Terrible grammar. I am reminded why I would rather read Engadget

I’ve had my Nexus One (on O2 UK) for 3 weeks now and I can add some thoughts to this review.

- I never ever touch the trackball. Doesn’t bother me too much that it’s there though.
- The screen is multitouch capable but the software is not yet. I tend to use this phone a lot when I only have one hand free anyway (on a cramped train!) so, again, this doesn’t bother me too much. I imagine it’ll be patched in later.
- Yes, it is just another HTC phone. Although one with a lovely screen and fast processor. But I’m quite happy with that.
- I’ve switched off the live wallpapers. They’re a gimmick that suck battery life. The voice recognition is nice to demo the phone with, otherwise you rarely use it (because you look like an idiot).
- The social network integration is there. You can sync your contacts to Facebook and it matches your address book contacts to Facebook ones. You can pick which contact photo to use for each contact (either google contacts / facebook image). Twidroid and the built-in Facebook app work very well.
- Don’t forget about the Picasa web integration. I’ve uploaded most of my photos to my (paid) Picasa Web account over the past few years and they all just appeared on my device without any fuss. Plus I could set contact photos from that collection.
- You really should mention the apps. I’ve had an IPod Touch for 2 years and have built up a collection of apps that I use regularly on IPhone OS. ALL of the apps I used regularly on the ITouch are all on Android.

Oh, and to the person comparing PC Pro to Engadget. The problem with Engadget is that they have a very visible Apple-bias and don’t tend to have an opinion different from that whole crowd of (San-Francisco-Based?) Gadget Blogs. Don’t get me wrong, Engadget is excellent for getting up-to-date information, photos, unboxings, etc. But I don’t like their reviews.

This article is a joke. I’ve was using pinch zoom on my N1 5 minutes after getting it out the box. Just go to the market and download Dolphin Browser, no hack required. I’ve even just used the trackball! And once my o2 contract expires next month I’m going to try 3’s sim only deal, no 2 year lock in there – so yes, flexibility was a big deal for me. It’s not perfect – I can’t use it to sync my TomTom, but that’s about the only thing so far. And what’s not to like about a fast processor and a big screen? You mean you DON’T want those!?

iain b – Not sure where you’ve been hiding but the iPhone 3GS is £440 on PAYG (ie contract free) in EVERY shop.

@Iain Thanks for making all those points. When we do the full review of this phone, we’ll make sure we take a look at all those features.

@Tim with regards to hardware partners, they are taking a risk but I think their strategy is to release a new premium phone with each partner in turn. The Droid was the last one, N1 is current. Only reason N1 is Google branded is because they have a stronger brand than HTC.

Fair enough, I withdraw the ‘joke’ comment! I guess it depends on what you define as ‘exceptional’. I’ve been using it non-stop for 2 weeks now and I’ve found it a really enjoyable device to use. As I was a Blackberry user before I did consider a number of different options (including the iphone) before purchase and read countless reviews! Before purchase the key areas for me where partly physical (removable battery, standard micro usb charge / connection point, expandable sd card slot), part network related (I really DON’T want to be locked into another 2 year contract with a mobile provider) and partly integration with Google apps (esp Calendar and gmail). In none of these areas have I been disappointed. Plus it’s been good to discover all the different things it can do, especially the way you can customise the 5 homescreens with different shortcuts and widgets. It means you can really make the phone your own (e.g. I have one homescreen for media shortcuts, one with all my direct dial shortcuts, one with games and so on. ‘Beautiful Widgets’ has been a good purchase, Beeb player gives me BBC iplayer. Google Skymaps is fun. I can download podcasts directly, run internet radio while browsing the web (on my pinch-zoom 3rd party browser) and so on. It seems to handle multiple applications running at the same time very well. I’m not saying any of these things are exceptional, perhaps there not. And as I said before, it’s not perfect … but I think it is a worthwhile phone and doesn’t deserve to be dismissed with ‘I don’t know why they bothered’

if/when there is a full official UK launch of the phone, instead of simply the ability to import one from the US, we all hope it will have pinch-zoom as an option out of the box (some people actually prefer click zoom so they can use it one handed).

Also on the question of the trackball, one thing that it also allows is that you can navigate around webpages at a very low zoom level.

The European version is supposed to have multi-touch enabled – the American sites and podcasts have been moaning about it.

Rumour is Google were asked by Apple not to enable multi-touch (yet) in the USA, as the patent is on shaky ground… Wouldn’t surprise me, but I have not seen confirmation either.

If they had imported the handset from the US for the event, then it wouldn’t be a surprise if they were multi-touch disabled.

At the Google evening we (Gman and I) couldn’t get Streetview on Google maps. Anyone else succeed?

Pretty poor first look review if you ask me. Its inaccurate, and you seem to be reviewing it to a standard it had no chance of reaching. It is a great phone in its own right.

You also don’t mention android much at all, which it runs very well and is integral to this device.

“you’re better off with an accomplished Android phone like the HTC Hero”

The article was ok up to this point though, this made me realise the reviewer doesn’t know much about the Hero, the N1 or android. It should have been written by someone who knows about these devices.