| Review of the Google Nexus One |
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The Google Nexus One is the sister phone of the HTC Desire (and both are in fact built by HTC), and so I was happy that I was given a chance to review both of these phones at around the same time. Last Updated: 30-Sep-2010 |
Before reading this review, please read Some Thoughts on Phone Reviewing.
I’d like to remind reads that the purpose of my
tests is purely directed toward the suitability of the device as a PHONE first
and foremost. While I do throw in a few comments about non-phone features (such
as the camera), I am not concerned with how good (or bad) an Android device the
Nexus One is compared to other Android models on the market. Because of this,
you’ll find the review rather negative, because as a phone the Nexus One is a
very poor choice.
Also note that over-the-road performance is no longer a category in my tests.
This category was created to test a GSM phone’s handoff performance. With the
advent of 3G there has been very little to distinguish one phone from another
when it comes to performance on the move.
I tested the Nexus One shortly after testing the HTC Desire, which is
essentially the sister phone. I therefore expected much to be the same, and so I
have cut-and-paste much of what I said about the Desire into this review.
However, there were aspects of the phone that differed markedly from the Desire,
so this is not a complete repost of the same review.
RF Performance
Click on this link for a full description of
RF Performance, and how to interpret it.
RF Sensitivity: For the purposes of testing RF
performance I put the Nexus One up against my 2-year-old Nokia N95, just as I
had with the Desire. The N95, like most Nokia models, has excellent RF
sensitivity and only a very tiny number of phones have ever bested it. The Nexus
One doesn’t do better than the N95, but it does match it, which gives the Nexus
One excellent RF sensitivity too. So far so good.
Audio Performance
Click on this link for a full description of
Audio Performance, and how to interpret it.
If incoming audio on the Nexus One has one clearly definitive problem it’s that
it isn’t loud enough, though it seemed to be a bit louder than the Desire. I
found the quiet nature of the phone to be one of the biggest annoyances during
the tests, especially in noisy environments such as outdoors on the street, or
had busy food courts.
Tonal Balance: This was one area where the Nexus
One differed markedly from the HTC Desire. Instead of having a muddy and
indistinct tone, the Nexus One was tinny and shallow. I assumed this was just
the fault of a low-quality earpiece, but I was rather surprised to discover the
problem goes much further than that. When I plugged the Nexus One into my car
stereo (using the 3.5 mm headset jack) I found the compared to the N95 it was
tinny and shallow. Using the N95 on the car stereo for incoming calls can often
by like having the person in the car with you. However, talking with someone on
the car stereo using the Nexus One was like having a speakerphone in the car
with you.
Sound Reproduction: The accuracy of the reproduced
audio was quite good, despite the aforementioned tinniness. I didn’t notice as
much of the strange background hiss/noise that I’d heard on the Desire, so in
this respect the Nexus One does better than its sibling.
Earpiece Volume: As I alluded to in the opening
paragraph for this section of the review, the maximum volume of the earpiece was
disappointingly low. To be fair, it was a bit louder than the Desire or the
iPhone 4, but that isn’t saying much. When compared to my N95 (which offers
Nokia’s volume-boost feature) the Nexus One seems horribly quiet. It was
difficult to hear when in the presence of loud background noises (like a crowded
food court, or out on the street).
Outgoing Audio: Outgoing audio was surprisingly
good, so long as there was no background noise. The problem with the outgoing
audio got progressively worse as the background noise increased. I blame this on
the noise-cancellation technology used in this phone. It’s similar in its
ability to blank out noise to the iPhone 4, but like that phone it suppresses
noise at the expense of audio quality. Why phone manufacturers think that people
what suppressed background noise AT ANY COST is a real mystery to me. And it
isn’t like they can’t get this right, because I’ve tried phones that can
suppress background noise like you wouldn’t believe without distorting the audio
at all.
Speakerphone: Sadly the Nexus One is exactly like
the Desire and possesses the worst excuse for a speakerphone that I’ve
encountered in ages. The tiny little speaker can barely produce enough volume to
be comfortably audible in a quiet room and the sound quality is shallow and
tinny. I’ve heard cheap children’s toys with better piezo speakers in them than
this phone. Unfortunately the poor quality of the speakers doesn’t just affect
calls, it affects the all multimedia functions, such as the playback of videos.
It sounds tinny and crackly, forcing you to listen to videos with headphones or
earbuds on.
Support Features
Ringer Volume: Like virtually all modern phones,
the ringer is simply the playback of audio clips through the built-in speakers.
That’s fine when the phone has excellent speakers, but since the Nexus One
suffers greatly in that department, the ringer suffers too. The maximum volume
and overall quality of ringers is mediocre at best. I couldn’t find a single
native ringtone on the Nexus One that I could hear at full volume over the din
of the people at the Square One food court. You might be able to improve things
by putting on your own extra-loud ringtones, but I doubt you could improve
things much. This is one of the worst ringers I’ve heard in ages.
Keypad Design: The Nexus One has no physical
keyboard, and so it relies solely upon a virtual keypad (just like the iPhone
4). However, the accuracy of the keypad is much lower than the one on the
iPhone. I frequently had to back up and repeat characters. I ended up having to
carefully watch what I typed as I entered passwords. My guess is that you would
become accustomed to it over time, but compared to the iPhone it looks like it
has a steeper learning curve.
Display: Unlike the Desire I tested, the Nexus One
did indeed have an AMOLED display. Indoors it was bright and colorful and mostly
a joy to use. However, outdoors in direct sunlight was another matter
completely. Like virtually AMOLED displays it was just up to the task of beating
the sun at its own game. The display was difficult to see and I have to shade it
from the bright light just to see it properly.
Conclusions
As a phone I found the Nexus One
very disappointing. Its low earpiece volume, tinny tonal quality, and useless
speakerphone put it near the bottom of any list of phones I’d buy personally. In
addition, the poor speakers mean that as a multimedia device the Nexus One is
also rather limited compared to other Android models on the market. Unless you
plan to do all your multimedia usage using earbuds or headphones, the Nexus One
may not suit your needs either.
So how does the Nexus One compare to the Desire? While there are differences in
the two, they both suffer from similar problems when it comes to day to day
phone use. I’d personally pick neither of them. A much better Android choice
might be the HTC Legend, which had markedly louder and better-sounding audio
based on limited tests I performed on my niece’s phone. I wonder why a company
like HTC can get the audio so right on some phones and so wrong on others?
