Review: Google Nexus One Smartphone

Google applications such as Gmail and Google Voice worked well on this device (it also runs Skype, but the Android version of the app has limited functions. Google Voice is preferable – and is a big deal given Google’s grand plans for telephony.

The 5 Megapixel camera has auto-focus and flash, and video features on the phone are similar to those on the Droid and other Android devices, but there was none of the stickiness that plagued picture-taking on the Droid when it suffered an auto-focus bug.

In Europe we found that videos taken on the phone could be viewed on large screen LCDs without any pixelation. Andoird also provides a simple upload facility for Youtube which converts Nexus One videos to Youtube streams easily – here is a sample we took with the Nexus One.

The UI is easy to customise, with five screens, two of which arrive empty. It is easy to long-press, or hold down on, icons for apps such as Facebook and drag them to an empty space on the screens.

To switch between screens, users either swipe across from one screen to the next, similar to the Droid, or touch the dots on the lower left and right of the home screen.

The US device had a great weather and news widget, which proved useful once I consented to give the phone my location during the Google Account sign-up process. Giving Google your location information is key to enabling many of the great Google apps linked to the built in GPS, such as Google Latitude, Near Me Now and, of course, the Google Maps Navigation turn-by-turn GPS feature of Google Maps.

Business users get good Outlook

As business users, we are very interested in email, calendar and contacts. Some say Nexus One is not secure enough for business users, but we wanted to know if this phone using Gmail and Google Calendar, could functionally replace a more traditional PIM device such as a Blackberry or a (shudder) Windows Mobile phone.

The short answer seems to be yes. We quickly found plenty of apps in the Android Market, to handle Outlook data, but eventually settled on a free-software strategy:

• Export Outlook contacts as CSV
• Import to Google Mail
• Synch calendars using free Google Calendar Sync
• Add business email account to Gmail by POP

Android supports offline email on the device, and the Calendar sync works without having Gmail open on the PC. For our money, that’s as good as we’d get with a Blackberry or Windows Mobile solution.

Sending emails is no problem, as the online keyboard seems usable. It still gives an inconsistent experience that is not as intuitive as on the iPhone, and we find its little track ball to be obnoxious and pointless.

Internationalisation is pretty good – a French eWEEKer easily switched the device to an azerty keyboard.