Review of Google's Nexus One Android-powered touchscreen smartphone

The Google Nexus One is the first real "Google Phone." It is being sold directly by Google, it is branded a Google device (in spite of being built by HTC), and you won't find it listed on a carrier's site. The first version of the Nexus One was designed to work with T-Mobile's GSM and 3G networks, and can be purchased with T-Mobile service, but can also work at GSM EDGE speeds on AT&T. Versions built for Verizon's network in the U.S. and Vodafone's network elsewhere are set to become available in the Spring.
vibrant media


The phone features some cutting edge hardware, like a large AMOLED(INFO) display and a 1GHz CPU, but will that and its new Android 2.1 operating system be enough to earn recognition as a "super smartphone" by consumers?

Physical Aspects

When it comes to the hardware design of the Google Nexus One, Google and partner HTC nearly knocked it out of the park. The device, which measures 120mm x 60mm x 11.5mm (4.7in x 2.4in x .5in) in size, is made up of nice textures and smooth, softly curved lines. The soft touch paint on its back cover only improves the feel of the 136.2g (4.8oz) device as it lays flat in your hand.

Controls on the Nexus One are pretty minimal. There is a lightable trackball that resides below a gorgeous, bright and colorful 3.7-inch, 800 x 480 pixel AMOLED touchscreen display. Both the trackball and the capacitive touchscreen(INFO) perform very well. The touch sensitive controls for back, menu, home, and search that sit between them, however, are only sufficient and account for the only real misstep in the Nexus One's design. Hardware keys would have been greatly preferred, even if it might have detracted a bit from the Nexus One's aesthetic appeal.

There are no controls on the right edge of the phone, not even a camera shutter button, but the top of the left edge and left of the top edge are home to very low profile controls for volume and power, respectively. They look good, and work well enough. A 3.5mm headphone jack is located on the top of the phone as well, and a micro-USB power/data connector can be found on the bottom of the phone, along with contacts that appear to be intended for a cradle of some sort.

The 5 megapixel camera, with its LED flash, sit on the back cover of the Nexus One, which can be slid off easily enough to gain access to the SIM card and microSDHC(INFO) memory card slots, both of which require the removal of the battery in order to be swapped out.

Overall, the Nexus One's hardware should appeal to people that like the touchscreen slab form factor. It is a fine example of the type. Those that seek more hardware-centric text input methods will have to hold out for the rumored "enterprise" focused device that Google has alluded to in the past.