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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Antioch18x - Saturday, April 3, 2010 - link
Not only that but I didn't see mention of using a background task killer with "auto kill." (But, granted, I didn't *read* the whole article as I already own a N1 and didn't need to see your impressions of it). Due to the Android's method of multitasking, many times you don't actually exit an app when you think you do - it continues running in the background. You really do need a background task auto-killer to get the best battery life. This is one flaw, I think, in Android.Anyways, keeping this in mind I find that your battery life tests may be off. I get better battery life on my N1 than the old iPhone 3G.
spideryk - Saturday, April 3, 2010 - link
There are alternative keyboards available for the android. as of right now swype keyboard is the best available means of entering text on a smart phone. once you get used to swype, you only need one hand to type and most of the time do not need to look at the keyboard to type. a must have on android.bob1939 - Sunday, April 4, 2010 - link
Great review as usual but you missed something I consider critical. The lack of support for hands free bluetooth dialing.Where I live it can cost $180 if you are caught using a handheld phone while driving, so Hands Free dialing is a must.
Worse Google insists in calling his shortcoming an enhancement and shows no sign of fixing it in the near term.
For me this is a showstopper.
Bob Benedetti
dvinnen - Sunday, April 4, 2010 - link
Not sure what you mean by blue tooth dialing but there is certainly voice dialing. The whole voice integration in Android is really fantastic as Anand said in his review.bob1939 - Sunday, April 4, 2010 - link
I mean leave the phone in your pocket and press the button on the steering wheel, on the bluetooth speaker or bluetooth earpiece and say call whoever and the phone dials the number.My understanding of the N1 and other Android 2.1 devices is that you have to press something at least twice on the phone to operate the voice dial. Where I live that will cost $180 if you are seen by a cop fiddling with the phone while driving.
Bob Benedetti
LongTimePCUser - Wednesday, April 14, 2010 - link
I have a Motorola Droid and a 2006 Toyota Prius.The Droid connects via BlueTooth with the Prius.
I can dial a phone number on the Droid from the Prius touch screen.
joe6 - Sunday, April 4, 2010 - link
1) Good: Nexus One has a microSD card slot. Big advantage in my book.2) Bad: Nexus One doesn't support Exchange/Outlook calendar sync without going through the Google cloud services. This is just silly and frankly, kills the deal for me. I think most Nexus One RMAs come from this bullet alone.
Pitne - Monday, April 5, 2010 - link
There an app for this. How do you people miss the point that is android? Android is all about being open and not LOCKED DOWN like apple. So go download the more functional exchange apps and STFUCali3350 - Sunday, April 4, 2010 - link
Not sure if you posted it and I missed it or if you simply don't want to say in a public forum (which is understandable) but which do you , Anand, see yourself using in the future - the Nexus One or the iPhone 3GS? That sort of message says a lot about the current state of the platforms.Anand Lal Shimpi - Sunday, April 4, 2010 - link
Honestly, I'm torn.After the review I switched back to the 3GS because of the simplicity and the keyboard (I type a *lot*). In doing so, I miss the screen, form factor (ugh it was painful holding the iPhone to my head for an hour long phonecall vs. the Nexus One), some of the apps/features and the speed of the Nexus One. Today my answer would be the 3GS, but after using the Nexus One so much over the past few weeks I have to say that some aspects of the iPhone really do feel archaic.
What I may do going forward is continue to alternate between the two to get a better feel for their respective strengths and weaknesses.
Take care,
Anand