Anand's Google Nexus One Review
by Anand Lal Shimpi on April 3, 2010 3:40 AM EST- Posted in
- Smartphones
- Mobile
Performance: Faster but Choppier
Much like the display, the Nexus’ performance can be frustrating at times. First, the bad. Switching between pages on the home screen and scrolling through applications is downright choppy. The scrolling process isn’t slow, but the animation isn’t smooth - which makes the phone feel slower than it is. It’s a framerate issue that’s been present on every Android device I’ve used (for the life of me I can’t remember whether or not it was present on the Motorola Droid). It varies depending on the app as well. Scrolling through contacts is perfectly smooth, scrolling through Facebook isn’t. I doubt it’s a hardware issue but rather a software optimization/driver problem. Why it hasn’t been fixed by now is anyone’s guess.
Another inexplicably slow part of the Android experience involves getting the virtual keyboard to appear. The keyboard appears whenever you tap in a text input box. Doing so upon first entering an application (e.g. the SMS app) usually takes several taps before it’ll actually respond. It’s frustrating beyond belief and inexcusable given the horsepower of the Snapdragon SoC in the Nexus One. Again, this just seems to be a software optimization issue rather than an inherent platform limitation.
Now the good news. When launching and interacting with an app the Nexus One feels lightning quick, going back to the iPhone 3GS afterwards feels much slower. Applications respond with a sense of urgency that no other smartphone I’ve used can offer. This is a pure clockspeed thing thanks to the 1GHz Snapdragon from Qualcomm.
| Applications Processor Performance | |||||
|
Apple iPhone 3GS (ARM Cortex A8)
|
Google Nexus One (Qualcomm Snapdragon QSD8250)
|
Advantage Nexus One | |||
| Load www.anandtech.com | 6.9 seconds | 6.7 seconds | 3.0% | ||
| Load www.digg.com | 12.5 seconds | 9.0 seconds | 38.9% | ||
| Load www.arstechnica.com | 12.1 seconds | 10.8 seconds | 12.0% | ||
| Load www.engadget.com | 17.7 seconds | 13.3 seconds | 33.1% | ||
| Load www.gizmodo.com | 20.8 seconds | 13.7 seconds | 51.8% | ||
| Load www.techreport.com | 6.2 seconds | 5.0 seconds | 24.0% | ||
| Launch Web Browser | 0.7 seconds | 0.7 seconds | 0.0% | ||
| Launch Email App | 0.7 seconds | 0.7 seconds | 0.0% | ||
| Launch Maps App | 5.0 seconds | 2.0 seconds | 150% | ||
| Launch Camera App | 2.8 seconds | 2.0 seconds | 40.0% | ||
Loading web pages proved to be anywhere from 3 to over 50% faster than the iPhone 3GS. Launching simple apps didn't move any quicker on the Nexus One, but firing up the Maps and Camera apps (and waiting for them to be usable) was much faster on the Nexus One. The more processor intensive the task, the more the Nexus One can flex its muscle.
Those applications that spawn other apps (e.g. clicking on a Google Maps link in the browser and having it spawn the Maps app) also do so very quickly. If it weren’t for frame rate issues, the Nexus One would be perfect from a performance standpoint.
It’s weird, the flexibility that Android offers is very PC like. And by that, I mean that the platform really does feel like a condensed version of Windows or Linux running in a smartphone. Unfortunately, the weird quirks also seem to come with the package. In fact, I’d say Android really does feel like a more modern version of what Windows Mobile used to be rather than an iPhone, webOS or Windows Phone 7 competitor.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
95 Comments
View All Comments
xtremevarun - Saturday, April 3, 2010 - link
Reviews of Nexus One on other sites were not as comprehensive as on Anandtech. You guys really explored all the features. Apple needs to do a major refresh to iPhone. And I do see Android becoming a major, major OS for phones if it's not already. WinMo7 also looks great. Good that competition is hotting up against the iPhone.xxNIBxx - Saturday, April 3, 2010 - link
What about Samsung's Bada OS? Samsung Wave s8500 beats the living crap out of all those Snapdragon devices. Also Samsung will release i9000 Galaxy S, which has pretty much the same hardware as with s8500, except it runs Android. Hardware wise, these 2 are the best phones in the world. Snapdragon is old news.Iphone 4g, which will come out in 2 months, will most likely use apple's a4, which from what i hear, is probably identical to samsung's 1ghz cpu(same cpu/gpu)/
sprockkets - Saturday, April 3, 2010 - link
If you receive a call over BT, does it1. Play the ringtone over the headset?
2. Play it on the headset only or both the speaker and headset?
3. Announce CID over the headset or even just the speaker?
sushantsharma - Saturday, April 3, 2010 - link
Looks OK! But usability should not go for a toss! Or I am missing it and it is there?Chloiber - Saturday, April 3, 2010 - link
"It's got a Qualcomm Snapdragon QSD8650 SoC"Thought the Nexus One (and the HTC Desire) use a Snapdragon QSD8250?!
Anand Lal Shimpi - Saturday, April 3, 2010 - link
You are correct :) Fixed!Take care,
Anand
Karl Brown - Saturday, April 3, 2010 - link
I will be receiving my Sony X10 on Tuesday.I hope the Sony will offer enough of the Nexus One's functionality to not make me regret not waiting longer for the Nexus One to become available in the UK.
jasperjones - Saturday, April 3, 2010 - link
Thanks for the very thorough review. The one area were the review lacks depth is audio and video playback and syncing. Differences in this area are striking imo:1.) If you don't use iTunes as an iPhone owner, you're pretty much SOL. The Nexus One I could sync with iTunes using DoubleTwist. But I don't like iTunes. I can just use Explorer or Windows Media Player or Songbird (1.7 beta) to sync instead. The latest Songbird builds do an amazing job (they even converts WAV and FLAC files on-the-fly).
2.) Formats. I like that the the Nexus One supports OGG. FLAC support is coming (AFAIK it got added to trunk some time ago--idk if users will see it in FroYo or Gingerbread) Plus the Nexus One gives me everything the iPhone has (including M4A).
3.) The media player. I hate to admit it as a current Nexus One and previous iPhone owner, but here the iPhone with its iPod app wins hands down. The UI of the iPod app is infinitely more intuitive, whereas things such as playlist generation are a pain on Android (everything takes far too many clicks).
Because of 3.), I think the overall win in this category goes to the iPhone.
bstewart - Saturday, April 3, 2010 - link
Outstanding review - really enjoyed your detailed assessment of the Nexus one compared to the IPone and Palm Pre. I have read a number of reviews on the Nexus one lately determining if it is the right device for me or not. After reading this review I am certainly more inclined to purchase it than before; especially based on it's pros and cons versus the IPhone. Thanks!Brian
cj100570 - Saturday, April 3, 2010 - link
All in all I'm not feeling this review. There was way to much time spent comparing the Nexus to the iPhone. And your complaints about the notification system used by Android is just asinine. I'm the former owner of both an original and 3G iPhone and Android simply puts the iPhone OS to shame. The iPhone had it's 15 minutes of fame but it's time to face facts that Apples way of doing things is the biggest problem the iPhone has. As a smartphone it is a #FAIL. Sure it sells well but the honest truth is that most people buy it because it's an Apple product and because of all the apps, 80% useless, that Apple and AT&T trot out as the big selling point.