Anand's Google Nexus One Review
by Anand Lal Shimpi on April 3, 2010 3:40 AM EST- Posted in
- Smartphones
- Mobile
The Browser
Web browsing is a pleasure on the Nexus One. The Android browser is WebKit based like Chrome, and Safari on the iPhone, and for the most part it behaves like the iPhone browser.
Pages load incredibly fast thanks to the Snapdragon SoC, unfortunately the choppy framerate while scrolling is very evident when using the browser. The screen is also perfect for viewing web pages although if you're actually trying to read anything you'll probably want to be in landscape mode.
The browser also offers more features than its iPhone counterpart (notice a trend?), you get the ability to search for text on a page and a download manager as well. The browser supports plugins and a laundry list of settings that are simply not present on the iPhone.
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Managing all of these options does make the Android browser a bit more complicated. For basic browsing the functionality is the same as the iPhone, but to access any of the extras I mentioned above there are a couple more levels of menus you need to navigate through. Refreshing a page for example takes two presses instead of one on the iPhone. Accessing the download manager takes three.
Overall the screen and the faster SoC make web browsing on the Nexus One amazing compared to the iPhone. The biggest issue is that scrolling through web pages is choppy, which unfortunately detracts from how quick the phone feels.
Voice Recognition Beta...on your phone?
Spread throughout Android on the Nexus One is this icon:
It's a microphone and tapping it brings up this screen, allowing you to speak your input instead of type it:
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Google will warn you that it's an experimental feature and may not work right, but in practice it seems to work very well. You can perform Google searches and dictate text messages. Apple offers a more limited voice recognition feature on the iPhone 3GS without dictation support as you may remember. As with most of the differences between these two platforms, Google's implementation of voice is more flexible while Apple's is more polished.
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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...