Larry Magid: I'm Impressed by Nexus One

I've now had several days to test out the new Nexus One phone from Google and, in general, I'm impressed.

My first impression was the "out-of-box experience." The phone's packaging looks like it could have been designed by Apple, and the experience of getting it to work is even better than with an iPhone.

Admittedly, I had a bit of a head start because I've used other phones with the Android operating system, so getting to know this particular Android phone is a little like a Windows user adapting to a new PC. Actually, it's a lot easier because, as you'd expect from Google, all your data is stored "in the cloud" on Google servers. If you use Gmail, Google and calendar and have contacts in Gmail, there is no need to use a cable to connect the phone to a computer to sync your data. Everything is synced over the air, via the cellular network.

I expected my contacts and Gmail to be automatically synced to the phone over the air but was surprised when my son's picture automatically showed up as my wallpaper. I never put his picture on this phone but it was my wallpaper when I was reviewing the Motorola Droid, another Android smartphone, a few weeks ago. Apparently Android syncs everything to the cloud and back.

While I was delighted to see my son's image, I thought it was a bit creepy to suddenly have a photo show up unexpectedly. I can imagine some scenarios where that could be a bad thing.

My favorite feature has to be the phone's excellent voice recognition which works in any text field. The iPhone has voice recognition but it's limited to making calls and playing music. With the Nexus One, you can use your voice to dictate email and text messages, make phone calls and, of course, search. Between the voice recognition, GPS and Google maps, speaking the words "nearest Sushi restaurant" really is likely to yield the name, website and directions to the nearest purveyor of tekka maki.

I like the tight integration with Google Voice - the service that assigns you a new phone number that can simultaneously dial up to five of your phones. Android can be configured so that people you call or text can see your Google number on their caller ID, not the number that happens to be associated with the phone. It's great for people who use more than one phone.
The Nexus One isn't perfect. While it's been reliable most of the time, it has crashed a couple of times when I tried hanging up from an unanswered call. Although there is an OK media player it's not nearly as easy to get music into the device as it is with the iPhone. Still, once the music is on the memory card, it's easy to play it. Speaking of memory, for some reason Google doesn't allow you to store application in the phone's internal memory.

Like all Android phone, the Nexus One is very Google-centric which explains why Google was willing to invest in its own cell phone operating system. This can be very convenient, but it can also make people highly dependent on Google, perhaps for life.

While you're able to use any email account, using it with Gmail is very easy. Same is true with Google calendar, Google's YouTube and Google maps. The new Gallery feature for viewing photographs is tightly integrated into Google's Picasa photo sharing service. Magically all my Picasa photos are on the phone because it's connected to my Google account. My personal YouTube videos are easily accessible, again because the phone knows my Google account information. Even the built-in camera and video camera are optimized for sharing via Picasa and YouTube.

There's nothing wrong with the tight integration to Google services, but it definitely explains how Google can make money with this and other Android phones regardless of how much it gets from the sale of the phone or any kickback from carriers. As an Android user I feel far more hooked into and dependent on Google than I ever did with Microsoft despite having been a Windows user for many years. And because the phone syncs so well "from the cloud," it is a strong incentive for people to stay with Android. As I mentioned earlier, transitioning from one Android phone to another is almost as simple as entering in your Google user name and password.

The Nexus One is available directly from Google. It costs $179 with a two-year contract from T-Mobile or $529 if you get the phone without service and insert your own SIM card. Google plans to offer a version for Verizon later this year.

For more on the phone, listen to my podcast interview with Google product manager Erick Tseng.

A portion of this column previously appeared in the San Jose Mercury News.