You have probably read many technical reviews of the new nexus one phone, so we decided to write an everyday usage review to give you more detailed information about what this phone is like to live with every day, and whether or not all the essentials work like they should.

We got the phone last week and the first impression, after touching and holding in our hands was: “wow, it feels so high-value and lightweight”. It really is a nice piece of hardware made by HTC, big screen with LED backlight like the Samsung Galaxy, but brighter and it feels much more responsible when you touch it. Running on Android 2.1 it feels very fast and responsive when you navigate through apps or menus. The browser renders websites quickly, almost as fast as an iphone 3gs (which i use for everday work). The scrolling is smooth even on large sites, and the zooming functions work properly. But if you’re used to the iphone, one of the first things you will notice is the lack of multitouch to zoom in and out. To us, it is the only way to navigate/zoom in websites on a mobile device that feels intuitive. Google, please consider adding native multitouch support in the browser/maps application in Android.

Adding WIFI hotspots was really easy and worked out of the box with wpa2 secured access points. After browsing via WIFI for a while, we tried the updated market application, which looks really nice/clean compared to the one which is preinstalled on a Galaxy for example. We installed some applications and games like Frozen Bubbles and the stern.de app to read news while on the go. Installation was pretty fast, but we did not expect anything else from the 1GHZ Snapdragon processor. Working with the phone in germany on t-mobile’s 3g network was good in general, but we also noticed some periodic connection problems as reported by many people in the U.S. After that we switched to “2G mode only” to ensure a stable connection while testing the device. EDGE connection was stable all the time (72 hours) and download speeds were also pretty good when using the Android market to download applications.

While in the car, we activated the bluetooth stack of the nexus, it paired fast and without a problem with the audi navigation system. The phone then displayed a popup, asking whether the car was allowed to load the addressbook into the cars phone application. We made a call and noticed no problems. Did i say “no problems”? Not correct. After the first call, the bluetooth connection was interrupted again and again, which means we were unable to make any more calls.  If you plan on using this phone in conjuction with a recent audi bluetooth system, make sure to test the feature before buying or wait for an update to rectify the situation. BTW: So far this is the first phone we’ve tested that had trouble staying connected to the audi’s bluetooth system. So in all likelyhood this is an issue with the phone’s software.

After driving back home, we took some shots to test the builtin 5MP camera with LED flash. In our opinion the shots outside were  a little bit better than the ones produced by the iphone 3gs, but judge for yourself. Transferring pictures and music to the nexus is straight forward, since the phone acts like an external storage device on my mac (same for windows and linux). If you are used to work with the iphone you will ask yourself, is there something like itunes available to sync my phone? Indeed there is, called “doubletwist” (http://www.nexusoneitunes.com/). It worked nicely and was easy to use on my mac to sync music etc. It’s still in beta, but i would give it a try if you are familiar with itunes and dont want to drag/drop all your stuff to your phone manually.

Ok, back to the phone and to one of the most important things in reviewing a phone: its battery life. In this respect the nexus one proved equivalent to the iphone 3gs. I had to charge it after all the stuff above was done (28hours). So for me it was ok, since i know my iphone 3gs gets about the same battery life.

Our final summary for the google nexus one is: It is not only the newest Android device (newest version) out there at the moment, it is really a very competent phone for everday use like browsing the web, writing mails, listening to music, and taking some pictures while on the go (also at night, thanks to the decent LED flash), but the lack of proper bluetooth functionality was a problem, at least in out testing. Perhaps it works well with other cars, but it absolutely refused to stay connected to the audi rns system, and we suspect it will have similar problems with vw, seat and skoda bluetooth systems featuring the same basic hardware. Despite this flaw, it’s currently the best smart phone for your money as far as we’re concerned. Considering the price difference between an unlocked iphone 3gs and the nexus one, there seems to be little reason to spend more for the apple product.

UPDATE: We finally installed the update to our nexus one and multitouch is working as expected in the browser application, the maps application and in the gallery. As we read in IRC, google will provide API`s to let developers build apps with this new functionality.

UPDATE: Today Google announced a software update for the nexus one which will include multitouch like it is implemented on Apple`s iphone. When our device gets this update, we will update this post again and share out latest experiences with you. Here is the full list of features, which are included in the update:

- Google Goggles: this mobile application will now be available directly on your device by launching it from your All Apps menu. Just use your Nexus One camera to start searching the web

-  Google Maps: the Maps application with be updated to a new version, Google Maps 3.4, which will include:
+ Starred items synchronized with maps.google.com - access your favorite places from your phone or computer
+ Search suggestions from your personal maps.google.com history - makes it easy to search for places you’ve searched for before
+ Night mode in Google Maps Navigation - automatically changes your screen at night for easier viewing and driving

- Pinch-to-zoom functionality: devices will now include a new pinch-to-zoom mechanism in the phone’s Browser, Gallery and Maps applications

- 3G connectivity: a general fix to improve 3G connectivity on some Nexus One phones

mordor:~ $ adb devices
List of devices attached
I7500e4pCXcFpbi device
mordor:~ $

11 months ago, the first android device hit the street. The G1. What came after G1 was mostly manufactured by HTC. Then samsaung came on the android stage and released the galaxy device, which is in fact our personal favorite in regards of hardware. But now after the HTC Hero is available with its awesome Sense UI, it seems that the manufacturers have learned that they can modify this operating systems to fit their exact needs. this time, motorola created a completely new webservice called “MotoBlur” and added some widgets to the default android applications. but since motorola is very good in creating mobile phones, they also released a new android handset called “cliq”. The cliq will be the first device on T-Mobile USA which will use the motoblur service. it combines all sources of informations from social networks like twitter, facebook , flickr and so on, into 1 stream , which is then easily useable on your motorola cliq device. here are some specifications of the new cliq handset:

Processor: 528MHz MSM7201A
Keyboard: Slide-out
Android: MOTOBLUR
Touchscreen: Capacitive
Screen: 3.1-inch (est.), 320 x 480
Microsoft Exchange: ActiveSync (Also works with Open-Xchange Groupware)
Storage: 256MB, microSD
Battery: 1400mAh
Weight: 163g
Headphone: 3.5mm

Processor Qualcomm® MSM7200A™, 528 MHz
Operating System Android™

Memory ROM: 512 MB
RAM: 288 MB

Dimensions: (LxWxT) 112 x 56.2 x 14.35 mm ( 4.41 x 2.21 x 0.57 inches)
Weight: 135 grams

Display: 3.2-inch TFT-LCD touch-sensitive screen with 320×480 HVGA resolution

Network HSPA/WCDMA: 900/2100 MHz
Up to 2 Mbps up-link and 7.2 Mbps down-link speeds

Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE: 850/900/1800/1900 MHz

G-sensor
Digital Compass

GPS Internal,Bluetooth® 2.0 (A2DP), 802.11 b/g ,HTC ExtUSB™,3.5 mm audio jack
Expansion Slot microSD™ memory card (SD 2.0 compatible)
Camera: 5.0 megapixel color camera with auto focus

Audio supported formats MP3, AAC(AAC, AAC+, AAC-LC), AMR-NB, WAV, MIDI and Windows Media® Audio 9
Video supported formats MPEG-4, H.263, H.264 and Windows Media® Video 9

Battery: Lithium-ion battery - 1350 mAh
Talk time: Up to 420 minutes for WCDMA - Up to 470 minutes for GSM

Some hours ago we found an interesting app in the Android Market, its called “Panic Button” (Thx for W. Ligtenberg for Info). These little app reacts via pressing a red button on the touch screen and then sends all needed informations like GPS signal , current address and a predefined message to selected contacts of your addressbook. To prevent accidental use, it has builtin countdown before the PANIC signal will be send. So we really like this. Usefull if you are in bug city like moscow or new york and get lost… For more infos browse to the android market and search for “panic button” or direct download the app through this link.

You also want to see your own application reviewed on www.androidportal.com? Don`t hesitate to contact us via email.

Many sites stated that Samsung is willing to sell an Android device at the end of the year. But we just got some infos from a German Website that Samsung will sell its first Android powered device in Germany in June. Its called the i7500 and comes with all the needed stuff:

GPS

WIFI

3g3,5mm Headphone Jack

5MP Builtin Cam + Flashlight

320 x 480 pixel AMOLED touchscreen

tri-band 7.2Mbps HSDPA (900/1700/2100MHz)

8GB internal storage (MicroSD expansion for up to 32GB more)

It will be very thin with 11,9mm and covered by a nice looking metal surface

Thanks samsung, this will be the first real good device with ALL that stuff that matters.

Today, the HTC Magic device passed the FCC. So it seems that not only vodafone will be selling this great device in europe, Also T-Mobile wants a piece of this “cupcake”. Since this device will not have any keyboard, it will be released with the latest cupcake installed on it to support softkeyboard and other cool features and bugfixes which are currently missing in the current G1 phone.