The Nexus One vs. N900 My 1st hand accounts from both
 

Let me strat this off by saying I am neither a fan of Nokia, nor HTC/Andriod. I am a fan of Google, but who here isn't? More importantly though, I am a fan of functionality.

I pre-ordered the N900 and ordered the Nexus One as it was released. The N900 was everything I hoped it would be. A true NiT with a phone stapled on. Just the way I figure it should be. NiTs aren't meant to be Smart phones, they're meant to be Internet enabled devices to help you when you're away from your computer. Therefore I can understand a little bulk.

Now that the Nexus One is here, it has me wondering which device I'd rather use as a phone...

Through using both devices for a couple days I've started thinking of which one could be the clear winner. Unable to place a clear winner I made a list of arguments why one would want or use one over the other.

OS Android, being accepted more widely and in more handsets, the OS is more mature, and therefore cleaner, sexier, smoother. And due to being made by Google has an interface built in for almost every Google app that exists, that looks just like the website, but runs like on a real computer. And has had time to mature, being used as a smartphone OS and not as an internet tablet OS. Of course that's where Maemo shines. It's ability to look and act like a real computer, places more function and potential in the interface. A fast paced ability to launch and switch between currently active 'Live' apps, leaves few things to be desired.

RAW POWER The Nexus One has. But you rarely see it in action since there's no multitasking, is one SINGLE app going to use up all of the Nexus One's 1Ghz Snapdragon CPU? Not bloody likely. On the contrary the N900's ability to multitask on a 600mhz CPU allows for it to get bogged down easily when not careful of what you're doing. However with a stronger CPU the N900 would *really* blow you away.

Web Broswer Right now the N900 is only phone on the market with Flash(9.4 to be specific) and in concert with Mozilla's base code, it creates a *best in class* web broswer, that doesn't try to emulate a desktop experience, it's actually produces a desktop experience. The Nexus One on the other hand firmly reminds me that I am on a phone and disappoints me with being countable seconds slower then the N900, changing formating on some pages, increasing font size to make it easier to read, and choosing the mobile versions of sites when available.
However as a bit of a side note Flash 10 *will* be coming to Andriod and has been shown by Adobe running on the Nexus One in a buttery smooth manor, better then Flash on the N900. So perhaps not all is lost, but the N900 still has the upper hand in the browsing area.

Apps A matter of much controversy. Which platform has better/more apps. I don't even want to breach this topic given how obvious it is, and if it's actually important to you, you should just go out and buy the iPhone. Fart apps are not why we're here. We're here because we want function. We want use. So here I go:

YES the Android Marketplace has more apps. As it well should. If at it's current age and popularity, it *didn't* have so many, I'd be laughing hard at it. However these things come in time. The N900 while not having more apps does have more potential in the app arena. With a 100% open source OS if you need it, find someone to write it. Or better yet, write it yourself! Upload it to the Repos and let people test it and add to it, and make it better. The N900 thrives on community. That's it's design. If you don't like it, go somewhere else. Go to the iPhone and enjoy your 13 billion apps of uselessness and leave us. We'll be content with our few hundred/thousand USEFUL apps that will come in time.

There, now that, that's out of my system, we can continue. :P

Design The Nexus One does win here. Clearly. Anyone will agree that while the N900 looks nice, it's bulky, plastic design just doesn't compare to the stylings of HTC with a simple clean, metal body that's thinner then the iPhone and only has 4 capacitive buttons on it's face(aside from an odd trackball)

Screen Actually they both win this catagory. The N900 has a higher pixel desity due to having a slightly smaller screen(3.5 inch) that is also transflective(sunlight readable) vs. the Nexus One's 3.7 inch AMOLED screen which is barely visable outside, but sucks almost no power and provides crisp bright colors with high contrast. Something I always appreciate :)

Input(typing) I've always disliked touch screen only phones because there's no tactile feedback for keys so I don't know when I'm on the edge and pressing down might select the next key over. The N900 indulges me and lets me type really insanely fast. The Nexus One introduces voice input for text. And it actually works. Unlike the older days of Dragon Naturally Speaking, straight out of the box it just.. Works.. Something I'm only just starting to get used to. So far I've decided it makes up for the lack of a physical keyboard as it's accurate enough that when I'm sick it can still figure out what I'm saying 6 times out of 10. Long as I don't ask anything too strange ;)

Input(touching) I honestly wouldn't have thought there was as much of a difference as there was between the two phones. 1st off both phones are only single touch.The Nexus One has a capacative screen(capable of multi touch), what this means is that it measures the electrical energy from your fingers to generate a point of interest. This doesn't work as well as I'd hoped, however I'm used to the N900 at this point so I like to press hard and with a finger nail rather then my full finger. I expect this will get better in time.

The N900 uses a resistive screen which is *not* capable of multi touch. What that means is that it senses pressure to figure a point of interest, no matter the shape or points of pressure, it always finds the middle. ANYTHING can be pushed against the screen to control the device. A stylus, a pen, heck even a rock if you wish it. I've noticed the N900's screen while not responding to absurdly light touches will always respond to a little pressure. A reliability I've gotten used to. :P And using the stylus allows you both a mass amount of accuracy and prevents finger oils on the screen.

Camera The N900 has a real camera, comparable to point and shoots when using it in the sun, the auto focus lens and macro modes allow alot of creativity. However when looking through the nexus One, I was reminded of my old BlackBerry Curve only in higher resolution. What little focus did appear to be happening, it wasn't macro, by any means, and I'm sad to say stands no chance of being compared to a point and shoot, save for the humor of it.

Settings On Andriod it's a phone. Very obviously. The settings are all over the place and clearly you're just not *meant* to do some things. On Maemo I was able to find everything I wanted to change(for the most part) right out of the box. An ease fo use to be found in Maemo that might make normal phone users go insane at the sheer volume of options laid on their plate. An understandable take on both sides of the fence.

Limited storage. Few excuses for this really, I'm surprised they didn't take Nokiia's path and just make the Nexus One with 32gbs of storage built in, but I assume the size of the device limited what they could pull off, and they *did* put in a microSD slot capable of 32GB cards, which almost makes up for it, but the N900 supports up to 32GB internal *and* external so you can have 64GB total. (Yes I'm acutely aware Nokia only admits to accepting 16GB cards, but since the microSD standard goes to 32 if they support mircoSD they *should* support 32.unless they choose to limit it on purpose)

Connection Both run on TMO network and support wifi, but it's kind of a toss up here. The physical hardware of the Nexus One supports 802.11n(N900 is only b and g) while the N900 supports TMO's 3.5G network(Nexus One only supports as high as 3G). Both are next generation formats that aren't hugely supported yet in phones, so their inclusions in these is a pleasant surprise, but not as useful as they may sound. (3.5G is a battery vampire and wireless N is hard to find in public or businesses)

I believe that covers everything I noticed. I can't find a clear winner because they aren't both smart phones. One is a phone that pretends it's a computer, and one is a computer.that pretends it's a phone, but neither make it all the way and I don't think they should. They both serve their purposes well, it all depends on what the end user wants or needs.

However as a phone I think I'm more likely to use the Nexus One and when I want to browse the web while watching TV I think I'll have the N900 charged and at the ready. But only time can tell what I'll really decide to do. :)

Re: The Nexus One vs. N900 My 1st hand accounts from both
 

Thanks for the good review. Interesting stuff. As much as I'd like to though, I sadly don't see the use of owning both the phones. One has to win I'm afraid.

Re: The Nexus One vs. N900 My 1st hand accounts from both
 

Interesting, I've never gotten voice recognition to work on cell phones (and even Dragon Naturally Speaking and the one included with Windows Vista and Windows 7). I chalk it up to a combination of I speak fast, I sometimes pronouce words wrong, and I occasionally have a Chinese accent (all a result of me growing up in the formulative stages of language learning speaking Chinese and little English).

And seeing my Google Voicemail transcripts didn't have me exactly expecting that Google would do any better (though they do have a larger library of samples for the system to learn from). That's partially what GOOG411 and Google Voice are for (yes scary isn't it? :p)

I wonder how the Nexus would do with me. If you come to the get-together in D.C. in the off-topic forum if you bring the Nexus I wanna try out the voice recognition). I've tried the one on the iPhone (professor who loves Apple products had one) and I could never get it working reliabily.

Though how does it do with noise? I'm guessing you don't have to bring it up to your face to use the voice recognition since that would be a terrible design flaw to have to do that each time.

Re: The Nexus One vs. N900 My 1st hand accounts from both
 

Excellent write-up OP.. I have to agree with Davost though. Almost seems like a waste of money to have both.. sell one (either one) and get good money for it. Theres just too much "overlap".. yes one has better phone features, the other better computer stuff.. but you've got to use one or the other more, I would imagine.

Re: The Nexus One vs. N900 My 1st hand accounts from both
 

Or the rich option, use both! (if you can tether the N900 to the Nexus).

Re: The Nexus One vs. N900 My 1st hand accounts from both
 

thanks apoc

ive been waiting for someone to compare the two and feel i made the right choice in buying the n900.

i totally agree with you on the typing of the n900 and was pleasently surprised how quickly and accurately i could type with my fat fingers.

thanks again

Re: The Nexus One vs. N900 My 1st hand accounts from both
 

Some hardware corrections: N1 does NOT have 802.11n (that is some HTC bull crap talk), nor is a Snapdragon chip from 2007 without a GPU anywhere near OMAP3.

Anyway, thanks for the nice read. Too bad there is no "Thanks!" button... :(

Re: The Nexus One vs. N900 My 1st hand accounts from both
 

Can we get a moderator to move this thread to the competitors forum? I think you can thank there.

Re: The Nexus One vs. N900 My 1st hand accounts from both
 

From Google's mobile privacy policy: "To improve processing of your voice input, we may also continuously record in temporary memory a few seconds of ambient background noise. This recording stays only temporarily on the device and is not sent to Google."

My guess would be the device applies an inbuilt algorithm which subtracts the noise.

Re: The Nexus One vs. N900 My 1st hand accounts from both
 

I whole heartedly agree, the Nexus One was actually originally purchased for my mother to use with a new software allowing her massage business to be brought, more or less, to the 21st century. Sadly the same day the Nexus One arrived the screen on my N900 broke and I've borrowed the Nexus One till my N900 comes back from repairs.

I do wonder how it would work for you, I speak as clear and monotone as possible just out of habit from other voice recog software so we'll have to wait to find out on that one. Hopefully I can make it to the DC meet up(only just stumbled on that thread earlier today and haven't had a chance to read when or where it is). As for noise, it has a backwards facing mic that cancels out background sounds. And I believe that helps a fair bit.

Re: The Nexus One vs. N900 My 1st hand accounts from both
 

For what its worth, if the N1's speech recognition is anything like the DROID's it should be considered "extremely good". Using the Talk To Me app (speak one language into the DROID, it audibly reproduces in another), I was able to hold a conversation with my g/f's family (Spain) over the phone using speaker from the DROID, into the speaker of the house phone.


For the OP, as far as the bulkiness of the 900, having taken mine apart due to the USB port coming out, there is no real reason for it being so thick. That said, I wouldn't mind it being "thicker" if it meant a smooth back and space for a higher capacity battery. If this was a tablet, I would have hoped Nokia engineering and management, would have designed it for prolonged use away from power source.

As far as a "metal body", with the Droid, I did several signal tests, and even made a make shift antenna to improve reception. I noticed with its metal battery door off, I experienced a significant gain in signal strength. While I like metal bodied electronics, I can see where it could be beneficial to go full plastic. I will concede however if this is just the nature of CDMA technology, not affecting T-Mo/AT&T 3G bands.

Lastly, chalk me up for not being in love w/Google...they want way, way, too much user info up in "the cloud".

:p

Re: The Nexus One vs. N900 My 1st hand accounts from both
 

I second that.

*raises hand.

Re: The Nexus One vs. N900 My 1st hand accounts from both
 

I would love to get more info on the N1's GPU. It has one, I'm sure. I read somewhere it has a AMD z-something one that is commonly referred through its codename, but I don't know if that was some hype-induced hallucination or the real deal.

Either way, I have to agree that the OMAP3 (and especially the sgx) seems to be more performing, at least in a per-ghz way, which will probably mean much in a battery-constrained device.

Re: The Nexus One vs. N900 My 1st hand accounts from both
 

According to 3D Benchmarks the N1 is "only" 4% above the G1...

Re: The Nexus One vs. N900 My 1st hand accounts from both
 

Good stuff, thanks.

Re: The Nexus One vs. N900 My 1st hand accounts from both
 

Who says the N1 doesn't multitask? That's one of the selling points of Android over iPhone ...

FYI, my G1 multitasks just fine.

Re: The Nexus One vs. N900 My 1st hand accounts from both
 

Up to 6 apps..

Re: The Nexus One vs. N900 My 1st hand accounts from both
 

Fixed. Please feel free to go back and thank the original post (and any others you particularly liked).

Re: The Nexus One vs. N900 My 1st hand accounts from both
 

fatalsaint: still, the OP seemed to say the N1 didn't multitask. Hard to say that up to 6 isn't "multi"

Re: The Nexus One vs. N900 My 1st hand accounts from both
 

True.. but honestly.. my G1 frustrates me to no end about that. Even the last 6 apps I open.. randomly you'll go to one and realize it's not running anymore..

Because you know.. android decided it was a busy.. and you didn't want that app anyway >.>.

Re: The Nexus One vs. N900 My 1st hand accounts from both
 

Anyone who values their privacy, I guess.

I bought the N900 for positive reasons, but it was only available recently. Android's been around for a couple of years now - I could have got an Android device. They do lots of fun things.

But I found I just couldn't bring myself to participate in the GoogleTracksYourLifeAndOneDayTheyWillSellItToWhoev er{BuysThemOut/MakesTheLaw/TakesThemByForce} program.

It's not that I mind people knowing what I talk about, where I am, what I'm interested in, who my friends are and so on. I'm generally very open with people I meet.

It's that, one day there will be something ugly like a war or whatever, and if it happens to be where I am, all that past knowledge raises the risk of being classified digitally as on the 'wrong' side, along with all my friends, perhaps just because of who my friends are and what they got up to. It does already happen in a small way, if you engage in political activism or have the wrong accent / racial characteristics in an airport.

Some things you can't hide, and it's silly to get paranoid. There are lots of positives to the cloud. /but still, I'd rather not have every little whim of detail about everything I did throughout every day and with whom in just *one* company's cross-referenced database. Diversity is good.

I'd rather keep more mystery about who I am and who I know, just in case that day arrives where I am.

The Google phones can be used like that, but you lose a lot of the reason for buying them if you don't use lots of Google services with them. I'd rather be able to mix and match different things from different providers.

So I found myself actively not choosing a Google phone, despite them being great devices that are plenty of fun....

I won't be channelling all my personal activity data through Ovi services, either...

Re: The Nexus One vs. N900 My 1st hand accounts from both
 

I did say that, technically I was right *and* wrong. As Google's help page for the phone mentions:

More or less that means it closes out the programs when it thinks you don't want them anymore, but it doesn't really keep instances open. I consider multitasking to guarantee *keeping it open* and the ability to switch between open instances and close then as *you* need, not as Android *thinks* you need. So this is multitasking to an extent, but not true multitasking.

Honestly I'd be afraid of this draining the battery really fast, but I won't comment on the battery till I've given it time to really give some consistent results. (aka Me not playing on it for hours cause it's a new toy :P)

Source: http://www.google.com/support/androi...168452#1147812

Re: The Nexus One vs. N900 My 1st hand accounts from both
 

Nexus One buyers discover the joy of reverse logistics:

http://www.pcworld.com/article/18639...omplaints.html

Re: The Nexus One vs. N900 My 1st hand accounts from both
 

That's not surprising, Google prefers to help people through the web (email or Google Groups). Though their Google Group forums in general are pretty helpful. Must save them alot of money (calling centers and staffing them, or even paying a company to do it for you can be expensive).

Re: The Nexus One vs. N900 My 1st hand accounts from both
 

And the winner is? Google. Even if you buy the N900 most likely your homepage is set to google.com.

Re: The Nexus One vs. N900 My 1st hand accounts from both
 

Being Australian with my Aussie accent I have never found a decent voice recognition program that works. Getting any of them to write out "A dingo ate my ...." generally doesn't have very accurate results.

I guess the Nexus One is aimed at being primarily sold in the US but it would be nice to know if it works on people who don't have American accents.

Cheers
Rip

Re: The Nexus One vs. N900 My 1st hand accounts from both
 

I saw the Adobe dudes video showing off N1, visiting NG website and playing a video and MiniClip. All of which worked fine on my N900 right now even. I have to agree, the flash video needed a bit of buffering and still stutters a bit. Nothing that a bit of creative optimization won't fix if Nokia/Adobe wants... As for the Google apps, I don't see any reason why Google wouldn't want to port most of them to Maemo. After all, the more people using their services the more money they get, so far Google has been pretty platform independent, supporting all most all major mobile/computer OSes.

Re: The Nexus One vs. N900 My 1st hand accounts from both
 

Google would if Maemo had a bigger installation base (to justify the cost to them to have people working on Maemo version of their apps), other then that there's little reason for them not to as you pointed out.

Edit: Just read on Lifehacker that apparantly the voice feature requires an internet connection to use. Is this true?

http://lifehacker.com/5443156/androi...=Google+Reader

Re: The Nexus One vs. N900 My 1st hand accounts from both
 

Yes it does require an internet conn to work and in fact the slower the connection the worse the accuracy. On wifi its very accurate, anything less and your mileage will vary. With no connection its not actual functional at all.

Re: The Nexus One vs. N900 My 1st hand accounts from both
 

I guess that's not to be unexpected..

Voice recognition does require a lot of resources (even on desktop/laptops). Still a pretty cool feature. I'll have to try it out someday.

Re: The Nexus One vs. N900 My 1st hand accounts from both
 

I am in DC and I have both the Nexus and the N900. When is the get-together? If I go, I'll let you try the voice recognition. I was pretty surprised how accurate it is.

Re: The Nexus One vs. N900 My 1st hand accounts from both
 

Is it as bad as the old LCDs, like on the N800?
Going from N800 to N900, the transflective screen makes a huge difference to me. Many times I would have like to use maps on the N800, but it was unreadable outdoors. Had to use google maps on a phone instead.

So it actually kills them, rather than suspending and copying them to flash? Is the N900 the only phone to use virtual memory or any kind of swap? Symbian and WinMo do not seem to have it either.

Just put on an American accent. You'll feel a bit silly, but it does not have to be convincing. Learn how the yanks mangle their vowels.
e.g water goes from "wor-da"(au) to "war-der"(us). Its easy to learn. Helps when you visit the States too :-)

Re: The Nexus One vs. N900 My 1st hand accounts from both
 

I believe we are trying for 23rd.

http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=36424

Though place is still being discussed.

Re: The Nexus One vs. N900 My 1st hand accounts from both
 

The only application I need to access Google services is a good web browser. I think that is why the N900 is the winner in that case.

That being said, I would like to know the advantage(s) of a dedicated application to access, for example sake, gmail ? Is it for the finger friendliness ?

Re: The Nexus One vs. N900 My 1st hand accounts from both
 

@Mandor, I agree that a good browser makes the whole dedicated app kinda useless. But a good browser still needs optimized website for the tiny screen and finger friendly controls. Yes, I have tried a lot of finger friendly websites for Google apps and Facebook etc. There is still missing functionality and easy of access, still not finger friendly enough. Gmail is not needed in a separate app if the built-in email client wasn't this bad. Something inline with Profimail on Symbian would do. But for Google Maps+Latitude, Sync, Youtube (not so much personally) a dedicated app would be much more superior option.

Re: The Nexus One vs. N900 My 1st hand accounts from both
 

I bought the N900, the Droid and the Nexus One. I don't plan to keep them all. But I did want hands-on time with them.

I have to disagree with the OP regarding the Nexus One screen. It is very visible outside. Watch this video comparing AMOLED to LCD. I did the comparison myself using the phones and the differences are exactly as shown in this video. The Nexus One AMOLED screen is amazing outside. For me, it is the best screen of the three.

That said, in most other ways I am very disappointed with the Nexus One. The worst thing for me is sound quality on VoIP calls. Music volume through the speakers is also too low.

I installed Dolphin browser on both Android phones, and I think it's pretty good (it has multitouch and pinch zooming). The Nexus One is the fastest of all the phones in regard to the web browser, but the difference over the Droid is very minor. As has been pointed out in many other discussions here, the Android phones give a much nice experience when doing things like scrolling web pages in the browser.

Google's navigation is just amazing too. Nokia can't touch it.

Of course, Maemo has the most potential. But why isn't Nokia putting the resources into it that Google is putting into Android? Android is improving much faster.

Re: The Nexus One vs. N900 My 1st hand accounts from both
 

You mean the url being tied to google search ? Well they haven't won I'll find a way to strip it out one way or another. I hate all things google with a passion, they have violated many privacy laws and need to be sued classaction style.

Re: The Nexus One vs. N900 My 1st hand accounts from both
 

You know that when you visit the US you'll have to be fingerprinted/iris-scanned and give DNA samples in the future? There's nothing to stop them selling your information to insurance companies as you are not a citizen and have voluntarily given up your information by visiting. Passports are all going towards incorporating biometric data.

In the UK there are CCTV cameras everywhere you go. Anyone can track credit card/debit card data and track you where you are. Mobile phone companies can get your location everywhere you go with cell tower triangulation. If you have a travel pass, that will allow tracking of where you go. A GPS device in your car will track your car etc etc.

Whether you like it or not, there isn't really much outside your head that isn't known about you.

Re: The Nexus One vs. N900 My 1st hand accounts from both
 

What improvements would it take for the nexus one for you to like it more? I assume this includes an improvement with VoIP and the speaker. Is there anything else?

}:^)~

Re: The Nexus One vs. N900 My 1st hand accounts from both
 

And this makes it okay for Google to violate privacy laws?