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Google Nexus One Review (touch input, battery life, conclusion)
Finger v. Stylus
I know people love to complain about stylus input on PDAs and smartphones. They're small, easy to lose, and who can really get the hang of handwriting recognition software? And on-screen or hardware keyboards are generally easy to tap on with two thumbs than a stylus.
But there are a few things that stylus input is far better at than finger input. Aside from handwriting recognition software which is a mixed bag at best, there's the simple act of jotting down a note in your own handwriting -- without asking the software to bother converting it to text. And art and drawing applications are far easier to use with a stylus than a big fat fingertip.
I have lousy handwriting and I'm not an artist, so those things don't bother me much. Here's what does: It's generally harder to tap a precise point on a touchscreen with a fingertip than with a stylus. I find myself tapping the wrong link on a web page all the time on the Nexus One. This is partly a result of the fact that the web browser does show full desktop views of web pages. In a world where more and more web pages are designed for small screens, maybe we'll come up with a better way to create finger-friendly hyperlinks. But we're not there yet.
And when entering text, it's much harder than it needs to be to go back and fix a tpyo. See how I misspelled "typo" in that previous sentence. If I noticed that while typing on the Android at this moment, I'd have to tap at the screen with my finger and hope that the cursor moves to the right spot between the "t" and "p." With a stylus, this would be incredibly easy. With a finger, I'll be lucky if the cursor is near the word "tpyo" instead of the world "fix."
Look, I get it. The iPod has demonstrated that people would prefer to use on-screen keyboards and large, finger-friendly touchscreen buttons rather than fumbling with a stylus and Start Menu. But I really wish that every now and again I could tap on the screen with the back of my fingernail instead of the tip of my finger. Unfortunately, the Nexus One and most finger-friendly touchscreen smartphones simply won't recognize this kind of input.
I'd love to see someone come out with a phone with a touchscreen display that can handle either type of input. Unfortunately, I suspect there's really not much demand for this feature.
Update: As has been pointing out in the comments, the situation isn't as dire as I made it out to be on the Nexus One. There's a trackball beneath the touchscreen that you can use to move the cursor around while entering text. I'd used the trackball a bit while surfing the web to scroll through pages or scroll from link to link. Somehow it didn't occur to me to try it while entering text. Thanks Jon!
Battery
I didn't want to focus too heavily on hardware in this review, but battery life is important when talking about a mobile device like the Nexus One. I didn't perform any scientific tests, but let's put it this way: If you operate the Nexus One with Wifi and 3G enabled all day, you'll probably have to charge it every night.
If you plan to spend a few hours watching video or playing games, don't expect the phone to last through a full workday. It simply won't. But you can get reasonably good battery life when performing tasks that don't require the backlit display to be turned on. The screen is one of the biggest battery hogs, so you can probably spend much of the day listening to MP3s without killing the battery -- especially if you turn off WiFi and/or put the phone in Airplane Mode, which cuts off all wireless communication.
Conclusion
There are a lot of things I like about the Nexus One and Google Android. And a lot of things I don't. It's fast, has a great web browser, excellent email application (especially for Gmail users), and blurs the line between web and local content in a way that my old Windows Mobile PDA doesn't even dream of doing.
But I'm disappointed in the selection of video players. And I'm still not convinced that the on-screen keyboard and finger-friendly controls are worth dropping stylus input altogether -- even though I know I'm probably in the minority on that point. I also miss physical buttons for controlling media playback. They also come in handy when playing video games where you don't want to actually have to put your fingers over the screen you should be looking at in order to control actions.
Some of the coolest applications I've tested on the Nexus One so far include Google Listen, an on-device podcast manager that lets you download and listen to podcasts on the device, an NPR News app that lets you find podcasts and live streams of NPR radio programs and local stations, the WordPress blogging app, and the Seesmic Twitter client for Android. I also love the Aldiko eBook reader which lets you find and download thousands of free eBooks and read them directly on the phone.
Even more exciting, I found all of these applications by browsing the Android Market on my device. I didn't have to look them up online, download them to my desktop and then copy them to the phone. Again, I realize that Android isn't the only platform with an app store. In fact, pretty soon every major mobile operating system will have one. But after spending years complaining that I didn't need my PDA to be a phone, the Nexus One has convinced me that maybe that's exactly what I do want. And with Google Android shipping on 60,000 handsets a day, I have confidence that the platform will only continue to grow, which makes the Nexus One a pretty good choice for someone looking for a first smartphone.
Comments
18
Subscribe to commentsminibarFeb 23rd 2010 3:50PM
it's been a very long time since i've seen near this much original research at DLS and i hope it does not take so long for the next, although i might aim for a bit more concision in order to increase read through, hence comments.
bjsguessFeb 23rd 2010 3:58PM
Very solid review. Glad I'm not the only one who is going to really miss hard buttons and a stylus.
RestorationFeb 23rd 2010 4:48PM
I really feel that a four directional pad with a center select/OK button would have greatly altered your experience with the N1. It would allow for an easier method of selecting links on a page, going back to fix a typo, and it would give you the option of not touching the screen in games as you mentioned.
Although I miss the tactile buttons of my old mini disc player, I recognize that the physical hold switch prevented problems from occurring when the buttons were pushed in my pocket. I do miss the ease of simply reaching in and moving to the next track or adjusting volume, without having to take the hole device out to view.
JonFeb 23rd 2010 5:37PM
Thanks for the review. It's nice to see DLS doing more Android stuff. I recently got a Droid Eris (which doesn't get nearly as much coverage as it deserves when compared to the Droid), so finding out about cool new Android apps is especially important to me.
Based on my experience with my Eris, most of opinions are similar to yours. Lots to like, and a few things not to like. Navigating text is easier on my Eris than I suspect it is on the Nexus One since I have a trackball. So I don't have as many complaints there. As long as I can tap on the text box in question, it's pretty easy to get to the text I need to edit. Physical buttons for playing media would be nice, but I don't listen to music on my phone while it's in my pocket that often. And I have controls on my lock screen for the default music player, which means I don't have to go through as many steps as you had to. I do wish the controls on the lock screen would integrate with other apps like Pandora and Google Listen though. HTC also included a calibration tool for the keyboard on the Eris. It doesn't make things perfect, but at least I get a little say on how it handles my finger presses when typing, which makes not having a stylus less of an issue for me. On my last phone (which was a stylus-based, Windows Mobile 6 device) I actually installed a different keyboard which was more touch friendly, so I seldomly used the stylus on it for most basic things anyway.
whymeFeb 23rd 2010 6:21PM
@Jon... FYI, there is a trackball on the Nexus One.
rileyroooooFeb 24th 2010 8:40AM
Are the lock screen music controls part of the HTC-modified music player? Or is that something you can do with vanilla Android?
Also, you can install alternate keyboards on Android.
Brad LinderFeb 24th 2010 8:48AM
OK, I feel silly. Would you believe it never occurred to me to use the trackball to change my position while entering text? That definitely helps quite a bit. It's still a bit of a hassle if you have to jump back a few lines, but the trackball is much more precise than pointing with your fingertip.
Thanks!
JonFeb 24th 2010 9:55AM
@rileyroo
The one I have is part of the Sense UI that is an HTC customization thing on top of vanilla Android. I personally really like their customizations, but I'm sure others don't. I know on older versions of Android the vanilla install doesn't have media controls on the lock screen. I don't know about newer versions (2.0, 2.1, etc.). I have heard that you can install new lock screens on vanilla Android that have such controls, but I haven't investigated it myself yet. I don't know if you have to root your phone or something like that in order to install them. If that's a big thing for you though you could do some research before making a purchse.
@Brad
lol. I'm glad I could help! You're correct, the trackball isn't perfect, but trying to get the right spot just with your finger would be miserable, I agree. So go forth, and enjoy your new, more accurate text modifications! :)
DJFeb 23rd 2010 8:23PM
Did this guy really compare a Nexus One to a Dell Axim? "Clicking" and styluses? Seriously?
PatrickFeb 24th 2010 8:40AM
I thought the nexus one had a OLED screen therefore no backlight?
elarchidosFeb 24th 2010 8:40AM
Try nokia n900, has it all you missing here.
siddjazzFeb 24th 2010 8:40AM
why on earth would you compare present day phones to 5 year old phones?? makes no sense. One point i would agree to is apple should not be used as a benchmark cuz in the process of comparing every minute detail, you over look the strong suitsof the competition. Its like a windows and linux or intel and amd. You'll never realize how amazing it is till you start viewing it as a stand alone device/app.
Brad LinderFeb 24th 2010 8:47AM
The Axim isn't a phone, it's a PDA. The reason I made the comparison is because that's exactly the device I've been using for the last 5 years, as I explained early on.
Over the last day or two, I have had some time to play with an iPod Touch for the first time, and here are some brief thoughts (based on my personal experience, YMMV):
- I like the iPhone/iTouch keyboard much better.
- I prefer the way Apple handles browser tabs
- Not being able to run non-Apple apps in the background drives me crazy. How silly is it that a streaming radio application shuts down when you open the web browser?
- I prefer the level of customization you get with the Android Home screens. Don't want 16 icons on each page? No problem.
- The back key in Android saves a lot of clicks.
So there are pros and cons to both platforms/devices.
siddjazzFeb 24th 2010 10:54AM
Agreed. Apples UI is painfully boring. The problem is, people have made it the yardstick. Well the million iphone users at least. I speak as a power user and not a developer when i say that, in my opinion, the snapdragon architecture and the ease of android refinement, definitely give the nexus an instant advantage.
Let's face it, apple products have always know how to market. If companies stopped viewing apple as their competitors, the niche i-can-damn-well-do-without-an-apple, group will start growing.
By the way i also enjoyed reading the review, unbiased with no if's and buts.
2late2dieFeb 25th 2010 7:57AM
It's so refreshing to see a smartphone review from an "iphone virgin" ;), no "iphone this" and "iphone that", just an honest opinion on the device.
I think you made a lot of good points, but I gotta agree with you about one particular point, in a big way. The lack of physical controls for the music player. That's something that really bugs about most smartphones because it's just so easy to do. I mean honesty, I'd be happy even with just a "play" and "skip to next" buttons, don't tell me it's that hard to put a couple of buttons on the edges of the device.
But anway, N1 seems to be the best phone on the market right now (for me of course, lest the fanboys jump me).
Hardware - it isn't perfect but it's better than droid or iphone. For me perfect hardware would be desire (N1 but with optical trackpad and hardware buttons, instead of trackball and touch buttons) with a keyboard.
Software - as much as I appreciate HTC's sense UI (it really is beautiful), at the end of the day I prefer the "core" UI, I just wish it was a bit prettier :) (and I'm not a fan of those "dynamic" wallpapers). I also think WebOS has a few advantages over Android (the "cards" are a definite win), but overall, taking into account the dev support, app market, as well as raw potential, I think Android is the best choice.
And of course the cou de gras is the deep Google integration, which being a fairly heavy google user, is pretty awesome for me.
ProlornFeb 26th 2010 7:32AM
I echo the sentiment that it's wonderfully refreshing to get a review like this.
Nice to get some unique impressions for once.
Just on a personal note, I especially liked hearing something (i.e. anything) about the multimedia, good and bad, besides "it sucks next to the iPhone". (Yeah, ok, so tell me how it sucks then!)
powerhouselb2Mar 1st 2010 2:33AM
Did you find the track ball easier to use in landscape mode or portrait?
saturnineApr 13th 2010 6:17PM
Thank you! This was just the review I was looking for as I am a WinMo6 user myself (there are many still out there). Most reviews seem to expect the user to already be intimately familiar with Android & therefore leave much to be desired. I want to know how the file system works, how the browser looks, how to configure the device, etc. You have covered these in more detail than any other review I have read to date.
The lack of physical buttons for media control has bewildered me ever since I saw the 1st iphone. Then HTC et. al. had to follow suit. I'm glad to see I am not the only one bothered by this, but it seems strange I don't hear more about it. These things have accelerometers, couldn't they provide an option when the media player is active & the screen in standby, tilt the thing or shake it to advance the song? That could be rather awkward, to say the least, but it would be something. Alternately, swipe the trackball to advance the song, click it for pause, etc. At least there is the trackball to move around in a text field. I see on the HTC Evo they forgo this altogether. How do iphone users cope?
I understand your sentiments about the stylus, & perhaps when mobile devices get even closer to replacing laptops, they will make a resurgence. Especially for handwriting & drawing apps, as you mention.