Nexus One: powerful Android features, great HTC looks

by Oana Pelineagra  |  January 15, 2010

The newest Android smartphone, born from the Google-HTC collaboration, has inherited both the great looks of its HTC predecessors and the powerful features of Google’s platform. Released at the beginning of this month, on January 5th, Nexus One is a serious competitor for Apple’s iPhone, and a proof of what determination and a strong brand can do. In only two years, Google has come a long way since the days of G1, and only one thing remained the same: its solid partnership with the HTC Corporation.

Similar in design to its HTC relatives, NEXUS One has a much smoother and slimmer body, with only 130g in weight and 119 mm x 59.8 mm x 11.5 mm in dimensions. The 3.7 inch AMOLED display is the center piece of the smartphone, and although the 480x800 WVGA resolution is higher than the iPhone’s, it fails to deliver a multi-touch functionality.

Also in terms of hardware, Nexus One comes with a powerful 5 MP color camera, capable of auto focus, digital zoom, LED flash and GEO tagging (this means that it is able to identify the latitude and longitude coordinates). The 512 MB DRAM memory can be expanded up to 32 GB, through the microSD slot. In terms of connectivity, the newest Android phone benefits from Bluetooth 2.1, Wi-Fi and a Micro-USB port, and also has an internal GPS antenna.

The Audience A 1026 voice processor, together with the two microphones, reduce the background noise and offer an exceptional sound quality. The only control available is an illuminated trackball which functions also as an Enter button, and is positioned below the four touchscreen buttons.

The Lithium-ion removable battery has a capacity of 1400mAh, and lasts up to 290 hours on standby, 10 hours talk-time and 5 hours of Internet navigation.

The software capabilities match the hardware performances, Nexus One being the first Android phone to be released with the Android 2.1 operating system, also known as Éclair (yummy!). The updated software makes use of the 3D animation in the fresh “Live Wallpapers” application and gives the users the possibility to browse photos by just swiping their fingers in the “Gallery” app, being in this way more user-friendly.

From the old features, Google has kept the Digital Compass functionality, but for the users who want more fresh applications, the Android Market service is ready to offer more than 20,000 apps.

Regarding the format compatibility, Nexus supports the .aac, .amr, .awb, .wav, .wma, .mp3, .mid Audio formats and the following Video formats: the .mp4, .3gp, .3g2, .m4v.

If until now Nexus One has lived up to everyone’s expectations here at TuvaBox, when it comes to price and availability things have changed. With a $529 price unlocked and $179 with a two year contract with T-Mobile, the newest Android smartphone becomes pretty inaccessible.

It seems that such a price tag together with the fact that Nexus is sold via the Google website have made the phone to be bought only by 20,000 consumers in its first week, much less than its predecessor Droid, with 250,000 units sold in the same time frame.

Not the info that you're looking for? Ask Tuva and you'll get your answer!

Comments

Your Comment: