That’s the outside for you, and very successful it is, too. But software is key with Android phones and the latest version - 2.1, aka Eclair - has pleasant extras which add hugely to the functionality of the phone. Best of these is voice recognition, an expanded version of the audio capabilities of the Google Mobile app.
Android 2.1 has more features, better looks than its predecessors
Users of the app, available on the iPhone and most Android phones, know that the Google Search bar has a charmingly retro image of a radio microphone. Touch this and hold the phone as naturally as when you make a call and you can speak your search.
In last month’s keynote speech at the Mobile World Congress, Google CEO Eric Schmidt explained that the success of voice integration into Google is because of the way it do it. Google records what you’re saying and relays this to its remote servers which compare the sound to recorded phrases. "Effectively the computers take a vote on what you’ve said," Schmidt explained.
The same technology has been broadened so that on the Nexus One, you can dictate a text message, even an email. It’s not perfect, but it’s pretty good - and a quantum leap forward from most earlier voice-recognition software.
The most striking thing of all about the Nexus One is its speed, courtesy of a Qualcomm 1GHz Snapdragon chip. Qualcomm’s CPU means applications launch immediately, web pages refresh as fast as the data traffic allows and the touchscreen is instantly responsive. It’s all very impressive.
COMMENTS
Not True
The I phone is not the first phone to do stuff. Its just the first phone to look nice. At the launch of the iphone my buddy had a windows mobile phone. It could, and still can, do everything the Iphone can. Remote logins, music, downloading torrents, administration,web browsing, etc. Instead of a finger you would use a pen and it looked no where near as good as an Iphone. It sounds weird when apple fanboy's say the Iphone is the first smartphone. It's not. TBH Apple needs to stop spending money on lawyers and start upgrading there product. The world now has phones that people think look as good as the i phone so deal with it and stop thinking Steve Jobs is from the future.
I don't get it.
This review, and others, seem much more positive than the Milestone review, yet the Nexus One still only score 85%. The same as the milestone.
Are you seriously telling me the LG Viewty Smart is a better phone than either of these? It got 90%.... Maybe ratings should be reviewed over time, but your league table of phone reviews looks mighty odd.
yeah, yeah...
I've owned said 'tat' for almost two years now. I consider it mediocre at best, and can't wait to get my hands on a Nexus One.
I want my phone/most used device to be truly useful.
LED
Please can reviewers avoid calling LEDs "flashes"? LEDs on camera phones are not without merit - a xenon flash isn't much use as a torch, for starters - but confusing the two is playing into the marketeers' hands.
Sample photographs
Cafe Fanny sounds like my kind of place! Where is it? Google Maps directions on a postcard please ...
