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Nexus One

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148 pointstshtf190 comments

Why the hell are they so insistent on fucking up the storage situation on Android phones?

The N1 has just 512mb flash built in, and while it has a Micro SD slot for your media, Android will only use the system flash for storing the OS, apps, and app data. They screwed up earlier with the G1 which only had 256mb, not enough to install any official OS updates, and instead of learning their lesson they just bumped it up one notch.

While users may plead loudly about how they want expandable storage, they fucking hate it when you make them manage what's stored where, and this is not a UI area you're going to be able to polish. 4gb of flash is the bare minimum you can get away with, and premium SKUs with 32gb+ are a given -- this is your chance to pile on markup without anyone complaining.

Apple's abhorrence towards removable storage isn't just because Jobs is a dick, or the form factor compromises, but simply because it's a usability nightmare.

It really is. Fortunately with modded firmwares you can use the SD card for more than it was originally intended, like partitioning it for storing your applications and even a linux swap. Still, it's a mega usability nightmare. Because the card also stores all your photos and music, when you want to connect it to your computer it has to unmount on the device, and there goes all your apps with it. Which causes things to hang and die.

Considering the cost of physical memory these days.. it doesn't make sense not to include a larger bit of internal storage. Heck they can even keep the SD slot on there for extra storage for those who desire it.

Depends on how you expose the SD card to the computer. If you let it touch the filesystem directly, then yeah, the device can't use the card at the same time. But if you make the phone act like a USB network card, and then run Samba on that network interface, both devices can modify the data at the same time. (My Archos/Android mp3 player does this.)

There is also some media sync protocol that Microsoft invented that avoids this problem.

The kind of person that picks up an Android phone is tech-savvy enough to handle manual file storage. I like it, actually, because it lets me use my phone as a flash drive.

Regarding app data, from the Gizmodo liveblog:

They store apps in the internal ROM and not on the SD card now, for piracy reasons, but they will offer an upgrade soon for installing apps on the SD card.

The piracy reasons are silly. It is trivial to copy Android apps from one phone to another, "private" or not.

Without rooting the phone, how is this trivial?

Does buying the dev phone count as rooting?

You betcha.

That's why they're still a niche player- it's far too much about techies and open source fans right now, and that will poison the App Store selection moving forward for the mainstream.

This seems like the sort of thing you complain about/discover well after buying the phone though.

I think there are things that hurt Android'd market share that totally dominate over something like this.

This seems like the sort of thing you complain about/discover well after buying the phone though.

For now, yes. When enough people have complained about it after getting their phones, though, it may be a different story.

Since applications store most of their resources on the SD card the ROM size isn't a huge deal for potential application room. The binaries themselves are fairly small. But yeah, at least ship a 16GB card in the thing. It just looks bad to say 4GB on a spec sheet for a SmartPhone these days.

But if Applications store their basic resources on the SD card, the card isn't swappable anymore without breaking shit.

You'll soon be able to store apps and app data on external storage.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01...

Maybe I'm an outlier. I have a 16GB iPhone and have never even come close to using hardly any of it.

Doesn't match up with my reality. I have an original G1 and am yet to run out of space. (I do delete applications that I don't use.)

I was able to upgrade storage with 16gb microSD card for a very low price - the ability to do this is the exact reason I went Android and not Apple.

FYI, for AT&T customers considering making the plunge:

The currently available Nexus One device is unlocked and will recognize SIM cards from any mobile service provider using the GSM standard, but is incompatible with the frequency band used by the AT&T and Rogers networks for 3G data (see below). ( http://www.google.com/support/android/bin/answer.py?answer=1... )

No 3G data on AT&T! Shucks.

I can confirm this. Stuck my AT&T SIM in my N1 and no 3G. Here's the deal:

Most of the world = 3G 2100, AT&T = 3G 850/1900, T-Mo USA = 3G 1700/2100 MHz, Nexus One = 3G 900/1700/2100. (For reference, iPhone 3G = 3G 850/1900/2100).

It's actually a little more complicated than this and the terminology makes it very confusing. The key to this is that the frequency band is different from the actual frequencies used for the radio.

Much of the world's 3G usage is on the 2100 frequency band. This actually operates on two frequency ranges, ~1900 uplink and ~2100 downlink.

In this same vein, AT&T has 2 separate frequency bands, 850 and 1900. 850 operates on ~824/~869 and 1900 operates on ~1850/~1930.

T-Mo actually only has one 3G frequency band, 1700 MHz. This operates on ~1710/~2100, but actually this is not compatible with the world-wide 2100 frequency band.

Most, if not all, 3G T-Mo USA phones support at least the 1700 and 2100 frequency bands. Nexus One also supports 900 MHz, which makes sense since Vodafone uses that band in Europe and Nexus One will soon be on Vodafone.

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UMTS_frequency_bands for more exact details.

Sure, I get that. But the description above should suffice for most people. It's the same terminology used by the GSM Association: http://www.gsmworld.com/roaming/gsminfo/index.shtml (this link is awesome in that it shows you what bands the different carriers use for various services)

The description might be sufficient, but it's inaccurate. You can't say AT&T 850/1900 and T-Mo 1700/2100 in one sentence. It's not the same context. You can say AT&T 850/1900 and T-Mo 1700.

The point is it's more difficult for phone manufacturers to make world phones for AT&T because they have to use up two bands just for AT&T, and those two bands are not commonly used in Europe or Asia.

Okay, yeah, you're right. But the takeaway is that while the two American networks are incompatible both the N1 and the iPhone should support world roaming equally well.

So, unlike the Palm phones, this is not rest-of-the-world-proof...

It's a clever move compared to Palm's incredibly boneheaded offer.

Who would want AT&T anyways? I would love to get off their network. :-(

How different to the days of working at Symbian (many years ago).

There:

Engineers: "We should do X, Y and Z!"

Technology Managers: "Our owners/partners don't want us to do any of that. We have a five year lead on the competition, we don't need to do this stuff."

Google Nexus One announcement:

"Together with those partners, we have increased the rate of innovation. The volume [and] variety of Android phones... have exceeded our expectations. But we want to do more and one of the questions we asked ourselves a long time ago was, 'What if we worked even more closely with our partners to bring devices to the market that are going to help showcase very quickly the technology we're working at on Google."

My prediction for the mobile industry: further disruption.

Still holding out for a similar phone with a hardware keyboard. BTW, I've heard tell that the Droid has a hardware keyboard, but you can't feel the difference between keys, making it less usable than the G1's keyboard. Can anyone corroborate that?

I have a droid, and the hardware keyboard is fine. There are little raised underscores on the F key and on the J key. It is ok for regular use, but probably not useful for development, as an example. Don't have a G1 to compare.

My gold standard for keyboards is still my hp200lx!

I've had my Droid a little over a month now. While I'd definitely say the keys are less tactile than my last QWERTY phone (Treo 650), I can touch-type easily enough, and my typing speed is about what I'd expect from the device. My complaint with the keyboard is more that it's off-center, because of the directional pad. That still feels a bit awkward to me.

Have a Droid, and I'd suggest that the difference between the keys is subtle, but not non-existent. Best idea is to get your hands on one and try it. I love it and have had almost no problems typing on it, but it seems to be a love it/hate it sort of thing. That being said, I hated software keyboards... until the Droid. I actually find myself using the software keyboards (one for each orientation of the phone) more often than the hardware keyboard.

What about the Droid's software keyboards are different that makes them more usable?

I'm always trying to force myself to use the G1's software keyboard, but I can only seem to use it in one of two ways: wantonly mash and hope the predictive/spelling correction code figures out that I typed "devtsvuldt" but meant "spectacular" (thus pausing periodically to carefully click the correct suggestion), and occasionally being forced to abandon a word and backspace it out because it is so mangled that even Google's rocket scientists couldn't write a spelling corrector that can figure it out; or meticulously pecking words out letter-by-letter, trying to enter that zen-like state of mind where my fear of misspelling has been released, and my fat white thumb is free to alight on the correct section of touchscreen as if guided by the nameless Tao itself.

Both are excruciating compared to finding the two little nubbins on "F" and "J" and going from there.

Have you tried calibrating the soft keyboard? I found it frustrating until I did so on my Hero.

Unfortunately, I don't think the G1's soft keyboard can be calibrated.

If you root the device you can install the same HTC input manager (keyboard, AKA the HTC_IME) and use that as a replacement keyboard, which is MUCH better. It's better out of the box, and as Nwallins said, it's even better once calibrated.

Note for future readers: "Touch Input" (HTC_IME) can be installed as a package on the "vanilla" Android OS without rooting. It breaks your hardware keyboard, though (even on a rooted device).

>What about the Droid's software keyboards are different that makes them more usable?

You know, I hate to say it, but I don't actually know. I don't have large fingers, but I've always had trouble with software keyboards, from the iPhone to the Blackberry Storm family. Just today I was getting a Blackberry activated and found the experience of addressing a PIN message absolutely excruciating.

The Droid just seems to know what letter I'm going for, and almost always picks the right one. I'm not sure if this is a byproduct of better resolution on the touchscreen, more intelligent software in the background, or some quirk of my fingers and the Droid's particular implementation, but I simply don't experience trouble hitting keys anymore.

I suppose its possible that the change is me, not the Droid, but to this day I find most other platforms difficult to use, and pine for my Droid's keyboard whenever I'm on another software device.

I have a Nexus One and I have to say I've quickly become ALMOST as good at typing as I was on the iPhone. Sometimes the lack of multi-touch (pressing one key while you're letting up on another) bites you in the ass but it's pretty rare.

My primary issue with the keyboard is that it's very close to the four un-beveled buttons below the screen. I'll quite often hit "back" when I mean to hit "?123" which is pretty annoying.

I've also had good success with the new voice recognition feature for short emails and text messages.

Overall the keyboard is much less polished than the iPhone but I was pleasantly surprised at how usable it was.

Why's the pressing one key while you're letting up another a problem? Presumably it's either registering on press or release, but not both? Or is there more complicated fancy business going on?

If you type fast enough you'll often be pressing the second key with your other thumb before the first thumb has quite left the keyboard. The iPhone allows for this but the N1 doesn't (or doesn't appear to in limited testing).

The android keyboard is in fact multi-touch.

Not in my experience. Hold down one key, then hit another, the second key doesn't register (like it does on the iPhone).

I find the new Swype soft keyboard is much faster on Droid than the hardware keyboard or any of the other soft keyboards. It's even faster the best hardware keyboard I have used, the Treo 650. Swype takes an entirely new approach of tracing over the keys instead of pressing them.

http://www.androidcentral.com/download-beta-version-swype-an...

"Sorry, the Nexus One phone is not available in your country."

Oh, well. Another boring phone which isn't even available. Let's move on, then.

Agreed, give me a blackberry, at least their new phones come out in all countries within a reasonable time. I'll say hello to the Nexus One in about two years when the american companies decide to get their thumbs out of their collective asses.

Haven't seen Blackberry in my country or any neighboring country, EVER.

Maybe by all countries you mean both US and UK? :)

I love the approach here: unsubsidized or subsidized, your choice.

If only they were selling it at sane unsubsidized prices.

Seems pretty sane to me, compared to other HTC phones' unsubsidized prices.

Unsubsidized phone prices make Oracle licensing look sane. :)

and an unsubsidized, factory unlocked iphone 3gs costs $750-$1000.

where can you get one?

yeah, that's about right price for newer smartphones.

ebay or some random places on the web. they are all imported from hong kong.

Seriously? Parts can't be more than $200 for this. I mean, they sell the iPod Touch for $200 which costs $155 to make ( http://iphonetouch.blorge.com/2007/12/19/ipod-touch-bests-ip... ). Is a GSM radio IC expensive? Hell no. They're in bed with the carriers, and they're even worse than Apple because they're trying to say that they aren't.

Because the software is free right? (Clue: the people who wrote it were full-time Google employees).

Clue: the software for the iPod touch wasn't found in the street either.

Which, umm, is why it also retails for more than its parts cost.

I suppose the question is, why is the iPhone over $500 more than the iPod touch? Is there really that much hardware/software differentiation between the two to justify the increased price?

I suppose the ability to make calls and access data almost anywhere makes it that much more valuable to people, or they would not be able to price it as such.

It's amazing what happens when you price things according to how much people are willing to pay as opposed to how much it cost you to make.

A lot of it probably deals with a plethora of byzantine patents needed to manufacture a mobile phone.

Sure, and this bottle of Coke costs only $0.12 to make. What's your point?

Google's not a charity. The rumors that they were going to sell the phone at a huge loss to gain market share was, frankly, silly.

Seriously? I despise this worn out arguement.

Sure, the parts might cost $155; but you can't do much without knowing how to connect the parts together, and without spending millions on finding the right combination of parts.

And then there's the software on top of that which others have noted.

The parts are the variable cost, software and know how are largely fixed. In a normal market, prices would trend towards the variable cost. The US cell phone market, however, is an oligopoly of large carriers that push the "retails" prices on phones high so they can lock people into contracts by selling the "subsidized" phones. Thus, prices won't trend towards the marginal cost. They'll stay high.

That's a long winded way of saying: if carriers (and handset makers) didn't have a massive chubby for long term contracts, prices on handsets would be much, much lower. The iPod Touch is a good example of that. It's obviously worth Apple selling it for a ~30% margin, assuming the $155 parts cost is correct. What do you suppose the margins on the actual iPhone are?

To be fair you're missing a lot of parts and the ones that they share are a lot more high end on the N1. Twice the CPU, 4x the RAM, over 2x as large a screen, GSM/EDGE/UMTS/HSDPA radios, GPS, compass, still/video camera with flash and autofocus, etc etc.

And on top of all that iSuppli's figure is just an estimate. Considering every phone in the same league as the N1 is in a similar price, there aren't obscene profits being made. If they really cost $150 to make someone somewhere would start selling them for cheaper--we're talking CE here which is defined by brutal price wars. Don't think that HTC would settle for being an OEM when they could own the market by selling devices at 1/3 the price directly.

Completely agree. I'd like to know how much they really need to actually sell these things for. iPod Touches go for, what, $500 less than an unlocked phone? This sucks. I'd love to have a 3G Android phone on ATT as well as my iPhone, just to develop on an try out, but the market makes this impossible.

Is there a reason not to buy a subsidized phone and just eat the termination fee immediately? (I'm assuming it's ~$200, but might be different for smartphones)

IIRC, the termination fee brings you up to the cost of the unsubsidized device.

Ah, thanks for the clarification. I was under the impression that the early termination fee was less than the difference, so that the black market value for an unsubsidized phone would be a good bit better than the official one.

Its actually cheaper than all the other popular smartphones when purchased without a contract:

iPhone 3Gs: $599 Palm Pre: $550 Motorola Droid: $599

fwiw, t-mobile is going that route with all of their phones and plans (called "even more plus"). if you sign up with them and have your own phone (or want to pay for the phone upfront), your monthly plan is less money and you have no contract. you can of course still buy subsidized phones through them for the normal monthly rate and a 2-year contract.

Which kinda makes T-Mobile the only real option if you have an unlocked phone. Why spend all that money on the phone if you're still going to be paying to subsidize something you didn't buy? As long as you're happy with the service, of course.

T-Mobile has constantly been coming out on top as of late, (in regards to customer relations/treatment) but they still don't quite have the network though, do they?

(Currently stuck on AT&T.)

Anecdotal experience with both AT&T and T-mobile in the USA (mostly southwest) says that T-mobile beats AT&T.

I've had the same experience. I'm pretty sure that AT&T is the worst 3G provider in the US.

"T-Mobile, AT&T Push HSPA 7.2-Mbit/s Upgrades"

Granted that this is purely anecodatal, but I have not had any complaints with the T-Mobile network.

TMobile service is great in big cities. When I go home its 1g and Roaming(free). The real nice point is the great prices and excellent customer service. Today I called to see when my upgrade date is and I had a person on the phone and was done in 1 minute.

T-Mobile also has a policy of unlocking subsidized phones at the request of customers in good standing. 90 days? Paid your bills? Just call and ask. Done.

I've used t-mobile since they were called Voicestream. This was in New England, SW Florida, and now DC. Their network doesn't have the penetration of Verizon but I have never had any substantial issues with service. They even recently expanded to provide service in the DC Metro, which was a pleasant surprise.

I have the same plan I've had since the Sidekick II (with modifications for data on newer devices), which I got with a subsidized phone, and then renewed for two years with a subsidized G1. It is about the same as the new "unsubsidized" price for phone+data. If I buy this phone, I will pay about $20 more per month for service and will be locked into paying it for two years. This is still less than the price of the unsubsidized phone, of course, but I am still kinda annoyed that phone service keeps getting more expensive and only gradually getting faster and more widespread, despite all other kinds of tech getting cheaper and faster.

in uk this is the norm for all phones : )

In Italy most phones are sold unsubsidized. It's the exception rather than the rule to see subsidized prices. In Austria, I would say it was about 50/50.

The problem in US isn't subsidization though.

The US problem is stupid carrier exclusivity!

Incredible how country that values freedom so much allows such lock-ins to exist!

The US is pretty weird for mobile stuff. Here in Europe, as far as I know, you basically just pop a different SIM in a phone and everything pretty much works. Also, you don't pay when someone calls you.

Yeah, and you don't pay when someone sms you!

By the way, that's why it was easy for Twitter to provide free sms forwarding in US (first). Operators would easily agree - they'll get the money from recipient.

Sure, though it's worth noting that you could already buy and activate an unlocked phone on most carriers. Most people don't because, well, unlocked phones are expensive and you typically don't get a discount on your service fee for buying one.

The cool thing here is that T-Mobile actually has a decent contract-less post-pay plan.

As usual, not available in Canada.

Same in Russia. We still didn't get iphone 3gs too. Certification issues, guess nothing Google could change.

I'm in Canada as well.

Could someone tell me: what is the unsubsidized price?

$530.

The unsubsidized price is US$529, but it operates on a frequency band that is incompatible with the Rogers 3G network, so that won't really help you Canadians, eh.

It operates WIND's network though. $70 for unlimited province-wide talk and data.

I was looking at WINDs pricing, and the unlimmited only seems to be in WIND home areas, and [for the time being] that didn't seem very large.

Also, while it looks like it will work on WIND, it won't be able to roam on Roger's 3G, which seems like it would be useful until they have a more complete network roll-out.

But it should work with Wind Mobile (http://www.wind.ca).

"Home Zones" only in Toronto and Calgary right now, though.

http://care.windmobile.ca/Support/CoverageMap/roaming.aspx

Doesn't look like it's available in the UK yet either.

Even when it is available in Canada, my main concern will be who is going to offer it, and how outrageous will the pricing be. After seeing the way Rogers has handled the iPhone (Apple was a willing accomplice, to be fair), I figure it can only get better.

via http://twitter.com/WIND_Chris:

    Wow! Lots of interest in the Nexus. http://bit.ly/5XZQ9e
    Yep, works on AWS, and we're chatting with them... will 
    let everyone know soon.

Yeah, the same for Ireland here. "Sorry, the Nexus One phone is not available in your country."

The interesting thing that I haven't seen many talk about is that the subsidized phone is still apparently unlocked. Which makes it great for traveling etc. This alone would be a really big deal for me.

This also means that as long as you stick with the plan for at least 120 days you can get out of the contract and still use the phone for TMobiles $200 early termination fee.

While I love my iPhone it really annoys me that there is no way I can pay AT&T to unlock it like I would be able to in most European countries.

T-Mobile has unlocked all my subsidized phones for me. Unlike most providers, you just have to ask and they send you the code. I believe you have to be a customer in good standing for a few months first.

The screen is a 3.7 inch AMOLED 480x800@250 DPI!! Awesome!! This is better than laser printing resolution!

For values of 'better' meaning '30% lower', sure.

No. 300 DPI printing is not the same as 300 DPI on screen, because one dot on screen can be multiple colors (depending on the color depth, typically 16,777,216 can be expected), while one dot on paper is, well, either black or white. So for the same DPI, screen outperforms paper. 250 DPI on screen will definitely beat 300 DPI on paper.

After a quick search, I see you can get a 1200 dpi black and white laser printer for less than $100. Colour printers can overlay colours or pre mix the ink.

And modulate the size of the dots.

Unless you want to print every web page you want to read on the go and carry them in your backpack (get a BIG one).

I'd rather have a better screen than thinking about printing.

So a color laser printer do dithering?

Yes. There's a reason why photo printers are inkjets; you can mix liquids on the paper. Toner does not mix.

yeah, but unlike paper you can't see anything on it in bright sunlight

It's an OLED, which tend towards being extremely readable in sunlight.

True. And in case the sunlight is strong enough to make an OLED unreadable, you should probably not reading papers either -- that's very bad for your eyes.

http://www.oled-info.com/oleds-direct-sunlight

Sure.

yes awesome! since your fingers don't get any smaller, maybe that's why they decided to put a trackball on a cell phone. perhaps there will also be a separately sold stylus.

You can't use a stylus with a capacitive screen.

well, there are styluses for built for capacitive screens, check the local Apple store POS.

You can with wacom screens which are capacitive and support both stylus and fingers

Cintiq displays require a stylus. There are buttons on the side you can tap with your finger though.

I was hoping that as an existing T-Mobile customer, I'd be able to use one of those "upgrade discounts" for the Nexus One. The good news is that I can, the bad news is that as an existing customer I get the unsubsidized price:

Congratulations! You qualify for an upgrade. There may be changes to your service plan and your contract will be renewed for 2 years from the activation of your upgraded phone.

Phone $529.00

Service Plan Discount - $150.00

Total: $379.00 (excluding tax and shipping)

That's pretty sweet. If it's unsubsidized it's unlocked right?

He's saying he gets the unsubsidized price with the subsidized restrictions (meaning it's locked).

I also am a T-Mo customer (whose contract has expired) and wondered if I would get a good deal by signing up for another 2 years. It turns out it's actually MORE for me to sign up as an existing customer: Phone $529.00 Service Plan Discount - $250.00 Total: $279.00 (excluding tax and shipping)

This is really stupid and is just insulting. I mean if I just cancel my current plan and get a new one I can get it for $179 but as a current customer who has been with them for years (out of contract!) I have to pay $100 more.

I'm in the same boat as you - I'm out of contract.

Also it's especially confusing since the pricing page doesn't say that the $179 is only for new T-mobile customers.

You may get a better deal if you buy unsubsidized but stay with your current plan. You may need to first change some of the options on your plan. For example, I currently have a "feature phone" with $6/month 3G "T-mobile web" access. As far as I can tell, I can get the Nexus unsubsidized and continue with this plan. This would be substantially cheaper than $180 + $80/month over 24 months.

Oh, that's terrible. T-Mobile has been great to me (but I've never been under contract with them, came to them with an unlocked phone) I would say I can't believe that's how it is, but I've learned to quit be astounded by customer abuse by pretty much all telcos.

The blogs were saying that even if you buy it with T-mobile service, you get an unlocked phone. It's only the contract that locks you in with T-mob, not the phone.

That's exactly as I understand it.

If you're eligible to upgrade, are you eligible to cancel your service? (Followed by becoming a "new customer" 5 minutes later)

You want to keep the same phone number, right?

Isn't that what Google Voice is for (assuming you've generated a new number in GV)?

I just ordered one myself for $529, free overnight shipping and $0 tax to Honolulu, Hawaii. I couldn't be more excited!

I heard that T-Mo just got their 3G up and running in HNL. Great device to test it out on!

This is quite bland... I'm trying hard to see how this particular device is innovative and I just don't see it.

Different branding, ok, better screen, ok, you can get it unlocked for an astronomical price and use it with a carrier of your choice, ok. So is every other new phone.

It's Android and Android is the future or something? What am I missing?

I bet Nexus One has a problem on battery usage, and this is one of the most critical things on smartphones, and RIM's guys know this very well.

You cannot get an out of battery in a middle of the day. If you work outside as many of you, this is an essential feature.

This happens often on many new smarphones, specially with processors so fast, they run out of battery.

I can use my BlackBerry Bold all day without a charge (using 3g), I doubt can do the same thing with this.

Also the price is prohibitive outside USA.

I've been doing lots of BlackBerry hacking lately (working on the Hecl port), and compared to Android, those guys just don't "get it". Everything is a pain in the neck, very fiddly, Windows only, and often quirky. They're nice devices, but RIM just doesn't strike me as being able to turn around and produce a development experience that's pleasant.

In terms of that price, it's 368 euros at current rates, which is certainly high, but about what you'd see for other high end phones, and a lot lower than you'd pay for an iPhone.

Usually vendors "forget" to use proper exchange rates and instead use something closer to the nominal USD price in euros.

Yep. Apple prices recently have been pretty much one to one even though the Euro was hovering around $1.50. It will be interesting to see what they do with this.

I've been playing with the Nexus One pretty heavily for the past 24 hours and I can confirm that the battery is basically what you'd expect. Heavy usage means you won't make it through the day, but you can easily do so on reasonable web surfing/texting and moderate numbers of phone calls.

I'm not going to miss much about my 2003-era Nokia brick, but week-long battery life sure has been nice. =\

From David Pogue ( http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/06/technology/personaltech/06... )"The Nexus can accommodate memory cards up to 32 gigabytes (a 4 gigabyte card comes with it) — and yet, inexplicably, the Nexus allots only the tiniest sliver of that (190 megabytes) for downloaded apps."

If this is a hard limit, this will be a total dealbreaker.

What is this term "hard limit" of which you speak? Is it something related to proprietary software?

It's an Android limit, apparently: http://forums.anandtech.com/showpost.php?p=29157252&post...

Yes and no.

The "No" part: Android system has (at least) three partitions - system, cache and data. Data is where applications get installed. Cache is used, well, for caching data and it must be at least the same size as system (because it holds system image when updating over the air).

I don't know for sure how it is partitioned in N1, just guessing: the data partition is 192M, leaving 160M for system and 160M for cache.

The "Yes" part: android partitions on proprietary hardware (and N1 is proprietary hardware, just as G1/ADP1 is) are defined in proprietary boot loader. There is currently no way to change them without going through the risk of having $500 brick on your table.

I really do not understand what all the fuss was about. It's just another HTC Android phone. What does Google really even have to do with it (any more than all the other Android phones)? It seems like HTC could've just held their own press conference without involving Google but of course then there'd be no hype!

There you are answering your own question.

It seems another difference is that this time HTC is just a subcontractor, while Google really takes over marketing of N1.

I guess from that viewpoint it's moderately interesting but as a phone it's really not much to get excited about compared to other modern Android phones like the Droid. Bah... I was expecting something huge!

The Droid is CDMA, which is a deal-killer for anyone travelling internationally. Also it's the first time in the US that a major phone has been sold with an option to buy it without a contract. This is fantastic from a user freedom perspective as Telco contracts in the US are typically quite abusive.

Too bad there are no plans on offering this as a development phone along with the G1 and G3

Does anyone know if I can buy a Nexus One and use it without a cell phone plan? Or if not, is there any Android phone that I can buy to use without a sim card?

Yes

You could certainly buy one and use it with a non-contract pay as you go kind of plan. To use voice, of course, you would need some sim card. Or do you want to just use it with wifi, like an iPod touch?

I just want it to use with wifi, like an iPod Touch

But you could use Google Voice without a sim card, right?

The Nexus One doesn't ship with a sim when you purchase the unlocked version. In that case it would be an iPod Touch... you'd rely on WiFi for all data usage.

Another twist that I keep looking at is to do a data-only plan (TMO is $40/mo) and use it with VOIP.

http://www.t-mobile.com/shop/plans/cell-phone-plans-detail.a...

So the Google Voice app doesn't do any fancy VoIP, it just uses the phone as a phone? What happens if you just have WiFi and try to use GV?

I'd say that, although this is the best Android phone yet, the phone itself is not revolutionary.

The most important aspect of this story will be if the sales model catches on: buying your phone one place, and activating it another. The more people shop for the best phone, then for the best network, the more competitive pressure is on both to improve.

Does anyone know if the speech recognition for text fields is done onboard the phone, or uploaded to Google?

I have no knowledge or hardware, but I'd bet on it being server-side.

I hope that's not the case. If you're out of a 3G area it would not work (right).

Hmm, good point. I was assuming that it'd be too slow on the client, but maybe the opposite is actually true.

I have a T-Mobile plan right now - went to check on upgrade pricing through google's site but apparently their servers have crashed. I'm thinking I may wait for Verizon to get the phone...

Getting the same thing as of 3:54pm EST:

We are currently unable to process your request for service with T-Mobile.

T-Mobile's servers are busy or unreachable.

You can try again later, or you can purchase the unlocked phone without service.

It no doubt is the nicest Android phone to date, but for the most part it sounds like it has been wildly over-hyped.

The only thing that seems to make this a "Google Phone" is that Google is selling it.

... And Google made all the software for it. What more do you want? Google Fab?

Well, if Microsoft was selling a "Microsoft Phone", you'd expect something more than just a phone (albeit a nice one) with Windows Mobile installed, wouldn't you?

Not at all. Just like when I use a "Microsoft mouse" I don't expect it to navigate for me. It's a mouse.

I assume he meant "as opposed to all the other Android phones"

"Sorry, the Nexus One phone is not available in your country."

Definitely doesn’t beat the iPhone IMHO, but Google are moving at such lightning fast pace, I'm guessing we might see a Nexus 2 before the end of the year.

Really disappointed there isn't Verizon support yet :(

Spring 2010 is only a few months away =)

Tech specs indicate 802.11n; does anyone know if there's actually any noticeable difference in n over g when using a mobile processor/device?

I doubt it but it's allows you to run your N access point in native mode with no B/G compatibility if your SmartPhone was the last device holding you back from going straight N.

What's the monthly price of the plan with tmobile? For unlimited voice/data or whatever their closest option is?

If you buy the Nexus One with the T-Mobile plan, $79.99/month includes 500 minutes and unlimited data. It's detailed on the first step of the order process: https://www.google.com/phone/choose

Isn't the "T-Mobile Even More individual 500 Plan" $39.99 + $30 for unlimited data? This would come to $69.99, not $79.99.

Unlimited Domestic Messaging is an additional $10.00 not included in Android Unlimited Web.

Data is same as AT&T $30/month. I just traded in my HTC MDA for switching to AT&T and the iPhone 3GS. It cost about $5 more per month at AT&T total.

My same plan at T-Mobile was $100, new one at AT&T is $105ish.

I thought the tmo data plan was $25 per month... do you have a link to the $30 pricing?

Sorry, the Nexus One phone is not available in your country.

As usual, a crappy carrier unless you want to shell out the $530. God I hate all these contractual obligations. AT&T bends over backwards for the iPhone, where's my Nexus One love :(

It's not compatible with AT&T's 3G network, so it would make very little sense for AT&T to offer a subsidy. Waiting until the CDMA version ships will net you the ability to have it on a large network with a subsidy.

i would hardly call t-mobile crappy when compared to at&t.

Reception is, though. At my office T-mobile phones just go dead as soon as you walk in, even next to a window. AT&T phones keep working at full bars.

This is in Seattle btw, I was on T-mo for 4 months, and coverage will drop to zero in the most inexplicable urban spaces.

so the whole company is crappy because of one dead zone in your office? i'm sure you can find dead zones on any network.

when you compare things like customer service, rate plans, at&t's refusal to support tethering (which t-mobile allows), and phone availability (how many android phones does at&t have?), t-mobile doesn't look that bad.

It's not just my office - a great number of indoor spaces here in Seattle had the same problem.

I agree T-mo has much better customer service and terms, but at the end of the day my phone has to work, and in Seattle it's very, very hit and miss.

I'm in Seattle also, and I only lose 3G on my T-m G1 when I'm underground in the bus/light rail tunnels. YMMV?

I've been with T-Mobile on my G1 for 6 months. I get great 3G service in the Cleveland and New York areas... even customer service is fast and helpful. Just FYI. I'm a T-Mobile fan.

So what's a good carrier? T-Mobile - Nexus One Verizon - Droid Sprint - Hero

Are you holding out for a Cricket Android phone?

I'm not sure why T-Mobile is so hated on. I've never had problems with them, and haven't had any dropped calls I can think of. AT&T is total garbage, especially with iPhone users supersaturating the network. The "Even More Plus" plans basically translate to contract-free. I pay $59 a month for unlimited data/text, unlimited nights and weekends, unlimited t-mo to t-mo, and get 500 minutes. I don't talk a ton, so it's perfect. My equivalent iPhone plan was $99 a month, for lesser service.

T-Mobile is also significantly less evil than other carriers in that they're the only ones who are willing to unlock phones for their customers. Of course in a perfect world they wouldn't have the gall to sell you a locked phone in the first place, but if you explain that you're travelling internationally, they're usually quite obliging.

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