Google’s Nexus One – is it the one?

Nexus One, the first Google phone? I don’t think so. The best Google phone? Easily.

On Tuesday, 5^th January Google officially released the Nexus One, what is being hailed as the ‘iPhone Killer’ a ‘Superphone’ and of course ‘Google’s first’.

Now whilst the phone itself is brilliant, it is by far Google’s first. It is the first phone that is being sold directly by Google but in terms of the smartphone race, it’s jumping in to a well established team. In early 2009 Google claimed they expected 18 Android phones by the year’s end and already we’ve seen some great developments here with the release of the Hero and most recently the Motorola Droid.

Google's Nexus One

Several critics have deemed the Nexus One a let down in that it hasn’t provided a large enough leap from previous Android operating phones but many are forgetting just how good the Android operating system and those phones that carry it already are. It would seem that constant innovation may have had a negative effect on Google’s launch of the Nexus one as critics are too busy comparing the leap of functions, over the actual end result.

Google’s release and development of Android and Android operating phones have been typical of their brand. A low marketing spend, mostly driven on word of mouth and reviews and built from the customer up with a focus on constant innovation and improvement. The Nexus One is simply a peak in the development of this outstanding platform, and it certainly won’t be the last.

The difference that I see is that the iPhone was launched hard, alone and in my opinion flawed. The world was so astounded with the leap that they forget the phone wasn’t perfect. In fact the phone still can’t even multitask, and the first release did not have 3G capability – something that seems absurd in hindsight.

Many do not realise the implications of a phone that cannot multitask but the best analogy I’ve heard came from a friend. He has developed a fear of phone calls while running as if he’s running my tracks (an app that tracks speed, location and time) and receives a phone call, the my tracks application stops running (no pun intended).  Having had an Android phone for over a year, I can’t imagine a life without multiple apps, it would be like cooking a meal with one stove burner.

Of course the battery life on the iPhone is great! Any phone that can only run one app at a time should have an amazing battery life, it would seem insane for it not to.

Sadly it has taken the Droid and now the Nexus One to compete with iPhone in direct comparisons of smartphone battery life.

I certainly don’t mean this to turn into an iPhone slamming session. By all means it’s a fantastic phone and I believe has inspired a great deal of innovation in the phone market. I’m simply tired of hearing comparisons between Android phones and the iPhone that fail to mention the fact that the iPhone cannot even multitask and hail the battery life as a killer over Android.

Droid, Nexus One and iPhone

Even Mashable has stated a con of the phone is its lack of multitouch, this is however not quite true as most of the Android phones have multitouch capability in hardware and this function can easily be added. I can’t find any solid evidence or statement by Google as to why multitouch hasn’t been officially included, it would seem the logical explanation is yet another patent or legality probably caused by Apple.

In fact Apple asked Google not to include a 3.5mm headphone jack on the G1 due to patent infringements. Now if you ask me, a 3.5mm headphone jack is as patentable as a Labrador, but somehow they managed to win this battle.

Enter the Nexus One. We now have a 3.5mm headphone jack, multitouch capability (by simply adding the function yourself) more space, better talk time than the iPhone and a slimmer design. I see the only flaw in the phone the fact that its predecessors were already great.

The Nexus One is a sequel to a great movie, although brilliant, reviewers are being too harsh as their expectations are unrealistic. Standing alone the Nexus One walks all over the iPhone, the let down in its launch is that other Android phones were already close in the battle.

iPhone vs Droid vs Nexus One