iPhone vs. Nexus One: Which One Should You Buy?
Scarcely 2 months after Motorola and Verizon launched the Android-powered DROID, Google is back with another high-end smartphone, the Nexus One, this time sold unlocked by Google directly, but also in partnership with T-Mobile, and with Verizon, Vodafone, and others coming online soon. Once again, the tech-blog hype has been off the charts, and once again the iPhone 3GS is being used as the great comparison. Fine then, let’s compare!
If you’re interested in either Apple’s iPhone 3GS or Google’s Nexus One, here are some points to consider…
First, go read our iPhone 3GS vs. Droid: Which One Should You Buy article. 90% of it applies identically to iPhone 3GS vs. Nexus One.
Finished? Okay, on with the differences.
Location: US or International?
The iPhone 3GS is pretty much a singular experience internationally. Outside of China where Wi-Fi is crippled in current models, and places like India where the 3GS has inexplicably still not be deployed, the iPhone you buy in the US is the same one you get throughout North America, Europe, Asia, and so on. Same hardware, same software (though it will come configured for your local language and keyboard type), and even the App Store is now in 77 countries (though not all apps are available in all countries — some for language or licensing/carrier-specific regions, others simply because some developers have yet to embrace global market thinking). There are large differences in what can be found in Apple’s iTunes media store, especially when it comes to video like Movies and TV.
Android in general, including the Nexus One is more of a mixed bag. It’s available first and foremost in the US, though that will no doubt expand over time. Even then, however, some of the most compelling Google services for Android 2.0 will still be unavailable outside the US — Google Voice and Google Maps Navigation, and might remain so for a while. Android Market, likewise, doesn’t support paid apps very well outside the US, making it far more difficult for developers to provide them and users to acquire them. Likewise, the US version of Android includes Amazon MP3, a service Amazon has extended to the UK but has utterly failed to push any further. Otherwise, you’re left to your own media devices. Tipping the scales back the other way, while Google still doesn’t provide multitouch for Google applications on the Nexus One in the US, it’s believed international versions will have multitouch baked in, just like what happened with the Motorola Droid/Milestone last month.
All this means that if you’re in the US, decide how important multitouch in the built-in apps is to you. If you’re outside the US, well, Google wouldn’t support Google Voice or Google Maps Navigation for you on any device (and neither would Apple), so it’s no joy for all.
Carrier: Unlocked or Subsidized
Over 70 countries now have the iPhone 3GS available, often heavily subsidized on multiple carriers, in some cases also offered unlocked (sometimes even directly from Apple). In sharp contrast, in the US the iPhone 3GS is only available subsidized but locked to AT&T. If you’re in the US and you like and get great service from AT&T, enjoy your iPhone. If, however, AT&T is less than stellar, you’d have to love the iPhone a lot in order to use it. If AT&T is non-existent where you work and live, it’s game over.
AT&T is a GSM/HSPA 3G network, which is the dominant technology internationally, which means you can take your iPhone traveling with roaming costs the only hindrance. Also, HSPA allows for the simultaneous use of cell data and telephone services — you can surf the web or check email while on the phone.
Nexus One is available online and unlocked from Google, though currently when you go there from outside the US it shows up as unavailable. We’ve heard that will change in the (near?) future. However, the current model supports only T-Mobile’s HSPA 3G frequency bands, which means if you want to use it on AT&T and many other carriers, you’ll be using it on 2G. If T-Mobile 3G is good for you, however, you can get it subsidized even cheaper than an iPhone. And if you’re prepared to wait a short while, you can get a Verizon version as well, though it will be locked to Verzion’s network and you won’t be able to travel outside the US with it. (One of the drawbacks of CDMA-only phones).
So once again, decide which carrier works best for you in the places you live an go, and if it’s AT&T decide if you can live without 3G on the Nexus One (at least until Google releases an AT&T friendly version of the phone). If you’re outside the US, check and see if it will get 3G on your carrier, and if that’s Vodafone and you don’t mind contracts, wait and see what kind of subsidy you’ll get.
Hardware: Slab vs. Mega Slab
Nexus One boats the same form factor as the iPhone 3GS — the full screen, touch-screen slab. But it’s bigger and brighter (blindingly so in direct sunlight), spoiled or enhanced by more hardware keys, and harkens back to the aluminum trim of the original iPhone 2G.
In terms of specs, the Nexus One has a large, 480×800 AMOLED (active matrix organic light emitting diode) screen that’s about on par with the Droid (some like it a tiny bit better, others only a tad less). Being AMOLED it looks much brighter than the iPhone 3GS’ LED screen, but the OLED screens can also wash out in direct sunlight. Still, the extra pixels make a difference in web browsing and general sharpness.
The Nexus One doesn’t have the 16GB or 32GB of internal storage that come with the iPhone, but it can use MicroSD cards that store just as much. It also has double the RAM of the iPhone 3GS, 512MB vs. 256MB. Finally, at its heart beats the massive 1 GHz Snapdragon processor, which should theoretically best the iPhone 3GS’ 600 MHz Cortex A8. I say theoretically because the iPhone OS still seems to flow more smoothly, more often, then the better spec’ed Nexus One. This could just be Apple’s attention to detail, which we’ll return to later, but one paper Nexus One should be doing better and isn’t quite yet.
Also, like the Droid, and as mentioned, the Nexus One in the US won’t support multitouch for native apps like Google Maps or for the built in keyboard. This makes a noticeable difference in how visceral and tactile the touch interaction feels, and how fluidly the typing experience comes across. (Dieter thinks there might be some other issue with the Nexus One keyboard, but multitouch is the easy culprit to name). Either way, the raw typing is still much better on the iPhone.
Once again, still like the Droid, even though you can use up to a 32GB microUSB card, unless you “root” (hack) the DROID, you can’t store apps on that card. Due to piracy concerns, Android 2.1 still only allows you to install apps on 256MB of internal memory (some developers work around this by installing a small host app, then downloading extra data to the card). Depending on your usage pattern, that may not affect you, of course, and Google says they’ll fix this with encryption in an update. But for gamers who want lengthy adventures with tons of textures, or offline navigation with all the localized maps, it could be an annoyance. The iPhone, by contrast, lets you use almost all available space for apps — up to just shy of 32GB on the high-end model.
Fortunately, the 5 megapixel camera on the Nexus One seems better than the problem plagued Droid, and physically much better than the iPhone 3GS 3 megapixel camera. It doesn’t have HTC’s Sense UI camera app, however, and either way the software implementation of the iPhone 3GS camera for stills and video — tap to focus/white balance, embedded trim, sharing, etc. makes it more of an even fight than it ought to be.
Clearly the Nexus One, some six months newer than the iPhone 3GS, brings better hardware to the table. That the iPhone 3GS’s build quality and what Apple manages to do with that hardware (the iPhone OS) to remain competitive is truly impressive and something people who want to consider the staying power of their purchase should consider. Those who want top-of-the-line today, well the Nexus One is all about that.
Software: iPhone 3.1 vs. Android 2.1
The iPhone hasn’t received a software update since our iPhone 3GS vs. Droid comparison, so iPhone 3GS is still iPhone 3.1.2 and Android 2.1 is only slightly different than Android 2.0.
2.1 adds awesome voice activation features to the mix. There’s a microphone button on the virtual keyboard that let’s you talk to search, to begin navigation, even to launch apps. You can get a lot of that piecemeal on the iPhone via apps (including Google’s own Google Mobile App for iPhone) but it can’t match the integration and power of the Nexus One.
The other additions include animated wallpaper backgrounds (imagine Koi Pond as a home screen background). It’s cool and nice-to-have, but not must-have until we see the impact on performance and battery. If it turns out there isn’t one — hey, cool and why not?
Lastly, there’s a nice new animated photo gallery with accelerometer affects. It’s not as intuitive to use as the iPhone’s, but it makes an even better crowd-wowing demo and that’s what made the iPhone’s so famous to begin with. (Though it also lacks multitouch gestures).
Android 2.1, however, doesn’t fix the lack of consistency and polish that’s plagued Android in general to date (check out the Boy Genius‘ epic rant on that) any more than iPhone 3.1.2 addresses some of the gaping holes (notification management to name another) that remain a thorn in power iPhone users’ sides.
For more on this, also check out my 2009 Smartphone Round Robin review on the Android Platform and thoughts on why Google is tending more towards power than passion.
Apps: iPhone App Store vs. Android Market
Nothing has changed here except both the App Store and the Market have more apps each. Go figure.
Device: Staying Power vs. Latest and Greatest
As mentioned above, that an iPhone 3GS is still competitive — and more than competitive in many areas like media, user experience, apps, etc. — with devices released this week like the Nexus One is a testament to just how well Apple can make and support an iPhone. Even people still on the original iPhone 2G are enjoying a large part of the iPhone 3.1.2 OS release just a few months ago. That’s Apple’s forte — integrated devices with killer usability and software updates that reset the standards of expectation.
The Nexus One, however, has all the best and brightest of the new technologies, like 1 GHz processors and AMOLED screens, augmented reality and awesome voice support in the built-in apps. Some people really do consider phones to be fashion, or always want to have the very newest thing on the market, and given Android’s model — which produced the Droid two months ago and the Nexus One today — Google is going to be very appealing to them.
If you buy a phone every year or two, and want to build up your apps and accessories, the iPhone will likely keep you happy longer and more effortlessly. If you get bored easily and want something fresh faster, with more diversity, Android in general and the Nexus One right now are where it’s at.
Conclusion: Which One Should You Buy?
One paper, on hardware, and in Google services the Nexus One kills. In reality, Apple delivers a better user experience to more users around the world with a richer app and media ecosystem.
If you have T-Mobile in the US or can use those 3G bands, or don’t mind waiting a short time for Verizon and maybe a more universal 3G GSM version, have given your soul to Gmail and Google’s other services, demand the latest and greatest hardware on the planet, or just want a device that theoretically has more potential even if all of it may not be quite yet realized, if you want a platform where great new devices come out every other month — the Nexus One may be for you. Until 2 months from now.
If you’re on AT&T or most other GSM providers, don’t feel like waiting for Apple and Verzion to figure out their differences, or live outside the US where Google’s services are spotty-to-non-existant, if iTunes is where your media lives, if usability is more important to you than raw power, if Apple’s control over the platform is a price you’ll play for a more consistent platform, if you want a phone that’s just as great 6 months in as it was at launch — the iPhone 3GS might be it.
Normally here I’d tell you to try both, but there’s a problem this time — Google is only selling the Nexus One online right now. You can’t walk into a T-Mobile store to try it, and there are no Google stores. If you don’t mind ordering one and returning it quickly if you don’t like it, by all means try both.
Most importantly, remember there’ll be a new high end Android in a couple months if not sooner, and almost certainly a 4th generation iPhone in June/July. So if you can wait — wait. We’re in the age now where you get the best phone you can at the latest possible point you can, the enjoy it for as long as you can. In that regard, both these phones will do you fine, and which does you finer just depends on your individual needs.
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I would totally take the Nexus One over the iPhone…had Doc and Marty not figured out the whole parallel 1985 thing…
The Nexus One wins hands down, but I wouldn’t expect a site called the iphoneblog to admit that
Well written Rene! As a former Nokia employee and now an unbelieveable Apple/iPhone fan, its Apple’s attention to detail in execution that delivers yet an unmatched user experience. The google phone is a tour d force in spec but will ultimately trail the iPhone 3.1 and be forgotten when 4.0 launches.
Take neither! Nexus One still needs some firmware update love, iPhone is almost outdated. Keep what you have, wait till summer for an Android device with N1 specs + phisical keyboard or the next iPhone (3Gs HD FLASH
) or Palm Pre (Plus Turbo 
).
First off there wouldn’t be a Nexus One without the iPhone blasting the door down! Secondly the fact that new smartphones have to be iPhone killers to even compete in the market speaks volumes! IPHONE WIN!
@charles But the sad part of that statment it may be a ok user experince…. You will always have the dumb restrictions apple has laid upon everyone, where as goog on the other hand hasnt been out maybe a couple years and is starting to give apple a run for it’s money with out restrictions except maybe for mulittouch but really who needs it.. Google- freedom vs. Apple-no freedom… I’ll go with google
You touched on one BIG difference between the two, and that is storage. Sure the One only has 256mb built in, but with SD cards, it is, in effect, limitless. And, you can transfer that information from one phone to another device. Can’t do that with the iPhone. If I have a great something I want to give to you, I can’t connect to your computer and give it to you. Like a song for instance. It requires a sync, and due to the stupidity of not letting the phone be a storage device, it will delete all my info when I try to download it to you. I know this is to protect the $$$$$, and prevent someone from downloading music from itunes and sharing it, BUT WHAT IF IT IS MY MUSIC?? With the One, or my Bold, I can put in a card, save it, bring it to you, you put the card in your comp, and downlaod it. This is someting that needs addressing on a future update. I can burn a CD of my itune music, because, you know, I PAID FOR IT, and let you copy the disc, but I can’t do it with my 32gb phone?? Dumb. The One is a pretty good attempt at punching holes in the aging iPhone. If Apple does not move the bar, and REALLY move it (not a 3G to 3GS joke), one of these companies will get it right. And it will be game ova!!
Take droid for two months then switch again to another droid phone. Yeah that sounds like fun. I’m still happy with my almost 2 year 3g iPhone. Great read.
I’m the biggest iPhone fanboy (ok, fangirl) there is, but even I appreciate the enormous bias here. No mention of background apps and multitasking? (Or maybe I missed it?) That’s a pretty big deal, and in fact, a dealbreaker for some. It seems like N1 is a pretty strong competitor. A good thing as far as I’m concerned.
Come on, its not limitless with Micro SD is it, it is limited to what you have in the phone, who the hell wants to juggle cards and remember what is on each one etc.
As for transferring info, when I sold my iPhone 3GS and quick as hell regretted it, connecting the new one to my Macbook had me up and running with an EXACT copy of my old phone in a few mins, quicker and slicker than ANY of the other 30 or so phones I have owned over the years.
You can also find ways to transfer music from one iPhone to another, its a little harder than SD for sure, but it really is not that difficult.
3G to 3GS was hardly a joke, in fact the 3GS was a superb upgrade and a good decision, at least with Apple they don’t piss people off by releasing one phone and what, 5 weeks later release a much better phone, how a Droid user feels now I can only guess!
It’s funny how bad a$$ the iPhone is with restrictions…
I agree with MaTiCeK. The iPhone is in need of a hardware upgrade (especially the screen resolution, which will help offset the difference in screen resolution with the tablet), and a performance upgrade that will make current iPhone 3G users want a new iPhone for another 2 years. And the Nexus One is a wait and see, specifically to see how Google handles software fixes and differentiates their direct support from the support offered with all other Android phones.
If any phone can be recommended for the moment, IMO only, it’s the N900, for those who are at all inclined. Just because the situation there is interesting, like in the early days of the App Store and the iPhone 3G. The device attracts a small, possibly interesting group of users as well.
According to Google, they ship the same phone both to the US and UK, so the European version will NOT have multitouch, I’m afraid: http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/Google+Mobile/thread?tid=36be77e62d8dfdf4&hl=en
@Rene
You have to realize though. The Nexus One is ultimately built to be a staying device. I mean…only reason G1 and co couldn’t join (theoretically) was cause of aviailable system memory and processor. This has a Gig adn 512MB. This should ,and I believe will, be receiving updates for ages to come no matter what phone comes out. And the hardware is clearly set to take it also.
Kudos though Rene, I’m starting to like your reviews between phones more and more. Maybe because they are showing you that they can put up a fight, or maybe you’re just dying down from the Apple high, lol. But I liked this.
I’m glad you put in the part about it being Apple ‘skill’ so to say of providing a fluid OS/hardware integration. I always balk when people use that to compare other phones though. Only company you can use that against is Palm and RIM. You can’t expect two separate companies to be as good as integrating software and hardware as Apple (which has ruled that roost for ages now and ages to come). That’s near impossible.
Honestly, even though I’ll be an Android user for life (unless Apple wows me with a Nexus One type device that allows you to actually have choice), I can not wait for the next iPhone. Just gives me another reason to look forward to the next Android update, lol.
But I’m glad both companies are pushing themselves. Both in different ways and choices, but they will become the top OS/Phones talked about. And mindshare is always important.
It’s amazing how these companies prey on people. We are a society that clearly wants the next best thing. Something new most be better in peoples eyes and minds. On to the next. New does not necessarilly mean better. There is a reason cellphone makers are coming out with new phones every other month to try and knock iPhone out the box. Most of the people are looking straight at feature sets in these phones that’s it. If you want your iPhone to look like work like interface like an Android phone or a Blackberry save yourself the rants and go buy one of those other phones and don’t look back. Apple is not holding a gun to your head. I will stick with my iPhone. Does it have it’s shortcomings? Yes. Do they have a lockdown on their device? Yes. But even still it’s consistently better than everything else out there. Period. These guys are still out to make iPhone killers. Just stop a develop. Apple builds the hardware and the software. Big difference. Makes it organic sort of has a life. These other phones are building Frankensteins.
I want to see the Nexus One and iPhone’s love child. THAT would be an awesome phone.
@kevwright
I’m glad you spoke on that, that actually reminded me about a VERY good feature that everyone (including Rene and Android Central) has skipped out on.
With Android 2.1 you now have even more improved syncing capabilities.
Whereas older versions only synced email, contacts, calendar, etc. You know have the ability to basically sync your entire phone.
Not to mention automatic syncing of you Picasa Web Albums. This basically means everything on your phone is saved. When I say everything, what do I mean?
It saves your backgrounds, custom settings (brightness, ringer volume, etc), it saves bookmarks, add that to the normal syncing, and the new Picasa sync. There is nothing in your phone that you would ever need to retune after you switch.
I don’t know about you but that is BIG to me. I hate hooking up to a computer. It sucks. I hate wires. That’s why I love the Zune so much with it’s wireless syncing. Android takes that further with this OS. So if I switch from a Nexus to the new Nexus later this year (which I doubt), all I have to do is switch sim cards…possibly memory cards. And viola, I’m up and ready without nary a computer in sight.
Now just imagine if Google gets hold of a music service and allows automatic syncing a la iMeem or Lala? I like the way Google is moving with wireless.
Yet all you hear these reviewers talking about is how you can’t sync to a desktop. That’s because Google makes it pointless to sync to a desktop.
@Desmond
No phone is ever better than any other phone “period.”
Subjective terms. Never factual.
It’s really a shame the way Apple has applied shackles to the 3GS. My old jailbroken 3G was so laggy once you tried to run apps in the background etc. However, the 3GS jailbroken can run anything you throw at it without skipping a beat. The fact that I can jailbreak the 3GS is the only reason why I keep it. However, with all of the bells and whistles of the Nexus One, it’s getting harder and harder to resist.
I understand the business decision of keeping the same software on the original iPhone through 3GS, but they really have done the hardware a great disservice.
I’m waiting to see what new HTC Android phones AT&T comes out with. I hope they come out with a Nexus One style phone…
The flipside of the Android Market not having a central authority for app signing is that yes you get apps quickly from anyone who wants to release them, but you get situations where users get notified that apps are stealing their banking info and the dozen apps that did so are being removed from the market after people had mucho $$$ and identities stolen. And of course, the news this week that to unlock a stolen Nexus all you need do is wait for a call to come in, accept it and then hit back. Not much of an impediment.
The shocking thing to me is that the Nexus’ web browser takes like 30 seconds longer than the 3GS’ to load engadget.com with twice the RAM and a 1ghz (not so?)Snap(py?)Dragon processor. And even after fully loaded the initial inertial scroll stutters. What the heck? And why hasn’t there been encrypted storage on SD for Apps since like 1.6? Still, nice to see new hardware and a concerted effort by Google to attempt to refine the “fit and finish” as Eric Tseng said. The Gallery is just step one. By Android 4.0 it will be prettified, I’m sure… ahem. Andy Rubin’s insistence that “two handed operations” are bad (ie no multitouch) concerns me — smokescreen for an agreement by El Goog with Apple not to do multitouch or pigheaded and shortsighted usablility misstep? Meanwhile Eric Schmidt says about privacy: “If you have something that you don’t want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn’t be doing it in the first place.” Not a comforting thought from the CEO of the company that once promised not to be evil and now promises to be somewhat less evil than some of the evil people
. I say that as a user of GMail, Picasa, GoogleWave, SketchUp, etc.
actually I don’t think either is better than the pre. And I think engadget explained that on a podcast the best
Isn’t apple and google going to group up very soon… OMG PEOPLE IMAGINE APPLE AND GOOGLE MAKE A PHONE..WOW THAT WILL BE SO COOOOL..APPLE GOOGLE IPHONE
@Klaus, the phones that Google ship from US to UK are indeed indentical and therefore do not have MT, but I cam quite sure once Google.co.uk start shipping, it will be in there.
Im most likely down the list to Get a reply, but as far as background multitasking I realy don’t think it’s as big a deal as every one makes it out to be. When I had a blackberry storm I hardly ever kept things open in the background besides the same native apps the iPhone keeps open (browser, email, text messaging). Even when I use my computer at home I usually only have a couple web pages and maybe one other program like iTunes or PowerPoint open. I can do the same thing on my iPhone and never worry about the phone bogging down or worse freezing. Everyone harps on this multitasking restriction, but if it means a better user experience, I’ll stick with it.
I had android and it wasent the best experience… The user interphase is still someone clunky and unpolished… I definately take the iphone over android for now… Heck even the palm pre kills android… I’d feel as if the palm pre is more of a threat… Multitasking is great and the UI is really nice… Like I candy… Synergy is nice too… I phone is lacking alot of that stuff…
My problems with android are: 1.Clunky unpolished interphase 2.Alot of apps dont work for deffernt phones because they are not compatable due to the 50 million phones and UI’s to keep up with. HTC sense, Motorola’s blur etc 3.App quality.
Im very curious to see what apple will do with the notifications and multitasking… I mean I have proswitcher which is like the palm card view and thats great but I hope apple does something big with those two things. They have to fix the notifications!!
Toss a usable physical keyboard on the Nexus and 3G AT&T bands and I will switch faster than I bought the iPhone. I love the iPhone don’t get me wrong but to me the iPhone OS is outdated and the integration is sub par to Google’s Android. Android OS has far more potential than the iPhone OS will ever have. With the iPhone OS you have to sit back and wait and wait and wait and WAIT for Apple.
Oh yeah I forgot to mention browsers…. Lets not talk about that… Android needs alot of work in that field.. No pince to zoom,scrolling is not as responsive etc… I went from a pre and Iphone browser to android and it was a horrible experience using the internet lol.. Now im back to safari and im good..
@Rob
It does not matter to you, great.
It matters to others.
@dev
And im one of them… Thats why proswitcher on my iphone was a must!!
@ zay
well then help me understand. What apps do you keep running, and does it really make that much of a difference? (and don’t say pandora)
If you dont own a 3gs dont buy one until the new 4.0 iphone comes out. If you think apple will not blow this new nexus one out of the water in the summer then you all need to stay away from the hippie lettuce. I love my 3gs and will only upgrade when a new apple comes out. If you try and keep up with every upgrade phone companies come out with you will be buying phones left and right. I stay with the brand I like and that is the iphone. I admit the specs on the nexus one are impressive but I am not moved to buy. Also I hope Apple does not go the droid route and put a physical keyboard on any iphone ever!!!!!!
@kevwright…..the 3GS is a joke. I have a 3G, and my wife has the S. Waited a YEAR for that phone, and…..YAWN. She got it to replace her dying Pearl. I have a Bold also. I know how easy it is to use the SD cards. I don’t see ANYTING easy with the iPhone sync. I don’t know how many times I have ended up with my WIFES music on my phone, syncing mine after hers. It should know it is my phone. And, yes you can have limitless storage. You can use them like CD’s in your car (if it is Bluetooth) and swap them back and forth. With my bold, I didn’t need a computer to change music / photos / etc. I can take a pic, and store it in an album on the phone. Hell, I can even CREATE the album on the phone. Then take out the card, and it goes with me. Apple sat on the rear ends for a year and gave us what?? Voice control. WOW. Could hardly contain myself over that one. A faster processor. WOW. So my wife can open a page 1.213672 (or something like that) seconds faster than me. Oh wait. Can’t leave out the compass. THAT was almost a deal maker with me. She uses it all the time. Helps her get from the bedroom to the living room. You, in case she forgets where it is. #4 had BETTER be out of this world. It seems like a lot of people are on the fence now, and there contracts are up (like me) and if #4 is not a COMPLETE homerun, Apple will have some extra inventory on its’ hands.
These “which one should you buy” articles make me laugh. SHOCKER, the writer was more or less for the iPhone on an IPHONE SITE. Yowza!
Id have to say the Nexus is a better choice….ahem, right now.
But don’t forget the Almighty Summer Redemption which tends to propel the iPhone above its competitors. If Apple is smart, us iPhone users should see a bigger screen (even if only slightly), a higher powered camera, better battery life, and, oh yeah, a beast of processing and graphic processing power.
So sit on the throne for now Nexus, cause the summer is on its way
@Big Pimpin
I pity your wife, though I’m surprised that you have one.
Competition is good and needed, im so glad that Google is making better phones and putting pressure on Apple to make there iPhone line better. Ive had a iPhone since day one and more than likely continue to buy them. I feel that Apple will step it and and re-vamp the line and change the game once again like they did in 07′.
Yeah, the lack of multitouch on the Nexus One (it does make it somewhat harder to type on), the trackball (ever try cleaning one of those? I’d rather have a BB 9700 Bold-style trackpad instead), plus Google, T-Mo, and HTC’s apparent unwillingness to provide adequate support for the device (passing the buck back and forth to each other), are deal-breakers for me when it comes to the Nexus One. I was strongly considering getting a Nexus One to replace my antiquated but still reliable BB 8320 (old Curve) because it was unlocked; that way, I could use it with my unlimited T-Mo plan, but then decided against it after I saw all the problems people have been having with it. I’m hoping and praying that this year, if and when their contract with AT&T expires (who knows at this point?), Apple will make the next iPhone compatible with T-Mo’s 3G frequencies so I can finally get one. What I really want is to be able to walk into my local Apple Store, get a factory-unlocked iPhone (so I wouldn’t have to resort to jailbreaking or hacking/unlocking it myself), and then use it on whatever GSM provider I want to (like people in a lot of other countries can). I’d even pay full price for it if I could do that. I think it’d be worth it in the long run. PEACE
People are such muron. Why would you buy n1 to work only work on 2g? Or t mobile 3g? Or gay verizon 3g? Open your eyes you dumb a$$e$. Google is following iPhone exactly every step of the way but only 100 steps behind. First they come out with a phone that work only at 2g or edge speed (there’s an iPhone for that), they they will come with 3g and subsidize it so it will work with 3g (there’s an iPhone for that too) and then the app and everything else (also there’s an iPhone for that too). And people can talk about all this resolution, sd card, multitasking bullcrap, but really? How clear of a picture of a movie or whatever you watching that you need to see on a 3″ screen( there’s a big HDTV for that), sd card to swap music? Are you living in 1999? Multitasking on a phone, really? Dont you always have to close or minimize one app so you can look at other app anyway? If you want to see two screen of app or game, there’s a pc or laptop for that. So get a life, open your eyes and think about it before open your mouth because you sound like a muron.
@Drbling
Wow, was that english? I left my decoder ring at home.
@ Drbling there is stand alone gadgets etc e.g. HDTV which of Course do a better jobat their respective jobs than the iPhone that is a stupid argument to make. Following your principles you shouldn’t need an iPhone or any other phone just a pocket of 10p’s or quarters and just use a phone box. Then u can carry ur tv on your back! Psp in your pocket. And wheel a stereo in a cart behind you for it music needs. My point is that people do use their phones full functionality and there is nothing wrong with improving this functionality even when knowing that it will never compete with a stand alone device
Oh and what’s a muron?????
@Invocil you’re a moron you don’t know what a muron is?
iPhone won, but the Nexus is cool!
@Big Pimpin Apple gave you what cell phones are today.
I love how all new phones get compared to the iPhone, apple must feel good about that lol
@invocil
sorry about the spelling.
@zeagus
It’s funny how you try to use a fact and spin it. You should be in PR.
Note, the flaw in the lock screen is only on the Droid. Not the Nexus or any other Android device. And you trying to cite that…iPhone had that same issue before. So yeah…do a little bit more research before trying to slam a product.
P.S. @Zeagus
Then it’s laughable you’re still using Engadget’s review as a basis for the browser speed.
It’s been proved by many an owner of Nexus’ and other reviews that the Nexus is not even that slow. Not close. It actually beats the iPhone on various test. So yeah…
Apple is not one bit worried about any Android or what have you, phone that comes today or in the future! They could care less about it like they cared less about Windows. Apple is on their own terms as they see fit and brings to the table products we dont know we want until we see them. It has always been this way and hopefully it will continue to stay that way.
This summer the iPhone will make an impact again and hopefully they will provide another carrier. The Nexus One is young and Google still does not have their own phone and until then the iPhone has all the advantage!
@Danny
And that’s the funny thing. Google does not care about any other phone either. People think they are honestly competing with Apple and others in the phone market.
The thing about Google is…whoever wins, they win. Their services will be on any phone no matter what. This is just another piece of the pie.
@kevright – exactly. I washed my first gen iPhone in the washing machine. Went out and upgraded to the 3gs. Hooked it up and restored my phone. I was able to recover everything from my last sync including some audio interviews I had yet to write the articles for. Saved my a”".
I was told I might not be able to recover everything in individual apps but that wasn’t the case. I got it all back.
By the way, after baking my iPhone first gen in the oven at 200 degrees it works great. Good as new:) now I always have a backup:)
@IDavey
Good point, Google is a very powerful company and im sure they could care less but if they didnt they wouldnt be interested in the mobile market. With Apple changing the game with the first iPhone many and Google themselves want in.
You can’t really just switch SD cards at will on Android devices since many apps store data there. You know what happens when the app data is gone?? Yea they don’t work properly and have to re-download it to the new card. How useful is that?
The Snapdragon is the Nexus One would be great if it didn’t bog down so often, surely do to OS issues. You can say it’s because Android multi-tasks, but fresh boot or with all tasks killed there is still lag when opening things like the launcher, gallery, re-opening home screen after using the gallery, opening phone app. Things like this are very irritating on a phone with a 1 Ghz processor especially when the 3GS packing 600 Mhz doesn’t suffer from the same issues even when using apps like ProSwitcher & Backgrounder to enable backgrounding.
I have to restart my Nexus One a couple of times a day for stupid thing like the call log & contacts not showing up or the accelerometer refusing to do anything. I would exchange it, but apparently other have the same issues so it wouldn’t solve anything. I’m debating selling it and getting another 3GS because I miss the stability and the apps that I used on a daily basis.
I laugh when people say Android has 16,000 apps. Funny thing because I found 665 aHome launcher themes alone and 394 “soundboards”. There are a huge number of items in the Android market that aren’t apps at all any many of the ones that are available don’t currently work properly on the Nexus One and a large number of them just plain don’t work well or look terrible. The iPhone doesn’t just have more apps, it has much better apps. It’s about the experience and while there are some really good Android apps, there are also lots of them that feel like they were made for Windows Mobile 5 or something. Yuck. The beautiful screen on the Nexus One only serves to highlight the utilitarian look of many apps. Android has come a long way, but it still has far to go.
If this thing was running Palm’s webOS it would truly be a killer, and I think the Pre is a wonderful device however it is plagued by subpar hardware IMO (Screen too small, feels very cheap).
@IDavey – my bad it’s 2.01 – so any device running 2.01 (officially just the DROID, but I know folks who have it on other devices – heard that it doesn’t affect 2.1 after I made the post an hadn’t made it back yet to update. It’s not just the Engadget review and it’s not just the Nexus -the DROID and other Android handsets have browser loadtime issues a go go and the initial scroll almost always stutters. It doesn’t lose on every site, but way more often than it’s specs suggest it should (which is it never should),
Yea other devices haw had security issues including the iPhone more than once – not denying it, just saying it’s a bad week to be on Android – lock screen, Nexus flopping between 3G and 2G and other networking issues (yes other phones have had similar issues, but El Goog and co. are nit handling it too well at the moment, just ask Andy Rubin). Pointing out the flaws in other platforms doesn’t excuse the flaws in Android. The AppStore approval process isn’t looking so bad to those whose info was stolen by those ‘banking apps’.
As BoyGenius said – typical Google perpetual beta and typical OpenSource moving to implement the next cool thing before the existing stuff is fixed. I really do wish them well as competition helps us all. My sour grapes are because I’ve been so excited by the possibilities of Android and so let down by the reality. Yes, I’ve owned phones with all of the major OS platforms and no just because I disagree with you, it doesn’t mean Im talking out of my ass.
P.S. – not mentioning something in a post doesn’t mean someone is unaware of it. This would be a long fscking comment if I had to list everything I know just to avoid strawman gotchas.
@ I agree with you completely apple really need to step their game up this time round. For once im actually starting to get bored with my iPhone. Can’t stand the iPhone notification system, can’t stand the fact a phone as expensive as this can’t multi task, can’t understand why they’re taking so long to fix so many glaring deficiencies.
@Zeagus
Oh trust me, I wouldn’t want you to agree with me seriously, that makes conversation boring, lol. I was just making sure the facts were okay cause I see a lot in here just spouting nonsense and thinking they’re correct. If I seemed like an asshole a bit I’m sorry, lol.
But yeah…I’m not excusing the N1 at all, because hey…mines work perfectly, so that first and foremost is what I go by.
But I’m just making it like this, all phones have problems. No phone is perfect.
Only reason people are getting highly upset is because all these sites made this phone out to be a revolutionary thing when it was just the next step in Android evolution.
@Draonfly if your bored jailbreak your phone and see the possibilities, jailbroken and the apps you would get is no worse than the apps you would get on Android. I’m not putting down Android I’m just saying a lot of jailbroken apps are good quality apps.
I don’t have mine jailbroken anymore just because I am ok with the way my phone works. I don’t need multitasking as much as others but I would like themes again.
Good article but obviously it being an iphone blog, iphone is better in your eyes
The nexus one is a much better phone in my opinion. It has free navigation (iphone apparently cost atleasr $40) it has drag and drop data transfer with music. Videos. Pictures ( iphone needs itunes) you can take out your SD card and share with friends (iPhone cannot) better hardware, sold unlocked and can be used anywhere, faster 3g 7.2mbps, better size….. I can come up with a list the size of Texas.
Overall the n1 has more and better features. The one and only thing the iphone is better at us the app store. That’s it
O yea and the screen is scratch resistance
“…includes Amazon MP3, a service Amazon has extended to the UK but has utterly failed to push any further” interesting – you would think you would research such a statement. Amazon MP3 is available in Germany, France, Austria, and Switzerland in addition to the US and UK. That doesn’t mean that you should buy an Android phone, but you should get the facts correct.
@artem you mostly get only edge from what I have been reading. And unlocked doesn’t really mean crap, it will work on AT&T but that is only at edge speeds. The SD thing is crap compared to iPhones storage at the moment. And don’t mess with Texas.
@IDavey Cheers
)))
@IDavey And I hope I didn’t come off as a jerk, was just getting jumped in a thread on another site so was probably being a bit defensive
.
@Brian I actually get 3g, the issue did not affect everyone, Unlocked means a lot unless you have been living under a rock for a few years now, I know it will only for for AT&T at Edge speeds but in my post i didnt say it was gonna be 3g for AT&T and the SD card means unlimited amounts of storage. And like i said before, this list can be as long as TEXAS!
Darwin – yeah, I noticed that about the Android market too. So many totally useless apps! Also the “multitasking” was kind of cool. I like to be able to do other stuff while Pandora is going. But then I’d get a call, and the phone would try to bring up the call screen but couldn’t because it was bogged down with multiple apps. Then the home.android app would display an error, and I’d miss my call. ugh! Also, it’s still very unpolished. I bought an mp3 from the Amazon mp3 store. Great! Uh, where’d it go? I had to Google for this because it failed to add the new mp3 to my current library. It put it into /sdcard/amazonmp3/ – I had to reboot the phone to get a new mp3 I downloaded to show up. I also got really annoyed with the serious problems with the email app (too many to list here) and the lack of desktop sync. Sorry Google, I don’t use Google stuff specifically. I might want to sync to something else. And the usual answer from the Android crowd was “root your phone.” How utterly useless. The only solution is to root my phone and try some third party mods? Ugh. After a while I just gave up and sold the mytouch and bought an iPhone 3gs. Couldn’t be happier. Especially since that device would still be stuck with only Android 1.6 while others have 2.0 and 2.1.. unless of course, I rooted my phone. eyeroll
@Artem what does unlocked mean for everyone in the US. Since tmobile and AT&T are the only GSM carriers. I’m not sure since I just got from under my rock but I don’t see it being a huge benifit. And who wants to carry around a bunch of cards for storage. It might come in handy on occasions but not that often at least for the average user. Your points weren’t that compelling but I’m sure there are reasons in that list as long as Texas.
I cannot agree that I would jump to the Nexus One. As a 12 year Palm user and now wishing they had kept up, I would stay with the iPhone as it will only stay a head of the pack. Apple is not going to give up this platform or weaken it with other products. So, if I could get better At&T service I would switch from Verizon in a heart beat.
A Iphone 3GS jailbroken is not easily as good or better then the Nexus One or any other smartphone. With Backgrounder (In Cydia App Store) it allows you to run mutilpe apps. There are many more apps on jailbroken that use all of the IPhones ablilites if you compare a Jailbroken Iphone 3GS vs ANY SMARTPHONE IT IS NOT FAIR AT ALL. IPHONE IS THE BEST.
I own an iPhone, not very happy with all the restrictions it had with things like moving data about (used WinMo previously) My next phone is not going to be an iPhone.
really depends on needs. Features that you use often are always the think the look out as your own justification for the model you choose.No point getting a feature you dont even use it right. here goes>> 1) hardware – Nexus1(N1) wins. higher specs means more room for more advance apps. Fastest CPU in smartphone market. 2) OS – iphone. Its matured and likely to be more stable and efficient then N1. Assumption without multitasking turn ON on N1, iphone OS runs little bit faster even with a slower CPU.However not very noticable. 3) Apps- if you have money, iphone wins simply with many more apps. For my own thoughts, N1 has a better future thou with open source OS.And with higher hardware specs, means better apps are possible. 4) Pictures Pinch-ing feature – iphone has it now. N1 soon to have.thats y i commented N1 is still an infant at this moment. 5) Camera – N1.(5MB pixel). iphone (3Mb) 6) Multitasking – N1. iphone dont even have it. 7) battery life – iphone 5hrs talktime.300hrs standby. N1 7hrs talk time.250hours standby. N1 consumes more batt in standby.
Storage for apps- iphone. 16gb fixed. N1 256mb.
9) Storage for user data – abit less then 16gb fixed. N1 up to 32GB and somewhat “limitless” w changable card slots support.
10) Price – about the same with marginal differences.iphone dearer by 50++.
11) Battery- N1 has changable battery. Another plus point for those who does tonnes of chats or plays alot on the phone. you dont have to carry a charger around. This also means you dont have to send to the repair centre to have your batt replace after 2years. All rechargable batteries has lifespan of only 2-3yrs.Meaning your iphone will last 2-3yrs only before going to the support centre.But well by then most of us will change phone already.So no big deal.
11) touch response – N1 since its has higher specs.
12) SMS – iphone wins.N1 still cant beat on ease of use.
my thoughts. - if you often use songs,video,cameras,pictures..and talk alot. N1 is definately your choice. transfer is easy is the biggest plus for those heavy on songs,video etc. batteries are changable. long usage of GPS wont need to worry about batt issues. - If you like to download and a deep pocket on really plenty of apps, iphone would be better with the large apps capacity. Yet if you dun wish to spend the $$$$ for the apps, you should go for N1 unless u jailbreak the iphone. thing to note, N1 storage slots dun support Apps storage.Only enduser data can be stored, eg pictures. - you need to trust the stability of the new N1 OS + softwares.Cant really comment on N1 stability, its still infant and just release.But since its still an infant, its mentaly logical to trust more on iphone OS.
Well, i think i would go for N1 as i use pictures,songs, cameras,videos often. common feature apps are already available for N1 anyway.but i do admit, iphone is still more sleaky. N1 still need feature improvement.So i will wait for the next version of N1 instead of getting an iphone for now.
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http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/MG25XFT
really hope u dnt mind me posting here but its a genuine piece of research that requires your opinions.
Cheers ppl
Nexus One has very brittle hardware and terrible support from HTC (I know first hand). I like my Nexus One but would not have purchased it if I had known about the horrible support from HTC. I like my android but when you consider platform maturity, hardware reliability, and support it’s hard to justify the Nexus One over the Iphone.
ppl saying nexus one is better should also remember that the iphone has been out for yrs, while nexus one has had “yrs” to try and make a competitor.
Damn I have never seen a page full of this many idiots with so many misleading so called facts. With that said there are a few people who have posted whom actually know what they are talking about.
As a consumer who’s owned a wide variety of cell phones including the IPHONE 3GS and the NEXUS ONE I can honestly say when it comes down to it the NEXUS ONE is my phone of choice. Before I go into why I chose this one over my IPHONE 3GS(which I still have but will soon be using it as a glorified IPOD TOUCH due to me letting my contract with AT&T end) I would have to say that no the NEXUS ONE is not as polished as when it comes to the OS’s smooth functionality. What it boils down to is this. At the moment the NEXUS ONE has a lot more to offer in form of freedom than the IPHONE 3GS does. Plus the NEXUS ONE has more promise for future adaptation than the IPHONE. Now I know people go on and on about jailbreaking their phones and I have gone that route before and to be honest though I was happy with the results the fact is I shouldn’t have to go to such lengths to enjoy what I payed good money for. Also for the average consumer jail-breaking isn’t an option simply because they don’t either get the process of doing so, are afraid of bricking their phones, or simply don’t want to tamper with something they paid good money for. As far as multi-touch goes if you really want to get into you can do a bit of jail-breaking on the NEXUS ONE to use said functionality. I like being able to multi-task, having an interactive background, and having a phone with open source. I like being able to take my card out and plug it into my friends MyTouch and share my music, pictures, etc. I don’t know what the idiot who posted that you couldn’t take the SD card out and use it in another phone because it would mess up the apps(Hello maybe you didn’t understand that the apps are stored on the internal memory not the external unless the phone is altered using 3rd party software) being only the apps data external data was saved on the card sort of like they are with a flash drive. Another thing is I have been waiting for a phone that would support flash content. I’m tired of having to view a mobile site version of a site I want because there is no flash support available. I like the idea of playing flash games as well. For me I’m not only extremely satisfied with the NEXUS ONE’s overall performance but also with the fact that I know it’s built to handle a more wider range of future updates for mobile media. Now don’t get me wrong I am waiting to see what Apple has in-store for us with the next IPHONE release but until then the IPHONE of today is yesterday’s news. It’s still competitive yes and it still is a benchmark when it comes to cell phones but reality is it’s old and it’s nothing outstanding about it to make me want to stay. I mean aside from snapping a horrible quality photo and making a phone call it’s pretty much what I’m using it for…. a glorified IPOD TOUCH. And please don’t get me started on the new IPAD(SMH)…..
Yeah I’m still an Apple fanboy but I will stick to their computers these days.
good luck with Steve jobs coming out with something new that can compete. have you used these Nexus One and iphone side by side? Even if it comes close, you’ll pay for it through the nose. and it seams that most iphone users are in a trance and will pay and pay. It doesn’t take a genius to see a plethora of android phones and devices and one lonely iphone in a corner jumping up and down telling us how it used to be all that. By the way Steve jobs will have to do some serious A$$ kissing to Adobe to get Flash. so far I don’t think it is going to happen.
When Steve Jobs gets the following capabilities on his 1 iphone then I’ll look at it again. MULTI-TASKING like doing two things at once. e.g. surf web and send/receive emails. BLUE TOOTH VOICE DIALING ABLE TO CHANGE BATTERY SD CARD SLOT FLASH (FOR ALL THE GAMES AND MOVIES AND SITES.) TETHERING ABILITY TO TAKE IT TO ANOTHER CARRIER. NON PROPRIETARY SOFTWARE AND HARDWARE. (can only use their cables.) others use standard connections. FREE TURN BY TURN VOICE NAVIGATION GPS while still getting your emails. Hah WIRELESS SYNC FOR CONTACTS CALENDAR AND PHONE UPDATES. PROPER CONNECTION WITH GOOGLE PRODUCTS AND ALL THEIR ONLINE SERVICES. (have you compared them?) BETTER PHONE SERVICE. (yeah I really like to get my calls please)
I’m tired of the iphone (we have 200,000 app crap. most of those are farting and flash light apps. (yeah I wrote an app that makes my screen white.) or (I made an app that simulates kids drinking bear while they tilt it to their mouth.) yeah iphone has a lot of useless apps to bloat their numbers to 200,000 and growing, but have you compared the costs of actual useful apps and ability to find the app you need?
There is a huge following for iphone. That’s because people are just simply scared of change. when iphone was the only game in the market then that was different. But when you have options then people just stick with what they now. and that’s why BUSH was re-elected. we had to pay through the nose for BUSH and we pay through the nose for Apple products.
iphone is the past. Android and android devices are the future.
FROYO ANDROID 2.2 MAKES NEXUS ONE TRUE SUPER-PHONE.