It’s all official now. Google has sent out invitations to the January 5, 2010 launch date of the Nexus One Android phone.
When it first leaked out, I wasn’t too excited about it because of a couple of things — that this isn’t the first Google Android (the G1 was), that there are other similarly configured Android phones in the market (HTC Hero, Motorola Droid) and most especially that this isn’t really manufactured by Google but instead, by HTC all the same.
Still, the Google Nexus One is a looker with the promise of the better and sleeker Android 2.0 OS. The specs in itself is drool-worthy.
Nexus One
Qualcomm Snapdragon QSD8250 1 GHz processor
3.7 inches, 480 x 854 pixels
AMOLED capacitive touchscreen
512MB RAM, 512MB ROM
up to 32GB (on microSD card)
HSDPA 7.2 Mbps, HSUPA 5.76 Mbps
Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n
Bluetooth 2.1
Stereo FM radio with RDS
5 MP camera with autofocus ( 2560Ñ…1920 pixels) and LED flash
Li-Ion 1400 mAh
Android OS v2.1
All these for a suggested retail price of $530. Not bad at all considering I bought my HTC Hero for $642 last month.
The other rumor that was going around before was that Google wanted to sell the Nexus One at cost for just $200 and will take profit from the use of Google services, apps and other content. That would have been awesome but did not materialized.
Nevertheless, The Nexus One deserves a good stare and people are excited just because it’s Google. If it starts selling in the US for $530 on January 5, I think you can order one and have it shipped to the Philippines all for under Php30,000 (taxes, custom duties and shipping included — see here how). Hopefully, I can grab a unit to show and review, assuming I have the budget.
Google needs to get beyond their normal utilitarian design ethos and go bold and colorful with the UI on these phones.