When Google released the Nexus One the inevitable question was quickly asked: 'Is this phone designed to compete with the iPhone?'
Google naturally sidestepped the issue, but the point still stands – this phone is the best equipped to lay the Android smackdown on the iPhone's dominance.
But what if you're standing in a shop, unable to choose between the two? (OK, we know you can't buy the Nexus One in a shop... but you get what we mean.) Or what if you're sick of that iPhone and want to know if making the Google leap is a good idea?
Luckily for you TechRadar is on hand to give you all the facts before you make such a life changing decision: here's the iPhone vs the Nexus One.
Display
Both have a big touchscreen, right? Yeah, but that's where the similarities end. While both are employing capacitive displays (more accurate than resistive, but can't be used through gloves) the sizes are very different. Where the iPhone has a 3.5-inch screen with 480 x 360 pixels, the Nexus One packs a 3.7-inch, 800 x 480 display.
Might not sound like much? Trust us, it is. That extra 0.2 of an inch is noticeable in elements like web browsing, and the increase in resolution is massive when watching videos and similar, making it a superior device for watching videos.
The Google Nexus One also uses an OLED screen, which means the colours are more saturated, blacks are blacker and whites are more crisp.
Both are pretty spiffy when it comes to touch sensitivity, reacting to the merest brush, although the gloss of the iPhone's screen does make your finger glide that little bit better.
Winner: Google's Nexus One
Home screen
It's not all about hardware of course – the thing you see every day is the home screen, so you want it to be as good as possible.
To that end, this is a tough one to call – the iPhone and Nexus One offer very different options.
The iPhone has the classic interface we all know – lists of icons in a row offering quick access to all the things you like to play with regularly, and a swipe to the left taking you to the quick search screen. It's crisp, simple and easy to use, with minimal fuss.
But Google's Android OS, coupled with the Nexus One, offers something very different. We're talking living wallpapers that react to music and touch, five separate home screens to customise and widgets.
Widgets – they're just brilliant at times. Mini-Facebook that offers simple access to status updates, a music player you can place where you like, YouTube and Google search – the list goes on, and that's before we talk about the supreme customisation on offer for placing your icons where you want them.
We're more keen on the Android OS, but we can see why so many people are drawn to the simplicity of the iPhone.
Winner: Draw
Speed of use
For the tech-heads and stat fans out there (you know who you are), the hardware under the hood of both phones is very different – The iPhone 3GS packs an ARM Cortex A8 600 MHz effort, while the Nexus One has a Qualcomm Snapdragon QSD8250 1GHz processor.
But it's not all about the headline stats – it's how they work that makes the difference, and in relative terms the iPhone is very impressive. In day-to-day use, the iPhone shows very little in the way of slowdown until it starts getting to the deeper and more intensive applications.
The Nexus One, by comparison, has an ever so slight lag on the home screen, although it's barely noticeable. But it's not got the completely slick edge the iPhone has, and that's important.
However, get involved with things like lists of browsing through a number of pictures, and the Nexus One comes into its own, whipping through it all like nothing before, and anyone that's sat there waiting for a picture to load will know that's worth its weight in gold.
Winner: Google Nexus One
Your comments (15) Click to add a new comment
adrianpolglase
January 9th 2010
15. @healeydave That is an amusing point, but I am beginning to think that to make the best selling and loved product in the world now, we need to stop spending money on new innovations and try and buy a license to use the Apple logo on it?
Come on guys, we can see that in terms of performance and specs, the iPhone is no longer anywhere near the top, yet it is still getting the credit. Also, has anybody been reading the articles 'slating' (excuse the pun) the HP Slate mainly because the Apple iSlate is going to be better - even though we are presuming this on rumours and a non-existing and confirmed product?
Personally phone-wise I have an HTC HD2 which is an amazing piece of kit which can pretty much do everything but make the tea - and do it in an easy, fun and eye pleasing way. But if I do move on and decide to sell it on eBay, maybe purchasing a few Apple stickers to put on it may push up the price I get for it...
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healeydave
January 9th 2010
14. Well I realise this post might not make much sense in the future, but at the time of writing, TechRadar has a poll (look over to the right)->
Its entitled "What you most excited this January" and the "Nexus One" is at 17%, trailing the second highest category "The Snow" at 27%
:-)
Before I get a load of Googloids bashing me, whilst its a factual observation, its a jooookkkeeeee, relax..
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savy
January 8th 2010
13. Well, I must say i've had iPhone since it came out in 2G and 3GS. Both of them a class in their category. I wouldn't say the original iPhone firmware is the best but once Jailbroken, it like Alladin's Lamp. I recently bought the HTC HD2 for my wife, but sadly it wasn't anywhere near the worth of my Jailbroken iPhone 3Gs. Android looks and sounds good, but my iPhone, it works good and i Just LOVE it.
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blowraspberries
January 8th 2010
12. Great review, thank you. It's so hard to find any information on Android in general that I suspect no-one can be bothered to work out what it's all about. Apple has a great central point in apple.com to find out anything you want to know about the products, but Google doesn't provide anything, let alone anything comparable for its product. I have an iPhone but as it is the worst PHONE I've ever had, I'm ready for a change. This article is just what I've been looking for after weeks of trawling hundreds of samey-but-useless Android websites!
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garethtbeavis
January 8th 2010
11. @jasonjeffery anything specific we'll find out for you though
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garethtbeavis
January 8th 2010
10. @jasonjeffery we'd imagine it's pretty wide ranging, such as MP4, H.264 and possibly DivX. Flash should also be coming soon - but M4V is a no no.
The better news is that there are media players out there on Android market to help you out - but I have to agree the HD2 is up there with the best.
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jasonjeffery
January 8th 2010
9. I wish the review could have included testing playback of different video format files. I'm considering the HTC HD2 which supports loads of video codecs so am wondering what the Nexus playback is like.
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d4lien
January 8th 2010
8. I don't want to batter the iPhone here. All I want to do is point out that the iPhone with iTunes backing is actually quite poor when it comes to playing music. The poor quality comes from the downloads offered on iTunes and the default ripping settings that people use.
The basic fact is it is for music lovers but not so much for people who appreciate not losing high end drum beats to poor compression etc.
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windywoo
January 8th 2010
7. Apple don't do customization, they just don't. Look at how long OSX has been around and they still give you a choice of two themes: Grey with blue sliders, or grey with grey sliders.
This was a very good article, not showing the bias towards Apple that often seems to dominate tech sites. Thanks for being honest.
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ginga_nut
January 7th 2010
6. I have a feeling that the Apple OS 4 will include lots of customization abilities and will bring it up to scratch with Googles OS. Also iPhone has the best music player on board and the ability to restore the software and back up regularly is a massive bonus. Downloading songs over 3G too. Its gotta be the Iphone for this music lover.
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keysersoze
January 7th 2010
5. 4G has got a long way to catch up in terms of hardware though. Needs faster processor, more RAM, bigger OLED screen (without wasting all that space on the front) and a better camera with a flash.
Only then will it be top of the pile again
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louis058
January 7th 2010
4. That App Store... It should count as three categories, it is a HUGE factor when deciding between these three phones.
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dom.l
January 7th 2010
3. yeah wigwam i see what your sayin the iphone is basically a jack of all trades master of jack s**t , i mean its ease of use and simplicity are second to none , but you think , android has only been goin for wat 2 maybe 3 years at most apples been around longer which is why it has a igger lead
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wigwam_salesman
January 7th 2010
2. You can't help feeling that Apple are just waiting in the wings to release the next iPhone, which will undoubtably wipe the floor with everything available for the next few years. The iPhone is to mobile phones what Windows is to desktop computing. It may not be the best at one or two things but it is very good at everything it does. Your gran can use one, my 8 year old niece uses mine all the time. I'm pretty sure visitors from another planet could have one worked out in about 20 seconds.
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healeydave
January 7th 2010
1. Even though I don't agree with you on all counts, assuming it is 5-3 to Nexus, one thing that is a certainty is iPhone O/S Update 4.0 and the new handset (probably out by June), will tip the balance heavily back in the iPhone court!
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