The much talked about Google phone became the Nexus One.

Is this the best Android phone on the market right now?

There has been so much buzz about the launch of a Google phone that Google didn’t have to worry too much about promoting this Android phone, the hype and speculation did that all by itself.

A lot of the hype was because we thought a Google phone might have been game changing and signal a different direction for mobile phones.

With the relsease of the Google Nexus One Android phone this didn’t happen.  The phone is very good and a worthy addition to Android, but it’s not revolutionary.

At the moment the phone is available on T-Mobile in the US with a 2 year contract and $179.00 for the phone.  It’s also available to buy without a carrier for $529.00.

The Nexus One on Verizon is due to be avialiable very soon.  Spring 2010 is the date expected, together with a spring 2010 release for the Nexus One on Vodafone in the UK and the rest of Europe.

Design

The phone was built by HTC who have a history with Android phones.  They built the first, the G1 and they’ve since built a few more.

The design looks like it takes something from the iphone, something from the Palm Pre and a bit of the G1.  It’s somewhere in between all of these devices.

There are different ways of looking at it.  It either takes the best of all these phones or it’s not different enough to any of them.  I’m inclined to say that it takes the best of all the other phones.

It’s a nice looking phone and can compete with the iPhone in terms of looks.  I’m sure that was important to Google.

It has a 3.7 inch display and is just 11.5mm thick.  They managed to make the phone compact and stylish as well as nice to hold.  For a powerful phone that’s not something very easy, so it’s impressive.

Like the Motorola Droid it has the four buttons at the front of the display, back, menu, home, and search.  These must be for ease of use with Android, as Google seems to like them on it’s Android phones.

Display

This is probably the best bit.  It’s an incredibly good quality display that has great color resolution and quality.

It has an 800 x 400 pixel resolution with 16.7 million colors.  Photos and graphics really stand out brilliantly.

Software

The phone runs on Android version 2.1 which is the latest version of Android.

The phone has what they call live wallpapers which are backgrounds you can interact with.  It’s not an essential part of the phone but adds a touch of something different to it.

When you press the apps button, the apps come up in 3D, a nice little feature which adds to the uniquness of the phone.  One of the problems with that is that it does slow it down slightly, not something everyone will be happy with.

The Nexus One also has voice recognition, or the “speech-to-text engine”.  With this you can speak into any text field and it will supposedly write what you’re saying.

If you’ve used speech recognition on a PC or Mac you’ll know how it can be frustrating (although it’s getting better).  The Nexus One’s speech recognition works fairly well, not 100% of the time, but most of the time.  Would you actually want to use this? is it a feature that most people won’t use? It’s up to you.

Of course you get the Android vitual keyboard on the Nexus One.  If you’ve used other Android phones you’ll know that it’s fairly easy to use, but some people have problems.  You can always download an app with another version that you might like better, so don’t think you have to stick with the default Android keyboard.

Camera

The camera has 5 megapixels, the same as the Motorola Droid.  But it beats the Droid in speed of use.  It’s quick to load and takes sharp photos.

The camera has a flash too, which isn’t that common on Android phones and is a welcome addition in my opinion.

Speed

The great thing about the Nexus One is the speed.  Personally I like my phones to be fast, and the Nexus One delivers on that.

It has Android 2.1 installed and that’s definitely faster than previous Android versions, but it also has a 1GHz processor which is probably the main reason for it’s speed.

You’ll probably find yourself charging the phone daily if you use the phone fairly normally.  This is similar to other Android Phones out there, so no real change.

Summary

The Nexus One is up there with the best Android phones for sale at the moment.  It competes well with the Motorola Droid for the crown of the most powerful Android phone.

As Google’s first foray into a mobile hanset it does a very good job.  There will definitely be more to come from Google.  Other handsets are surely on the cards.

Google most probably wants to drive forward innovation on Android, and by pushing things forward themselves they are keeping the ball rolling, which is only a good thing for the mobile market.

The only place to buy the Nexus One is directly from Google at http://www.google.com/phone.

What Others are Saying
Gizmodo “Google’s Nexus One is the best Android phone available right now”
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
CNET “It doesn’t have all the features we’d like, but the Nexus One greatly enhances the Google Android family with a fast processor, good call quality, and improved voice control features.”
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Engadget “It’s a good Android phone, but not the last word — in fact, if we had to choose between this phone or the Droid right now, we would lean towards the latter.”
Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

Related posts:

1. April Release for Nexus One in the UK

The Motorola Droid is the most Powerful Android phone to date and you could say a real challenger to the iPhone.

Many people will say, if you’re looking to buy a smartphone you have two choices. The iPhone or the Motorola Droid.

But if you go with that philosophy you might not be buying the right phone for you because Android now has some good phones that are designed for users who want different things.

The Droid is on Verizon and at the moment you can get the phone on a 2 year contract for $199.99.

Design

There’s something practical and functional about the Droid.  You get the feeling when you hold it that it’s an Android phone that’s powerful.

With a pretty phone you can admire how nice it looks but you sometimes wonder if you shouldn’t judge a book by it’s cover.  Pretty phones often look good but don’t back that up with substance.

The Motorola Droid doesn’t go for pretty, but it does look good.  It’s got an angular look with sharp edges which make it look solid.  It’s following an unusual path compared to other smartphones which are often more rounded and sleek.

It has a 3.7 inch screen and a resolution of 440×854 pixels which is very good.  The colors are rich and this is one of the best parts of the phone, the screen and display are top quality.

The Keypad

Keypads are always tricky on smartphones and the Droid’s isn’t an exception.

The keys are squashed together and that makes it difficult to type quickly.  You don’t get a good feel for the keys either, so instead of getting quicker with your typing as you get used to the phone you actually don’t seem to speed up at all because you’re constantly wondering where your fingers are on the keypad.

Display

As on other Android phones the Droid has four buttons, back, menu, home and search.  These aren’t actually physical buttons but they are vital to the use of the phone and you’ll always be using them.  Pehaps they should be more prominant as physical buttons as they’re such an important part of Android.

Apart from the keypad it’s a very responsive phone to use and the screen as we’ve said is large with a very good, rich resolution.  With Android 2.1 on the phone it’s a lot quicker than previous versions too.

The Camera

One of the great things about cameras on phones is that you can whip it out and quickly take a picture on the move.

You’re not going to be able to do that with the Droid at all.  It’s annoyingly slow to start up and then to get it in focus and actually take a picture is slow as well.

It’s a 5 megapixel camera which is great to have but I’d rather have a camera that loaded faster and had less pixels, if there’s any correlation there, which I expect there actually isn’t.

Video

Video can work at a 720×480 resolution and performs well.  It’s better to use than the camera, so if you get a Droid, just use the video rather than taking pictures, it’s quicker and pretty good quality.

Software

The Droid started on Android version 2.0 but has now moved to 2.1 which makes it faster.  It performs much better than 2.0 overall and is a definite improvement.

Summary

The Droid is a very good Android phone.  It’s the most powerful Android phone yet and is the biggest contender to the iPhone.

Despite problems with the camera being slow and the keyboard not being as good as it could have been it’s an excellent choice if you’re going to buy an Android powered device.

If you’re looking to fully embrace Android and use all of it’s functions, then buying a Motorola Droid would be your best bet.  With it’s update to Android 2.1 it’s speeded up from the original 2.0 it was running on, so now you really can use Android to the best of it’s ability.

What Others are Saying
Engadget “It’s easily the best Android phone to date.”
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
PC World “The first Android 2.0 phone impresses with a strong suite of Web features and a stunning 3.7-inch display, but some users might have trouble with the shallow keyboard.”
Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
Gizmodo “It’s this simple: If you don’t buy an iPhone, buy a Droid.”
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

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Motorola is a major player with Android, so what’s one of it’s latest Android Phones the Devour actually like?

The problem with reviewing any new Android phone from Motorola is that it’s going to be compared to the Motorola Droid.

The Droid is a good, powerful smart phone which has the ability to make anything less powerful from the same manufacturer look inferior.

We’ve got to remember that the Devour, like the Motorola Backflip are going to be aimed at different people.  At least that’s the theory.

If you’re going to buy a Devour you have to remember that it’s meant to be a more entry level phone than the Droid, but if you want something to make the most of Android I still wouldn’t let that put you off.

The Devour will be available on Verizon in the US and will be priced at $149.  You’ll be able to buy it from mid March.

Design

If you like a sturdy phone then this is for you.  The Devour is heavier than other phones and noticeably so, it weighs in at almost 6 ounces.  Some people will see this as a negative point, others will like that.

The phone looks sleek in it’s design.  Probably sleeker than the Droid.  If you had to choose between a Devour and a Droid only based on looks you’d probably go for the Devour.  It just seems like an improvement.  More modern.

It’s also thicker than an iPhone so worth bearing in mind.

The screen is 3.1 inches and is touchscreen.  It’s not the largest screen, but good enough for most users.

The keyboard slides out from under the screen.  Keyboards are always a talking point wth smart phones.  They can be annoying to use, the Motorola Droid’s keyboard wasn’t the best and the Devour’s is an improvement on this.

Keyboards are an important part of a smartphone and it’s not easy to get right.  Is there a perfect keyboard on a smart phone? probably not.  This is what the next generation of smartphones should conquer.

Using the Devour

The phone runs on version 1.6 of Android so it’s an “older” Android version.  This will put people off who want a really up to date Android phone but for the audience that the Devour is targeted at I don’t think it will be or should be a problem.

If you’re an Android fanatic you’re going to go for the most powerful, latest Android phone.  The Devour is good for you if you want to own a smartphone but probably aren’t going to be using loads of apps and making use of every feature the phone has.

The Devour is similar to the Backflip because it runs with Motoblur from Motorola which puts all your social media and contacts together onto one screen.  So instead of opening lots of applications and going into each one you have it all available to you.

I have to say, that it’s a really useful feature on the phone built in by Motorola, you don’t need an app to do that which you would have otherwise had to have.

Some say it’s annoying having everything available on one screen.  The argument is that it’s too much.  It’s always annoyed me to have to keep going into different applications so I like it.

The phone has Flash Lite which allows flash games and inline videos to be played using the Android browser.  That’s something you’re not going to get with many other Android phones so it’s a feature that makes the Devour stand out from the crowd.

The Camera

It’s a 3 megapixel camera which isn’t as good as the 5 megapixels on the Backflip or Droid.  That’s obviously an important consideration if you’re going to be using the phone for taking a lot of pictures and will sway some people’s decisions about which phone to buy.

Summary

What’s strange about the Devour is that it’s almost like it’s competing with the Droid.  The Droid is a Motorola Android phone too but they are both quite similar.  You’d only pay about $50 more for the Droid which is more powerful and has better specs.

What Motorola perhaps should have done is make a phone that is much cheaper and quite obviously entry level.  The theory as I said earlier is that this is entry level, but it goes beyod that too with some of it’s features and price.

The Devour isn’t really one thing or the other, top of the range or entry level.

It’s easy to analyse these things too much as well though and if you’re looking for a decent Android phone from a good manufacturer with a track record of making good Android phones, then you should go for the Devour.

What Others are Saying
Gizmodo “What you’re getting with the Devour, then, is a downgraded Droid.”
Rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars
CNet “The Motorola Devour is built to last and it delivers on features and performance.”
Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
SlashGear “The new phone’s design and build is impressive, but we’d go for the DROID every time.”
Rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars

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Motorola is serious about Android and has commited itself to it.  So what are it’s newest Android powered phones actually like?

Let’s take a look at the Motorola Backflip, it’s latest Android Phone.  It’s on sale for $99.99 with AT&T in the US.

The first thing that strikes you about this Android phone is it’s design.  It’s sleek and modern.

The keyboard folds out from the back of the screen, and and it’s actually very user friendly, the keyboard has a lot of space to work with, surprisingly for such a small surface area.

I would have thought that with a design like this the flimsiness of the keyboard sticking out like it does would be a problem, but that isn’t the case at all.

It’s actually very sturdy and feels like it’s built well so I wouldn’t be worried about the keyboard getting damaged or anything like that.

It actually opens the same way a book would, which has a nice feel to it.  The keyboard is on the back, so it’s not hidden away.

Prop the phone up

You can prop the phone up and use it as an alarm clock or if you’re playing music on it and aren’t holding it in your hand.

It’s a nice feature which I see for all smart phones in the future.  They do so much that you’re going to want to playback media when you aren’t actually holding the phone so giving it the ability to be free standing is a good thing.

The Screen

Of course it has a touchscreen which is 3.1 inches.  We’re used to this being the standard size now for smartphones.

The screen is also actually very thin, so it’s not bulky at all and definitely compares with any other phone out there in terms of slenderness.

Theres a navigation pad behind the screen, what Motorola call Backtrack.  You can use this to navigate through menu’s on the phone, rather than touching the screen

This is actually quite a good idea, but does take a little bit of getting used to, once you’ve got the hang of it you can see the benefits.

The Camera

It’s a good camera, 5 megapixels, and a decent video recorder.  The video recorder isn’t the best out there but it does the job effectively.

Social Media

The phone is great for social media.  You don’t have to open lots of different applications, you can see whats happening on Facebook, Twitter and the rest of them, all on the one screen.  Useful if you’re a social media fanatic.

Who is it for?

If you’ve never had a smart phone before and aren’t going to use all the avanced features all the time then this is for you.

The first Android phone from Motorola, the Droid is great for users who want everything.  Speed, design, and are willing to pay for all the different functions.

The Backflip has everything most people will need in an Android Phone.  Everything on it is very good.

You might not get absolutely super fast browsing like the Motorola Droid or the ability to run multiple apps at one time, but that’s the beauty of the Backflip.   It’s a more mainstream Android phone, for people who just want a smart phone but aren’t going to be using lots of apps or browsing on the internet all the time.

Why should you get it?

The most compelling reason to buy the Motorola backflip is that it is an Android Phone.  Because it runs on Android it can do so much.  There are so many great free apps and there’s so much potential for the platform.

Android is growing faster than any other operating system and is a good bet for the future if you’re looking to the long term.

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There’s not too much longer to wait for the Nexus One if you are in the UK.  It’s due to be released in April.  Good news for everyone who wanted to know an exact month for it’s release after Google and Vodafone had only previously said it was coming out in the Spring.

The Nexus One will only be available to buy from Google.com/Phone.  Google hopes the phone will become well known because of world of mouth advertising rather than promoting it in mobile phone shops and all over the internet.

Who are we to argue with that? how did Google become popular in the first place?  Word of mouth advertising.  Google has never been big on promoting it’s products through advertising and spending large amounts on big budget campaigns.

Apple’s dominanace with the iPhone was created through both word of mouth referrals and advertising so it will interesting to see how Google’s strategy pans out for the Nexus One.

Another reason for the less than pushy marketing is probably because Google doesn’t want to infuriate the other handset manufacturers who have built and are building devices for Android.  They might feel there’s no point competing against Google if it’s going to create a monopoly over it’s own platform with it’s own phone.  Google definitely needs to tread carefully with that one.

Related posts:

1. Google Will Now Own the Advertising World
2. Google Nexus One Phone Review – Google’s Android Phone

Mobile phone sales were down in 2009, but sales of Smart Phones were up.  Sales of Smartphones grew 41.1% in the last quarter of 2009 from the same period in 2008 according to research published by Gartner.

The sale of Smartphones has taken a lot of the market away from ordinary mobile phones.  People are wanting phones that can do so much more than they ever used to be able to do.  The number of apps available makes Smartphones the more interesting and often practical option for oridnary users as well as businesses.

The fact that most people have mobile phones means that users are looking for newer technology and new advances in their phones rather than just buying their first phone or getting an upgrade, as used to be the case.  Users will look to the software a platform can offer as well.

In terms of Android Phones, 6.8 million were shipped in 2009 with Android gaining a market share of 3.9%.  Not bad considering the platform was only announced just over 2 years ago.

Related posts:

1. Android Mobile from Google – is this the Future?
2. Android Mobile in the News
3. The G1 Phone Jumps Across to the UK

Sky News have released an Android app.  You can use it to view the latest news headlines and videos on your Android powered phone.   The BBC haven’t released their own Android app.  They announced an iPhone app at the Mobile World Congress but we’re still waiting on the Android version.

Related posts:

1. Android Mobile in the News
2. Android Market: The Place to get your Android Applications
3. Google Android is Previewed

Steve Jobs has attacked Google and Android saying that Google wanted to kill the iPhone and that Apple didn’t enter the search business so why should Google go after Apple’s core business.

Apparently he also said that Google’s “Don’t be evil” mantra is bullshit.

Jobs was talking at Apple’s Town Hall Campus in Cupertino following the announcement of the iPhone.  He made himself available for questions from Apple employees as he often does after big announcements.

Is this a sign that Apple and jobs in particular are feeling the heat from Google and Android?  They know they have a serious competitor and Jobs is just trying to dismiss them.

When Google relseased the Nexus One, Jobs said that he wasn’t worried about the competition because there was no danger of them catching up soon.  He went on to say that the iTunes store has 3billion apps.

Of course Google believe that the future is in web based applications not mobile applications, are they headed in the right direction and Apple aren’t?

Related posts:

1. Is the iPad a Threat to Android?

Finally a dock for the Nexus One has come out.  Now you can use the phone as an alarm clock and keep it charging at night.

It includes a Bluetooth radio and when you put the phone in the dock for the first time it pairs with it automatically first time around.

You can watch a slideshow of your photos while the phone is in the dock as well.

It’s $45, which isn’t particularly cheap and it’s probably only something you will want to buy if you need the extra functionality that it provides.

Related posts:

1. April Release for Nexus One in the UK

The iPad is a brilliant device, somewhere in between a smartphone and a notepad it’s wasn’t really a surprise when it was launched but even if you aren’t a fan of Apple’s products you have to be impressed by the way they keep everything so secret in the build up to the launch.

Apple are masters at creating hype.  From some accounts the atmosphere in the room when Steve Jobs announced the new device was giddy.  Apple are masters at creating this.  Of course it’s definitely helped by the success of their other products the iPhone and the iPods.

However have Apple made a mistake in making the iPad too similar in design and usage to the iPhone?  It looks like it has very similar functions to the iPhone and it looks almost exactly the same, apart from the size.

The problem for Apple now is that they have changed changed people’s expectations.  We expect something truly amazing and revolutionary.  The iPad is not that, it’s almost looks like a big iPhone.  I’m sure it’s fantastic to use and is far faster and has better features than the phone but it’s still not revolutionary.  I’m not criticising Apple here I’m just saying that it’s very difficult for them now to avoid disappointing people.

When they upgraded the iPhone there was a lot of disappointment because people expected the new iPhone to be a lot better and to have some much more radical features than it actually has.  Another example of them making something better but still bot being able to please people.

Is it a threat to Android?  Well it could be if more developers focus in developing for the iPhone OS than they do for Android.  It could mean more resources focusing on iPhone app development, rather than better apps for Android.  We’ll have to wait and see.  Let’s hope the Nexus One can make a big impact on the market.

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