Disqus
Read on if you want to see my reasons for potentially swapping to a Google phone in the near future – and why it won’t be the Google Nexus One…
For a long while now, I’ve been using the iPhone series of phones (3G and 3GS). I transitioned away from Nokia Series60 for all the same sort of reasons as many people have mentioned on their blogs – both this one, and others. Moving to the iPhone instantly gave me:
- the best touchscreen – bar none
- a superb(ly simple) UI
- a phone that could do lots of things well, and a few things really well
- a replacement for my ageing iPod
… and all this in a package which I still think has the best industrial styling of any device on the market!
But of course, the iPhone isn’t perfect – far from it – and has numerous failings. The email client (which is brilliant at rendering emails, but flaky in the extreme at retrieving them), the locked-down environment, and (in my view) the build quality (of the 3GS, for sure) could be better.
However, the key thing(s) I require right now are a device that does email very well (both retrieval and rendering), can sync to an online calendar, and can manage contacts well when synced with the PC/Mac (without mangling the data fields, as some manufacturers devices do). Interestingly, I already use Google services (Calendar, email) partially with my iPhone, so I wonder, would moving to a Google device make it a seamless solution?
Well, you’d think so, wouldn’t you – I’ve not had chance to play with a Nexus One (yet), but the impression I get from seeing various videos, and reviews, is that it should be a star performer in this area. It’s impossible to know for sure if it satisfies you personally without getting the device in-hand and having a play, but I think if it can support those services, and make a decent fist of the other things I require from the device, then we might have a contender to replace the iPhone – and it’s cheaper sim-free too!
But why not the Nexus One? Well, one reason is memory – there’s only 4GB of the stuff. Now as I said before, I use my iPhone as an iPod extensively, so I’d need excellent media handling, but also somewhere to store all of it – and whilst I appreciate the memory is expandable, I’d like to see my device coming with more built-in as standard. Both the Palm Pre and Pixi just got memory upgrades, and it’s extremely logical to think the next Nexus will be coming with more onboard too.
The 5MP camera is a touch on the low side too – the N95s that I was using before transitioning to iPhones had 5MP, and I was expecting the camera game to have moved on slightly since then (in fact, it has – 8MP now seems really common). I appreciate the iPhone 3GS only has a 3.2MP camera, but then again, you don’t buy an iPhone expecting it to have the highest spec camera (although a better one would be nice – come on Apple!). I’m sure the Nexus One will do a great job of capturing images, but again it’s another prime candidate for an upgrade when the next Nexus comes along.
And of course the thing closely allied to the device is the business model (or as we know it, tariff) – we’ve seen the iPhone business model evolve over time, and there are now a great range of networks and options than there were when the original version launched 2+ years ago. Finally, last but not least, it’s my personal view that smartphones from a given manufacturer take 2 or 3 ‘generations’ or ‘iterations’ (usually 3 I believe) to become ‘great’ – evidenced (depending on what you class as ‘generations’) by many smartphones in recent years.
Will there be another Nexus device from Google? Almost certainly yes. Could it be with us before the end of 2010? Very likely. Will it have better specs than this current device? Almost certainly – right, I’ll have one of them then please, and in the meanwhile I hope to get to play with a Nexus One, to see if what many people are saying about it being on a par with an iPhone, is really true 
What are your plans regarding the Google Nexus One? Thinking of getting one? What device have you got now? Answers in the comments please
About The Author
Ben Robinson
Ben is a 10+ year veteran of the Mobile industry – starting his career when SMS was a still a relatively new concept for most people (!), he has now consulted on everything from bleeding-edge Mobile content, to the next-gen accessories you might view it on. As a result he has a broad and deep knowledge in numerous areas of Mobile – from network operators to device vendors, to infrastructure and middleware vendors (not to mention content delivery) – and has worked for companies in all of these areas! He is based in the UK, a hotbed of activity for mobile, and recently became a father for the second time – as oppose to in his younger years when he was happy spend time tweaking all manner of mobile devices to 'nth' degree, he now looks for services and hardware that provide the most efficient, compact, and reliable improvements to his already manic life! It’s his opinion that Mobile solutions should be there to help to make your life better – if a particular solution (be it service or device) isn’t doing this, he believes you need to ask the very important question of why you continue to use it... His focus at IntoMobile is mainly on Mobile content, services, and infrastructure, particularly as regards the UK market – and with the occasional look at devices. Additionally, using his extensive experience in the industry, he will provide commentary on the industry at large, with regular (and hopefully thought-provoking) articles.
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