Anand's Google Nexus One Review
by Anand Lal Shimpi on April 3, 2010 3:40 AM EST- Posted in
- Smartphones
- Mobile
Camera
The built in camera on the iPhone is frustratingly bad. It’s better than no camera at all, and the improvements made to the 3GS camera are welcome, but it doesn’t hold a candle to what’s in the Nexus One.
The camera app launches quicker on the Nexus One and seems to boast a higher framerate while you’re just panning around preparing for your shot. There is no tap-to-focus control like what you get on the 3GS, just point and click the shutter button. The (virtual) shutter lag is still present, but far less than what’s on the 3GS. From a performance standpoint, it’s good.
Image reviewing in the camera app is silly. No gestures are supported, you have to tap left/right arrows to cycle through images.
As far as picture quality goes, it’s not bad at all. Definitely an improvement over the iPhone 3GS, but not as good as a standalone point and shoot. The built in “flash” is useful in improving picture quality in less than ideal lighting conditions, but it can’t work miracles obviously.
Indoors. Shot using the Nexus One (cropped & scaled)
Switching between still and video modes on the camera is so much quicker than on the 3GS. It’s almost to the point where you shouldn’t need to switch modes at all and just choose picture or video with a different shutter button.
The Gallery Application & Music Playback
All of your photos and videos are stored and played back using Android’s Gallery app. Google toyed with some neat UI effects to make this much less of a boring app, but fundamentally it just gets you to your content.
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MP3s are played back using the Music app, and again its function is pretty straight forward. The iPhone uses iTunes as its obvious music store of choice, while the Nexus One uses the Amazon MP3 store. You get the same basic functionality for searching, previewing and purchasing music.
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fepple - Wednesday, April 7, 2010 - link
+1 for mention of cyanogenAlso of note there is no equaliser which I think the iPhone has?
doratiog - Saturday, April 3, 2010 - link
The possibility of reading the whole article without the tiring exercise of clicking and clicking again like if readers would have been punished and obliged to suffer Tantalus torture is gone. Not a good and rational decision if you wanted to improve your site.Voo - Saturday, April 3, 2010 - link
It's just a beta and will come back in no time, so no worries.Other than that.. tiring exercise of clicking a dozen times on a button? Well you could say that, but imho that's a bit far stretched isn't it? ;)
adityanag - Saturday, April 3, 2010 - link
Print.. PLEASE bring back print!!Anand Lal Shimpi - Saturday, April 3, 2010 - link
My apologies for not getting it up sooner, we've been swamped with fixes and behind the scenes updates most of this week. We should see it very soon though, just a little while longer :)Take care,
Anand
microAmp - Saturday, April 3, 2010 - link
If you're using Firefox, try the add-on AutoPager, it'll load the next page while you're scrolling and reading the current page.runner50783 - Sunday, April 4, 2010 - link
I do appreciate the layout, It's a much more organized and concise experience than blogs..., Anantech is not a blog and I hope it does not become one.Trisagion - Saturday, April 3, 2010 - link
Nice review.I wish you would review the Blackberry Storm2 as well. As a long term Blackberry user, maybe you can give us your thoughts on how productive the phone is without the trademark keyboard. It will also round up the current generation of smart phones - iPhone, Pre, Android and Storm.
straubs - Saturday, April 3, 2010 - link
I think the reason that isn't done is the first Storm was such a flop that really no one considers the Storm to be a competitor with iPhone, Android, or Pre.Trisagion - Sunday, April 4, 2010 - link
That is true, but it's the only touch phone in the Blackberry ecosystem, so I wanted Anand's take on it but anyway...