Google Nexus One (N1)/HTC Incredible

[r0bman]

And I'm making the new thread about it.

Now watch as I edit in cushy details so that mods don't have to go through the PITA of selecta-merge...



actual numbers:

Originally Posted by skywatcher

3300Kb/s down
1142Kb/s up
47ms ping

Edgadget did a "review":

http://www.engadget.com/2010/01/04/nexus-one-review/


... and now I sit patiently and await Verizon's version and my impending New-in-two so I can decide between this and the Droid.

* Registered users of the site do not see these ads.

[97whitesi]

someone *cough* sky *cough* needs to take his phone outside and give us a real answer as to whether it works well or not.

[chris619]

fullerton made me stop reading the other thread

god damn, his bitching reminded me of my bitch of an ex.

it gave me douche-chills

anyways:

here's some pretty pictures so my post isn't off-topic:







PS. Like i said in the other thread, i'll be getting it IF Apple doesn't release their next iPhone with matching or greater processing power and RAM. I want the fastest browsing phone and while the iPhone 3G ain't bad it's still not fast enough to keep me loyal to AT&T ****ty coverage.

Do or die, apple.

[skywaffles]

Originally Posted by 97whitesi

someone *cough* sky *cough* needs to take his phone outside and give us a real answer as to whether it works well or not.

The screen is superb. It's snowing and not very bright outside though, it'll have to wait.

[markman]

More of a general Android question: Is there an RDP/VNC client available for Android?

[97whitesi]

Originally Posted by skywatcher

The screen is superb. It's snowing and not very bright outside though, it'll have to wait.

damn. I wanted to get an answer on that from an impartial source

[prlde91]

Where the hell is FedEx?

[The Dayman]

The fedex guy just left. I'd love to give my impressions but it's charging. The screen does look amazing so far though.

[r0bman]

Hands on from a Droid owner:

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2357810,00.asp

LAS VEGAS—On Wednesday night, I spent 20 minutes poking around on the Google Nexus One, the latest smartphone to run Google's Android operating system. As a Motorola Droid owner, I was upset with the fact that my handset is now only the second-fastest Android device, though I was eager to take the Nexus One for a spin – and definitely liked the ride.

The OLED screen on the Nexus One is spectacular—blacks looked inky black. Next to an iPhone and Motorola Droid, the colors on the Nexus One were vivid.

didn't find the body of the Nexus One to be as spectacular as its display, but it's just my taste. It's thin and sleek like an iPhone, but has a plastic feel whereas every part of the iPhone feels like a sheath of glass.

The Android experience is just flat-out fast. Not to say my Motorola Droid is slow; applications consistently load and close extremely fast and applications fly. But what is not consistent are the flashy graphics transitions that take place when I close applications. Sometimes an application will dissolve into the homescreen; sometimes it will just flash to the homescreen. The dissolving transitions on the Nexus One were consistently smooth, though I don't know if it's because it has a faster processor or because it has the newer software build, Android 2.1 versus the Motorola Droid Android 2.0.1.

A few new additions in Android 2.1 include a quick view of all your homescreens, a weather and Google news app and a revamp of the screen where all of the applications are laid out. They were all svelte. There's also animated wallpapers which are cute, but feel gimmicky and probably are just a waste of battery.

The touch screen keyboard was terrific, though it didn't feel radically better the Motorola Droid.

Nitpicks aside, you're dealing with a spectacular handset. Bottom line, the Google Nexus One will likely not disappoint.

The Google Nexus One will be sold directly through Google's website unlocked for $529.99 or $179.99 with a 2 two-year service plan on T-Mobile. It will also be available on Verizon Wireless in the spring, though pricing was not yet announced.

For more on the Nexus One and the Google Phone Store see Mobile Analyst Sascha Segan's column and our take on how the Nexus One stacks up against the competition in terms of network, processor, and more. Check back at www.pcmag.com for a full review.

... so, uh, what does "svelte" mean?

[Sideshowbob]

I can't wait to hear some more long term Otter feedback.


Mod edit-
Handled.

-4x4GGG

[affinity1]

carbon fiber background omg want

[Whitford]

Originally Posted by r0bman

Hands on from a Droid owner:

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2357810,00.asp


... so, uh, what does "svelte" mean?

Hmmm, plot thickens.

[skywaffles]

I finally figured out the point of the trackball, it controls the shutter on the camera. Nifty.

[mac35]

Anyways, trying to stay on topic. Giz had a hands on way back in late December that had some good impressions (and in a lot of ways a lot on contradictions to the Engadget review).

http://gizmodo.com/5432678/google-nexus-one-hands-on

Beware wall of text!

Thanks to a clandestine meeting with a source, I got a chance to play with and try out the Nexus One. It's basically, from my time with it, Google's Droid killer. It's thin, it's fast, it's better in every way.

My source was very firm about no photography, and I didn't want to jeopardize anything on my source's end, so there are no photos, hence these photos are ones we've already shown you. But, based on all the leaked shots this week, plus the very pretty and very clear one last week from Boy Genius, everyone knows what the phone looks like already. Hell, there's even a complete UI walkthrough today that's on YouTube. So I'm going to focus on the experience, and how it compares to the Droid and the iPhone 3GS.


How it feels
The Nexus One is slightly thinner than the iPhone 3GS, and slightly lighter. No hard specs were thrown around, unfortunately, since Google didn't even let people who they gave the phone to know that. The back is definitely not cheap and plasticky, like the iPhone's backing, and feels like some sort of rubbery material. So, not smooth like the iPhone, but not as rubbery as the Droid. It's halfway in-between.

You can call the design the antithesis of the Droid: smooth, curved, and light, instead of hard, square and pointy. It feels long and silky and natural in your hand—even more so than the iPhone 3GS. There are also three gold contacts on the bottom designed for future docking (possibly charging?) use, but there aren't any accessories available for the phone now. It plugs in via microUSB at the moment.


That screen is damn good
Even though the screen is the same size and same resolution as the Droid, it's noticeably better. The colors are much more vibrant and the blacks are blacker, as evidenced by putting both side by side and hitting up various websites and loading various games. The pinks on Perez Hilton and the blues on Gizmodo just popped a lot more on the N1, and made the Droid (which was actually considered to have a great screen) seem washed out. The same feeling carries over when you compare the Nexus with the iPhone 3GS. And it's pretty damn bright, compared to the other two phones.

This is probably the best screen we've seen on a smartphone so far. Probably.

Why is it so fast?
Google just gave Motorola (and Verizon) a swift shot to the TSTS, because the Nexus One is astonishingly faster than the Droid. The speed dominance was most evident when we compared the loading of webpages, but even when you're just scrolling around, launching apps and moving about the OS, you could tell that there's a beefier brain inside the N1. I don't know the specs for sure, but there's talk of a 1GHz processor being inside, which would push it quite a ways above the 550MHz Arm A8 in Motorola's newest toy.

When comparing the three phones in loading a webpage over Wi-Fi, the Nexus One loaded first, the iPhone 3GS came in a few seconds later, and the Droid came in a little while after that. This was constant throughout many webpage loads, so it's indicative of something going on inside with the hardware.

I ran all three through a Javascript benchmark engine for some quantifiable numbers, and while the results were similar between the Nexus One and the iPhone 3GS, the Droid still came up at about 60% of the other two. Surprisingly enough, Mobile Safari on the iPhone scored better on the Javscript benches than the Nexus did, even though the Nexus was able to pull down and render actual web pages faster. Note that I didn't list actual numbers here, for privacy reasons.

That crazy video background
You've no doubt heard about the animated video backgrounds, but they're actually more than just animations: you can interact with them.


The default background is the square/8-bit like one shown above, where lines of colored squares come in from different sides of the screen. What's neat (even if it is superfluous and battery draining) is that you can tap anywhere on the desktop in a blank space and trigger dots to spread out from your tap. Basically, press anywhere to cause blocks to fly outwards. The same thing happens in the "water" background, except instead of blocks, you cause ripples in the water.

What's also neat are the two virtual sound meters, which act as a visualizer for whatever music you're currently playing on your phone. There's one analog one that looks like one of the old ones with a red needle, and a "digital" one that looks similar to ones you see elsewhere. Sorta neat in itself, but it shows that the interactive backgrounds can actually interact with apps, as long as one knows the other's APIs.

Other bits
The 5-megapixel camera is nice, and the flash works well enough for a flash on a phone, but it's not spectacular, as seen by early photos taken and uploaded online by Googlers. There is autofocus, and you activate it with the trackball on the face of the phone. There is no tap-to-focus as see on the iPhone 3GS.

There's no multitouch in the browser or in the map, but I think at this point that's more of a legal consideration than a technical one, since many phones that run Android have the capability of supporting multitouch on a hardware level.

Playing back music over the speakers sounded decent, but not great. It's definitely in need of a dock—like all smartphones—if you want to listen to music for a sustained period.

I didn't get a chance to call on it, because I wanted to keep this as anonymous as possible, and didn't want any sort of way to trace when I used the phone. From what other people say in their time with it, it functions fine as a phone, and should work as normally as other Android phones in the SMS/MMS department.

So what's this all mean?
If Google's planning on releasing this phone as their official Google phone, it'll certify them as the premium Android phone brand out there right now. Even though it doesn't have a hardware keyboard, it basically beats the hell out of the Droid in every single task that we threw at it. And face it, some people didn't like the Droid's keyboard because it was too flush and the keys were too unseparated with each other. N1's onscreen keyboard felt fine, and the speedy processor made sure that each key was interpreted well.

But in the end, it's still an Android phone. If you want Android phones, this is the one to get, provided Google goes ahead with the rumored plans of either selling it themselves or partnering with T-Mobile in a more traditional role. Droid, shmoid; Nexus is the one you're looking for.

[prlde91]

Originally Posted by Boner Champ

The fedex guy just left. I'd love to give my impressions but it's charging. The screen does look amazing so far though.

[4x4GGG]

Anyone think I'm kidding raise your hand.



























'Cause I'm not. Lets keep this thread above the usual OT par. Please. Thank you.

[chris619]

Eff it, i'm just going to stop replying to him. Everyone else should too.

Soooo here's another (positive) review:

The phone is 11.5 mm deep, slightly thinner than the iPhone 3GS at 12.3 mm. It is also slightly lighter than the iPhone 130 grams v. 135 grams). The package comes with the phone, a removable battery, 4 GB Micro SD storage card (expandable to 32 GB), USB charger and microphone headset.

The Nexus one has four functional touch buttons at the bottom of the screen (back, menu, home, search) and a navigation trackball pointing device. It also has physical power and volume controls. But most of your interaction with the phone will be through the gorgeous 3.7 inch 480 x 800 OLED capacitive touchscreen. This is the best mobile phone display on the market today, blowing away the iPhone’s 480 x 320 display. The screen is bright and alive, and an absolute pleasure to use.

This phone is also powered by the Snapdragon 1 GHz core processor, which is more than able to handle the Nexus One’s 3D graphics, multiple applications running in the background and heavy browser use simultaneously. Unlike previous Android phones, there is no slowdown or lag when you push the phone’s performance, and less of a need to kill applications to keep the device humming.

On the downside: all this hardware bling is an energy hog. The screen will self-adjust brightness and Google is smart about turning down the processor when it’s not being used. But I’ve found battery life to be woefully brief, even by iPhone standards. Officially the phone has up to 7 hours talk time, 250 hours standby, 5 hours of 3G Internet use, 7 hours of video playback and 20 hours of audio playback. Unofficially, TechCrunch was able to kill the fully charged battery with 1.5 hours of continuous gameplay (Robo Defense) on the full-brightness screen. Be prepared to keep this phone near a charger at all times. You can easily view what’s using the battery, though (the screen is 71% of my current usage), and then adjust the hardware or software usage to maximize battery life.

Overall the Android is a superior mobile device, particularly when paired with Google Voice. Google is calling this the first of the Super Phones. And they may not be exaggerating all that much.

http://news.myjoyonline.com/technology/201001/40185.asp

edit: forgot to include the notable features

Notable software features

The Nexus One, which runs the new Android 2.1, has a number of notable software features that make the phone a pleasure to use.

First, Google Voice is deeply integrated with the phone, as it is with all Android phones. That means you can assign your Google Voice number to the phone, and use it to make all outbound calls and text messages.

Google’s Voice Keyboard is amazing. It goes way beyond the Voice Search application that was launched in 2009. Every text field in the device is now voice enabled. In most apps you can choose the microphone button and talk into the phone, which then converts your speech to text. I’ve found it to be around 90% accurate with no background noise (dropping to around 70% accuracy in a moving car). It’s easy to then go in and edit out errors. It’s a massive time-saving feature of the phone.

The Live Wallpaper feature is pure eye candy, and fun. You can choose a variety of wallpaper settings like Grass (blades of grass wave gently in front of a day or night sky), Magic Smoke (my favorite, draws smoke, clouds, water and plasmas in eye popping colors), Water (touch it and it ripples), and a Polar Clock (presents the date and time as clockwise arcs).

The new clock application, which runs automatically in the charger doc, shows the time, local weather and has easy access buttons to the alarm, pictures and music. Keep a charger next to your bed and toss out that alarm clock.

Google will also offer a Settings Backup service that backs up profile, application, ringtone and other settings to the cloud. Setting up a new Android phone after using the backup service is a breeze.

Finally, Google has added a lot of nice graphical touches, including 3D scrolling of apps, and a new way of viewing photos using the CoolIris technology. Photos dip into the plane as it there is depth. Tipping the phone trips the accelerometer and the photos dip in the same way.

[nicad]

OK so my job's nda is lifted. Ask away!

[4x4GGG]

This is like hearding ****ing kittens.

[prlde91]

Originally Posted by nicad

OK so my job's nda is lifted. Ask away!

is there an easy way to take a screenshot without rooting?

[r0bman]

Originally Posted by nicad

OK so my job's nda is lifted. Ask away!

How do you take screenshots? Wanna run a speedtest?

[The Dayman]

Why are the kittens ****ing?

I keep glancing at the phone waiting for the orange charging light to be green.

[Matt K]

how much ram does this thing have?

[skywaffles]

Yeah I talked out a couple texts earlier. Thing works really well.

[Whitford]

How fast does it load videos on redtube?