The Nexus One Brings Some Heat To the iPhone 3GS

Yesterday Google officially announced their latest “Superphone”, the Nexus One. This Android-based phone falls into that category of being a so-called “iPhone killer” (will it join the Palm Pre, Blackberry Storm, and Samsung Instinct and fade away?). What makes this smartphone err, “Superphone” enticing to many is the fully loaded hardware specs. It doesn’t hurt that it also runs the latest Android 2.1 OS (I think it resembles an iPhone on the outside somewhat).

Here are some quick specs of the Nexus One:

Display: 3.7-inch AMOLED touchscreen at 800×480 pixels.
Processor: Qualcomm QSD 8250 (Snapdragon) at 1GHz.
Memory: 512 of storage memory (ROM), 512MB of program memory (RAM). Comes with 4GB MicroSD card, expandable to 32GB.
Size: 119mm long, 59.8mm wide, 11.5mm thick.
Battery: 1400mAh; is removable. Up to 10 hours talk time on 2G; 7 hours on 3G. Up to 290 hours of standby time.
Weight: 130 grams with battery.
WiFi: 802.11 b/g/n.
Bluetooth: 2.1 + EDR and stereo playback.
Radios: GSM/EDGE (850/900/1800/1900MHz); HSDPA (download) up to 7.2Mbps; HSUPA (upload) up to 2Mbps. UMTS 1/4/8 (2100/AWS/900).

nexus-one-specs-shot

Are the Days of the iPhone Numbered? Not So Fast…

Now’s here’s the thing. Most of the time companies will come out with amazing hardware specs on paper that seem to give the iPhone a run for its money. What I would like to see on my “next” iPhone wishlist is a larger and higher resolution screen, 802.11n, and a front facing camera for iChat for starters. How will Apple respond to the Nexus One? With more innovation?

Sure, on paper the iPhone won’t have every single bell and whistle that one can jam into a phone, but it’s not about that. With the iPhone you get something that most competitors cannot match: a user experience that works. iTunes works seamlessly to manage music, movies, apps, and to back up your iPhone.

With Android smartphones, the problem is there are far too many phones in all sorts of different shapes and sizes (think Droid, HTC Magic/Dream/Hero, etc) and an inconsistent implementation of Android OS. For example, did you know early Rogers Android adopters are still stuck on Android OS 1.5 (Canadians still don’t have access to PAID apps from the Android Market!)? They are at the mercy of Rogers that has refused to clarify the situation on when the update will be provided.

With too many middle men caught in the foray of controlling and distributing Android software and hardware, all I see is one giant mess for users and app developers. These devs will have to make various modifications of their apps to accommodate for different screen sizes and people who don’t have the latest versions of Android OS. Can you imagine having a first gen iPhone and not being able to update to iPhone 3.0?

The Nexus One Will Not Work with Rogers, Bell, or Telus–but Will Work with WIND

Canadian iPhone fans, hold your pants because you can’t buy the Nexus One in Canada just yet. The Nexus One will only work on WIND’s AWS 3G spectrum (which is the same as T-Mobile in the USA). WIND has confirmed that the Nexus One will work on their network and that they are in talks with Google.

What can we say about the Nexus One? Personally, I find the phone fascinating because there finally is a real iPhone challenger, not just a big bag of hype. However, history tends to repeat itself and I do see Apple coming out with a wicked iPhone OS 4.0 preview that will put the Nexus One to shame. For me, the seamless and ease of use of the iPhone OS, plus the innovative 100K+ App Store keeps me hooked. How about you?

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