i. The Canon EOS Rebel T2i will cost $900 with an entry level lens and includes a new 18-megapixel CMOS sensor, 6400 ISO, 1080p video at 30 fps, and a 3-inch LCD screen. Look for the T2i to be available sometime in March.


5. New Nikon Coolpix Has Nice Features, But…
               
This new $400 Nikon Coolpix P100 does 1080p video, includes a 10.3-megapixel CMOS sensor, a  wide angle Nikkor lens with 26X optical zoom and a bunch of other impressive features like 120 fps burst mode. It even has HDMI for showing your HD videos on your TV. The only problem is early reviews say the image quality just is so so.


6. Kodak? Who Would Have Thought?
             
Kodak, we never thought you had it in you to produce such a sexy camera. This super thin, $350 compact camera has a gigantic 3.5 inch, 16:9 touchscreen display. It includes a 14-megapixel sensor, a 5X optical zoom and does 720p video.

Funny and Strange USB Flash Drives

Flash drives have taken on a whole art form. Here are some unusual USB flash memory drives that we wanted to share with you.

Memory Pipe Flash Drive

Put some memory in your pipe but don't smoke it.

Swiss Army Flash Drive

This could be a handy gadget to have in your tool kit. It even has a red flashlight.

Magic Eight Ball Flash Drive

Ask this drive a question like "am I going to run out of memory?" and get back a magic eight ball-type answer like "you can count on it."

Thumb Drive (haha)

This flash drive gets one thumb up,  or sideways.

Collect the Whole Set of Sushi Drives

Not sure if these come with wasabi but they're kind of cute.

Slowest Flash Drive

You can find flash drives in the form of lots of different animals

Corked Flash Drives

Vintage flash drives available in shockproof packages.

Reproductive Flash Drives

This is guaranteed to get a few comments.

Clothespin Flash Drive

Clipping this to something could make it harder to lose.

Hershey Bar Flash Drive

For the chocoholics in the group.

Dangling Cable Flash Drive

It just looks like someone snipped the cable. The "Hacked!" drive could be a conversation starter.

Sunglasses Flash Drive

This could be a handy way of carrying around your data.