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Google has stomped into world of mobile phones like Godzilla, but is it leaving giant mutated dinosaur footprints all over its competition, or is it a case of the bigger they come, the harder they fall?
We’ve pitted the Google Nexus One against current heavyweights iPhone 3GS, the Motorola Milestone and the HTC Hero, to see which should find a place in your pocket.
Click ‘Continue’ to get started in the ultimate showdown — the best of the Android phones against Apple’s iPhone champion.
The iPhone 3GS doesn’t have the flexibility of open-source Android phones, but its sleek design and easy user interface keeps it at the top of the smart-phone pile. The 3GS is still the smoothest and most
enjoyable touchscreen phone out there, but, now that the design is
almost a year old, it just doesn’t offer the same thrill.
Why mess with a good thing?
The
3GS is the latest and greatest version of the touchscreen phone that
set the standard for usability and fun. The Apple App Store is full of
zillions of great apps that add even more features to the phone, and
they’re easy to download and install.
Two years’ hard time
It’s not cheap to get on the 3GS bandwagon — even with Orange, Tesco and Vodafone joining O2 in the iPhone hot tub. Also,
to keep the iPhone running so smoothly, Apple controls which apps make
it into the App Store, and how they run, with an iron fist. That means
almost no multitasking.
For the full lowdown, read our Apple iPhone 3GS review.
The first phone to run Android 2.0, the Motorola Milestone feels
like an evolution of the T-Mobile G1. It’s got a funny chin and handy
slide-out Qwerty keyboard, but with built-in Microsoft Exchange support, a stunning
capacitive touchscreen and a smorgasbord of smart-phone features, the geeky gadget feels much
more polished.
Tap the light fantastic
The Milestone has a slide-out Qwerty keyboard, while still keeping as slim as a greyhound on the Atkins diet. That means the keys are very flat, but if you like a real keyboard rather than an on-screen one, the Milestone is a fantastic choice. It also has multi-touch so you can zoom into Web pages with the pinch of your fingers, unlike the Google Nexus One.
Goldie-lookin’ chin
The Milestone’s odd shelf-chin and gold trim may not win it any beauty contests. Motorola had to ditch Google’s sat-nav feature for its own Motonav, which isn’t great.
The HTC Hero is still one of the best Android phones out there, thanks to its jazzy user interface and compact, angular good looks. Its screen isn’t as big as its competitors and it can be slightly sluggish at times, but this is still a smart phone worth craving.
Hey, good-lookin’
HTC has wrapped Android in a custom user interface, called Sense,
which gives it a polished look and adds some useful features. For example, your photo album will access your Facebook and
Flickr galleries, as well as the images on your phone — and it’ll do
the same for your contacts. There’s also Flash support, which means
surfing the Web is even closer to the big-screen experience.
Behind the curve
Because of HTC’s user interface tweaks, the Hero isn’t as fast to upgrade as other Android phones, so it’s still lagging behind with version 1.5 of the operating system. It’s still got a lot of features, however, such as Flash support and multi-touch, that the Google Nexus One can’t match even with version 2.1 of Android.
We’ve only had a taste of the Google Nexus One,
but Google says it’s the phone that will really show what Android
can do. Although it doesn’t live up to the hype that built up around
the mythical Google phone, it does look like it’ll be the fastest, smoothest Android phone yet.
Latest and greatest
The
Nexus One packs version 2.1 of Google’s Android operating system, which
puts it ahead of the even the Motorola Milestone, which was leading the
pack with version 2.0. It also has a stunning 94mm (3.7-inch) AMOLED
screen and gets its speed from a 1GHz Snapdragon processor.
Lost in the UK
Like
the Motorola Milestone, in the UK, the Nexus One is missing one of the
biggest features the latest version of Android, Google’s turn-by-turn
navigation. It does have voice recognition, however, so you can dictate
almost anywhere you can type.
For now, the Google Nexus One looks
like a tempting option for anyone who’s been waiting for Android to get polished. We’ll soon be doing a full review, but in the meantime check out
our hands-on photos.
