In a previous article, I posted that I was sold on an Android 2.0 device knowing that Adobe AIR was coming to the platform.  In full disclosure, I was also sold by my brief experiences with them.  Well, now that I’ve sold my G1′s I picked up a Nexus and have put it through the ringer.

While I had complained, many times, about there being a lack of a physical keyboard I’ve moved on.  It’s still a drawback, but with practice I’ve gained the ability to be decent with the keyboard on the iPod touch. I’m hoping I can do the same here, however it’s no where near as efficient as the physical keyboard on the G1.

Now that I got the “OMG I have one” and the “I know I said I’d never” out of the way, I will focus on the amazingness which is this phone.  Rocking a 1ghz processor, 512mb of ram and a 5mp camera is just the start of the awesomeness.  While the phone runs as smooth as one would imagine, with those specs, the Nexus continues to shine with Android 2.1 under the hood.  I’d probably say it’s the smoothest phone I’ve used in a long time, which was really the selling point.  While I don’t play a lot of tasking games, I’m able to notice a huge difference in the performance through the simplest of tasks.  I could picture being able to throw anything I desired at it and being laughed at.

With bing screen comes big resolution.  Aside from having a larger screen and the higher resolution, the colors are right where I’d imagine with an AMOLED screen. Since AMOLED also saves power, it means I should be seeing slightly better battery life on the phone, though I’m not sure I’ll notice it.  The one fall back, with many touchscreen devices, is that finger prints show like it’s the new style.  I’ve noticed that, unlike the G1, they don’t really interfere with the content on the screen. I wish I could take a picture to show the difference.

The touch screen, while not my favorite interface, seems a lot more responsive then that of the G1. This could be a change in the firmware or because the hit areas are a bit larger on a larger screen.  In comparing it to the iPod Touch, I would go as far to say that it behaves a little better.. but not much.

The next big difference I noticed was that the camera is just beautiful.  Below is a video taken from the phone, however still pictures are just as nice. Packing a built in flash really improves the versatility of the phone, a flaw most of my other phone cameras had. While I don’t snap pictures with the phone’s camera, that often, it’s nice to know I can without worrying about the quality of the pictures.  For me, really, it’s about stability, and I can’t hold phones for shit when trying to take a picture.

Along with 2.1, there’s a lot of minor user interface changes.  The first thing you notice, after turning on the device, the launcher has changed it’s look significantly.  It is a lot more appealing and doesn’t require you to slide your finger across the screen to open it.  The next big change comes in the gallery, the gallery is a lot fancier and has more sharing options.. including integration with Picasa, which is huge in my book. Other UI changes come in subtle changes throughout the OS, things like 5 home screens (instead of the original 3 on Android 1.5) as well as tweaks to the virtual keyboard.

Despite reading about all of the changes in the past, I think they are all something you need to experience to appreciate.  I hadn’t been sold on one until I had it in my hand and could compare it to the other devices in my arsenal.  At first, I thought Google’s idea was ingenious, sell phones through an online store front killing the middle man in the process.. However, taking away the ability to experience the phone really can hurt the phone buying experience.

So, before I start in on the Nexus one and my lust for it, I wanted to bring up this issue I have with claims as illustrated in the title.  Today alone, I’ve read numerous articles talking about a future product killing off demand of an existing product.  This is simply not the case, to be honest I don’t know when this was the case. There is no “iPhone killer” as much as the Apple Tablet won’t “kill” off ebook readers or netbooks.

The hype, while often strong, behind a new product almost always revolves around the existence of a product which owns the majority of the market share.  This has been the story with almost every Android phone that’s released, almost as though people expect a phone to take an immediate 40% share of the market.

Unfortunately, while I was browsing CNN between calls, I saw the headline (center page mind you) “Is Google releasing the iPhone killer.” This gains center attention, despite a plethora of equally disappointing articles (such as “woman defends tattooing her infant children.”) Despite the almost invisible article “Dow kicks ass” brushed aside to make room for the Nexus opinion.

Here’s the thing, for me and others, we look at each gadget as having the ability to compliment another instead of replacing it.  A good example is that along side my T-Mobile G1 I carry an iPod Touch and a Laptop.  While it is true that I can preform the same general tasks on my different devices, each carries their own benefits separate from the others.  I refuse to use my G1 for media, because the battery life is stretched thin as it is, while I can’t type on a virtual keyboard for the life of me, I won’t even go into the thought of writing code on my G1 (although I’ve done it numerous times) because it wouldn’t even be fun.

This is the same approach I take to the Nexus One and Apple Tablet launch, sure each would replace a device I already have, but neither will replace my need for the other devices, if anything it would create more of a reliance on them.  If I were to get the Nexus One, which I will some day (I hope), I would be even more bound to my netbook because of it’s keyboard and extended battery life. Whereas, if I were to acquire the Apple Tablet, I would rely more on my phone for communication and my iPod for media. If anything came close to minimizing my reliance on a gadget, it would be my netbook because it’s more powerful and the battery lasts 10 hours on a charge.

Its fitting to be typing this from my G1, whereas my last post came from my iTouch (I don’t discriminate). There are so many things, I’m not really sure where to start..

I guess first thing is Android 2.0, Eclair.. I got a chance today to play arround with the SDK today and have to note that I’m pretty excited. First thing I noticed was that it focuses a lot more on integration across the board. That being said, it also seems to be a much heavier operating system. Unfortunately, I have my doubts concerning porting to the G1 (as well as other low end Android phones). However, if/when the Acer A1 and Sony Infinity (good call Rob @ phandroid) release, they will shine light on the 2.0 operating system (as well as future releases).

I read, from a couple sources, that Eclair was too big to use on the G1. However, I am pretty sure rooted phones could make use of it with swap partitions and other tweaks, I’m just not sure how efficient it will be on a under clocked 528mhz processor.  I also noticed on XDA that some people already ported the sdk to the G1.. which can give us hope, even if it is just an SDK port.

Next thing Android.. Google navigation app. Thank you Google. Not much else to say here, except its greatly appreciated by all Android users.

First response is “win.” Having only used Pandora when I’m extremely bored of the music on my computer and Sirius, I’m pretty psyched that Pandora has come to the G1. More so that it seems perfectly executed, in both design and function.

Initially, I was thinking.. “how functional is streaming audio going to be over a 3G connection, let alone an Edge connection..” the answer is that it works just fine, despite my sketchy 3G connection. The layout is also impressively simple and easy to navigate. It did, however, take a long while to load until loaded Cyanogens new 4.16 rom. Now it flies, and I probably should thank Cyanogen.

I think Pandora is a must for Android users, like wptogo is a must for bloggers on Android phones.