The Google Phone

In mid December as holiday gifts and cards were arriving daily in our office, I received a gift from Google. It was a Nexus One. I have been using it since that day as my primary phone. In the box was a note from Google asking me to keep quiet about the phone until Jan 5th. Well today is Jan 5th and so I can tell you what I think. So here goes

This is not going to be a hard core review of the phone. Engadget has one of those up this morning. Thus is about how I use it and why I'll most likely stick with this phone for a while longer.

I'm at the gym on elliptical trainer typing this into the Android browser. I connected to the gym's wifi without hassle, something my security obsessed blackberry fails at regularly. Then I checked in with the awesome android Foursquare app. Then I put on last.fm "my library radio". Then I launched the killer android browser and went to typepad and started writing this.

I could have done all of that on the iPhone except the part about running multiple apps the same time. Which is a big deal by the way.

The Google phone isn't much different than the iPhone. Its basically an Android clone of the iPhone. I have to type on the screen on this phone and I'm struggling mightily to do that fast and well. If this post has errors in it I wont be surprised.

There are a few inferiorities vs the iPhone to note. The on screen keyboard is good but not as good as the iPhone. And the ability to pinch and flick (called multitouch?) is missing.

I miss these gestures the most in the browser. But having a real browser that can remember passwords and such is such a godsend. RIM must be blind to miss that.

I also like the way the Google apps run natively on Android. Gmail/Cal/Contacts work so well on this phone. Of you use the Google app suite, you should really be on Android.

I also love the openness of Android. If I decide I really need a keyboard (I think I do), I'm pretty confident that some handset manufacturer will build the ideal hardware configuration for me soon.

And I love that apps can auto update without having to go through the app store approval process. Android apps can get better quickly, like web apps can.

And I love that I can carry a second battery with me like I do with my blackberry.

All in all the Google phone is a mighty fine phone and I'm staying on it for now. Thanks Google.

UPDATE: After posting this, I realized I didn't mention the phone features. I don't really use a phone for voice very much. I've made a total of a dozen calls on this phone in the two plus weeks I've been using it, mostly to the Gotham Gal. But the phone seems to work great.

UPDATE #2: Something is not right with the disqus comments on this post. I'm looking into it. In the meantime, typepad's comment system is operating instead. Sorry about that.

Comments

[Mehboob]

Since you didn't make too many calls, why the need for a second battery? How many hours did you log surfing on the phone in a day? Or is that just an anti-iphone comment?

[Foxicek]

There IS a browser with multitouch for ANY android phone, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cRW0YKa6Bxo&fmt=22 it's called Dolphin Browser. Pinching is not as smooth as on safari, but it's just the general problem of adroidros, I mean look at engadget's review, even with twice the hardware power of 3Gs, N1 is still slower and laggy..

[Foxicek]

Meh, where's my comment..

[Dbenk]

Read thIs on iTouch And struggling to comment. But encouraged . Wondering about an attachable keyboard like on old HP iPaq

[Grigs]

FWIW, I think Blackberry does finally get it. RIM had built their browser from scratch in the days when mobile browsers had more constraints and needed to support WAP and XHTML Mobile Profile.

Earlier this year, RIM finally realized that they needed to give up on developing their own browser and leverage the open source browser Webkit which Apple, Google, Palm and Nokia all use.

RIM bought Torch Mobile which had developed a well-received, webkit-based browser for Windows Mobile and put that team to work helping with the next version of the Blackberry Browser.

BTW, assuming that Nokia continues to use Webkit (there are some rumors they may switch to Firefox), when RIM launches the new browser, Webkit will ship on over 85% of smartphones.

If there is one dominant platform for mobile, it's actually Webkit. :-)

[ShanaC]

Yay, fun old school comments!

@Ouriel. It still is the 2000s, the phone isn't a 100 years old yet. :) I wonder what phones will look like in 90 years.

One of the Droid phones has a keyboard. Is that more worth it, all things considered, if you considered about typing. Or do you think the learning curve is worth the shot? How does it hold up to the Droid or the G1? Has there been any shop talk about basically putting the Nexus one out there with a Keyboard for older hands or frailer hands?

Also what is your wallpaper, since there is so much hype about it?

Also, once I comment like this, what will happen?

[ShanaC]

where did my first comment go. is the lack of disqus eating them?

[Ryan Graves]

Multi touch vs. Real browser

It sounds like this is the choice to make based on your post, and I've not read the engadget post yet (but I will).

So on first reaction, I think I'd rather have the browser. The iPhone just doesn't do a good enough job of auto-fill or remembering passwords. I've simplified my passwords on a few apps because of it. I assume the Google phone has a way to zoom in, which is my primary use for multi touch (pinch).

I'm excited to see, test, play with this phone, even though I locked into a 2 year iphone contract only a month ago :P

Great review Fred, and get disqus back stat!

[Sean_orourke]

Amazed you were able to type this whole post, but thought key feature of Android 2.x was speech-to-text on many/most apps?

[www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=629888032]

I started using Android/G1 for the tight Google apps integration (email/cal/contacts - our startup uses google apps).

The Nexus is awesome. Much faster... And I am using Google Voice now, and absolutely love it (game changer).

I'm loving the Nexus thus far. I believe it will help accelerate (along with Droid etc.) the mobile OS/web/app disruption that is already in motion.

BB and WinMo dropped the ball.

[Matt C]

Any special integration with Google Voice?

[Ken Berger]

For my use case and work/lifestyle, the native Google Voice app totally makes this phone (and the 3 other Androids I've had). Apple are total shmucks for not yet approving GV on the iPhone-- that 1 app is enough to lose a user like me.

[Fred]

hey everyone:

sorry about nuking disqus comments on this post. it happened as a result of posting on typepad's mobile web interface and i know how to fix it but given the existing thread here, we'll stick with typepad comments for this post and disuqs will return tomorrow.

i have been replying to some of these comments but since the replies are not inline i really don't think i am going to continue to do that unless it's a very important reply

hope everyone understands

[ShanaC]

Testing

[ShanaC]

My comments appeared- and no, I don't mind. I'm actually sort of enjoying the retroness

We could put up some retro music from the first day of the blog and have a Nexus one party, though I have to admit this is a pain in a way.

[Saieva]

I use an iPhone and the large majority of my mobile voice minutes get carried over on AT&T each month. Voice (and fax) are going legacy.

Regards,

Sal.
---
Salvatore Saieva

[Martin]

Can someone tell me who makes the battery please?

[Matthew Benson]

It seems that nexus one has some advantages over iPhone, but also some disadvantages, and therefore will grab some market share, but isn't a game-changer.

Surely Apple will be releasing an iPhone update during 2010 also, so it will be interesting to see Apple's first response to the arrival of Droid, Pre, and now nexus one (if they haven't got too bogged down launching a tablet computer).

[Aexm]

There are so many features of the Nexus One that I love (multi-app, the touchscreen, the variety of apps to come) but I, like Fred and other commenters, don't want to give up a physical keyboard. I type a lot in languages other than English and appreciate the fact that I don't have to stare at the screen all the time to ensure that what I'm typing is cogent. Maybe I'll hold out for the NexusTwo w/ slide-out keyboard :)

[Aroramax]

As a guest user for the Nexus One and as an owner for the Droid, I'm still a proud owner of the latter. Yes, the Nexus One has some pretty robust hardware configuration, albeit, I never thought how I'd love to use both the physical as well as the virtual keyboard on the Droid depending on my smartphone use. Yet, it's not really a matter of which phone is dominant, it's about choice and how Google is executing it's strategy to achieve rapid scale adoption of its Android OS through any smartphone that can handle it.

[Aroramax]

As a guest user for the Nexus One and as an owner for the Droid, I'm still a proud owner of the latter. Yes, the Nexus One has some pretty robust hardware configuration, albeit, I never thought how I'd love to use both the physical as well as the virtual keyboard on the Droid depending on my smartphone use. Yet, it's not really a matter of which phone is dominant, it's about choice and how Google is executing it's strategy to achieve rapid scale adoption of its Android OS through any smartphone that can handle it.

[Saieva]

I use an iPhone and the large majority of my mobile voice minutes get carried over on AT&T each month. Voice and fax are going legacy.

Regards,

Sal.
---
Salvatore Saieva

[Ben McCann]

FYI, if you double tap on the screen in the browser it will zoom. I do like the pinch gesture, but have found the double tap is almost as good once you realize it's available. The other feature I think that hasn't gotten enough attention is the free turn-by-turn directions that are included and cost something like $80-$90 extra on the iPhone.

[Giordano Contestabile]

I currently use a Motorola Droid, and I love it. My only gripe is that Goggle disabled access to paid apps in the Android market for phones untethered to a carrier, which means that if you buy your phone on the open market or swap SIM to another carrier, no paid apps for you. They supposedly did it to prevent piracy (carriers enable forward lock), but that's incredibly lame and degrades the user experience.

The most interesting thing on the Nexus One, IMHO, is that in the future you'll be able to buy the phone first and then choose a carrier. In theory, this means that carriers could have to pitch you with different offers, and you could also be able to swap on the fly, choosing the plan that most suit you. This could weaken further the lock of carriers on customers, and would be a very welcome development. Since for now it ships on a single carrier, though, all of that is still a potential future development

Cheers,
Giordano

[Wayne Anderman]

Interesting marketing article this morning:
Google Unveils Nexus One http://adage.com/u/SgbJya