Google announces its own Android smartphone, the Nexus One

 

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Posted on 6 Jan 2010 at 14:45

Google has announced its first own-brand smartphone, the Nexus One, which is built by HTC but will be sold via Google's own online store at www.google.com/phone. In the US it will initially be available unlocked or on a service plan from T-Mobile US, but customers in the UK, Singapore, and Hong Kong can also order the unlocked model for $529 (around £331). There are also plans to sell it on the Verizon network in the US, and later this spring in Europe on the Vodafone network.

The Nexus One reaches new heights of hardware excellence, the star being the 3.7in, 480x800 OLED touchscreen, which Google claims has a 100,000:1 contrast ratio and 1ms response time. Processing power is provided by Qualcomm's 1GHz Snapdragon processor and 512MB of RAM, which drive Android 2.1, an updated version of Eclair with a redesigned interface.

The phone supports GSM and HSPA 3G technologies, with Draft-N wireless support and Bluetooth 2.1 with A2DP stereo headset compatibility. It comes with a full suite of sensors including proximity and light sensors, Assisted GPS, accelerometer and digital compass, as well as a second microphone for noise cancellation. Google will ship the phone with a 4GB microSDHC card for storage. The 5-megapixel camera has a 2x optical zoom and an LED flash, and can capture D1 (DVD quality) video at 20fps.

Android 2.1 adds all the social aggregation features you'd find in a phone manufacturer's custom interface, such as HTC's Sense UI and Motorola's Motoblur, so users will have access to a universal inbox and a contacts app that imports and merges your friends from Google, Exchange and Facebook. However it's not yet clear when UK customers will be able to sign up for Google's Voice service, which is thought to be one of the new phone's "killer apps".

Author: Barry de la Rosa