Nexus One

The Nexus One (codenamed HTC Passion) is an Android smartphone designed and manufactured by HTC as Google's first Google Nexus smartphone. The Nexus One became available on January 5, 2010, and features the ability to transcribe voice to text, an additional microphone for dynamic noise suppression, and voice guided turn-by-turn navigation to drivers.

The device was sold SIM unlocked and not restricted to use on a single network provider. Google offered T-Mobile US and AT&T versions of the phone online in the United States before closing the online store in July 2010. A version for use on Vodafone (European) networks was announced on April 26, 2010, available in the UK on April 30, 2010. On March 16, 2010, the Nexus One device became available on the Google web store for sale in Canada for use with most Canadian carriers. In May 2010 Google announced the closing of the web store, with the intention to distribute the phone through partners around the world.

Hardware

PenTile matrix pixel arrangement of the AMOLED screen

At time of launch, the Nexus One had a 3.7 inch AMOLED screen with PenTile matrix pixel arrangement. The raster resolution is 480×800 pixels, however each pixel in the PenTile RGBG display is represented by only two subpixels on average, using subpixel rendering rather than the three found in most displays, meeting the definition of WVGA according to the Video Electronics Standards Association specifications for measuring resolution.
Citing supply shortages of AMOLED displays, HTC announced on July 26, 2010 that the Nexus One would begin using Super LCD display technology instead of AMOLED. The Super LCD display was described as having greater power efficiency and color accuracy than the AMOLED display, while sacrificing the lauded color saturation and deep blacks of the original display. As of January 15, 2011 or earlier, all Nexus Ones available via Brightstar, Google's worldwide distribution partner for Android development phones, shipped with Super LCD instead of AMOLED.
The capacitive touchscreen which uses the Synaptics ClearPad 2000 sensor supports multi-touch gestures limited to single finger input and 2×1D two finger gestures. It has an illuminated trackball which can emit different colors of light based on the type of notification being received. A voice processor developed by Audience uses a second microphone (on the back) to suppress background noise during phone conversations. A 4-conductor TRRS style 3.5mm stereo headset jack is also provided, adding microphone and pause/resume/next/previous functions to the stereo earphones.

The phone features a 5.0-megapixel auto-focus camera with LED flash and digital zoom, GPS receiver, Bluetooth 2.0, and 802.11b/g Wi-Fi abilities. The Snapdragon processor allows for many advanced abilities including 720p video playback. There is built in hardware decoding for H.263, H.264 and MPEG-4 video, and can play MP3, AAC+, Ogg Vorbis, WAV, and MIDI audio, and display JPEG, GIF, PNG, and BMP image formats. It has a micro USB port which conforms to the GSMA Universal Charging Solution instead of the common mini-USB port, or HTC's mini-USB compatible format (ExtUSB). The microSD card slot allows expansion up to 32 gigabytes of card storage. Applications can be installed either to the 512 MB internal flash memory, of which 190 MB are available for that purpose, or to the microSD card. Many applications, however, are not optimized for installation on external memory, and high data I/O throughput to the microSD may cause applications running off of external memory to freeze.

Network frequencies

As of March 16, 2010, there are two versions of the Nexus One, which differ in the 3G frequencies they support. The GSM frequencies supported by both models are 850 MHz, 900 MHz, 1800 MHz and 1900 MHz. Additionally, the original Nexus One (PB99100) also included UMTS frequency bands 1 (2100 MHz), 4 (1700 MHz), and 8 (900 MHz). The second version of the Nexus One (PB99110) supports UMTS frequency bands 1 (2100 MHz), 2 (1900 MHz), and 5 (850 MHz).

The UMTS radio supports High Speed Packet Access, HSDPA at 7.2 Mbit/s, and HSUPA at 2 Mbit/s.

Software

The Nexus One was released with Android 2.1 Eclair. The integrated Media Gallery, developed by Cooliris, provides several new features allowing the user to browse, edit, and share photos and videos on the phone. The Nexus One ships with non-removable third-party apps, including "Amazon MP3" and "Facebook".
Later, an OTA update of Android 2.2 Froyo was released, which introduced a number of highlights: a new Home screen, support for Adobe Flash 10.1, better Microsoft Exchange support, Wi-Fi tethering, SD-card installable applications, cloud to device messaging for two-way push sync functionality and an overall 2-5x performance improvement.
The Android 2.2 update caused the Nexus One to develop a serious Wi-Fi connectivity issue which causes the Wi-Fi to continually lose its connection and fail to reconnect. There are reports that Android 2.2.1 had fixed this issue, although there has been no official word from Google.
As of January 28, 2011, Android-based phones have access to more than 210,000 applications through Google Play.
The Nexus One OTA update to Gingerbread (2.3.3) started on February 23, 2011.
The Nexus One currently runs the Google Android 2.3.6 Gingerbread operating system.
Google has stated it will not update the Nexus One to Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) saying the hardware is “too old”; however, third party ROMs are expected.

Platform development and modification

The Nexus One ships with an unlockable bootloader allowing developers to participate in the Android Open Source Project in addition to developing applications. The Nexus One operating system can be unlocked and flashed with the fastboot utility which is part of the Android Open Source Project. Fastboot runs on Linux, Mac OS, or Windows and accesses the Nexus One through the USB port.
The bootloader of the Nexus One is accessed by holding the trackball while powering up the device.

Users are able to gain root privileges on the device by unlocking its bootloader using the fastboot command "fastboot oem unlock." or by uploading specially crafted data packages via the Android debug bridgewithout the need to unlock the bootloader. Unlocking the bootloader or rooting the device allows the user to install non-official firmware images. Additionally, obtaining root privileges enables a user to override protected operating system features, and install arbitrary software. If using the fastboot command to unlock the bootloader to gain root through use of a custom firmware image, the user is presented with a Google-created screen stating that unlocking the bootloader will void the warranty as well as void any insurance plan. The popular CyanogenMod build of Android has already been released for the device.

RECEPTION
The Nexus One received positive reviews. It was praised for its display, processor, and design, however commentators believed that the phone didn't have enough unique features to gain an advantage against competitors. David Pogue of The New York Times praised the Nexus One for its "gleaming, attractive features; it’s hard to choose which is more gratifying: the speed — instant, smooth response when you’re opening programs and scrolling – or the huge, 3.7-inch touch screen, which has much finer resolution than the iPhone," however criticized its dictation, multitouch screen gestures, and animated wallpapers. Joshua Topolsky of Engadget believed that although the Nexus One was a good smartphone, it 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". Kent German of CNET praised the Nexus One's display, processor, and voice functions, however criticized the media player and the requirement to store applications on the phone's internal storage.
Goldman Sachs slashed their estimates for sales of the phone in 2010 by 70% due to the half-hearted marketing efforts by carriers.

Posted in: CELLPHONE REVIEWS