Google’s Nexus One Is Bold New Face in Super-Smartphones
Google this week is taking two dramatic steps to try to catapult devices using its Android mobile operating system into stronger competition with Apple’s (AAPL) iPhone and Research in Motion’s (RIMM) BlackBerry in the battle for supremacy in the super-smartphone category.
First, the search giant is bringing out a beautiful, sleek new Android phone, the Nexus One, built to its specifications. Second, it has decided to offer the new phone—and future models—to consumers directly, unlocked, via the Web, and then invite multiple carriers to compete to sell service plans and subsidized versions of the hardware.
One carrier is ready to support the Nexus One on day one: the U.S. arm of T-Mobile, a longstanding Google (GOOG) partner. The new Google Phone, built by HTC of Taiwan, will cost $529 unlocked direct from Google, at google.com/phone. It will cost $179 from T-Mobile online with a two-year contract that will set you back $79.99 a month.
Verizon Wireless (VZ) in the U.S. and Vodafone (VOD) in Europe will sell the Nexus One eventually at subsidized prices that haven’t yet been announced. All of this will take place on a Google-hosted Web site, a much easier way to buy a phone and service than is typical today, and one that promises to further weaken the power of the carriers.
The company also plans to sell the costlier, unsubsidized version to consumers in the U.K., Hong Kong and Singapore immediately. Like Americans who buy this unlocked version, these customers will have to purchase carrier service separately, something they should be able to obtain right away by just buying and inserting a SIM card from a carrier with compatible technology. (This initial unlocked phone won’t work with Verizon or Sprint in the U.S., nor on AT&T’s 3G network, only the latter’s slower network.)
The Nexus One has a larger screen than Apple’s phone, and is a bit thinner, narrower and lighter—if a tad longer. And it boasts a better camera and longer talk time between battery charges.
I’ve been testing the Nexus One for a couple of weeks and I like it a lot. It’s the best Android phone so far, in my view, and the first I could consider carrying as my everyday hand-held computer. It is a svelte gray device with a 3.7-inch, high-resolution screen; a thin strip of buttons underneath for home, back, menu and search; and a trackball.
The Nexus One finally has the right combination of hardware and software to give Android a champion that might attract more people away from their iconic iPhones and BlackBerrys. It has a larger screen than Apple’s phone, and is a bit thinner, narrower and lighter—if a tad longer. And it boasts a better camera and longer talk time between battery charges.
Also, because it will be available on the large, well-regarded Verizon 3G network, the Nexus One could tempt American iPhone users, tired of problems with AT&T (T), to switch.
The iPhone still retains some strong advantages. It boasts well over 100,000 third-party apps—around 125,000 by some unofficial estimates—versus around 18,000 for the Android platform. And it has vastly more memory for storing apps, so you can keep many more of them on your phone at any one time. On the Nexus One, only 190 megabytes of its total 4.5 gigabytes of memory is allowed for storing apps. On the $199 iPhone, nearly all of the 16 gigabytes of memory can be used for apps.
In fact, the $199 iPhone 3GS has roughly four times as much user-accessible memory out of the box, though the memory on the Nexus One can be expanded via memory cards. Apple also has a more-fluid user interface, with multitouch gestures for handling photos and Web pages.
As for the BlackBerry, its user interface looks older and clumsier with each passing day, but it has a beautiful physical keyboard many users love, while the Nexus One has a virtual, onscreen keyboard.
The Nexus One is packed with its own tricks. Its version of Android is essentially the same improved edition as the one that appeared on the Motorola (MOT) Droid back in November. But it has a few new features, including an experimental dictation capability. You just press a microphone icon on the keyboard and start talking, and the words appear. In my tests, this worked only adequately at best, and very poorly at worst, but Google insists it will learn and improve.
The phone also has handsome new visual features, including “live wallpaper,” with waving grass or pulsing colored lines; and a new zooming effect when you want to view icons that aren’t on your main screens. In addition, you can now view miniatures of your five main screens to help you navigate to the one you want.
The Nexus One also has all the key software features introduced in the Droid, including free turn-by-turn voice-prompted navigation.
In my tests, overall, the Nexus One worked very well. The latency I had seen in earlier Android phones is gone, due to a slicker version of the operating system and faster chips. The phone feels good in the hand and the screen is magnificent, with much greater resolution than the iPhone’s.
I like very much the way social-networking information, including status messages, is integrated into the contacts app. One tap on a person’s picture in Contacts lets you quickly choose whether to call, email or message her, or map her address—all without opening the contact card itself.
I also liked the pictures and videos I was able to take with the five-megapixel camera and flash, which I preferred to my iPhone’s camera. You can even view a photo slideshow or listen to music when the phone is in the optional desktop dock.
But there are some downsides to the Nexus One. Like all Android phones, it relies too much, in my view, on menus that create extra steps, including some menus that have a built-in “more” button to display a secondary menu of choices.
I also found the four buttons etched into the phone’s bottom panel sticky and hard to press. In addition, although the Nexus One claims seven hours of talk time versus five hours for the iPhone, most of its battery-life claims for other functions are weaker than Apple’s.
For instance, Google claims just 6.5 hours of Wi-Fi Web use per charge, versus nine for the iPhone, and 20 for music playback versus 30. Google claims this is because, unlike Apple, it allows the simultaneous use of third-party apps, which can drain the battery faster.
In addition, the Nexus One, and other Android devices, still pale beside the iPhone for playing music, video and games. The apps available for these functions aren’t nearly as sophisticated as on the Apple devices.
Finally, the iPhone is still a better apps platform. Not only are there more apps, but, in my experience, iPhone apps are generally more polished and come in more varieties.
But, with its fresh phone and bold business model, Google is taking Android to a new level, and that should ramp up the competition in the super-smartphone space.
Find all of Walt Mossberg’s columns and videos online, free, at the All Things Digital Web site, walt.allthingsd.com. Email him at mossberg@wsj.com.
Write to Walter S. Mossberg at walt.mossberg@wsj.com
Comments
best thing about android is it will force apple to open iphone to all carriers
Posted by samharrison at January 5th, 2010 at 8:25 pmWalt – If you paid attention to the Q&A session, they said that they plan on enabling app storage on the sd cards in the near future. The reason this is currently not supported is due to protecting app developers from having their works pirated. As soon as they have an app-signing method that protects downloaded content, this limitation will no longer exist.
The iphone may have 16gb – but that's a hardbound upper limit. After the android apps are signable, there isn't the same limitation due to the fact the sd card storage is user replaceable.
Posted by maxluebbe at January 5th, 2010 at 9:10 pm“the Nexus One, built to its specifications. “
I am puzzled if this is a Google phone or an HTC phone. Who do you call for customer support? It is bizarre that this phone has two logos on the back of it. Who stands behind it? If Google, why did they feel they had to give HTC credit?
Google is speaking from both sides of its mouth. If they want to be a handset manufacturer then there is no need to mention HTC, it is manufactured under contract. Even Apple phones are not strictly made in Apple owned factories, yet that is not something they advertise.
Posted by tmeyer2000 at January 5th, 2010 at 9:28 pmToo bad that TMoble is the only provider that offers less expensive plans to people who don't want a subsidized phone from them. I think the memory issue is overstated. My droid 'only' has 256MB. I have dozens of apps installed, and I am only using about 1/3 of the memory. On to more important things — does the Nexus have an external notification indicator?
Posted by bruder at January 5th, 2010 at 10:01 pmIt's to bad that t-mobile is the only provider that offers lower costs plans that exclude the extra phone subsidy. I'm not sure the internal memory is an issue. I have dozens of apps installed on the droid and am only using 1/3 of the memory. Does the Nexus have an external LED for message indication?
Posted by bruder at January 5th, 2010 at 10:13 pmThe iPhone is open to all carriers. There are over 100 carriers who sell the iPhone and even more who run it on their networks. You can travel from country to country and run your iPhone with no problem.
If you're unhappy that Verizon and Sprint use proprietary networking technology that requires specially built phones made specifically for them that can't run on any other network in the world, then you should take that up with Verizon and Sprint. Those carriers can't run 99.9% of the world's phones, it's not just iPhone they can't run.
Posted by Hamranhansenhansen at January 5th, 2010 at 10:28 pmThe “ball” has a multi-colored LED underneath it for notifications.
Posted by Eli Ben-Shoshan at January 5th, 2010 at 11:21 pmThe trackball serves double duty as the indicator led.
Posted by maxluebbe at January 5th, 2010 at 11:21 pmWalt is reviewing the unit he has now, not making excuses for Android's flaws. Out of all the smartphones, Android is least deserving of future excuses for lacking features because every year is another “this year will be the year of Android” and Android is 5 years old at Google and 7 years old altogether.
It's hilarious to hear you defend Android by saying Google will add code signing to the apps to fix the memory problem after all the knocks the Apple App Store has taken from Android enthusiasts for code signing. I thought the whole point of Android apps was they were going to be “open”? Unless Google is going to sign malware, they are going to be rejecting apps, just like Apple.
I guess the future of Android is just to eat a little more crow every year as it adopts iPhone features that it once knocked as outrageous.
> The iphone may have 16gb – but that's a hardbound
> upper limit.
The biggest SD card is only 32GB, so the upper limit on Nexus One is 36GB. Last year's iPhone already comes in a 32GB version, and last year's iPod touch has 64GB. The 2010 iPhones that are contemporaries of Nexus One will likely have 32GB for $200, which is 12GB more than the $200 Nexus One, and 64GB for $300, which is 28GB more than it's possible to put into a Nexus One. And the 2010 iPod touch will likely have 128GB.
Yes, you can swap cards in a Nexus One, but you can also use iTunes to manage data in and out of an iPhone very easily without paying $100 per card. And very few users will ever swap the SD card in their Android phone. Especially when that is where all their 3rd party apps are (if they end up on there) because once you get into 3rd party apps, you end up with multiple GB of essential apps you can't live without. So if you want to use multiple 32GB cards, you'll have to put multiple copies of your essential apps on each card.
Posted by Hamranhansenhansen at January 5th, 2010 at 11:30 pmphysical keyboards are overrated. My BB tour has one and it sucks. give me a virtual keyboard any day.
Posted by res08hao at January 6th, 2010 at 12:28 amsd cards are very expensive.
Posted by res08hao at January 6th, 2010 at 12:29 amWhy don't we get the smartphone version of the Mossberg battery test? You know, the one: turn the brightness up, turn all radios (bluetooth, WIFI, etc.) on, and play continuous music until the battery runs out. This has become the benchmark for other devices but we're just accepting vendor claims for battery life now?
Posted by ryan_mc at January 6th, 2010 at 1:48 am“As for the BlackBerry, its user interface looks older and clumsier with each passing day,”
The only thing older and clumsier with each passing day is you, Walt.
Now, why don't you rock yourself to sleep while playing farting apps on your iPhone? Good boy.
Posted by ilmostrorosso at January 6th, 2010 at 3:28 amSuper-SmartPhone? Really? Why not the Super Duper SmartPhone?
Posted by thecreative at January 6th, 2010 at 5:12 amWhy can't a site about “the digital revolution” use a halfway-decent video player?
Posted by nosugrefneb at January 6th, 2010 at 5:14 am'Super-Smartphone'? What the heck does that even mean?
Posted by lenscraft at January 6th, 2010 at 7:52 amDo you have an idea when it's gonna be available in Canada?
Posted by Julie Girouard at January 6th, 2010 at 10:39 amI think code signing is only necessary for paid apps.
Posted by lxrose at January 6th, 2010 at 11:20 amAs for the storage capacity I don't think it really matters if it is 16 GB or 32 or even more. That is a hell lot of data for a mobile device.
Supercalifragilisticexpiali-smartphone
Posted by shuckster at January 6th, 2010 at 12:08 pmIf Mossberg says it loud enough to coin a brand new term
The geeks about the land will make a big collective face-palm
Supercalifragilisticexpiali-smartphone
The battery life issue is in fact in Google's favor since it has a REMOVABLE (and thus replaceable battery–you can have a spare!). Also in terms of on board memory, the Nexus has a SD card slot. SD cards are cheap these days—and frankly, I don't want a device that relies on some proprietary online store (iTunes) and has no SD card. If there is no sd capacity–I'm not interested. I find the iTunes concept limiting and clumsy.
Posted by monsieurms at January 6th, 2010 at 12:14 pmYou swap cards for files like ebooks and MP3s and videos–not apps. The Droid internal memory is adequate for apps, unless someone is the type of person who thinks every inane app (how many domino's pizza places are within 9 miles?) is necessary. Plus, iTunes management is clumsy and requires being online. Cards are a lot easier and more convenient–but in any event, they give you more flexibility. I really don't want to be tied to iTunes for life in order to manage a card.
Posted by monsieurms at January 6th, 2010 at 12:44 pmYou're out of your mind. I have games on my iPhone that take up more than 190 MB. Myst alone clocks in at 767 MB. When I downloaded a GPS application, it was over 1 GB, due to all the maps and things being downloaded.
A limitation of 190 MB makes the phone worthless. In fact, any limitation makes the phone worthless. The memory is there, why can it not be used? Is Android really that poorly written and conceived?
Posted by Otto at January 6th, 2010 at 3:54 pmThe BlackBerry UI IS clumsy, just ask RIM.
Posted by zeagus at January 6th, 2010 at 6:14 pmGoogle refers to it as a superphone, Walt didn't make that up.
Posted by zeagus at January 6th, 2010 at 6:15 pmThe BlackBerry UI IS the reason why BB outsells iPhone. The iPhone looks like it was designed by Fisher-Price. Based on your avatar, you look like the typical age of an iPhone user. Just ask Apple.
Posted by ilmostrorosso at January 6th, 2010 at 6:39 pmHa nice :) Always good to respond by acting like a total douche. The pic is 30+ years old. RIM shipped 10.1M devices last quarter and added 4.4M subs overall across a broad portfolio of devices while the iPhone 3GS sold 7.64M (sold not shipped). The BlackBerry sells not because of its cumbersome UI from 1999, but because it has good secure corporate messaging through BIS and BES. I mean it's gone down half a dozen times this quarter so they need to work on that, but that's the actual reason they sell.
Posted by zeagus at January 6th, 2010 at 6:51 pmBy the by on the subject of numbers its only taken 10 quarters for Apple to sell 31.43M iPhones and RIM just sold their 50Mth and its taken since 1999.
Posted by zeagus at January 6th, 2010 at 6:55 pmOh, of course. If Apple branded toilet paper, trendy loser lemmings like yourself would line up overnight at the nastiest gas station men's room to use it. You're over 30 and you use an iPhone? Really?
Posted by ilmostrorosso at January 6th, 2010 at 7:13 pmYou're ignorance is showing and you haven't the faintest idea what you're talking about. I don't own any other Apple products, but they got it right with the 3GS (no way I would've bought an iPhone up until OS 3.x). And once its jailbroken all the limitations are gone. I also own a Nokia E71, a Samsung Blackjack that just got retired and a bunch of other devices. Feel free to tell me what other things I own you think mean deeply meaningful things about me and I'll post them so we can all have a laugh at your further retarded rhetoric.
Posted by zeagus at January 6th, 2010 at 7:29 pmForgot to say thanks for once again ignoring the facts and responding with ad hominem attacks. You undermine your arguments more than my posts do.
Posted by zeagus at January 6th, 2010 at 7:30 pmFunny how Apple users think of Apple products as “high end.” Seriously, how can anything mass-produced in China be high end? Steve Jobs must laugh himself to sleep on a mattress of the money he bilks from you people.
I'm going across the street for a hamburger. You want anything?
Posted by ilmostrorosso at January 6th, 2010 at 7:42 pmNearly EVERYTHING tech is mass produced in China or Taiwan — Foxconn, HTC, ASUS, MSI, etc., etc. Whether the build quality is good or not depends on who in China or Taiwan you work with. Foxconn actually has a decent rep aside from some problems with power phase components (leaky caps) on motherboards years back. I've always railed against the Apple tax while building my own computers running Windows and Linux. Even with WINE/Cedega/Crossfire I find it's far less of a pain in the ass just to have a Windows box for gaming. Already ate, thanks :)
Posted by zeagus at January 6th, 2010 at 7:53 pm> The iPhone is open to all carriers.
By 'all', of course, you mean GSM carriers. And that's true enough, so long as you go with one of the official providers, Otherwise, let's hope you have no objections to jailbreaking your phone, or that you don't mind missing out on a highly-touted feature (cf: Apple commercials) like Visual Voicemail.
> If you're unhappy that Verizon and Sprint
> use proprietary networking technology …
> Those carriers can't run 99.9% of the world's
> phones
I think you're forgetting that CDMA is very popular, outside of Europe. That means – and I'm going from memory, here – iPhone is unusable to something like 250 million people in Africa and Asia, as well as the 125 million or so customers of Sprint & Verizon.
In case you were wondering, that adds up to a whole bunch of phone-using folks. And by 'whole bunch' I mean to say that it represents far more than a paltry “[1%] of the world's phones” as you've implied, here.
It's hilarious how you Apple goofs will twist the facts to suit your own warped perspectives. LOL
Posted by Justa_Notherguy at January 8th, 2010 at 8:33 am> Walt is reviewing the unit he has now, not
> making excuses for Android's flaws.
Yeah, so we should handle complaints the way Apple fanboys always do: claim “it's not a flaw, it's a feature!” and then belittle the complainant for having the gall to express even a single negative opinion. That sound about right, to you? Let me give it a go.:
- Cut & paste? Who needs it, you baby. Type!
- MMS? That's what e-mail is for, dummy!
- 3rd-party multitask? Drains the battery, idiot!
Hey, crazy logic is fun when you get to call people names. :-)
> Android is 5 years old at Google
4.5 yrs., actually. And that's since the company's acquisition (7/05), only. If you think a SWAT team of Googlers ran right over to Android, Inc., and seized control of the project, then you don't understand how the software biz works
> and 7 years old altogether.
…and if you think that the pre-Google Android OS bears much resemblance to the current one, you're nuts.
Besides, so what? Steve Jobs said iPhone brainstorming started @ 2002. So, by your thinking it's now 7 years old, right? 'Course, the original project was more like “the iPod Phone” so I guess that makes it 10? No, wait, the iPod patent – by Ken Kramer, whom Apple have publicly acknowledged as _the_ inventor – goes waaay back to 1979.
Wow, iPhone is a real geezer, technologically.
Hey, crazy history is fun. :-)
> [...] after all the knocks the Apple App Store
> has taken from Android enthusiasts for code
> signing.
The App Store has taken far more 'knocks' from independent devs – and even a number of iPhone users – than it has from Android fans. And that's with good reason. The system is maddeningly slow, perversely obtuse, and totally obscure to the outside world…well, except for the brand-new countdown thing that came about entirely due to the large number of whinging devs.
What Android fans find objectionable is less the fact of the App Store SOP than it's basic concept. Why should Apple tell me what to install on my pricey phone? And does anybody truly believe their rejections don't stem from self-interest, rather than purely from concerns about safety or security? If the latter, then how did Storm8 get a phone number-logger past the gatekeepers?
> The 2010 iPhones that are contemporaries of
> Nexus One will likely have …
It's hilarious to hear you make excuses for the iPhone by predicting what Apple will offer in 6-12 months. Let's stick to comparing the units we have now, bokay? LMAO
Posted by Justa_Notherguy at January 8th, 2010 at 9:21 amIt's hilarious to hear you make excuses for the iPhone by predicting what Apple will offer in 6-12 months. Let's stick to comparing the units we have now, bokay? LMAO
you keep knocking the IPhone, and Apple will continue to do well and outsell their products to their competitors. its the reason why they are quickly gaining ground on the RIM and corporate market.
you know you winmo fanboys are just as fanatical as others…pathetic.
Posted by mike Diaz at January 12th, 2010 at 10:09 amThis is actually a reply to Otto (for some reason I can't reply to him directly).
Myst and a big GPS application would be able to be installed on the Nexus One as well – only the executable (which is very small) must reside at the internal memory, and any resources/maps/whatever that the application uses can be on the SD.
Otto's last paragraph is so biased that it's not even worth replying to.
Posted by renbo at January 18th, 2010 at 1:11 pmThose people who play games–good for them. :) But I don't understand why this is such a big issue considering that they have already announced it will be fixed. Seems like a lot of venting to no good purpose.
________________________________
Posted by monsieurms at January 19th, 2010 at 8:24 pmI can see the Google Nexus One merging with the Google Landmark Recognition software and Google facial recognition sometime in the future. It may be considered an invasion of privacy and even creepy, but I can see where it gets to the point where you point your cell phone at someone walking down the street, take a picture of them and Google results for that person will come up. Nexus One may just be the beginning.
Posted by future technology at January 26th, 2010 at 7:48 pmUsing maps on the Ipad you can look at a house after the address is typed in. Cool App here!
Posted by ohiod at April 14th, 2010 at 11:05 am