Published: Thu 18 February 2010
By dwarner
In 2010 .
tags: cell phone
Brady said it's time
I wrote about my Nexus One, so here it is. It hasn't even been a year
since I got my
G1
but it was still time to upgrade.
The primary reason I wanted to upgrade was because my G1 just didn't
work anymore. I've been running the
CyanogenMod on my phone for some time
which seemed to help initially, but lately I had been having tremendous
problems just answering my phone. Let that sink in - I couldn't answer
calls on my phone . That was unacceptable.
The Google Nexus One came out in January
and was very interesting to me but I had two percieved problems with it:
no 3G on AT&T and no keyboard.
Since getting it I will say that the performance of the phone is
outstanding. I have it loaded with everything I did on the G1 and more
and it still remains completely responsive. That in and of itself is
beatiful.
Android 2.1 is also very nice; there are a lot of little upgrades that
make it very useful. Backing up settings to Google is very helpful when
you need to wipe your phone. Having my ASN to get started without
having to specify my
ASN manually
is nice. Live backgrounds are a slick touch. Multitouch browser that
is actually responsive is great.
The virtual keyboard is working very well for me so far. I was very
concerned with not having a hard keyboard, and if I actually used the
SSH app as much as I thought I might then maybe it would be more
painful, but for normal messaging, tweeting, and emailing the virtual
keyboard is fine. Having a huge screen here is very helpful.
I don't really miss 3G data access since I've never had it. All I've
had so far is edge, so being stuck there is fine (for now). I've heard
rumors of a Nexus One w/ AT&T bands by this summer, so maybe I will
switch when it comes available.
How about some unexpected surprises? The vibrator. The G1 was more
noisy than powerful, mostly due to the two halves that buzzed together.
The N1 is actually powerful - which is great in your pocket, but
annoying at night. So my N1 lives on a folded-up hankie on my
nightstand.
The other reason my N1 lives on my hankie is because of the blinking
trackpad. The LED in that thing is bright , so in addition to sitting
on the hankie to soften the buzz, it sits upside-down to prevent an
annoying pulsing light all over the room.
I wish the trackball in the LED was multi-colored; I'm not sure if this
is an API problem with programs or if the feature is just missing. I do
like that there is a charging indicator that is separate from the
notification indicator.
The proximity sensor in the phone is also a huge help. Being able to
pull the phone away from your face during a call and be able to interact
with the phone is amazing. I know why the iPhone has had this since the
beginning; it's necessary for a touch-screen phone to have.
Overall I am extremely pleased with this phone. The form-facter is
amazing and usability is a tremendous upgrade over the G1.
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