Google Event on 5th of January 2010. Most likely the Google Phone / Nexus 1

Leprachaun

http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/29/google-announces-android-press-conference-for-january-5th/#comments

I've heard there's going to be no contract either ( ) and you buy it directly from the google website instead of from shops.

long_b

US only AFAIK ?

Leprachaun

long_b wrote: »

US only AFAIK ?

We'll find on the 5th. Anyway, word on the street is it's going to come unlocked as standard so there shouldn't be any problem importing one and popping in a vodafone,o2 etc.. sim card over here.

Tom Dunne

Just spent the last couple of hours playing with one, thanks to a Google employee friend of mine.

Slim, slick and very seckseh (um, the phone that is, not the employee). While I didn't get a chance to delve into the inner workings of it, I have to say I was very impressed with the device. The user interface gives the iPhone a run for it's money, with hardware specs that blow the iPhone out of the water. Now I have to chose between the iPhone 3GS, the N900 and the Nexus for my impending purchase.

Attempts to get the Google employee intoxicated and prying the phone away from him proved a fruitless exercise.

Alanstrainor

Tom Dunne wrote: »

Just spent the last couple of hours playing with one, thanks to a Google employee friend of mine.

Slim, slick and very seckseh (um, the phone that is, not the employee). While I didn't get a chance to delve into the inner workings of it, I have to say I was very impressed with the device. The user interface gives the iPhone a run for it's money, with hardware specs that blow the iPhone out of the water. Now I have to chose between the iPhone 3GS, the N900 and the Nexus for my impending purchase.

Attempts to get the Google employee intoxicated and prying the phone away from him proved a fruitless exercise.

Deadly. I'm almost certain i want a N900, but this is tempting. I think i'll have to wait and see what happens in the next few weeks. I wonder if this will cause a reduction in the price of the N900??? Or am i just being too optimistic!

Tom Dunne

Alanstrainor wrote: »

I think i'll have to wait and see what happens in the next few weeks.

Therein lies the problem - you could be perpetually waiting for the next Big Thing in phones. There is always something around the corner. My head is melted. Plus the fact that there will most likely be a new model of iPhone during the Summer.

AAAAGGGGH!

Alanstrainor wrote: »

I wonder if this will cause a reduction in the price of the N900??? Or am i just being too optimistic!

I would say it is very unlikely.

Alanstrainor

Tom Dunne wrote: »

Therein lies the problem - you could be perpetually waiting for the next Big Thing in phones. There is always something around the corner. My head is melted. Plus the fact that there will most likely be a new model of iPhone during the Summer.

AAAAGGGGH!



I would say it is very unlikely.

Haha, i can still hope though!
I know i know, there's always the next big one around the corner. That's just how things go. I think the physical keyboard on the N900 wins it for me, plus i always liked my N770 internet tablet, and the N900 is just an evolution of that.
IPhones never really appealed to me, so i wouldn't even consider it, especially seeing that i'd be buying it sim free. I'll be waiting until Jan before going ahead with the N900 anyway, so i'll see what happens, i'm pretty much set on it now though.

Tom Dunne

Alanstrainor wrote: »

I think the physical keyboard on the N900 wins it for me

And that's exactly what's putting me off the N900. I played with another Android phone tonight that had a keyboard (it's a very tech savy house ) and I just didn't like it.

I think the Nexus is where the iPhone was with the release of version 2.0 of the operating system. I think it will be a year or so before it really takes off. But when it does, it will probably be the first real potential iPhone killer. That is assuming the 4th generation iPhone doesn't deliver.

Rsaeire

Tom Dunne wrote: »

...with hardware specs that blow the iPhone out of the water.

That's not hard to be fair.

The Nexus definitely looks promising, for an Android handset, and while it will be interesting to see how the UI handles, the design is a bit pedestrian.

Amalgam

I find the tech interesting, but are people not excited about a company like Google going the SIM free route and frog leaping a pretty sh-tty industry, more or less dropping the phone straight into your hands uncrippled?

Alanstrainor

Tom Dunne wrote: »

And that's exactly what's putting me off the N900.

I knew you'd say that:)

Dman001

Tom, does this mean that the Nexus will be released in Ireland too or is he an American friend?

Papa_Lazarou

Tom is off teching in Asia or somewhere around there if i remember correctly. Nice to see them going the unlocked route with this. Should make it a lot more accessible for more people.

donkey balls

Dman001 wrote: »

Tom, does this mean that the Nexus will be released in Ireland too or is he an American friend?

i had a look at one about two days ago here in dublin another google employee(bi*ch) and there was me with my N97 thinking my moby was the bizz.
as tom said this thing is slick one of the screen savers is a pond and when you touch of it ripples i was told that google will be selling the handsets them selves btw she was using a meteor sim and no problems.
if i hear any news regarding release dates i will post them here think she said about 500/600euro for the moby

tw0nk

• Yeah, it's $530 unsubsidized. Google's not going to be selling the phone at cost, like so many people considered. They're not going to save us from the "making money off of hardware" culture we've got right now, so this is basically just another Android handset, albeit a really good one
• If you want it subsidized, you'll have to sign up for a 2 year mandatory contract and pay $180 for the phone
• There's only one rate plan: $39.99 Even More + Text + Web for $79.99 total
• Existing customers cannot keep their plan if they want a subsidized phone; they have to change to the one plan, and this only applies to accounts with one single line
• If that doesn't fly with you, you have to buy the $530 unlocked version—this actually might save you money over two years if you already have a cheap plan
• Family plans, Flexpay, SmartAccess and KidConnect subscribers must buy the phone unlocked and unsubsidized for $530
• You can only buy five Nexus One phones per Google account
• There is language in the agreement of shipping outside the US
• Google will sell it at google.com/phone, which explains what they were doing with that page a few weeks ago
• Google will still call it the Nexus One apparently, and not the Google Phone

source here:

http://gizmodo.com/5436673/leaked-nexus-one-documents-530-unlocked-180-with-t+mobile

Gekko

Let the touchscreen war commence! [between the iPhone, N900 and Google phone]

randomer

Leprachaun wrote: »

I've heard there's going to be no contract either ( ) and you buy it directly from the google website instead of from shops.

I think this is really high risk strategy. Apple were hugely successful because they teamed up with the mobile phone operators and people purchased subsidised phones.

Apple did consider going the direct route, but they worked out that the market for $600 + phones was pretty small. Let's hope google know something that apple didn't know!

Tom Dunne

Dman001 wrote: »

Tom, does this mean that the Nexus will be released in Ireland too or is he an American friend?

Papa_Lazarou wrote: »

Tom is off teching in Asia or somewhere around there if i remember correctly. Nice to see them going the unlocked route with this. Should make it a lot more accessible for more people.

I'm actually home for the Christmas, so it is a Google Ireland employee.

agent_smith

Tom can you answer a few questions for me please based on your experience

In terms of responsiveness how does the UI compare with say the 3gs (it should be faster than the 3gs given the 1GHz snapdragon... ) ?

Did your friend give any indication as to battery life under heavy and light use?

Thanks

Tom Dunne

agent_smith wrote: »

In terms of responsiveness how does the UI compare with say the 3gs (it should be faster than the 3gs given the 1GHz snapdragon... ) ?

Did your friend give any indication as to battery life under heavy and light use?

I haven't used the 3GS extensively (I've a 1st Gen iPhone), but the Nexus did seem extremely fluid and responsive.

Battery life is 2-3 days under moderate to heavy use, both a combination of WiFi and 3G.

Leprachaun

tw0nk wrote: »

• Yeah, it's $530 unsubsidized. Google's not going to be selling the phone at cost, like so many people considered. They're not going to save us from the "making money off of hardware" culture we've got right now, so this is basically just another Android handset, albeit a really good one
• If you want it subsidized, you'll have to sign up for a 2 year mandatory contract and pay $180 for the phone
• There's only one rate plan: $39.99 Even More + Text + Web for $79.99 total
• Existing customers cannot keep their plan if they want a subsidized phone; they have to change to the one plan, and this only applies to accounts with one single line
• If that doesn't fly with you, you have to buy the $530 unlocked version—this actually might save you money over two years if you already have a cheap plan
• Family plans, Flexpay, SmartAccess and KidConnect subscribers must buy the phone unlocked and unsubsidized for $530
• You can only buy five Nexus One phones per Google account
• There is language in the agreement of shipping outside the US
• Google will sell it at google.com/phone, which explains what they were doing with that page a few weeks ago
• Google will still call it the Nexus One apparently, and not the Google Phone

source here:

http://gizmodo.com/5436673/leaked-nexus-one-documents-530-unlocked-180-with-t+mobile

This isn't confirmed though, so don't let it dash your hopes just yet.

Stephen

I'm going back to the US for a few more months after the xmas holidays and seriously considering picking one of these up sim-free. I've gotten quite browned off with the endless sim unlock arms race between Apple and the iphone hackers and my 3Gs's screen is broken...

JohnK

If the talk of the 3G being crippled on this phone so it only works on t-mobile is true will that mean it wouldnt work over here? Or is it that US networks only support 1 frequency for 3G while Irish/European networks would support multiple frequencies?

Rsaeire

JohnK wrote: »

If the talk of the 3G being crippled on this phone so it only works on t-mobile is true will that mean it wouldnt work over here? Or is it that US networks only support 1 frequency for 3G while Irish/European networks would support multiple frequencies?

A lot of the US networks use the UMTS/HSPA 850 and 1900 bands, while T-Mobile uses the 1700 band and a lot of Europe, including Ireland, use the 2100 band.

Given the above, the Nexus may in fact be a HSPA dual or triband handset, allowing its use both in the US and in Europe.

Stephen

It supports 900, 1700 (t-mobile) and 2100mhz bands according to all of the leaked info I've seen, so it should be fine for here.

elderlemon

If I was a betting man (which I'm not ) I would bet that we will see this handset available for free (or close to free) but ad supported sometime during 2010. 2 year contract with google or something and they feed ads to your phone day and night to pay for the cost of the handset.

This plays into Google's sweet spot. They want a platform that is used by the masses and they want to push more ads in the mobile space (their recent purchase of Admob). I agree that a $500 cost is not going to attract the masses but something around $100 and a 24 month ad viewing contract would.

As a current android user I can see that Google is now going to push Android along a lot faster than before so that's great for everyone on the OS. It will also bring in more developers which will make the Android market more appealing.

Just my $0.02

Leprachaun

elderlemon wrote: »

If I was a betting man (which I'm not ) I would bet that we will see this handset available for free (or close to free) but ad supported sometime during 2010. 2 year contract with google or something and they feed ads to your phone day and night to pay for the cost of the handset.

This plays into Google's sweet spot. They want a platform that is used by the masses and they want to push more ads in the mobile space (their recent purchase of Admob). I agree that a $500 cost is not going to attract the masses but something around $100 and a 24 month ad viewing contract would.

As a current android user I can see that Google is now going to push Android along a lot faster than before so that's great for everyone on the OS. It will also bring in more developers which will make the Android market more appealing.

Just my $0.02

A lot of people had been saying similar things before that 'supposed' pricing plan leaked. I agree that using ads to get their dosh would fit in with the whole google persona, but I really can't see a phone of that quality being given away for zilch. They'd need to make hundreds of millions of phones to keep up with demand. I could see them selling it for perhaps 100 dollars / euro though and still going the advert route.

Brian

The sale agreement mentions $430 as an example, which I'm hoping for. $530 real does not tally with the rumours before Gizmodo's screenshots were released.

lafors

A few tech sites are beginning to think Google are going to release it worldwide from the 5th not just in the US.

http://podcasts.aolcdn.com/engadget/files/Passion_Terms_of_Sale.pdf

I was thinking of selling my N97 when I get the lens/gps fixed and moving to the N900 but this could be an interesting prospect hmmmm.

Alanstrainor

Hmm interesting, i'm still leaning towards the N900, this is very tempting though!

godtabh

Just saw a demo on endgadget. Was gona get the hero this week on meteor but think I will be holding off to see how this pans out

Mr E

godtabh wrote: »

Just saw a demo on endgadget. Was gona get the hero this week on meteor but think I will be holding off to see how this pans out

Engadgets review isn't exactly glowing. They really like the phone, but don't think its as mind-blowing as its made out to be.

Industry politics aside, though, the Nexus One is at its core just another Android smartphone. It's a particularly good one, don't get us wrong -- certainly up there with the best of its breed -- but it's not in any way the Earth-shattering, paradigm-skewing device the media and community cheerleaders have built it up to be. It's a good Android phone, but not the last word -- in fact, if we had to choose between this phone or the Droid right now, we would lean towards the latter. Of course, if Google's goal is to spread Android more wide than deep, maybe this is precisely the right phone at the right time: class-leading processor, vibrant display, sexy shell, and just a sprinkling of geekiness that only Google could pull off this effortlessly. Then again, we suspect Motorola, Samsung, Verizon, and countless other partners might disagree.

godtabh

Mr E wrote: »

Engadgets review isn't exactly glowing. They really like the phone, but don't think its as mind-blowing as its made out to be.

Yeah I read that but I'd still hold off and wait for a few more reviews to come out first. I'm in no rush so I'll just sit and wait

Reading some other places that they are usnure if engadget actually have the final release version so I'd be more interested when the likes of cnet get one

Basq

Christ, Engadget are probably one of the more lick-arse biased reviewers out there.

Like godtabh said, I'll wait for more reviews.

If my iPhone (original model bought for $300 on release) were to break today, I'd say the E71 would be my next purchase. I couldn't warrant the money Apple are asking for another iPhone.

Oafley Jones

Mr E wrote: »

Engadgets review isn't exactly glowing. They really like the phone, but don't think its as mind-blowing as its made out to be.

It's written by Josh Topolsky, so I wouldn't pay much attention to it.

jimmycrackcorm

The review may not have been "mindblowing" but that is down to the expectations of the Google link. As an Android phone however it is still up there at the top.

hal9000

has anyone who has used it get a chance to check if the european version supports multi-touch?

Brian

Thought Engadget's review was terrible. Did they even mention that noise cancelling mic? The sound quality of the earphone jack? Video recording?

Rushed out.

gdgt will have live coverage of the launch event starting at 1800 GMT http://live.gdgt.com/

baileye

hal9000 wrote: »

has anyone who has used it get a chance to check if the european version supports multi-touch?

No, it doesn't. But that could be because all the phones out there at the moment are using american firmware. There are some European Android phones that have multitouch since they don't have the same patent restrictions as in the US.

tl;dr: no, but European versions might upon release.

Brian

baileye wrote: »

tl;dr: no, but European versions might upon release.

Google are going to have fun explaining that, if they're released worldwide today.

positron

I hope this kicks off a price war between Apple and Google, and hopefully Apple will learn a lesson or two for shafting everyone with their exclusivity deals.

Brian

$530 isn't exactly a game changing price tag, but we'll see...

Edit : http://www.engadget.com/2010/01/05/nexus-one-hitting-france-at-450-contract-free/

Maybe you, like us, are a little disappointed at how the Nexus One fared in our review. It may not be the ground-breaker we'd all hoped for, but it's still a mighty important handset, and while we're expecting to know the full details for its American release later today it seems someone may have tipped their hat on European availability details a little early. According to Le Point, the phone will be available in France and elsewhere in Europe within the next "several weeks," with prices at €450 for a contract-free device. However, if you don't mind signing two years of your wireless independence away to Vodafone that price is said to drop to €200. Again, we're still waiting to learn about pricing here in the States, but we'd expect a similar ratio here.

Dman001

Engadget are saying that the Nexus could land in France at €450 contract free which isnt a bad price. But TBH I dont see how this is much better than the HTC Hero, except the Nexus has a lovely 3.7" screen.

nmesisca

Dman001 wrote: »

Engadget are saying that the Nexus could land in France at €450 contract free which isnt a bad price. But TBH I dont see how this is much better than the HTC Hero, except the Nexus has a lovely 3.7" screen.

.. and double the CPU speed. and a decent 3d accelerated GPU.. AMOLED.. and double memory.. teflon coating (thats on the white Hero too).. bluetooth 2.1... light and proxy sensors..
:rolleyes:

Dman001

nmesisca wrote: »

.. and double the CPU speed. and a decent 3d accelerated GPU.. AMOLED.. and double memory.. teflon coating (thats on the white Hero too).. bluetooth 2.1... light and proxy sensors..
:rolleyes:

I stand corrected:D

But the CPU speed would be the only major thing it has against the Hero IMO.

Sanjuro

Somewhat related... does anyone know when HTC are having their press event at CES? I'd be pretty interested in seeing once and for all what the deal with their recently leaked line-up is before committing to getting the Nexus One.

nmesisca

Dman001 wrote: »

I stand corrected:D

But the CPU speed would be the only major thing it has against the Hero IMO.

GPU and the screen res would be my major points. you'll end up downclocking it in most cases imho.

Brian

nmesisca wrote: »

you'll end up downclocking it in most cases imho.

Do you think that would be manually controllable?

nmesisca

Baza210 wrote: »

Do you think that would be manually controllable?

its very easily rootable, so just install setCPU and you're game.

Brian

Thanks for the info, I'm not really in touch with the Android dev. community.

Brian

The press event is starting now. Live coverage here :

http://live.gdgt.com/2010/01/05/live-google-nexus-one-launch-event-coverage/

and here :

http://www.engadget.com/2010/01/05/live-from-googles-android-press-conference/?sort=newest&refresh=30