Search engine Google finally completed its foray into the mobile communications business with the release of its own Google Phone – the Google Nexus One. Taiwan's leading mobile phone maker HTC must be honored to be chosen its OEM with the much talked-about HTC Dragon/Passion suddenly losing the HTC logo and becomes the Google Phone everyone in the mobile community is waiting for.
Not that the HTC Passion isn’t a much awaited phone either. It just doesn’t look like the market will ever see an HTC Passion. Word has it that it’s most likely going to be modified a bit in terms of looks and be marketed as the HTC Bravo in Europe. But as anyone knows, anything goes in the mobile markets.
Google’s Nexus One already enjoys a large following in both sides of the Atlantic. We can expect Google to eventually join the league of mobile phone makers. The name alone augurs well for subsequent iterations into a Nexus Two and Three, etc.
Upscale Features
The new Google smartphone is a quad band GSM (850/900/1800/1900) EDGE/GPRS phone on 2G and tri band UMTS/3G (900/1700/2100) with HSDPA/HSUA for fast internet surfing and downloading. There’s also WiFi 802.11 for hotspot surfing and s Bluetooth 2.1 with EDR for wireless high speed data transfers with other Bluetooth devices. The latest Android 2.1 Éclair platform runs on its 1GHz Qualcomm QSD 8250 Snapdragon ARM processor.
You get a stylishly designed candybar touchscreen form factor body measuring 119 x 59.8 x 11.5mm weight 130g on its. It’s an exquisite looker with a gorgeous 3.7-inch Wide-VGA AMOLED capacitive touchscreen with multitouch that supports an accelerometer for auto rotate of viewing orientation with the handset tilt, a proximity sensor that disables touchscreen sensitivity in a call, and an ambient light sensor that adjusts display brightness to ambient light condition.
Memory starts with a 512 MB flash ROM and 512 MB RAM expandable to 32 GB with its microSD slot. The kit is said to contain a 4 GB microSD card.
Imaging starts with a 5.0 megapixel autofocus camera with LED flash and HD720p video recording at 20 fps. Your can geo-tag images with its GPS receiver. Wired Data connectivity is supported by a USB 2.0 port. You get stereo FM radio with RDS, 3.5mm headphone jack and Bluetooth 2.1 with A2DP.
Its 1400 mAh Lithium-ion battery can bring you up to 10 hours of talk time and 290 hours of standby time when fully charged. You also get 5 hours of internet browsing, 20 hours of continuous music playback or 7 hours of non-stop video payback
Software wise, you get access to about 16,000 applications from Android Market. It has voice to text transcription, noise cancellation feature over its dual microphones so you can place a call even in the noisiest of surroundings and has spoken turn-by-turn navigation with its GPS/A-PCS SatNav feature.
Availability
Google is expected to launch the Google Nexus One in Europe this spring initially as a non-exclusive T-mobile model with plans for other network carriers. The Google phone is currently on sale in the Google website at a SIM-free price of $529 or at a 2-year contract price of $179 with T-mobile and a $79.99 monthly plan with 500 minutes with unlimited weekends. If this is any indication, expect an equivalent Euro pricing in Spring when it finally becomes available.
Not that the HTC Passion isn’t a much awaited phone either. It just doesn’t look like the market will ever see an HTC Passion. Word has it that it’s most likely going to be modified a bit in terms of looks and be marketed as the HTC Bravo in Europe. But as anyone knows, anything goes in the mobile markets.
Google’s Nexus One already enjoys a large following in both sides of the Atlantic. We can expect Google to eventually join the league of mobile phone makers. The name alone augurs well for subsequent iterations into a Nexus Two and Three, etc.
Upscale Features
The new Google smartphone is a quad band GSM (850/900/1800/1900) EDGE/GPRS phone on 2G and tri band UMTS/3G (900/1700/2100) with HSDPA/HSUA for fast internet surfing and downloading. There’s also WiFi 802.11 for hotspot surfing and s Bluetooth 2.1 with EDR for wireless high speed data transfers with other Bluetooth devices. The latest Android 2.1 Éclair platform runs on its 1GHz Qualcomm QSD 8250 Snapdragon ARM processor.
You get a stylishly designed candybar touchscreen form factor body measuring 119 x 59.8 x 11.5mm weight 130g on its. It’s an exquisite looker with a gorgeous 3.7-inch Wide-VGA AMOLED capacitive touchscreen with multitouch that supports an accelerometer for auto rotate of viewing orientation with the handset tilt, a proximity sensor that disables touchscreen sensitivity in a call, and an ambient light sensor that adjusts display brightness to ambient light condition.
Memory starts with a 512 MB flash ROM and 512 MB RAM expandable to 32 GB with its microSD slot. The kit is said to contain a 4 GB microSD card.
Imaging starts with a 5.0 megapixel autofocus camera with LED flash and HD720p video recording at 20 fps. Your can geo-tag images with its GPS receiver. Wired Data connectivity is supported by a USB 2.0 port. You get stereo FM radio with RDS, 3.5mm headphone jack and Bluetooth 2.1 with A2DP.
Its 1400 mAh Lithium-ion battery can bring you up to 10 hours of talk time and 290 hours of standby time when fully charged. You also get 5 hours of internet browsing, 20 hours of continuous music playback or 7 hours of non-stop video payback
Software wise, you get access to about 16,000 applications from Android Market. It has voice to text transcription, noise cancellation feature over its dual microphones so you can place a call even in the noisiest of surroundings and has spoken turn-by-turn navigation with its GPS/A-PCS SatNav feature.
Availability
Google is expected to launch the Google Nexus One in Europe this spring initially as a non-exclusive T-mobile model with plans for other network carriers. The Google phone is currently on sale in the Google website at a SIM-free price of $529 or at a 2-year contract price of $179 with T-mobile and a $79.99 monthly plan with 500 minutes with unlimited weekends. If this is any indication, expect an equivalent Euro pricing in Spring when it finally becomes available.
