Anand's Google Nexus One Review
by Anand Lal Shimpi on April 3, 2010 3:40 AM EST- Posted in
- Smartphones
- Mobile
The Browser
Web browsing is a pleasure on the Nexus One. The Android browser is WebKit based like Chrome, and Safari on the iPhone, and for the most part it behaves like the iPhone browser.
Pages load incredibly fast thanks to the Snapdragon SoC, unfortunately the choppy framerate while scrolling is very evident when using the browser. The screen is also perfect for viewing web pages although if you're actually trying to read anything you'll probably want to be in landscape mode.
The browser also offers more features than its iPhone counterpart (notice a trend?), you get the ability to search for text on a page and a download manager as well. The browser supports plugins and a laundry list of settings that are simply not present on the iPhone.
 |
 |
Managing all of these options does make the Android browser a bit more complicated. For basic browsing the functionality is the same as the iPhone, but to access any of the extras I mentioned above there are a couple more levels of menus you need to navigate through. Refreshing a page for example takes two presses instead of one on the iPhone. Accessing the download manager takes three.
Overall the screen and the faster SoC make web browsing on the Nexus One amazing compared to the iPhone. The biggest issue is that scrolling through web pages is choppy, which unfortunately detracts from how quick the phone feels.
Voice Recognition Beta...on your phone?
Spread throughout Android on the Nexus One is this icon:
It's a microphone and tapping it brings up this screen, allowing you to speak your input instead of type it:
 |
 |
Google will warn you that it's an experimental feature and may not work right, but in practice it seems to work very well. You can perform Google searches and dictate text messages. Apple offers a more limited voice recognition feature on the iPhone 3GS without dictation support as you may remember. As with most of the differences between these two platforms, Google's implementation of voice is more flexible while Apple's is more polished.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
95 Comments
View All Comments
KaarlisK - Saturday, April 3, 2010 - link
´´The graph below shows the rough costs of simply keeping up with fab technology every two years:´´Can´t seem to find it.
deputc26 - Saturday, April 3, 2010 - link
Thanks Anand, Great Review!windywoo - Sunday, April 4, 2010 - link
Taken out of context like that, the quote sounds like it is describing a graph of smartphone prices, laptops, e-readers :) Fab tech.Nihility - Saturday, April 3, 2010 - link
I just know that after experiencing any responsiveness issues, that within a few months I'll get really frustrated with the device.I still have an iPhone 2G and I hate it. Takes forever to launch apps, browsing the web is a miserable experience and the battery life sucks. I'm definitely in the market for a better phone but I think I'll just wait for something smoother.
One of my main gripes is that my navigation app for the iPhone takes ages to load and if I get a call mid-work I'll have to restart it. Hate that.
Like Anand said, on paper the N1 is perferct but I'll let them smooth out the rough parts before I get one.
Exelius - Saturday, April 3, 2010 - link
I had the same complaint of my iPhone 3G. I bought a 3GS the day it came out and it is a huge improvement over both the 2G and 3G in responsiveness. My girlfriend has a regular 3G and much prefers using my 3GS over her own phone when browsing the web or using the Maps application.If responsiveness is a problem on the iPhone platform, get a 3GS before ditching the iPhone completely. The hardware on the 3GS is roughly equivalent to the Nexus One.
Nihility - Saturday, April 3, 2010 - link
No way. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice...No more iPhones for me.
My main concern was all my apps, but most of them are available for the Android so there's nothing holding me back. I'll be glad to get rid of iTunes.
solipsism - Saturday, April 3, 2010 - link
You're comparing a phone from 2007 with an ARMv6 @400MHz w/ 128MB RAM and discounting the model that came two years later with ARMv7 @ 600MHz w/ 256MB RAM. Makes perfect sense¡KaarlisK - Saturday, April 3, 2010 - link
I love both the attention to detail and depth you have :)And I have to say that Android, not WinMo7, is the replacement for Windows Mobile 6.5 in my eyes. WinMo7 just isn´t WinMo :D
LuxZg - Sunday, April 4, 2010 - link
I agree, great review, I think I've never read anything that long about a phone :)And I agree with Android being a true Windows Mobile successor.. I don't have money for stuff like this, but if I did - I'd want all the freedom of my PC on my mobile as well. In that regard, Android seems to be the only option at the moment.
There is one thing that will clearly make lives of some people miserable.. Data rates in some countries are horrible, and smartphones all rely on mobile data connection heavily, but Nexus One is a data-hog champion by the looks of it. Hopefully, by the time I'll be able to afford phones like this one, this will be solved :)
macs - Saturday, April 3, 2010 - link
Thank you Anand, the review is great and as an owner of the Nexus One I agree with your thoughts.Android world is so wide that it's really hard to have a complete review and I think what is really missing here is something about the community around Android, XDA forum, CyanogenMOD , USB Tethering, WIFI Tethering,...