And now, the Nexus One
The first mobile phone designed by Google Inc. engineers and built by Taiwan’s HTC Corp. is now available, as the search engine company unveiled its Nexus One today.
The smartphone is available on the Google Nexus One site (www.google.com/phone/) for $179 with a two-year contract with T-mobile or for $529 without a contract. A Verizon Wireless model is coming soon, the site says, but no date has been announced. A European model for Vodafone customers will also be available in the spring, the site says.
Although I haven't tested or even seen the Nexus One, there are plenty of details about the gadget on the site. Here are some specs:
— There is no slide-down keyboard; the primary way to enter text is with a virtual keypad, just as with Apple Inc.’s iPhone. You can also use the Google speech-to-text feature to compose messages. The virtual keypad includes a microphone key for entering text.
— The unit sports a 5-megapixel camera with a light-emitting-diode flash and
2 x digital zoom. It focuses to 6 centimeters and also shoots video at 720 x 480 pixels at 20 frames per second, or higher.
— It has a 3.7-inch (diagonal) screen with resolution of 800 x 480 pixels.
— The removable battery is rated at up to 10 hours on a 2G network and seven hours on 3G, with standby time of 250 to 290 hours. The battery is also rated for up to five hours of Internet use on 3G or 6.5 hours using Wi-Fi. Video playback battery life is up to seven hours; audio playback rated at up to 20 hours of battery life.
— The phone uses Google's Android Mobile operating system and comes with a 4 gigabyte Micro SD (secure digital) card. It includes a digital compass and accelerometer and has assisted global positioning system built in.
— The phone is 4.68 inches tall, 2.35 inches wide and 0.45 inches thick. The 3-D tour on the phone site lets Web visitors compare their hands with a sizable hand on the screen and lock in a size to fit their hands. That way, users can see how the phone would fit their mitts. Cool.
— The phone weighs 4.69 ounces, or the same as about 53 pennies.
Navigation is handled by touch screen and four hard keys: back, menu, home, and search. The Nexus One also has a trackball just below those buttons, just as Research in Motion BlackBerry smartphones do.
One new feature is the voice mail application, which includes audio playback and a text transcript of your messages. The Market link takes you to the Android application market, which now features more than 10,000 applications. You can learn more about what's available at the Android Market site (http://www.android.com/
I look forward to getting my hands a Nexus One and invite anyone using one to share their thoughts about it right here.
The folks at Engadget reviewed a preview model of the phone:
(http://www.engadget.com/2010/
