IMHO, this is quite chic. I have to say that I am kind of surprised by the design. While the OS itself is pretty much the same on all devices; we distinguish Android phones more by their design and usability. Respectively, reviews say that the phone feels very fast – faster than all other Android phones on the market. Well, the huge processor must be there for something. But despite that the Nexus One just looks cool. I think I have to get one for “testing purposes” … No seriously, this is one of the pretty phones I have seen so far. Not just Android phones, I am talking about all smartphones you can compare the Nexus with. Well, the iPhone still looks great and I am actually loving the design of the new BlackBerry Bold 9700 as well.

The best thing is that you can get it unlocked without any SIM card limitation for just US$529 directly from Google. That is exactly what the developer community needs. A quasi standard phone for cheap which can be used for developing anywhere. They tried that already with the G1 for Developers but that didn’t work that well. For example, I was not able to order one because they could not ship to my country or whatever. Anyway, the Nexus One seems to be great and it will kick off the Android developer community as we get a great phone for less money!

Technical Specs

Power and battery

• Removable 1400 mAH battery
• Charges at 480mA from USB, at 980mA from supplied charger
• Talk time: Up to 10 hours on 2G; Up to 7 hours on 3G
• Standby time: Up to 290 hours on 2G; Up to 250 hours on 3G
• Internet use: Up to 5 hours on 3G; Up to 6.5 hours on Wi-Fi
• Video playback: Up to 7 hours
• Audio playback: Up to 20 hours

Processor

• Qualcomm QSD 8250 1 GHz

Operating system

• Android Mobile Technology Platform 2.1 (Eclair)

Capacity

• 512MB Flash
• 512MB RAM
• 4GB Micro SD Card (Expandable to 32 GB)

Location

• Assisted global positioning system (AGPS) receiver
• Cell tower and Wi-Fi positioning
• Digital compass
• Accelerometer

Size and weight

• Height: 119mm
• Width: 59.8mm
• Depth: 11.5mm
• Weight: 130 grams w/battery; 100g w/o battery

Display

• 3.7-inch (diagonal) widescreen WVGA AMOLED touchscreen
• 800 x 480 pixels
• 100,000:1 typical contrast ratio
• 1ms typical response rate

Camera & Flash

• 5 megapixels
• Autofocus from 6cm to infinity
• 2X digital zoom
• LED flash
• User can include location of photos from phone’s AGPS receiver
• Video captured at 720×480 pixels at 20 frames per second or higher, depending on lighting conditions

Cellular & Wireless

• UMTS Band 1/4/8 (2100/AWS/900)
• HSDPA 7.2Mbps
• HSUPA 2Mbps
• GSM/EDGE (850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz)
• Wi-Fi (802.11b/g/n)
• Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR
• A2DP stereo Bluetooth

While the technical specs are interesting but not that astonishing let’s take a closer look to the supported formats:

Image

• JPEG (encode and decode), GIF, PNG, BMP

Video

• H.263 (encode and decode) MPEG-4 SP (encode and decode) H.264 AVC (decode)

Audio encoders

• AMR-NB 4.75 to 12.2 kbps sampled @ 8kHz

Audio decoders

• AAC LC/LTP, HE-AACv1 (AAC+), HE-AACv2 (enhanced AAC+) Mono/Stereo standard bit rates up to 160 kbps and sampling rates from 8 to 48kHz, AMR-NB 4.75 to 12.2 kbps sampled @ 8kHz, AMR-WB 9 rates from 6.60 kbit/s to 23.85 kbit/s sampled @ 16kHz., MP3 Mono/Stereo 8-320Kbps constant (CBR) or variable bit-rate (VBR), MIDI SMF (Type 0 and 1), DLS Version 1 and 2, XMF/Mobile XMF, RTTTL/RTX, OTA, iMelody, Ogg Vorbis, WAVE (8-bit and 16-bit PCM)

Well, not much new in here too as those formats are supported by Android already. Still, I like the phone though. Well done Google!

More about the Google Nexus One:

• Nexus One Website
• Nexus One Tech Specs
• Nexus One 3D Tour
• Nexus One Order UNLOCKED