So, the Google Nexus One “superphone” is here, and even I can’t ignore it.
Information overload is a very real problem. I work for the online advertising industry, and am therefore up to my neck in tech news. Smartphones in particular are a nightmare. Every other day there’s a new state-of-the-art handset which features another megapixel in the camera, or a few more pixels of screen resolution, or maybe voice recognition a cut above the rest, or some marginal advantage like that.
It’s madness, really, and Google’s Android OS just made it all that much worse. If you follow newsfeeds from the likes of Mashable or Engadget, you’ll soon be drowned in news about Android handsets. My method for staying sane is: take notice of the new phone’s core features, then ignore all others news pieces about it.
I did this for the Droid, the Palm Pre, and I’m doing it now for the Nexus One. So here’s the gist:
The Nexus One is probably the most feature-rich smartphone in the market today. It’s fast, has a great camera, smooth web browsing experience, and the Android Market is likely to feed it all the applications you could realistically need.
But I already have a phone that does all I need. It’s the old-ish iPhone 3G. The best thing about my phone is that it’s really, really usable. The next best thing is the App Store, where I can find absolutely anything I could possibly need for my phone. Then there’s the killer: I know there will be just one upgrade a year, around June-July. This is key.
I’m far, far too busy to lose an hour a day reading about the new phone that just came out and has some feature that’s marginally better than yesterday’s king of the hill. FAR too busy. Plus, it gets bothersome.
The iPhone gives me all I need, and I only need to lap up the hype once a year when the new one comes out. Call me lazy, but for me, that’s great.
So, the Nexus One, then.
Get one if you’re already in the market and don’t mind finding your phone is no longer the hottest one around in two weeks time. Otherwise, stick with your current smartphone and use the spare time to do something useful.
Desire rating:
2 stars out of 5
Pedro Gil Candeias 