As usual, when I woke up in the morning getting ready to go to Uni, I've decided to buy the new google "Nexus one", even though I've said that I won't buy it anytime soon and wait for a year or so, but that never worked. As I was thinking of getting the iPhone 3GS, but since rumors are going around about the new iPhone 4G, I've decided to delay the purchase of apple's proud product till further notice.
After reading around, and using my friend's phone, on the 24th march i placed an order through google's website. It took almost 4 days for the shipment to arrive from US to Brighton - UK, not bad really.
I delayed using the phone for another 2 days, probably I wasn't ready to move from the BB world yet, but eventually i poped the SIM, turned it on, and was amazed by the glorious screen, which in my opinion it did beat the iPhone. Which made me to go and dig around about the it and found this:
It appears my hunch was quite right, the Nexus one has a 3.7", 480x800 pixel AMOLED display, as the iPhone has a 3.5", 320-by-480-pixel LCD display.
After the long affection for the screen, I've decided to move on and fiddle around with the phone, and I've noticed the thing that I've feared, doesn't exist. The speed is simply amazing, no delays or any sort of problem when it comes to moving around from one app to another and back to the amazing home screen, All the thanks goes to the 1GHz processor that they equipped their phone with. The fastest processor to be used in a phone. With a RAM of 512MB (although I would've expected a bigger internal memory), will make it one of the fastest phones in the market (so far). Although the graphic processing is not as powerful as the iPhone (28million triangle/sec vs. 22million triangle/sec) but it's not something that you could actually notice.
Now, as a photographer my self, there is no way I could pass on talking about the camera. 5MP with LED flash, 2X digital zoom, and an autofocus. And can capture video at 720x480 with 20 fps. Not that bad for a camera, but I would not definitely depend on it. But coming from the Bold 9000, it's far better (duh).
Well, I could go on and talk about the phone specs, but hey, I'm sure Google would do the job if you're interested to read about it. So I'll move on to something else.
The OS:
I've been always a fan of the new-ish fast growing OS, the Android OS. But never got the chance to actually work on it, till now.
Android is a modified version of the Linux kernel and was developed but Android inc. who was later been purchased by Google, and then the Open Handset Alliance (where Google is a member of this firm along with other famous names). They have given developers the ability to take full advantages of the handset, which somehow in my opinion, like anything else, can be misused. And unlike the the iPhone, any app, depending on it's purpose, can access any type of information and records, or even checking the SMS inbox, call log, or address book. That's one of the reason that stopped me from rooting the phone, the security issue. So far, when ever I download any app from the android market, it always give a list of the core functions that it's going to access/use. I won't lie, at first I freaked out, but then I thought about it, nothing is going to be passed on to the android market unless was tested.
The phone is great, i could go on forever talking about it. Unfortunately, there's always a but in everything. The most annoying thing for me was the trackball. I don't know what were they thinking using a trackball even though it has been proven that it's nor functional or reliable, and it can break, or let say get stuck easily (as what happened to my BB bold :( ). Even though I've never used it till now, and I don't get the idea of having a trackball in a phone with a multi-touch screen. But at least if they wanted to act "SMART" and create something different with their touch screen phone, a trackpad would've been a smarter choice, reliable and functional, and definitely won't get stuck like the trackball.
The other thing that surprised me from Google's side, not supporting the Arabic language in their first phone. As long as I remember, Google supported Arabic in all of their creation and it was always an essential language next to the English. But somehow they missed that in the Nexus one. Although there are ways to get the phone to read Arabic, but that means rooting the phone and losing the warranty, and that's not something I'm ready to do in my $600-ish phone. And from the looks of it, I don't see any official Arabic support from Google anytime soon.
Hmm, lets see where stopped a month ago, got quite busy with my grad. project that i forgot to finish this blog. which is connected to this review, as I'm trying to do an app on the android system, which one of the reasons to get the phone in the first place.
Development in the Android world is quite is if you are familiar with Java, but it can be pain in the butt if you have no clue (like my self XD), but thanks to the help of the world, you can find anything online.
The SDK is free and you can get it from the android website. I preferred using eclipse i the development, which is an easier option in the mac world, but there are other options.
well, I guess that's enough about now, if y'all excuse me, I'll go finish my "COOL" app ;)
After reading around, and using my friend's phone, on the 24th march i placed an order through google's website. It took almost 4 days for the shipment to arrive from US to Brighton - UK, not bad really.
I delayed using the phone for another 2 days, probably I wasn't ready to move from the BB world yet, but eventually i poped the SIM, turned it on, and was amazed by the glorious screen, which in my opinion it did beat the iPhone. Which made me to go and dig around about the it and found this:
It appears my hunch was quite right, the Nexus one has a 3.7", 480x800 pixel AMOLED display, as the iPhone has a 3.5", 320-by-480-pixel LCD display.
After the long affection for the screen, I've decided to move on and fiddle around with the phone, and I've noticed the thing that I've feared, doesn't exist. The speed is simply amazing, no delays or any sort of problem when it comes to moving around from one app to another and back to the amazing home screen, All the thanks goes to the 1GHz processor that they equipped their phone with. The fastest processor to be used in a phone. With a RAM of 512MB (although I would've expected a bigger internal memory), will make it one of the fastest phones in the market (so far). Although the graphic processing is not as powerful as the iPhone (28million triangle/sec vs. 22million triangle/sec) but it's not something that you could actually notice.
Now, as a photographer my self, there is no way I could pass on talking about the camera. 5MP with LED flash, 2X digital zoom, and an autofocus. And can capture video at 720x480 with 20 fps. Not that bad for a camera, but I would not definitely depend on it. But coming from the Bold 9000, it's far better (duh).
Well, I could go on and talk about the phone specs, but hey, I'm sure Google would do the job if you're interested to read about it. So I'll move on to something else.
The OS:
I've been always a fan of the new-ish fast growing OS, the Android OS. But never got the chance to actually work on it, till now.
Android is a modified version of the Linux kernel and was developed but Android inc. who was later been purchased by Google, and then the Open Handset Alliance (where Google is a member of this firm along with other famous names). They have given developers the ability to take full advantages of the handset, which somehow in my opinion, like anything else, can be misused. And unlike the the iPhone, any app, depending on it's purpose, can access any type of information and records, or even checking the SMS inbox, call log, or address book. That's one of the reason that stopped me from rooting the phone, the security issue. So far, when ever I download any app from the android market, it always give a list of the core functions that it's going to access/use. I won't lie, at first I freaked out, but then I thought about it, nothing is going to be passed on to the android market unless was tested.
The phone is great, i could go on forever talking about it. Unfortunately, there's always a but in everything. The most annoying thing for me was the trackball. I don't know what were they thinking using a trackball even though it has been proven that it's nor functional or reliable, and it can break, or let say get stuck easily (as what happened to my BB bold :( ). Even though I've never used it till now, and I don't get the idea of having a trackball in a phone with a multi-touch screen. But at least if they wanted to act "SMART" and create something different with their touch screen phone, a trackpad would've been a smarter choice, reliable and functional, and definitely won't get stuck like the trackball.
The other thing that surprised me from Google's side, not supporting the Arabic language in their first phone. As long as I remember, Google supported Arabic in all of their creation and it was always an essential language next to the English. But somehow they missed that in the Nexus one. Although there are ways to get the phone to read Arabic, but that means rooting the phone and losing the warranty, and that's not something I'm ready to do in my $600-ish phone. And from the looks of it, I don't see any official Arabic support from Google anytime soon.
Hmm, lets see where stopped a month ago, got quite busy with my grad. project that i forgot to finish this blog. which is connected to this review, as I'm trying to do an app on the android system, which one of the reasons to get the phone in the first place.
Development in the Android world is quite is if you are familiar with Java, but it can be pain in the butt if you have no clue (like my self XD), but thanks to the help of the world, you can find anything online.
The SDK is free and you can get it from the android website. I preferred using eclipse i the development, which is an easier option in the mac world, but there are other options.
well, I guess that's enough about now, if y'all excuse me, I'll go finish my "COOL" app ;)
