Nexus One does not offer any outstanding design features. Its design is quite typical for HTC, and is somehow similar to many recent touchphones. Big screen certainly catches the eye, but without a direct comparison with other phones, it doesn’t look that special. Metal edge encircles the screen and goes to the back cover. This is where you can engrave your name or something memorable when ordering the phone.

The battery cover is firmly secured to the frame and doesn’t have any backlash. It has a soft-touch coat, which is very nice to  touch. My experience shows that this coating is quite durable, but eventually, after 2-3 years of use (or even sooner if you are a very heavy user) it wears out. Nexus One has some sort of a scratch protection, but I haven’t had a chance to test how well it works☺. The manufacturer claims that Teflon was used on the cover, and, as you know, this material repels contamination. And indeed, my phone does not have fingerprints or any other marks on the rear panel. White HTC Hero was HTC’s first device with such a coating, however it has a glossy, not soft-touch, coating.

Battery indicator is positioned above the screen. It is orange when phone is charging, and green once it is charged. A metal grid covers the front speaker. Main speaker (the one that play all sounds and is used in a handsfree mode) is at the back. These days many phones (and especially top-of-the-range smartphones) have two main speakers, and some manufacturers position their phones as having a stereo sound. I can’t say that presence of only one speaker is a big disadvantage for Nexus One, but it’s definitely not a plus. Ringing volume is average, or slightly above such. Volume reserve is quite small, which is typical for the U.S. models, or at least similar to the Apple iPhone.

Camera is located at the back as well. A glass that covers the lenses is part of the back cover, which is very convenient. If you accidentally scratch or damage the glass, you can simply buy new cover and replace it. Volume control button is the only thing that is located on the left side. It is strongly recessed, but quite easy to press, which compensates for this shortcoming. Top side has the power button and a 3.5 mm jack. There are no controls or buttons on the right side. Bottom side has a standard microUSB port and outputs for the desktop charger and car kit.

Nexus One does not have any mechanical buttons (apart form volume control and power button)- only a number of touch keys, which are located below the screen. These are:

• Back
• Context menu
• Menu, and
• Search

Using the touch keys is complicated by the fact that they do not always react properly. This is the main minus to the functionality of the phone. Also, I can’t say that the combination of keys is perfect.

Trackball is exactly the same as in other HTC models. It has a built-in light indicator, which glows when there are missed events (e.g. phone calls, messages, emails, etc).

The size of the phone is 119 x 59.8 x 11.5 mm and it weighs 130 grams. This size is quite typical for a modern touch phone with no keyboard. Let’s compare the dimensions of Nexus One with Apple iPhone, HTC Hero and Samsung HD i8910. Let’s first compare the pure numbers in the table, and then have a look at some photos.

As you can see, sizes of all devices are similar. As are the materials used. Motorola DROID is the only device that stands out. It has more metal, and a different type of protective glass, which is more resilient to scratches. All models in this class are comparable, except for Sony Ericsson X10, which is the only phone that doesn’t have any metal used as such – only plastic.

Availability of two microphones, and a noise reduction system are important points of difference for Nexus One. HTC and Google market this feature as some kind of an achievement, even though HTC is really just catching up with some other manufacturers. Technologically, mobile phone manufacturers such as Motorola, Sony Ericsson and Nokia have much better audio processing algorithms. The evolution of these technologies has led to the devices with two microphones, as well as the marketing names such as Voice Clarity, Cristal Clear and others. By the way, such algorithms do not always require two microphones. Such solutions are implemented in most models without any special marketing campaigns, while HTC decided to emphasize its achievement. But within the market, it is not an achievement as such, and the phone does not provide any real improvements to the quality of speech, noise protection, etc. For the average user sound quality will be at a familiar level.

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1. Nexus One Positioning
2. Nexus One Desktop Dock
3. LG GW620 – LG’s first android
4. Google Nexus One Review
5. Nexus One Multitouch