I read this story at the New York Times about the Nexus One from Google.  It seemed like an honest article, at first.  I was a bit stunned at some of what the author wrote or alluded to.  While much of the review is positive, it was apparent that the author was searching for things to shrug off the phone. Maybe it was an attempt to appear impartial gone awry.

I suppose people are waiting for the wow moments like the iPhone unveiling.  But all most of us long term smartphone users said when the iPhone came out was, “Neat, a touch screen.”  It was a touch screen, and it was from Apple.  Those two things alone caused pandemonium to buy one.  And the most significant part of this story is much like the story of the iPod.  Sure, they keep coming out with more memory, but are they wowing anyone lately?  Much like that of the fruit colored iMacs, the answer is no.

Does Google have to wow us?  Not necessarily.  If they have the best software on the best hardware, they already have the brand power to make it win.  Are they the best with the Nexus One?  Nobody could disagree.  It is the best hardware, and it is proving to not just be the best software, but the ever improving best software which Google is constantly upgrading with incredible new features like voice recognition, 3D graphics support, and others.

Google is also positioning for a multi-platform assault with Google Chrome for PCs, Chrome OS netbooks, and Android for smartphones (or superphones, as they call them now).  The tidal wave is coming.  Is the Nexus One a valid spearhead of all this?  I think so.  The New York Times isn’t so sure.  They give it a “weeeeell, it’s not bad.”

Just to get us all on the same page, I’m going to pull up the iPhone specs from http://www.apple.com/iphone/specs.html and Nexus One specs from http://www.google.com/phone/static/en_US-nexusone_tech_specs.html.

No tricks.  I’m going to take what the NYT said, and compare it to a little something I like to call reality.

First, the new phone. It’s almost exactly the size and shape of the iPhone. Like most HTC phones, it’s bland-looking. But it’s so thin and rounded, it feels terrific in your hand.

Really? Bland?  You mean like all white iPods/iPhones aren’t iBland?  The HTC phone comes with the Google brand on the back, compare this to an Apple symbol, both of which are highly sought after brand labels, much like Nike swooshes on shoes.  But the HTC also has a personal monogram plate.  It ain’t much, but if we’re comparing it to the iPhone, there’s no way you can call it bland when compared to an iPhone.  What would you rather have, something shaped like a potato with spray paint on it?

Let’s talk about size.  Apple prides itself on how thin their phone is.  Every new iPhone gets a hair thinner just so they can say, “Now even thinner!”

iPhone – 12.3mm Depth

Nexus One – 11.5mm Depth

That’s about 6.5% thinner depth.

iPhone – 62.1mm Width

Nexus One – 59.8mm Width

That’s about every 3.7% thinner width.

Those two things are key, because they determine how it feels in our hands.  The Nexus One is 3.5mm taller, but it also has a 3.7″ screen compared to the 3.5″ screen of the iPhone.

The NYT goes on to give the Nexus One a good review of the obviously superior specs on screen resolution, and other features.

But then they throw in this little nugget after saying how great the phone is and the fact that it has a flash and the iPhone doesn’t.

…although the photos are roughly on par with the iPhone’s.

What? Are you serious?  You’re comparing these under what light conditions?

iPhone – 3 Megapixels

Nexus One – 5 Megapixels

iPhone – VGA up to 30 fps with audio

Nexus One – Video captured at 720×480 pixels at 20 frames per second or higher, depending on lighting conditions

For those of you not aware, VGA is 640×480.  That means that it is not widescreen, but standard definition.  720×480 is widescreen DVD resolution.  VGA is what you watched Star Search on in the 80’s, if you were alive.  DVD resolution is what you probably watched The Matrix on.  There’s no comparison.

Yes, NYT, I’d call that “roughly on par with the iPhone”… and then some.  True, megapixels don’t mean everything.  But all other things being equal, more is better.  As I said, all other things being equal.  But when you add in a flash, that makes a big difference.  Taking a picture at a barely lit party will look radically different, and nowhere near on par.

This writer, David Pogue, wrote articles in the past years on cameras on the megapixel topic, which is all well and good.  But if you consider a with flash camera and without flash camera to be on par, you really are out of the loop on camera developments in the past 150 years.

Then the NYT drops this laughable bomb about voice recognition on the iPhone.

The free Dragon Dictation app for iPhone does the same thing with better accuracy, but you have to copy and paste the results into your other programs.

That is not the same thing, especially considering the iPhone hasn’t even had copy/paste available for very long.  If you had said Vlingo, I might have let it slide a bit.  But what Google is talking about is not dictating an e-mail or two.  As a young man, I tried Dragon Naturally Speaking, and they are wonderful.  But dictating long letters has never been the killer app of voice recognition.  Voice commands and short inputs are the killer app.

Google is talking about voice recognition for everything.  All inputs across all apps, without switching out to some third app.  All 12,000 apps on the Google store just became voice enabled apps.  Apple cannot say that for their apps.

Just browsing the web is radically different if you are just clicking and speaking, no typing, no keyboard (except for the passwords that aren’t yet auto-saved or for private moments in public).  Searching, updating Facebook and Twitter, and all the others… and yes sending SMS and email.

That is radically different for a phone, something none of them have ever done, ever.  How radical?  Google voice enabled a single app, Google Maps, and rocked the entire GPS navigation industry and sent investors in other companies into a panic.  That’s one app on less than a handful of phones.

After a few more points of praise, the NYT makes another mistake.

Despite the goodies, the Nexus is missing some important features that iPhone fans take for granted. For starters, the Google app store is much smaller, featuring 12,000 fun little games and programs compared with Apple’s 100,000.

Is that condescention I hear in your voice as you say “12,000 fun little games and programs”? Steve Jobs would be proud of you.  You should do one of those Mac vs PC commercials.

That’s not a “feature”, but I’ll bite.  This is noted as a missing feature.  Granted, the only way to satisfy this is to ask Google to sit down and write 90,000 apps before releasing a phone.  Please.  The iPhone didn’t have those 100,000 apps when it was released.  Let’s not forget the people falling over themselves to develop apps for all Google products, because of how easy Google makes it for them.

Not to mention that the Nexus One has an incredibly advanced processor, able to run apps the iPhone couldn’t dream of, especially in beautiful 3D graphics.  The author, like most tech authors right now, are underestimating the impact 3D Google Earth is going to have.  Useful?  Who knows.  It may merge with Google Maps, and become the unquestioning all time champion of the mobile map.  But the awe inspiring gazes as people see it in action will send them looking for a Nexus One, and that makes it a winner, as with all upcoming 3D apps for Android.  The 3D engine is going to kill iPhone on gaming, btw.

I do hope you all considered what that means.  Ah, you hadn’t.

Wait for it… Wait for it…

Now I can see the look of realization coming over your faces.  That’s right, kiddies, Google is going to be the king of mobile gaming platforms if they seize the lead in mobile 3D.  Forget $9.99 for a 2D app, people will be paying $30 or more for mobile 3D Halo-Droid.  And just imagine if it’s gps enabled, and you are roaming the streets of NYC in a massive city-wide game.  Cha-ching!

That may be a few generations away from Nexus One, but the groundwork being laid by Google seems very clear to me here that Google is poising itself to conquer mobile gaming without raising a single hint of suspicion from any of you tech writers, or the console makers.  Sorry, Microsoft, Google’s coming after a slice of XBox revenue, too.

But back to the point.

The iPhone is still unable to multitask.  I can only assume how many apps the Nexus One could run, and still run circles around a single iPhone app on speed.  What good are 100,000 apps if you can only run one at a time?

The NYT makes a good point about storage space to install apps compared to the iPhone, but a software upgrade could expand that to the full flash drive, which other phones have downloadable apps to do.  Still, this is a good point, as is the companion software.  Of course, that’s not assuming that the entire Google web empire can’t be considered companion software.

There’s no physical ringer on-off switch (you have to do it in the screen), and therefore no way to tell by touch if the ringer is off, as you can on the iPhone and Palm phones.

This may be useful to school children using their phones from their pockets, but us Blackberry users have lived without a ringer-switch for a while, knowing it’s just clutter.  We are free to pull our phones out and turn our ringers off, because we have no fear of the teacher seeing us pull the phone.  Seriously, are you just reaching for complaints to make your article look fair and critical?  If I did that, I could note the lack of side buttons other phones have compared to my Blackberry.

Sadly, the Nexus One also lacks a multi-touch screen like the iPhone’s

That is correct.  And for good reason, patent questions.  Hopefully this will be resolved.

There are a more critiques that are prone to someone using a beta phone, which will be worked out before production, like button response and wallpapers crashing.

The rest of the article is more of a rant against the state of the cellular industry.  I agree with most of it.  But I think the NYT has missed the same critical point that Apple has not gotten, which is why many people haven’t gotten an iPhone.  I may not like AT&T.   I may have my own carrier.  So regardless of what Apple does with the iPhone, I would never ever own one so long as it is AT&T only.  By making a truly carrier independent phone, I can do something you didn’t consider.

I can stay with my current plan.  Who doesn’t want a 2 year contract?  People who already have a good carrier, are already in a contract, or who for whatever reason just don’t want to change their plan.  Some people have locked in great plans.

Phones like this are for people like us.  We don’t want a contract, because we don’t need one.  We have a plan we like.  I’d like a new phone in a year or so, and unless something radically better came along, I don’t want to change.  I do have a carrier and plan I am satisfied with.  I am a Blackberry user, and I am smartphone plan ready for any phone.

I can go to Google’s site, buy the phone, plug in a SIM card, and just use it.  I don’t need to go to a carrier that may overprice the phone, then make it look like a steep discount to just start a new contract just to lock me in again.  Thanks, but no thanks.

The article completely overlooks the fact that the phone comes with a second noise cancelling microphone, the light and proximity sensors and a trackball/led.

David Pogue is a good writer, but I think he’s out of touch with who the real audience the Google Nexus One is for, like those who doesn’t text because they can’t work a real or touch screen keyboard.  Those who hate seeing the hour glass waiting on an app. Those who want those earth shattering apps that Apple is only good at rejecting.  Those who just want a phone built by people who love the technology more than those who just love looking at themselves in the mirror and make snarky commercials.

And quite frankly, that’s the point. We all get that Google is brilliant, and they don’t have to show a single TV commercial telling us how brilliant they are.  The company with the smartest people on the planet said, you know what, we’ll just make a phone OS and give it away.  Everyone laughed, until the phones started coming.  Then they said, you know what, why can’t we also design the phone, but do it all tricked out with the things we’ve been promised for years but never given.  There are some people still laughing.

There were some people laughing when they said Google would really threaten Microsoft.  Microsoft didn’t laugh, because they understood what Google represented.  And if you are Apple right now, you aren’t laughing either.  You aren’t laughing one bit.

Especially since today, the Google Chrome browser just surpassed Apple’s Safari browser in global market share.

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