Google Nexus One Introduction

While Google has been enjoying success in the world of mobile phones for some time now with their Android operating system, the Nexus One marks the first attempt by the company to have a fully Google-branded phone. Unlike competing computing company Apple, Google has not actually manufactured the device itself, but instead has used a handset exclusively designed for them by Chinese company HTC.

Google Nexus One Measurements and Physical dimensions

The Nexus One is a very slender phone and measures at just 119 x 59.8 x 11.5mm. This makes the Nexus One an ideally sized device that fits nicely in the hand despite its spacious screen. At 130g the Nexus One is a pretty average weight when it comes to touchscreen phones, and is neither too heavy nor too light but the ideal cross between portability and presence.

Google Nexus One Appearance and Screen quality

The Nexus One at first glance comes across as fairly unimposing and even uninspiring with no real noticeable design features. The handset has a very HTC feel to it, although once it is turned on you begin to fully appreciate its status as the first Google phone.

Despite being a very slender handset the Nexus One comes with a very roomy 3.7″ AMOLED display. The screen uses a very highly detailed WVGA (800×480) resolution that offers superb picture quality. Touch sensitivity is provided by the screen through capacitive screen technology that provides a typical response rate of about 1ms. While there had been some contention upon the Nexus One’s initial release that it had failed to include multitouch support this functionality has now been included through a firmware update.

In addition to the touchscreen you can also control the Nexus One through the trackball that is found just beneath the screen. An accelerometer is included and can be used for turning the display between portrait and landscape and the Nexus One also comes with a proximity sensor to allow for auto-turnoff.

Google Nexus One Media & entertainment

Google Goggles

The Nexus One comes with excellent support for music and video with the included Android media player. Through the Android Marketplace you can download many alternative media players. The Nexus One supports a host of music formats from mp3 to aac, as well as video files such as mp4 and wmv.

There is 512MB of internal space for you to store your music and videos which can be increased to an impressive 32GB with microSD cards (4GB is included with the phone). Alternatively, you can listen to music through the FM radio with RDS, or watch video content online through services such as YouTube (which is one of the many Google services that are expertly integrated into the phone’s interface).

There are many apps included with the Nexus One and thousands more available for free through Android Marketplace. There are pre-installed apps for Facebook and Picasa where you can update your status or upload photos or videos captured on the Nexus One’s camera.

The camera itself is a high quality 5 megapixel snapper with excellent features such as Smile Detection and Geo-tagging. An LED flash is included so you can still snap away in the dark and the Nexus One can capture D1 video (720×480) at 20fps. An excellent feature to be included is Google Goggles. This allows you to take a photo of something, like a building or barcode, and it will search through Google’s database to try and return information about it.

Google Nexus One OS and Connectivity

Being a Google phone it is fairly obvious what operating system was chosen for the Nexus One. However, the Nexus One uses the latest version of Android (2.1) that comes with many significant improvements over earlier versions including a visually enhanced interface and, with the latest update, multitouch support. The interface now includes 3D homescreens such as the water homescreen that will display a water ripple effect whenever you press your finger on the screen.

The Nexus One comes with a high degree of connectivity available to it meaning that you should rarely find yourself in a situation where you are completely cut off from the world. The phone is principally a quad-band GSM phone with support for 3G being provided by HSPA. There is also support for GPRS, EDGE, microUSB, Bluetooth with A2DP and Wi-Fi.

Google Nexus One Email and Messaging capabilities

The Nexus One is a fantastic phone for staying connected online, offering a great web browsing experience, excellent email support and many integrated apps for online services such as Facebook and YouTube. The Nexus One supports threaded viewing for SMS messages, where messages are displayed in relation to your contacts rather than being jumbled together into an inbox folder. There is also support for MMS and instant messaging clients such as Google Talk.

The Nexus One has excellent support for email, with the inclusion of push email meaning that you will always be notified of when you receive a new email as they will be delivered straight to the phone. As an Android device released by Google, the Nexus One comes with particularly good support for Gmail, although there is equally good support for other email services.

Google Nexus One Battery life

The Nexus One comes with a very powerful 1400 mAh battery that provides up to 10 hours of talk time or 6 hours of solid internet use. The battery can last for almost 300 hours while on standby and can be charged either through a mains adaptor or via USB.

Google Nexus One summary

The first handset released by Google has seen a number of hiccups including the lack of multitouch support and problems with the 3G connection, which have both now been rectified. The Nexus One is by far and away one of the best Android phones released onto the market so far – no doubt due to Google’s commitment to integrating all of the best services they have to offer. The new version of Android that has made its debut on the Nexus One offers serious advantages over previous versions, both in terms of design and functionality. For anyone looking to purchase an Android phone in the near future then the Nexus One should certainly be at the top of the list for consideration. Take a look at what Google Nexus One Deals or read more Google Nexus One Reviews for more information.

Tags: Google-Nexus-One

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 10th, 2010 at 1:36 pm and is filed under Google News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.