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January 13th, 2010 Archives

Nexus One: iPhone killer?

By Mark Lucas

Android is the iPhone killer. Always was. It’s the OS, not the phone. Android has ALWAYS had multi tasking, customizable...
9 Comments + Add Yours

It seems like every week there's another run-of-the-mill tech company that comes out with their version of a smartphone, attempting to compete with Apple's iPhone in an effort to win over the hearts and minds of the mobile public. I have seen many competitors come and go, most of them falling short, but what if another humongous, with-it, tuned-into-the-public-consciousness company throws their hat into the ring? What would happen then?

Look no further.

Last Tuesday, Google unveiled the Nexus One smartphone, and it's shaping up to be the biggest contender to the iPhone yet. It has a five megapixel camera with autofocus, a 2X zoom, an LED flash and it can capture video. Its screen has 480 lines of resolution. The battery - which is removable - lasts longer than the iPhone's. It runs on Google's updated Android software and, to top it all off, it costs $20 less than the iPhone with a contract.

But these features do not an iPhone killer make ... yet. Perhaps the biggest advantage to the Nexus One is that it is open for improvement. Compared to the iPhone, it comes with less standard memory (only 4GB to start), but that memory is contained in an SD card, which can be expanded to 32GB, comparable to the top-end iPhone 3GS. The OS is Google's Android, which is much more accessible to the general programming public, meaning that developers can more easily take advantage of the free market. Apple's OS secrets are constantly sequestered away and provided to only a select few programmers, plus they're only sold through the Apple App Store. With an open-source OS, anyone can download an app from anyone else. The contract price is with T-mobile, but you can buy an already unlocked Nexus One for $529. The fact that the battery is removable means that you can (or will be able to) buy a second, back-up battery or perhaps in the future, a battery that lasts longer than the standard issue.

But don't go selling the farm to buy a Nexus One just yet. For every up side, there is a down side. So far, Apple has astronomically more apps available. They also have an easier-to-use interface that is more intuitive. Perhaps the biggest advantage, so far, is that the iPhone is a battle-hardened piece of equipment. This Nexus One might have flaws that will not become apparent until it is widely circulated. This writer's advice is always, never buy the first model. Plus, you never know what Apple is cooking up. This year, they may come out with a new model iPhone with features you might not even think of. Hard to tell, but that's Apple's advantage in the market. They're a very innovative and market-savvy company.

Is the Nexus One and iPhone killer? Only time will tell, but it definitely seems to be the first phone to overtake Apple in almost every way. Maybe Steve Jobs has an ace up his sleeve, but until that is known, Nexus One will certainly give the iPhone a run for its money.

Originally Published: January 13, 2010

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Comments

  1. This is the stupidest article I’ve ever seen. The iPhone’s biggest competition is clearly the Motorola DROID, not the Nexus One. It has a minimum of all the features which you listed for the Nexus one, and many are even better on the DROID (such as 16GB starting SD memory). This is not to mention that the DROID is sold by Verizon (ATT’s biggest competitor), has already been out for about 2 months, and has been directly marketed as better than the iPhone. If there is going to be an iPhone killer it is the DROID, not the Nexus One.

    DROID addict | 2010-01-13 - 05:38:45 PM (CDT)

  2. the nexus one runs a newer version of android, and was built to take better advantage of the hardware. the snapdragon processor of the nexus one outperforms the Arm processor of the droid in just about every single way. i’ve never touched one, but i’d assume that the HTC hardware of the nexus one has a better built quality than the droid.

    Dan | 2010-01-13 - 06:03:29 PM (CDT)

  3. As of now the Droid is the iPhone’s biggest competition. While the Nexus One has better hardware over the Droid, there aren’t many things that take advantage of it where you’d see a significant difference over the Droid.
    What this article fails to mention is that if you buy a Nexus One from T-Mobile you *HAVE* to have their Nexus One plan. It is 500 minutes, unlimited text and unlimited data for $79.99. There are *NO* other plans available. I currently have a plan with 1000 minutes, unlimited text/data, for the same price, but I can’t use it on the Nexus one. You can’t add it to a family plan or anything either.
    Then, to top it off, there is virtually *NO* support to be found for the Nexus One. If you call T-Mobile, they will transfer you to HTC, if you call HTC, they transfer you to T-Mobile. Google released the phone, and they want to provide support for it, but had *NO* support infrastructure ready, and from the comments made in the forums, it sounds like they do not intend to add any kind of direct support, only forum support.
    Right now support questions are being answered in an average of 3 days. Yes, THREE DAYS! It almost makes you miss the 40min hold times of everyone else. Then, to add insult to injury, the majority of the replies are canned generic replies, and it takes several times back in forth to get an answer. Questions are being RESOLVED in upwards of 6 days. Raise your hand if you’d way 6 days for a company to support a product you just dropped $500+ on?
    I am a borderline Google fanboy, I love all their products. I had a G1 the day it was released, and I was chomping at the bit for a Nexus One, but wanted to wait to see how the initial launch went. I have to say, I am grossly disappointed in Google at this. It feels like a complete half-ass attempt at SOMETHING, and I’m not even sure what they were attempting that went so wrong.

    I hope they figure out what is going on and get some direct support for the phone, or it will go no where, and it would be a shame for a phone with this much potential to just fall away to the wayside.

    Sean | 2010-01-13 - 06:38:34 PM (CDT)

  4. There is another thing that article failed to mention, that the on the nexus one you can only install applications on the 512MB internal memory, and there is no way to use the SD card for that.

    Another thing, Nexus one does not support Microsoft Exchange what so ever.

    Nexus one touch screen does not support gestures, so good luck trying to zoom in and out on a webpage or a map.

    as far as i’m concerned, the only good thing about Nexus on is the 5 Megapixel camera and the flash.

    Iphone Rocks | 2010-01-14 - 02:32:28 PM (CDT)

  5. People hating on the n1 without actually owning one and then blindly buying into every single negative aspect the "pcworld" media puts out, are sadly mistaken. The n1 is a fine phone. Leaps and bounds better than the g1. Yes, there are documented 3g issues that have been acknowledged and without a doubt, a fix is one the way. But most of the tech media and google haters are throwing out the baby with the bath water. If you’re happy with your iphone or whatever, so be it. But if you’ve got a litany of complaints yet you don’t even own a g1, you’re a likely suspect for some kind of fanboy. I thought this was one of the more fair write ups I’ve read. The failure cheerleaders are just flat out wrong.

    BobWolfe | 2010-01-14 - 02:52:01 PM (CDT)

  6. well, at least it’s getting porn sites. Pinkvisual has built at least two that i’ve seen so far.

    bobisuruncle | 2010-01-14 - 03:42:01 PM (CDT)

  7. i have the iphone and i love this phone i might get this for my birthday

    dada | 2010-01-14 - 04:41:43 PM (CDT)

  8. I bought the nexus one unlocked i already had tmobile before and i didnt have to upgrade to any other plan and the nexus one is better than the iphone since it is a hell of a lot faster plus you can customize it unlike apple which doesnt give a crap about the public and only cares about about how much money they can get from people who buy their products with the cheapest parts available. Android is open so if you wanted to make something for it go right ahead and the pages arent limited to just the apps like with the iphone, you can make the nexus one your own in everyway unlike the iphone plus the only way to make the iphone your "own" is to unlock it which is pretty crappy. also you can dowload apps to the SD card the website unlockr shows you how to do that. The thing is people who bought iphones are just upset because in order to even have a good phone they have to upgrade to the next iphone every year because steve jobs is a douchebag but people who buy a phone that really costs $200 for $700 are the ones that make him go to bed happy. All i have to say is that this is going to be the fall of apple in the mobile world you dont take on google and expect to win google is everywhere.

    Alex | 2010-02-08 - 11:26:43 AM (CDT)

  9. Android is the iPhone killer. Always was. It’s the OS, not the phone. Android has ALWAYS had multi tasking, customizable "desktops", MMS, widgets, Google Navigation, Google Voice, the ability to read SD cards (who knew that was hard?), oh and it’s open source and all of the good apps you really want are free. So besides a slick shell, multi-touch (which Android does but is negotiating patent issues), and the annoying "i" in the name, what is it exactly that the iPhone does so well? Did I mention that iPhone call quality sucks? My G1 kicks iPhone’s butt -- maybe it ain’t as pretty, but then again, pretty boys don’t usually last long in a fight.

    Android Early Adopter | 2010-02-09 - 01:27:02 AM (CDT)
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