I sold my soul to yet another wireless carrier (T-mobile) so I could be one of the first to try out the new Nexus One (N1). Gadgetlust has a firm hold on me.

I’ll likely be ditching the Droid and my Verizon contract because oddly, Verizon’s service sucks here (I figured they’d fix it after three years). I seem to be in a dead zone, so while the “Can you hear me now” guy is slogging through the bayous of Louisiana, there are some of us up here in Metro-west Boston who can’t get a consistent signal. Since I work at home, that’s a problem. The Verizon techs blame it on a body of water that’s not far from here. Apparently microwaves cannot pass across the flattest surface possible. I don’t know.

Having been an iPhone user since he first one came out, I didn’t like the Verizon Droid hardware very much. If I could have snapped the keyboard off and used the rest of the phone it would have been perfect. That’s essentially what the N1 is (but with much rounder edges).

While I think it is important to keep in mind when reading this that I’m a huge iPhone fan, that’s all I’m going to say about the iPhone in this review. Comparing the two is a subject for a different post, and a topic that’s being hammered on by the A-listers all weekend.

Here’s what I like about the Nexus One

(though most of this is Android 2.1 stuff)

• The hardware form factor. It is a great size. The case is slightly rubberized and seems like it will wear well without a third-party case.
• The glowing trackball is fun, but almost useless. The fact that it works as the camera button saves it.
• Google Apps integration. Gmail on Android kicks ass. Google Voice integration is extremely well done as well.
• Voice Search. Really cool, and it works very well.
• The camera hardware is nice. It takes great pictures and the LED flash is a nice thing to have in a pinch.
• Facebook phonebook is an awesome idea. (though the Facebook app still sucks)
• The multi-tasking is nice. Best part is the notifications, but it’s also nice to be able to listen to Pandora while doing other stuff, or take a call or tweet while the GPS is running.
• The turn-by-turn GPS works great
• There are finally some really great apps appearing. I think 2010 will bring us some well done Android apps.

Here’s what I don’t like

• The Marketplace. Finding apps is a total drag. Keyword searches often come up empty (though there MUST be an app for what I’m looking for) but more often a bunch of crap icon packs appear rather than what I’m looking for. And why isn’t there a great website for searching for apps?
• I can’t easily take a screenshot. srsly? I was really hoping they’d fix this one in 2.1.
• The touch screen seems to lose its mind sometimes and either stops responding entirely or I have to do the gesture a few times.
• The software keyboard is sluggish. I can easily get ahead of it and it drops keys. It seems like it could be better at not only catching every keystroke, but guessing which key I meant to press based on the previous one. There must be some intelligence available to look at key-tuplets to predict what key I’m intending to press.
• the bar for app development quality and standards is pretty low. Consistency across apps is not great, so it can be a mystery whether you need to to a long touch on the screen, look in the menu button, find another button, etc.
• The four hard-coded buttons at the bottom of the screen. They’re either too easy to press by accident, or too hard to press on purpose. Why aren’t these actual buttons anyway?

Bottom line

I’ve been really enjoying the N1 this week and I’m going to keep it. (and ditching the Droid), but I’m not giving up the iPhone. Even if I did, from the sounds of it, Apple would have me crawling back this summer. I’m resigned to keeping two phones.

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