In mid December as holiday gifts and cards were arriving daily in our office, I received a gift from Google. It was a Nexus One. I have been using it since that day as my primary phone. In the box was a note from Google asking me to keep quiet about the phone until Jan 5th. Well today is Jan 5th and so I can tell you what I think. So here goes
This is not going to be a hard core review of the phone. Engadget has one of those up this morning. Thus is about how I use it and why I’ll most likely stick with this phone for a while longer.
I’m at the gym on elliptical trainer typing this into the Android browser. I connected to the gym’s wifi without hassle, something my security obsessed blackberry fails at regularly. Then I checked in with the awesome android Foursquare app. Then I put on last.fm “my library radio”. Then I launched the killer android browser and went to typepad and started writing this.
I could have done all of that on the iPhone except the part about running multiple apps the same time. Which is a big deal by the way.
The Google phone isn’t much different than the iPhone. Its basically an Android clone of the iPhone. I have to type on the screen on this phone and I’m struggling mightily to do that fast and well. If this post has errors in it I wont be surprised.
There are a few inferiorities vs the iPhone to note. The on screen keyboard is good but not as good as the iPhone. And the ability to pinch and flick (called multitouch?) is missing.
I miss these gestures the most in the browser. But having a real browser that can remember passwords and such is such a godsend. RIM must be blind to miss that.
I also like the way the Google apps run natively on Android. Gmail/Cal/Contacts work so well on this phone. Of you use the Google app suite, you should really be on Android.
I also love the openness of Android. If I decide I really need a keyboard (I think I do), I’m pretty confident that some handset manufacturer will build the ideal hardware configuration for me soon.
And I love that apps can auto update without having to go through the app store approval process. Android apps can get better quickly, like web apps can.
And I love that I can carry a second battery with me like I do with my blackberry.
All in all the Google phone is a mighty fine phone and I’m staying on it for now. Thanks Google.
UPDATE: After posting this, I realized I didn’t mention the phone features. I don’t really use a phone for voice very much. I’ve made a total of a dozen calls on this phone in the two plus weeks I’ve been using it, mostly to the Gotham Gal. But the phone seems to work great.
UPDATE #2: Something is not right with the disqus comments on this post. I’m looking into it. In the meantime, typepad’s comment system is operating instead. Sorry about that.
