Google Nexus One: what Motorola Droid should have been

Mauro Dalu on

Google-Nexus-One-Demo-VideoJason Chen of Gizmodo tried the Google Nexus One thanks to an anonymous source. As a result, new photos and a hands-on video surfaced.

Chen said “You can call the design the antithesis of the Droid: smooth, curved, and light, instead of hard, square and pointy,” he said. “It feels long and silky and natural in your hand — even more so than the iPhone 3GS.”

The Nexus One screen was said to be brighter. In comparison, Chen said the Droid and iPhone screens seemed “washed out.” “This is probably the best screen we’ve seen on a smartphone so far,” he said. “Probably.”

Loading a Web page over Wi-Fi, the Nexus One was found to be the fastest of the three phones. The iPhone 3GS reportedly loaded a page “a few seconds later,” while the Droid came in third.

The Nexus One features a 5-megapixel autofocus camera with a flash, but the picture quality was said to be unspectacular.

Google’s handset lacks multi-touch, was said to have not good music playback over its speakers.

The Nexus One hardware specs, according to Engadget, are:

  • Android 2.1
  • 11.5mm thick
  • 512MB RAM, 512MB ROM, 4GB microSD in-box expandable to 32GB
  • 5 megapixel camera with mechanical AF and LED flash
  • HSPA 900 / 1700 / 2100, 7.2Mbps down and 2Mbps up
  • 3.7-inch WVGA AMOLED display

Here is a YouTube video showing off the new phone. Unfortunately the cam was not mounted on a tripod so the video quality is terrible. It does show a great improvements over the Droid in terms of responsiveness, scrolling and the overall feel is a lot more consistent and natural. I think this is an Android phone that deserves a closer look and that could finally fill the gap with the iPhone in terms of user experience.