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What is the Google Nexus One?

By Jason Gilman

After a few weeks of holiday season rumors and speculation Google officially launched their first Google branded Android smartphone this week. Dubbed the Nexus One, it debuted to quite a bit of fanfare on Tuesday, January 5.

Some found a it a surprising move since previously Google had focused solely on developing the Android OS software platform. However, considering Google is looking to directly compete with the iPhone it only makes sense that they would borrow a page from Apple's playbook and take full control of the software and hardware design to create a compelling and unified vision of an Android smartphone.

What exactly does this mean for the smartphone landscape?

People often throw out terms like "iPhone killer" when the latest and greatest smartphone competitor comes out, but that's simply not a realistic scenario. The Nexus One appears to be the most refined touch screen based competitor to the iPhone yet, but it's still the flagship smartphone of an Android platform just beginning to build momentum. The Google brand is strong, but it's going to take a huge opening year to make a significant dent in the iPhone and Blackberry share of the smartphone market.

Nexus One Advantages

What does the Nexus One bring to the table that an iPhone GS doesn't right now?

Hardware - Specification-wise the Nexus One has several advantages over the iPhone GS. The screen is almost double the pixel density with a resolution of 800 x 480 compared to the iPhone's 480 x 320. The Nexus One is also significantly faster as well with a 1GHz processor versus the iPhone GS's 600Mhz processor and has twice as much RAM to boot (512MB).

Openness - In direct contrast to Apple, Google hasn't locked users into the Android Market to install applications. There are 16,000 apps there to choose from now, but if you want to look elsewhere it's simply a matter of downloading an .apk (application package) from a given developers website and launching it to install.

Multiple Carrier support - Right now the Nexus One is being sold by Google in an unlocked form that can be run on any GSM carrier or via two year contract with T-mobile. A Verizon two year contract offer is said to be in the works for a couple months down the road as well. Apple and the iPhone are still stuck with AT&T for the moment and the carrier has been terribly lax in upgrading their network to meet demand in major cities like New York and San Francisco.

iPhone Advantages

Platform Momentum - The iPhone is gobbling up smartphone market share as more and more users come on board. The Nexus One and Android OS in general has a feature set that is excellent, but the Apple iPhone platform is well established and far greater appeal and recognition among the general cell phone using populace.

True multitouch interface - The Nexus One has a touchscreen and OS that are capable of supporting the multitouch gestures that the iPhone pioneered, but Google made the design decision to support those gestures at the application rather than OS level. This is truly unfortunate because it means that gestures are not universal and applications won't have a unified set of gestures.

Application Store - The iPhone has a ridiculous number of applications available at the iPhone application store currently- over a 100,000+ at last count. Quantity does not necessarily indicate quality or usefulness, but Apple has screened every single one of those applications to make sure that they adhere to their often surprisingly strict standards. The upside for iPhone users is that any application that makes it into the store is going to be a reliable application.

Bottom Line

The Nexus One is an extremely significant phone for the Android platform, but more importantly smartphones in general. In taking direct aim at the iPhone with the Nexus One and delivering an excellent product, Google further raises the bar for smartphones across the board and puts pressure on Apple to continue innovating as well. And that's a very good thing.

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June, It definitely seems like Google is showing up everywhere now as the internet continue to become more integrated with daily life, but as you say it could be worse. I far prefer Google's practices to those of Microsoft back in the 90s.

Brock Jan 10, 2010 14:22

This is a very well researched, written and informative intel, Jason.
Thank you for answering so many Questions on this new product.Keep up the good work.
Frederick

frederick Jan 10, 2010 16:27

Thanks for the review. It was very helpful for a non-techie like me. I Google everything so why not my phone?

Nora Quiason Jan 10, 2010 17:39

Hi Jason, the only thing I can say is bravo, outstanding, well written Intel the big shame is it will date as quick as the smart phones, dam.

tedbotting Jan 10, 2010 23:22

WHAT?

It's an actually real phone? A physical portable cell phone? Wow. I've been hearing the phrase Google Nexus but amidst the hustle and bustle of juggling a job with my menagerie, I mean family, didn't get round to finding out what it's about. Thought it was some nifty communications app like Google Wave.

So... Are they selling this in G-stores? Where can I get one? Didn't see any listed at the Cheap Phone Zone.

carallelworld Jan 11, 2010 11:54

I`m not the best at grasping new technology but this Intel explains it in language even I can understand. Generally if the big `G` puts its hand to something it usually works out.

odls Jan 11, 2010 18:06

Another notable advantage of the Nexus is its incorporation of the Flash 10.1 plugin in its web browser.

micah Jan 13, 2010 14:07

I have been looking for a review of this phone and this is excellent.

RuthM Jan 19, 2010 07:49

This is a good thoroughly researched article. I think I still might prefer the iphone because of it's design but competition is always good. The open source nature of Nexus One is just...less evil, something to be appreciated.

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