The Google Nexus One Reviewed

By Author: Bonny Kominek
Total Articles: 50
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It can be hard to discern between the growing number of smartphones now on the market, but Google and HTC have added some truly exclusive features to their latest handset to ensure that the Nexus One stands out from the crowd. Not least its overhaul of the Android operating system, which now has a new home screen and gallery and is much more aesthetically appealing.

The only way to compete in the smartphone market is to bring new technologies that are not available on any other handset. With the Nexus One, the exclusivity lies partly with its unique new voice recognition software. The Nexus One allows users to text, email, tweet, web search and more via dictation.

Design wise, the Nexus One is simply beautiful. Robust but sleek, ultraslim with curved edges, it sits comfortably in the hand, with the weighting just right. It is an interesting hardware mix, unmistakably HTC but with a bit of Google thrown in there as well.

With its large touch screen, rounded curved corners and edges some will say that the Nexus One is more than a little iPhone-inspired, but HTC have managed to slim the casing down to a thickness ...
... of 11.5mm, making this a far more svelte handset than the Droid, Hero or iPhone.

Phone camera fans will be happy with the Nexus One camera. While the hardware may not be revolutionary, its 5 megapixel lens allows you to capture great images, and it''s the camera software that is the real draw here. The camera app has been improved bringing with it superfast speeds, and the new look gallery is a huge improvement to the Android 2.0 version, making browsing more enjoyable and the whole layout more attractive all round.

A touch screen is a must with all new smartphones, and the Nexus One touch screen measures close to 4 inches. With a screen resolution of 480 x 800 pixels, it is not as high as it could have been, and means you need to do a tad more scrolling than is required from other handsets, but this is a minor gripe.

The Nexus One is powered by the superfast 1GHz Snapdragon processor from Qualcomm, and is one of the few phones on the market to utilise this. Snapdragon makes for the smoothest running handset we have seen yet, especially for an Android, and apps and internet browsing were a treat.

Internally, the Nexus One has no real surprises in store. It has the requisite AGPS chip, the HSPA capable GSM radio and is WiFi compatible. It also features RAM and ROM of 512MB and has a microSD card slot. The card that comes pre-loaded is 4GB although this can be extended to 32GB. This Nexus One review was written by Bonny Kominek. The Nexus One is currently only availabe in the UK through Vodafone, so head to their site for call plan details.