24 hours with a Google Nexus One

For no apparent reason, I bought a Google Nexus One phone at the end of my round-the-world trip (while sitting in a hotel room in India while confusing Google that I was really in London). As the phone made it from the US to the UK (via East Midlands Airport and then to London Heathrow) I was making it from India to the UK, via Zurich Airport and then to London City. I did beat the phone, but only by a couple of hours.

I mentioned that I’d got one, and a few people have asked what I think of it.

So, to my first 24 hours with a Nexus One, seen through the eyes of an Apple iPhone user for the past couple of years. This is done without reading the instruction manual, as is my usual way of using new electronics; I always read the manuals cover-to-cover after a week, to learn new tricks.

Buying the phone
Yay: the link to DHL meant I knew exactly when it was going to arrive.
Yay: it’s unlocked!

Initial setup isn’t great
Boo: On setup, it asks you for a ‘Google Account’. And, as any Google Apps user knows, sometimes this can also mean a Google Apps account (my @cridland.net one), or sometimes you can only use a @gmail.com account. My first step, therefore, was to, um, Google to discover that a Google Apps account was actually acceptable as signup.
Boo: It didn’t automatically know what the settings were for my O2 iPhone contract; so it attempted to try and set up the phone without a data connection. In its credit, it knew enough to tell me this, and to offer me the chance of setting up a wifi connection, so I was able to complete setup. I then had, yes, another Google session to discover the correct settings for an O2 iPhone contract on the Nexus One.
Boo: Once I’d nearly completed setup, it had noticed that there was an update of Android available for download, and that just dumped me right back to the beginning again.
Yay: Once I’d managed the above on the new build of Android, I didn’t have to set up silly things like my email or calendar: it just did it all automatically. Most impressive setup.
Yay: I didn’t need to plug it into a computer and download bazillions of pieces of software. Take that, Apple! (And I still haven’t had to plug it into a computer).

Google integration is excellent
Yay: Send me an email, and it pings the phone (and the Gmail client is excellent). The calendar automatically updates as soon as I change it on the website (or vice-versa). The contacts work perfectly. And it lets my @gmail.com account coexist with my Google Apps @cridland.net one.
Meh: However, I was already doing all this on the iPhone: with push email, contacts and calendar. True, it required a little setting up, but once I’d done that, it worked just perfectly too. This isn’t a complete win for a Nexus One.
Yay: I assumed that ‘Gallery’ (with an icon that looks like a photo gallery) was going to be empty; but to my amazement, it isn’t. It uses my Picasa photographs too, and other things. Very neat.
Yay: Google Voice is hidden from UK users, but easy to activate if you know how. I forward my calls to it; it’s perfectly handled on this phone.

Build quality
Yay: I rather liked the (free) engraving service. I nearly put my mobile number on it, and then realised how stupid that would be. It’s not really ‘engraved’ as such, but it’s nice having my email address on the back of the phone.
Yay: The display is much clearer. Much clearer. Yum.
Meh: It uses a micro USB cable, and not a mini USB cable. Now, this is the standard, so it probably should have a ‘yay’, but everything I have in this house (with the exception of the iPhone) uses a mini USB cable, so it’s a bit of a nuisance. I’ll survive.
Boo: The screen is significantly less touch-sensitive than the iPhone, and requires a little more pressure. I’m also convinced that the screen is calibrated slightly too ‘low’ for my fingers; I’m forever hitting the wrong thing.

Included software apps
Yay: Google Maps is much better than the iPhone, with the inclusion of Latitude and a significantly better display. Google itself is constantly including local results in everything, which is excellent. And multitouch and things just work.
Yay: The browser is very snappy, and also works rather well when you double-click, reformatting parts of the page to make it more visible.
Yay: The location field in ‘calendar’ is clickable and opens Google Maps, so I can see where the meeting is. C’mon, Apple, it’s not that hard…
Yay: I can invite people to meetings with the calendar app, rather than have to jump onto the PC.
Yay: Google Talk works brilliantly. And in the background, too! Yay!
Boo: If I go into the calendar and search, it does a web search. Huh? I just wanted to find out when I had a meeting with Bill, can’t I just search for Bill? Seemingly not.
Boo: The calendar’s UI is inconsistent; I have to drag up and down in calendar view, but left and right in day view, to get to the next month or day. That’s a bit silly.
Boo: The Gmail app is great, but do I really have to scroll right down to the bottom of the message, past the pointless terms and conditions and stuff, to get to the ‘reply’ button? Why doesn’t it float like it does on the iPhone web client?
Boo: The keyboard is really odd to get used to, and I keep missing the space key. And the full-stop, while in a better place than the iPhone, is in a different place and therefore irritating to hit.
Boo: No world clock application? Pthrhrhrt.
Boo: While faster than the iPhone, it’s not as whizz-bang; no nice animations, and the whole interface looks a little less polished.

Downloadable software apps on the Android Market
Yay: Spotify is here, and way better than the iPhone version (not least since it works in the background)
Yay: Last.fm is here, and scrobbles the music I listen to on this device, and last.fm radio works great too
Boo: No proper Skype. Instead, something called SkypeLite, which doesn’t do the job at all. Pointless.
Yay: Google Listen is a nice little app which may well totally change my consumption of podcasts. Very nice indeed.
Yay: That Layars augmented reality thing is very cool indeed.
Yay: beebPlayer is everything that a decent BBC iPlayer app should be, complete with live TV and live radio. Picture quality is disappointingly poor, however, and seems to use a version of the video which is very badly topped/tailed.
Boo: Not too many radio apps (and most that are, are Spodtronic ones). Special mention to Absolute (for a hobbled thing that doesn’t work in the background) and Capital (for a very basic app that does at least play in the background – but sadly only contains Capital and not LBC). I can’t find an alternative to Wunderradio – anyone?
Boo: Curiously, the very thing that gets in the way of the iPhone – Apple’s requirement to review apps before release – is the thing that is a problem on this Android phone. There are hundreds of apps in Android Market that are quite simply appalling; copyright-violations in their iconography (one uses Apple’s Safari logo as a compass app!), and some that look like password phishing programs (“Facebook Pro”, anyone) or simple spam. The complete lack of any quality control is actually rather frustrating. Further, Android Market isn’t actually that great – the search functionality lacks Google’s spelling auto-correct, and the order it returns appears almost randomly generated, rather than based on popularity or anything else discernable. Some apps have very odd UI indeed, and some look hideous. “Wheat from the chaff” has never been more valid – and it could be that it’s the very openness that gets people interested in the Nexus One is the thing that hampers the phone from achieving mass-market adoption.

Overall
The killer on the Nexus One is the flawless integration with Google, and the opportunities that the openness of the platform provides. I’m pleased that most of the apps I use on the iPhone have made it over to Android (though clearly this is a second-best platform for most).

In short, I’m quite impressed, so far, with the Nexus One, though there are significant shortcomings with Android Market. It is, however, definitely a geek’s phone for now – Google’s challenge is to make it as mainstream as the iPhone appears to have become.

PS: almost forgot.
Boo: No FM radio.