There’s no denying that Apple did a terrific job with the iPhone. After walking around with PDAs and smartphones, Apple really changed the market and it took a while for competitors to catch up. I honestly never thought I would think about replacing my iPhone any time soon. Even with all its obvious flaws… But today, a late Christmas gift arrived in the form of a Google Nexus One.
I had heard and read about it and really wanted to get my hands on one to see if it was really as fast and good as the reviews seemed to suggest. Today I finally got that chance and yes… the reviews are right. The Nexus One certainly feels very fast, the screen is gorgeous and the camera is a serious upgrade from my iPhone 3GS. It also feels a bit lighter than the iPhone and also looks thinner. The most obvious plus is that it has Flash Player 10.1. The same Flash Player that you are used to on your desktops and laptops will soon be available for your smartphone.
I’m going to try and not use my iPhone for a few days, a few weeks, … as long as I can. I have become pretty accustomed to using my iPhone for just about everything but I really do feel that the Nexus One may be a very good competitor.
Things I like so far:
- It has Flash Player 10.1 therefore I finally have a full web-experience in the palm of my hand.
- The camera. The quality really is better and it comes with an LED flash making the camera usable even in the dark.
- Most of the apps I use daily (like Tripit or Twitter) are also available in the Android Market or have a decent alternative.
- I love the fact that you can organize your home screens exactly like you want them.
Things I don’t like:
- The Android Market is not fully available in Belgium. Therefore I only have access to free apps. This will potentially become a real problem for me and it sorta already is. The Exchange client that I want to use is not a free app and therefore I can’t download and install it. I hope I can find a workaround soon because this is a serious deal-breaker… If you happen to know a workaround, I’d love to hear it.
- Are there really only 5 home screens? I currently use 9 screens on my iPhone… This may become a problem although you do have access to all your apps in the application menu. I guess it’s just a different way of launching the apps.
I’ll keep you updated on how I get on with the Nexus One, on which sites I visit/use that I couldn’t before and on any Flash development experiments I may have time for in the next days/weeks. Stay tuned ;-)
You can put folders onto your homescreens on the nexus, so you can group together all your games etc- freeing up space on your homepages.
how is the power consumption , lets say you played farmville for 2 hours will the battery last ?
hi serge
on my milestone sync with exchange is not a problem. but i have 2 mail clients. one for googlemail and one for exchange.
anyhow the bigger problem was to get an ipsec vpn running to access the exchange in our intranet.
anyhow if you could solve this until april we´ll try in cologne. also maybe the shop works from here too
btw: is flash player preinstalled on the nexus or is it one of these magic testing things? and if so: where can i get it?
btw have you yet found the actionscript reference app?
Hi Serge,
You can download Touchdown from market (free trial version) and purchase a license from them directly on the website (instead of going through Android Market).
Betas for Touchdown:
* http://groups.google.com/group/nitrodesk/web/getting-started
* http://groups.google.com/group/nitrodesk/web/installing-the-latest-beta
Will be nice to hear more of your reviews as Flasher and iPhone owner. Am thinking of looking for Android replacement in the end of the year, got too tired from Apple “magical” experience…
Nice sum up, Serge. What about the workflow/syncing between Calendar, E-Mail etc.? Working good? Are you in London on Thu and Fri? Than I could have a look at your new toy ;)
Cheers,
marc
Nice! You’ve made me more curious about Nexus One :)
Hi Serge,
regarding the Market issue have a look at this:
http://code.google.com/p/market-enabler/
@Riccardo: I can’t get it to work on the Nexus One… :/
Ah, my dream, using iPhone and Nexus parallel. nice to see that google supports flash. what about speed? did you hear about Dalvik Turbo? http://www.myriadgroup.com/Media-Centre/News/MYRIAD-BRINGS-3x-FASTER-APPLICATIONS-RICHER-GAME-GRAPHICS-AND-BETTER-BATTERY-LIFE-TO-ANDROID.aspx
Hi Serge,
I just would like to know how do you get the Nexus One in Belgium.
It seems it is not available on http://www.google.com/phone
Thanks
A
Serge, is your Flash 10.1 an alpha version ? Indeed, I have also a nexus one but I didn’t get flash on it.
I always get the same message “flahs 10.1 will be available during the first half of 2010″
Thanks
@Alexnder : you should try borderlinx.com
Hi Xavier,
This is one of the benefits of being at the source :-)
You’ll have to wait a little bit longer but it will be worth it!
Hello Serge, I live in Belgium too and I was thinking about getting the Nexus One on my next trip to US. My question is, will it work with my Proximus SIM card? right now I’m using that sim card in an unlock iphone I got in the US. Thanks for the reply. Cheers!
Serge, what’s the verdict with Nexus One? It’s just become available in Canada and I am interested in getting it. Do you use Exchange sync? I wonder if calendar/contacts/mail will sync? I currently use a hosted exchange solution fort email as I need exchange to handle
meeting requests, etc.