Review Google Nexus One "Super Phone" - The TechCrunch

The phone looks more like the iPhone than any other phone on the market. There is no physical keyboard like the Android-powered Motorola Droid, and the tradeoff is a much slimmer design. The phone is 11.5 mm deep, slightly thinner than the iPhone 3GS at 12.3 mm. It is also slightly lighter than the iPhone 130 grams v. 135 grams). The package comes with the phone, a removable battery, 4 GB Micro SD storage card (expandable to 32 GB), USB charger and microphone headset.

The Nexus one has four functional touch buttons at the bottom of the screen (back, menu, home, search) and a navigation trackball pointing device. It also has physical power and volume controls. But most of your interaction with the phone will be through the gorgeous 3.7 inch 480 x 800 OLED capacitive touchscreen. This is the best mobile phone display on the market today, blowing away the iPhone’s 480 x 320 display. The screen is bright and alive, and an absolute pleasure to use.

This phone is also powered by the Snapdragon 1 GHz core processor, which is more than able to handle the Nexus One’s 3D graphics, multiple applications running in the background and heavy browser use simultaneously. Unlike previous Android phones, there is no slowdown or lag when you push the phone’s performance, and less of a need to kill applications to keep the device humming.

On the downside: all this hardware bling is an energy hog. The screen will self adjust brightness and Google is smart about turning down the processor when it’s not being used. But I’ve found battery life to be woefully brief, even by iPhone standards. Officially the phone has up to 7 hours talk time, 250 hours standby, 5 hours of 3G Internet use, 7 hours of video playback and 20 hours of audio playback. Unofficially, I was able to kill the fully charged battery with 1.5 hours of continuous gameplay (Robo Defense) on the full-brightness screen. Be prepared to keep this phone near a charger at all times. You can easily view what’s using the battery, though (the screen is 71% of my current usage), and then adjust the hardware or software usage to maximize battery life.

Overall the Android is a superior mobile device, particularly when paired with Google Voice. Google is calling this the first of the Super Phones. And they may not be exaggerating all that much.

Nexus One "Super Phone" Specs:

Processor: Qualcomm QSD 8250, 1 GHz

Operating System: Android 2.1

Memory: 512 MB RAM, 512 MB ROM, and a 4GB Micro SD card (can be added up to 32 GB)

Dimensions: Length 11.9 cm, Width: 5.98 cm, Thickness: 1.15 cm Weight: 130 grams

Screen: 3.7 inch widescreen, WVGA AMOLED

Camera: 5 megapixels

Connectivity: Cellular: UMTS Band 1/4/8 (2100/AWS/900) HSDPA 7.2Mbps 2Mbps HSUPA up to 5.76Mbps GMS / EDGE (850 / 900, 1800.1900 MHz) Wi-Fi (802.11 a / b / g / n), Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR Bluetooth A2DP stereo receiver AGPS Cell towers and Wi-Fi positioning digital compass accelerometer