So, I've had my Nexus One for a few days now, and I've got a few observations of it as both a platform, and the hardware itself.
Firstly the phone as a chunk of hardware. It's pretty good once you get past the fact that the casing isn't as premium as the iPhone 4, and that the fit and finish won't be perfect (differing gaps and fitment of parts). It's by no means a badly finished phone though, and once you do ignore the few slight build quality issues you realise that its got a lovely display, nice styling, and the few hardware buttons (and trackball) it does have feel sturdy and well placed. Like all touchscreen phones, it attracts fingerprints like a demon, but at least the soft-touch back of the phone will attempt to resist scuffs and scratches.
The screen is stunning for the most part. I'd read lots of worrying things about AMOLED screens and over-saturation and inability to be seen properly in bright sunlight. I've experienced in neither however; in bright sunlight, the display correctly adjusted its brightness so it was very readable, and looking at images on both a calibrated display and the phone doesn't make it obvious that the images on the phone are over-saturated.
So, the Android platform. The phone shipped with 2.2, with no updates available (obviously), and first impressions appeared to be solid. The phone booted up very quickly (compared to other smartphone platforms, and I've owned the major 5 - symbian, winmo, iOS, blackberry, android) and quickly presented me with the setup screens. Painless runthrough the initial setup and you're away, which for the most part is a fluid and immersive experience.
Unfortunately this doesn't last long though, I've noted serious problems with WiFi, the Touchscreen, and a few of the default apps themselves:
WiFi - Why do I need to turn it off and then turn it back on for it to connect to ANY WiFi network after the phone has gone to standby? I turn WiFi on, and it will see (for example) my home network (although I've also had the same happen at work, and at a WiFi hotspot in a bar in town) and connect straight away. If I were then to leave the phone alone for a minute (the screen-off timout length), it will drop the connection and then no amount of unlocking the phone, running data-intensive apps, or wandering around will allow the phone to reconnect. Turning WiFi off and back on is the ONLY way to get it to reconnect.
Touchscreen - Ok, so this fails far too often for a "premium" product, infact it fails far too often for ANY product who's main interface is the touchscreen. From randomly thinking I wanted to bring up the keyboard (which I can deal with) to just completely losing all input and causing me to reboot to get it to work again. This is just annoying.
So, all in all, I was initially impressed, but now I'm giving serious consideration to giving it back and getting a second iPhone 4.
Firstly the phone as a chunk of hardware. It's pretty good once you get past the fact that the casing isn't as premium as the iPhone 4, and that the fit and finish won't be perfect (differing gaps and fitment of parts). It's by no means a badly finished phone though, and once you do ignore the few slight build quality issues you realise that its got a lovely display, nice styling, and the few hardware buttons (and trackball) it does have feel sturdy and well placed. Like all touchscreen phones, it attracts fingerprints like a demon, but at least the soft-touch back of the phone will attempt to resist scuffs and scratches.
The screen is stunning for the most part. I'd read lots of worrying things about AMOLED screens and over-saturation and inability to be seen properly in bright sunlight. I've experienced in neither however; in bright sunlight, the display correctly adjusted its brightness so it was very readable, and looking at images on both a calibrated display and the phone doesn't make it obvious that the images on the phone are over-saturated.
So, the Android platform. The phone shipped with 2.2, with no updates available (obviously), and first impressions appeared to be solid. The phone booted up very quickly (compared to other smartphone platforms, and I've owned the major 5 - symbian, winmo, iOS, blackberry, android) and quickly presented me with the setup screens. Painless runthrough the initial setup and you're away, which for the most part is a fluid and immersive experience.
Unfortunately this doesn't last long though, I've noted serious problems with WiFi, the Touchscreen, and a few of the default apps themselves:
WiFi - Why do I need to turn it off and then turn it back on for it to connect to ANY WiFi network after the phone has gone to standby? I turn WiFi on, and it will see (for example) my home network (although I've also had the same happen at work, and at a WiFi hotspot in a bar in town) and connect straight away. If I were then to leave the phone alone for a minute (the screen-off timout length), it will drop the connection and then no amount of unlocking the phone, running data-intensive apps, or wandering around will allow the phone to reconnect. Turning WiFi off and back on is the ONLY way to get it to reconnect.
Touchscreen - Ok, so this fails far too often for a "premium" product, infact it fails far too often for ANY product who's main interface is the touchscreen. From randomly thinking I wanted to bring up the keyboard (which I can deal with) to just completely losing all input and causing me to reboot to get it to work again. This is just annoying.
So, all in all, I was initially impressed, but now I'm giving serious consideration to giving it back and getting a second iPhone 4.
