Google’s Nexus One Press Event Recap
Google unveiled the Nexus One today and called it the “Next Evolution of Android”. Here’s a quick recap of what they went over.
1. Nexus One is a close collaboration between Google and HTC
2. It is the most advanced hardware HTC has put in a device yet (Peter Chou’s words): with it’s 3.7 AMOLED touchscreen, 1GHz processor, etc.
3. Google Earth for Android has just been unveiled.
It’s not all about hardware, Nexus One has new software too:
1. All of the Droid’s apps are there
2. Android 2.1
3. 5 homescreens instead of 3
4. News and Location based Weather Widgets
5. Live/Animated Wallpapers that respond to touch
6. New launcher menu, no pulling up to open anymore
7. New Photo Album, photos float on a surface
8. Search by Voice and Voice Navigation are built in
9. Voice enabled ALL texts fields on the device, so you can talk instead of type
Purchasing the Device:
1. Simple Google Web Store for you to purchase the phone without a contract or with one from a partner.
2. You can buy the phone with T-Mobile USA today.
3. They plan to add more devices to their web store (Motorola was mentioned).
4. Adding more countries to the webstore as well.
5. The Store has a live demo of the phone that you can play with.
6. You need a Google account and a Google checkout account.
Verizon and Vodafone will jump on board with the Nexus One in Spring 2010. So you can purchase it with a contract from either of those companies then.
So the only thing that truly impresses me is the business model for the phone; selling it from Google and you can choose your carrier…
So we thought it would be available on multiple carriers at first. Then they idea died because of the spec sheet only showing T-Mobile 3G, but now according to Google it will be available on T-Mobile, Verizon and Vodafone by Spring 2010. Interesting indeed. Now the question is, if you order the phone from Google and want Verizon do they send you a CDMA version or is it a dual GSM CDMA phone? Curiouser and curiouser…
Not bad all in all, what do you guys think?
I guess the Unlockr was right all along. Well except for him claiming it was the Passion. hehe
I’m happy to see this phone coming to Verizon however, I’m a bit upset with the delay. Why release an amazing device on only one carrier, well two if you’re counting EDGE @ ATT. I feel like Google should’ve released it on the top four US carriers. If google releases this same phone for Verizon later this Spring then it gives Apple plenty of time to ensure they have a superior device ready… Plus I wonder if Apple has already planned the rumored release of an Iphone for Verizon to release right before. With the new ETF there would be no way for you to drop your new iphone for an Nexus that will release a month later.
Just thoughts
Wolf,
It is the Passion 🙂 When we booted into bootloader when we had the leaked shots it shows PASSION in the name section. Someone who gets one let me know if you hold camera and power to turn it on if it comes up as Passion at the top or if they changed the name in the ROM now.
Passion was the codename HTC gave this phone, Google named it Nexus One 🙂
i’m on verizon, i think this blows if it doesnt have sense ui on it… plain android stinks… if that is the case, then i actually may switch plans and hold out for the alleged verizon iphone… either that or i hope htc releases something else on verizon..
Dave,
Well remember that we supposedly already have root access so Sense UI might not be to far away 🙂
I can see why they didn’t / can’t do multiple carriers on the same day. For the carriers, it isn’t about Google or the phone or the customers….it’s about the carrier.
They will each want their day in the Sun. The last thing any vendor wants is to be lumped in with every other vendor. The bigger they are, the more they want to be seen to be standing on their own with their own unique value-added package. Otherwise they can’t differentiate themselves and charge a premium.
dave: Interesting. I see Sense as bloated, CPU-wasting eye candy…and prefer the lightness and speed of the default Android UI. No pleasing folks. 🙂
Ok soo….ITS WIKKED :D. However, I was hoping for some assortment of viewing for flash vids… does anyone know of this possibility..
Kthanxbai 😀
Hold on for the Bravo its coming with Htc Sense, cant wait. This 2.1 didint look as pretty to me.
“I guess the Unlockr was right all along. Well except for him claiming it was the Passion.”
Do we have any confirmation there will still be a Passion coming out? That this isn’t the Passion? I ask because my carrier, Sprint just got a big of sand kicked in its face today by Google.
But I do wish Google would let me design their phones… I still think a usable smartphone needs a d-pad and a stylus. I used the Palm Pre and the Sprint Hero for awhile, and well, a stylus is just a much better device for phone interactions than my colossal sausage shaped fingers.
And I’m a bit disappointed that we didn’t hear about:
A) Better way to manage processes/apps on Android either now or in the future
B) Better way to deal with memory on the device vs. memory on the smartcard
C) Graphics/gaming standards for both hardware and software
D) How I can get a ride on that 767.
Jerry,
This is the Passion as far as I know. The Passion is the codename HTC gave it (Nexus One is what Google named it). That also explains why we saw a Passion and PassionC in the leaked ROMs and no Nexus anywhere. PassionC would be CDMA I would guess.
Heres the thing though that I still dont get. Will there be 2 separate versions of the Nexus? One GSM and one CDMA? Or is the version we see now a GSM /CDMA version?
If it is both GSM and CDMA then your not screwed at all. You can buy it without a contract sell the Sprint phone you have now and use it on Sprint immediately. If there is a CDMA version coming later for Verizon I bet you could buy that without a contract and do the same thing.
LL, Unlocker: You’re right, I guess its hard to please everyone! Well at any rate… I dont understand what rooting means, I’ll have to look that up… but sounds good if it means sense ui will be an option!
Interesting that the comment was that the Verizon option was simply working out the integration of their services in the Google web site. Does that mean Spring 2010 is a conservative estimate and that we could see it much sooner? It’s likely a separate version and seeing that we haven’t seen an FCC report, it’s not even on the horizon yet. I would LOVE to have this in hand by the end of January. Fingers crossed. This is my next phone.
and the original speculation was TMo jan 5 and VZ end of Jan…. so who knows maybe they were right… that’d be nice