Anand's Google Nexus One Review
by Anand Lal Shimpi on April 3, 2010 3:40 AM EST- Posted in
- Smartphones
- Mobile
The Messaging App
Android's messaging app is very similar in function to the iPhone SMS app. Conversations are stored per contact and as an improvement, you even get a count of how many messages are in each conversation.
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As an added bonus, the keyboard in the messaging app has a built in smileyface key. And all emoticons are little Androids showing various emotions, it's great.
You can turn on voice input using the messaging app keyboard as well. Google warns that it's a beta but in practice I found that it worked very well. It would be even more useful if there was a quicker way to turn on voice input (perhaps a physical button?) and if you didn't have to hit the voice recognition button whenever you wanted to start transcribing a message, but it's a start.
You can attach audio, pictures or videos, it's just not very obvious how to do it. While Apple provides a single camera icon (and no way to attach an audio file from within the SMS app), Google relies on you hitting the contextual menu button to bring up the attach option. Again we see that different of approach rearing its head.
I did run into one annoying issue with trying to SMS a contact. Laura is in my phone with a home number, mobile number and iPhone number. The SMS app won't let me message her iPhone number, whenever I type her name in all I see is the option to SMS her mobile number. I have to manually type in her iPhone number and then it fills in her name. I wouldn't read too much into the issue other than Android appears to default to SMSing whatever number you have listed as mobile for a contact.
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Mr Alpha - Saturday, April 3, 2010 - link
To me it looks like the percentages in the website and app loading table are backwards.Dark Legion - Saturday, April 3, 2010 - link
Is there any way you can perform a test to see how long the battery lasts while the GPS is being used? Thanks...Barack Obama - Saturday, April 3, 2010 - link
Nice article, thanks...Will be interesting to see WinMo 7 when it comes out. Definately an exciting time for smartphones.
dguy6789 - Saturday, April 3, 2010 - link
Very thorough, very informative. Probably the best N1 review I have read.Just wanted to point out two things.
When you web browse on the N1, double tap the text that you want to read and the website will shape up to be perfectly readable on the N1 in portrait mode. Landscape isn't necessary for web browsing.(I thought it was at first too until I learned of the aforementioned feature)
Typing on the N1 is infinitely better if you use landscape mode. I pretty much always turn it sideways and type with a dual thumb method very quickly when I need to type something lengthy such as a text message or email.
A5 - Saturday, April 3, 2010 - link
The voice recognition system does more than just what you mentioned - you can use it to launch some other programs, especially Nav. For example, if you say "Navigate to (Wherever)" it'll open Navigation and (if it's ambiguous) show you a list of options based on a Maps search of what you said - pretty cool stuff.Affectionate-Bed-980 - Saturday, April 3, 2010 - link
The NExus One LACKS multi touch in its keyboard. That's why its 100x harder to speed type than on the iPhone. Trust me. I've spent HOURS in front of my Droid and Nexus one testing multitouch, comparing it to an iPod Touch/iPhone 3GS. It's night and day without multi touch.This is the REAL multitouch many people forget. Sure you can pinch zoom maps and pinch zoom browser, but honestly those aren't as important as having a multitouch keyboard. If you really want to type on an onscreen keyboard, you NEED multitouch. Currently, the only market solution is Smart Keyboard Pro that offers Android 2.0's multitouch capabilities.
Anand Lal Shimpi - Saturday, April 3, 2010 - link
I did neglect to mention the missing multitouch on its keyboard, I'll add that in. But if you remember, the iPhone lacked multitouch on its keyboard at first - something that really bothered me after using a Blackberry for so long. For me, that's not what's limiting my typing speed today though. The predictive text/autocorrect on the Nexus One by default just isn't as good as the iPhone's.Take care,
Anand
spideryk - Sunday, April 4, 2010 - link
Swype is the answer to text input on a smartphone. once youve gotten used to swype, you can type one handed with out looking at the keyboard.strikeback03 - Tuesday, April 6, 2010 - link
Maybe it is just how Swype works on my Diamond, but I certainly can't reliably type one-handed without looking. Swype is the only keyboard I have found that does not require rotation to portrait mode on the Diamond to type, but just testing a Droid in-store I would say I was about as fast using the software keyboard as I am after 5-6 months with Swype.Affectionate-Bed-980 - Saturday, April 3, 2010 - link
Also Anand, if you read up a little abou the choppiness in scrolling it's due to the dithering of images and stuff. If I recall correctly, 2.0 had dithering implemented properly so smooth scrolling was not an issue.2.0.1 and above has failed to deal with this. There are fixes for this, and I've seen Droid and Milestone users use it. I'm almost positive it can be applied to the Nexus One.