Nexus One is certainly a breath of fresh air for us Android users, heck, any phone with more horsepower would do. However, those who know me, are well aware that I'm not very forgiving, even for minor details.
That said, #NexusOne #N1 is a step up from my last G1. Someone who has owned an #iPhone, #G1, and several other smartphones in the past, Nexus one stands in a class of its own.
Without further adieu, let's get right down to business:
Hardware
- 3.7'', 480x800 Res: Gorgeous display, nothing short of amazing. I haven't seen a more crisper and more beautiful display before. For those coming from an iPhone, Hero, Crackberry, or G1, this is a significant step up. Best of all, due to it being an AMOLED display, it goes a long way in saving the much needed juice that we can squeeze out of the 1400mah battery on the N1. Its definitely a lot long lasting than my G1. Which brings me to our next item...
- Snapdragon (QSD8250): Definitely a performance jump from my last (beloved) G1. As seen in the image below, its idling at 662mhz, which is still pretty high, so perhaps a custom rom down the road with better CPU freq dynamics would do the trick.
- Misc: 512mb (RAM and ROM), although neither are available out of the box. Since Android makes use of your RAM by launching at boot the most used or critical apps (and I'm assuming it sets aside ram for core apps Cam/Vid, Maps, Browser, Launcher, etc), the RAM available after a full bootup is less than 90mb. This isn't bad news, on the contrary, RAM is significantly faster, which means your apps will be popping in an out like hot knife on butter. The proximity and light sensors are good addition, but not the first Android phone equipped with it.
For a full review of technical specs, please visit Google's N1 specs.
Software:
- Base OS: This OS gets as good as a non-rooted or custom rom modded Android can get. Don't get me wrong, but Cyanogen, Dwang, JAC, Cyrowski, Wes (and the pioneer of all JesusFreke) and other modders have produced much more optimized ROMS with meager G1 type hardware. I can only think what they would be able to do with specs like the Nexus. That said, the Vanilla 2.1 (which strangely is marked as Eclair "still" - shouldn't this be Flan or pancake or something else??) OS is decent. However, with BFS, Compache and other mods, this is no where comparable to the performance I am used to, let alone expect out of Snapdragon. There's room for much improvement. Remember how horrible G1 was with Android 1.0, now mine runs 1.6 by Cyanogenmod and its at least twice a device it was on its initial launch, Nexus will be no different.
- Fast installs, which makes me really happy, don't take my word, hundreds have reported similar experiences as it should coming out of the QSD8250!
- Touch Input and transitions from one desktop to another isn't as smooth as I expected it to be. Some level of kinetic scrolling need to be applied here.
- Web Browser: No out of the box multi-touch browsing (at least for us in the US, but in Europe Nexus One is full multi-touch; yes, patents FTW /sarcasm), but Dolphin Browser fills this gap beautifully and need I say the user experience is no different than on Safari Mobile from the iPhone (did a side by comparison of both). Besides that browsing is considerably faster! Did I mention browsing is fast?
- Maps: Same as the one from 1.6, 2.0. Navigate and everything else works out of the box, just like it should.
- Keyboard: Needless to say, Android's base soft keyboard is sub-par. The 1st thing that I do with my G1 is install the HTC-IME or Swype. I'm waiting for a HTC-IME for N1, until then, I will have to live and miss my G1's H/W keyboard.
- No out-of-the-box Exchange Cal support, but this can be remedied by a software or mod easily. Exchange mail support on the other hand is basic, folder view is awkwardly in a single alphanumeric order (no sub-folder views), and no custom sync period (max sync time is 1hr), and "No support for moving mails across folders". The latter one will bug me, but I will have to switch to the HTC Exchange app.
- Gallery: Beautiful is all I can say. 1 down and 2 more multi-media apps to go. Now if Google only applied the same resources spent on "prettying" the Gallery application to the Video and Music app, then we're set. Until then, no iPhone (Gold standard of Multi-media application aesthetics) like experience for multi-media on the Nexus one. If you, must use an Android phone, get one with Sense UI baked into it, that is if multi-media and "pretty" is your thing. I would not muddy my phone with Sense, blur or anything else, which is nothing but bloat in my eyes.
- Data Connectivity: I'm on Tmobile's network, and while there have been issues brought forth by many on 3G's ability to stay connected in full 3G coverage areas, so far my phone is free from those issues. I have had solid 3G data coverage in Minneapolis and around the cities. No issues with 3G thus far, but only time will tell if anything plagues my device as it has for others on the web.
- Google Voice still doesn't have push notifications! I still can't use Google Voice as my primary app for VM and corporate SMS, not without push notifications.
- Live Wallpapers is beautiful, perhaps this could be put to some real use, for instance flickr/picasa/local photo collage slideshow wallpaper (instead of having a separate app for switching through wallpapers). Better yet, if applications can utilize live wallpaper as an API, then this really helps UIs like the one for Music apps.
- Camera: I have taken several shots from this camera and while it works decently for a 5mp (phone) camera, it does not break any records. That said, a lot of my friends have complained about a pink hue when taking pictures with white background (img below)
- Music: I was fairly surprised to listen how well Music played on the Phone, both using the headphones that came with the phone as well as my over the ear beats. It wasn't too loud, nor too soft, the bass (low, mid and high) were sounding just right. The only issue I have thus far is that Android's Music player does not come with any equalizer/music settings built-in to change bass, treble, etc. If I compare it with my buddy's ZuneHD, my own iPod Touch, this phone keeps up quite well, just lack of an equalizer is noticeable in quite a few genres (one size does not fit all, Google). However, for a phone this is an 8/10 (given the iPhone is a 9/10 - inability to Move/Add media from the Phone itself without using iTunes)
- Phone: Ironically, a phone is no longer just a phone anymore. Thus, the one reason for a cell phone's primary use, which I perhaps use only half as much, didn't cross my mind until I went through the checkout. That said, the ambient noise reduction feature introduced by building an additional mic at the rear of the phone is simple and brilliant. It works really well In fact, while talking inside a mall today, my friend on the other end could not tell the difference. Way to fool your work too, not that I'm suggesting anything (Yes boss, I'm typing that report as we speak /while fragging on MW2 :D). That aside, the earpiece is too soft, it can be much louder. Thankfully, there are apps to address such deficiencies. That said, volume hacks exist for the G1, so I'm assuming it is only a matter of time before that makes its way to the Nexus. That aside, the Phone/Contacts application could learn from the modding community's efforts by implementing certain features
Not as noticeable now is it? I'm sure there are apps in the market which allow you to freely manipulate this. However, this was not noticed in outdoor pictures at all, even with white balance set to AUTO.
The fix above will resolve this problem manually, for the time being, until Google/HTC push out a fix for this. I have also included several pictures for comparison sake here.
The fix above will resolve this problem manually, for the time being, until Google/HTC push out a fix for this. I have also included several pictures for comparison sake here.
Wishlist:
- Apply the UI polish from Gallery to the Music and Video applications.
- Port FFMPEG to the core audio/video experience (it'll play everything!)
- Voip out of the box, on 3G/Wifi
- Enable that FM transmitter/receiver and modify that Music application to include FM Radio support
- Out of the box support for apps2sd (I hear its coming)
- Full support for document management (at the least viewing capability) out of the box, for DOC, PDF, PPT, XLS. If we get edit capability with it, then all the better!
- Get that flash support rolled out soon Adobe
- Full Exchange and Email application support for Enterprise security. Some companies currently do not support Android as the mobile exchange client, due to its lack of full blown exchange support out of the box. Enterprises need security (ability to remotely wipe, etc) and full Calendar, Contacts, Email synchronization. Android (from 2.0 onwards) has built in support for email and contacts, but no calendar; which is why OEMs have to bake in this support prior to release. Also, what is wrong with the default Email app, it doesn't support basic features like moving emails from one folder to the other.
- Keyboard: While there are plenty of alternatives to the stock keyboard, and thank fully, unlike some other fruity company, we can freely download and replace various components of the OS (without rooting/jailbreaking), even then, the stock keyboard is just not good enough. Multi-touch is a biggie here, so having that support would matter significantly.
- Full multi-touch out of the box across the OS, no continents barred! We all know Android as an OS and much if its hardware partners support Multi-touch, but it simply isn't enabled in the US.
- Where's that tethering support guys? Can we at least have freebie apps in the market, so we as "adults" can decide whether we want to walk all over out phone service provider's TOC?
Final word: This is the best Android Phone hands down, with some glaring issues, but nonetheless, we should not have to root our phones to get past these basic issues. Performance is like no other phone I have experience thus far. There's no use comparing the iPhone or any other non-Android phone with this, since its an entirely different platform, but compared to other Android phones, this phone performs extremely well. I have yet to have a single force close or crash, given the fact that most apps I use aren't optimized for Nexus yet. However, I'll end up rooting my phone soon (knowing my own patience with gadgets) and mod it with a custom rom to get the most out of it instead of waiting for Google to make it better.
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