The Nexus One, today, is without a doubt one of the best smartphones on the market. Out-of-the-box it is just cool… however to really set it apart from the other smartphones today, you have to move upstream from the Google-distributed firmware. In a nutshell, here are the big ticket items you get by moving ahead of the stock Android 2.1 .. at least until Android 2.2 is available OTA in the next few weeks.
- Access to 100M+ of free RAM - YMMV, but I instantly had on average 155MB free RAM up from approximately 35MB with all my running applications. This is probably the top reason to move upstream, and is one of two things that unlocks the multi-tasking capabilities of the phone. If you run out of RAM quickly, you are much more likely to get a “Force Close”.
- Using Flash for Apps - The Apps2SD feature allows you to automatically or manually store applications on your Flash chip rather than the limited built-in flash. Using my 8GB class 6 chip which cost a mere $15, I can now install an unlimited number of applications with no degradation in performance. Prior to this, I instantly hit low SD space after about 80 applications were installed 2 days into having my phone. The other killer downside is that without prior warning text messages are dropped because they require the same limited free space on the built-in flash. This is the second feature that is key to unlocking improved performance and multitasking. If you run out of disk quickly, your are much more likely to get a “Force Close”.
- Worldwide Turn-by-Turn Navigation - This one is a modification to the core Google apps, not the underlying kernel, but still an upstream version of the shipped software. If you are in Canada, like myself, watching the Navigation load, seeing it work in the background, and then tell you that it doesn’t understand the destination is a bit disappointing. This app update solves this little problem, and also adds some enhancements like storing the tile cache on the SD card.
- USB Tethering - Just what it means. Plug in your USB cable and check a box. Unlimited high speed Internet for your laptop anywhere.
- Colour Trackball Notifications - This one must have been easy, but I really love the non-intrusive colourful notifications..purple for email, green for SMS, blue, white.. etc.
This list goes on and on. The key point here is that most of these features are available in Android 2.2 which is coming out soon and should be on Android phones like the Nexus One by the end of the month. The corollary point is that people using Carrier-specific versions of Android are likely to see the same 3-6 month delay in new features that have plagued the Droid and all non-Google Android variants.
To make this problem worse, Sprint has announced plans that charge for USB tethering on the new HTC EVO 4G.. at $30 per month. Since they customize Android to allow for this pay-for-a-hardware-feature strategy, they can’t possibly move to vanilla Android 2.2 right away. This is the reason that non-Google phones will always be behind in Android releases and features. Ask yourself; Who would want the “eventually more capable” EVO today with its dual-camera over the Nexus One, if it is absolutely inferior in terms of capabilities until Q3 2010. I bet it will be six months before EVO has these types of features (if ever for free).. so go ahead and compare the hardware.. what’s the point if you can’t use it as an everyday consumer.
The Obvious Conclusion: Everyday consumers using the Nexus One will see the market-differentiating Android benefits I see and have today in June. Every other type of Android phone (Incredible, EVO, etc.) will lag to Q3 on stock firmware, if they ever ship these features for free. So if you are not a technical wizard waiting to hack your phone.. Nexus One is the obvious choice for business and personal use.
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As an interesting aside; At Rogers you can buy an iPhone and a contract for a 6GB/$30 per month data plan..Toss the iPhone, or maybe give it to a partner or relative as a gift. Then buy a Nexus One (unsubsidised @ $600 after shipping and taxes) and watch it pay for itself just by having all the productivity, features and 6GB/month data for $30 with Rogers.
I tether on customer sites ALL THE TIME. Native OpenVPN to the office, home, etc.
I consistently download the BOL podcasts … awesome stuff with Molly Wood, at 700-800KB/second every day on my way home for work. And yes, the BOL podcast from yesterday is the inspiration for what I have written here. Rogers HSPDA has to be one of the best networks to have one of these phones on. I really don’t care if I am on Wifi or not.. often the limited upstream on Wifi isn’t worth the slightly higher download speeds.
