Nexus One Hands-On Verdict: Fast, Elegant, But I Still Love My Droid

I’ve been wanting for weeks to get my hands on the Nexus One, that so-called Google Phone rumored to run Android 2.1, be faster than my Droid, and have a slim build similar to the iPhone. And once I learned I’d be attending the press conference at Google’s headquarters this morning, where the company made the phone official, I only got more excited. Well, after the conference wrapped up, I got my chance. Read on for in-depth first impressions, and check out the video and photo gallery. Design and Ergonomics

At just 0.45 inches thick, the Nexus One, which is made by HTC, is a shade thinner than the iPhone 3GS. The lightness is both refreshing and a bit unnerving, particularly since I’ve been using the Droid for a month now. I like that the Nexus One fits in my pants pocket, but part of me misses the heft of the Droid, even if the Droid’s thick QWERTY keyboard is terrible. All in all, despite feeling almost too light, the Nexus One feels sturdy and well-made.

With the exception of a thin black bezel surrounding the enormous 3.7-inch (480 x 800) screen, the phone is matte gray and made from a combination of plastic and aluminum. A thinner strip of metal adorns the edges, and is a lighter shade of gray-taupe than the rest of the device. I don’t mind the two-tone look since the colors are similar, but some might prefer a less distracting monochrome design, such as on the iPhone. Because the Nexus One has a larger screen than the Droid, its virtual keyboard is slightly larger (as are the individual keys), which makes typing a bit easier. Still, the learning curve is steeper than with the iPhone’s excellent on-screen keyboard.

On the left side of the phone is a thin volume rocker, which I had no problem manipulating during a phone call (more on call quality later). The back side of the phone has a removable plastic battery cover and a 5.0-megapixel camera with LED flash. With the exception of Google and HTC’s logos (Google’s is larger and more prominent), there’s plenty of blank space; Google was careful to emphasize during the press conference that users can engrave up to two lines of text at no extra cost. The idea, as with Android 2.1′s eye candy, is to give users more ways of personalizing the phone.

Interface

Like other Android phones (including the Droid), the Nexus One has four touch-sensitive buttons along the bottom edge of the display. In order, these buttons include Back, Settings/Menu, Home, and Search. These buttons vibrate,  although the haptic feedback feels noticeably stronger, buzzier on my Droid. HTC also includes a trackball, which doubles as a navigation tool and an LED indicator (it can glow various colors, such as blue for Bluetooth).

Although I think the idea of an LED trackball is neat, I’m not sure it has a place on the Nexus One. When you have a 3.7-inch AMOLED touchscreen, you want to touch it. Navigating the screen is satisfying because it responds to light taps, and it’s fast, thanks to Qualcomm’s 1.0-GHz Snapdragon processor. That’s just three reasons I’m inclined to interact via the touchscreen, and not by resorting to the trackball. Trackballs (and trackpads) are so indirect that I, personally, have stayed away from BlackBerrys. (Don’t get me started on the Storm’s touchscreen.) Also, I wish that you could wake up the sleeping phone by pressing the trackball, but instead you have to press the hardware lock/unlock button on the top-left side.

Setup

Getting started on the Nexus One was simple. All you have to do is sign in to your Google account, and it automatically installs the latest version of whatever apps you had installed on a previous Android phone. That’s good news for G1 owners itching to upgrade within T-Mobile.

Android 2.1

The slim form factor aside, the big story about the Nexus One is that it’s the first device to run Android 2.1. For those of you who recently invested in a Droid because its 2.0 software offered such functionality as turn-by-turn navigation, don’t fret…too much. Android 2.1 is a leg up in the eye candy department. It has five home screens instead of three, and users can customize them with static widgets and shortcuts, as well as moving wallpapers. Some, such as the galaxy theme, just offer pretty, high-res background movement. Others, such as the pond with floating leaves, are interactive. Much like a similar screen saver in Microsoft’s Touch Pack for Windows 7, you can tap the water to create ripples. And, as with Touch Pack, the effect is beautiful–fun, even–although not necessarily useful.

The application launcher got a face lift as well. Until now, the application launcher has been 2D: a flat drawer you pull out and scroll through. The visual metaphor is similar here, just in 3D. When you open the menu, icons flow into place very quickly. The effect reminds me of some of the animated transitions Apple introduced in Keynote ’09. And when you scroll through icons, they drop off the edge of the screen when they reach the top, as if they’re attached to a three-dimensional wheel. This doesn’t make Android any more useful or intuitive; Google simply played some much-needed catch-up in the visual pizazz department.

Performance

The Nexus One differentiates itself from the Droid by packing a 1.0-GHz Snapdragon processor (the Droid has a 550-MHz ARM Cortex A8 CPU). Despite almost double the clock speed, I didn’t perceive much of a difference, but the Nexus One is slightly faster to respond when you tap icons. Both phones are fast and responsive; I wouldn’t let this spec be the one that helps you decide between them.

Camera

I only played with the 5.0-megapixel camera for a few minutes, but I found some good test subjects within Google’s brightly colored headquarters. The good news is that the camera gets colors right. But when it comes to low light or harshly backlit shots, it seems to be limited in the same way many other camera phones are, even though it does have an LED flash.

Call Quality

Well, this is just a shame. In a stroke of irony, I called my gadget-loving friend Dan straight from Google’s headquarters, a cavernous, echo-filled room full of other chattering  journalists; I could barely hear his thoughts on the announcement, even with the volume pumped up all the way. However, he could hear me well, even though I was undoubtedly in the noisier environment. On my Droid, the incoming sound can be weak, and I’ve heard occasional complaints that I’m not coming in clearly. It’ll be interesting to do a more direct comparison of service when the Nexus One lands on Verizon Wireless this spring. So far, I’ve experienced no dropped calls, which would probably be sulking iPhone owners’ biggest gripe.

Buying Options: Unlocked or Subsidized

Although Google surprised everyone today by announcing Verizon Wireless will get the Nexus One in the spring, for now it’s only available through Google as an unlocked handset ($529) or through T-Mobile with a two-year contact ($179). As a GSM phone, you could bring the unlocked version to AT&T, but we’d never recommend that since the phone is not eligible for AT&T’s 3G service. Stick with T-Mobile for now.

The phone is available today on Google’s newly announced phone store (www.google.com/phone), which sells unlocked and subsidized devices. This means you can still buy the T-Mobile version on Google’s site, though the company says it plans to add more carriers and devices to the store. It’s currently available to U.S. customers, and will ship to three test markets: the Hong Kong, Singapore, and the UK. Google says more countries will be included over time.

Early Verdict

The Nexus One is as fast, slim, lightweight, and satisfying to use as I thought it would be (with the exception of voice quality, anyway). Its slight speed boost and visual improvements over other Android devices, such as the Motorola Droid, are undeniable. But it’s not necessarily a huge step ahead, either, particularly since the Android 2.1 software that makes it so special will one day find its way onto other Android devices (although something tells me the Droid won’t get it anytime soon). When it comes to groundbreaking news, the real story isn’t the latest flagship phone, or even the beautiful new operating system: it’s the way Google is selling it.