Android Smartphones

If you’re looking for the best Android smartphone that money can buy, then chances are you were all dead set on the Google Nexus One but then there is the HTC Desire.

Similarities
Let’s get the easy bit out of the way first. Both the Nexus One and the HTC Desire have the same chassis and general insides. They’ve got crystal clear 3.7-inch WVGA AMOLED displays, 1GHz Snapdragon CPUs and 5-megapixel cameras with an LED flash to back them up. There are tiny discrepancies in the dimensions and the weight of the two devices – we’re talking down to 0.2mm – but to all intents and purposes each one weighs 135g or so with the 1400mHA battery included and both measure 119 x 60 x 11.9mm.

Again, the RAM in the HTC Desire is quoted at 576MB rather than the 512MB in the Nexus One but there’s a good chance that the last 64MB is just enough to have the Sense UI sitting on top without any noticeable performance difference and, even if it does go beyond that, then good luck noticing a difference between the two. Now to the differences.

User-interface
HTC has trumped Google in one important department – software. Just as with the Hero, the company has added the very popular Sense custom UI to the Android OS background. The interface offers more seamless integration of your contacts from all of your various lists and address books – be they Skype, Twitter, your phone book, Facebook – and knits them together for an apparently more intelligent experience. Some purists may prefer the cleaner experience of straight Android 2.1 Eclair – the main OS on which both of these devices operate – but speak to anyone with a Hero and they’ll sing you arias on Sense.

Noise cancelling
Curious this, but for one reason or another HTC has ditched the double microphone noise cancelling feature found on the Nexus One. So, if you do a lot of calling on the street or in a noisy environment, then you might rather plump for the Nexus One.

Voice text entry
It’s a great feature of of the Nexus One that Google has enabled users to be able to type into any field anywhere on the device by talking to it. It’s obviously particularly important in the States where Google Maps for Navigation is also enabled. Sadly, voice entry is absent on the Desire, so it’s finger work only.

FM Radio
So, it seems that both handsets have a built-in Broadcom BCM4329 Wi-Fi/FM chipset. Although neither seems fully activated, the HTC Desire does at least have FM radio functionality which is missing on the Nexus One – at least until Google decides to fix it with a software update which may or may not happen. The chip also gives capacity for both handsets to transmit FM and support 802.11n Wi Fi for better range of connection. As it stands though, neither has those features enabled

Branding & engraving
One of the cute little services that launched along with the Nexus One was the fact that you can get whatever you like engraved on the metal name plate on the back of the handset. Yes, it’s all about personalisation.

You may not have been able to think of anything particularly witty to put on there, but it’s rather nice to have the option and that’s something that’s withdrawn if you go for a Desire. No nameplate, no engraving. On the other hand, you’d also have to be happy with the Google Android branding on the back of the Nexus One, so be sure you’re okay with that too.

Mouse control
HTC has ditched the trackball cursor control found both in the Neux One and just about all the previous Android handsets made by the Taiwanese smartphone specialists. Whether the switch for an optical pad on the Desire is a good thing or a bad one is probably up to you to decide. The same change has been made by BlackBerry with the most recent version of the ever popular Bold.

Trackballs can sometimes collect bits of foreign matter which get rolled up inside the handset and start to cause annoyance and malfunction. At the same time, there are some really bad optical pads out there and, with such a small area to get your thumb on, you might rather you’d gone for the more tangible mechanical version on the Nexus One. Horses for courses on this one.

Buttons
As well as the optical pad, the four Android soft keys on the bezel of the the Nexus One have moved onto the chassis below on the HTC Desire and become hard, clickable keys instead. Doubtless one could debate the pros on cons of each but, at the end of the day, it’s a style choice rather than anything else.

Special Features
With the dual announcement of the upgrade to HTC Sense, there’s a few extra features on the Desire. First, the ringer volume on the phone automatically lowers once you’ve picked the handset up. Second, the ringer mutes altogether if you flip the phone over and face down and, third, there’s an automatic back up system which stores your bookmarks, MMS/SMS and passwords on your microSD card. What’s more, Sense brings extra widget windows and a rather fun looking “helicopter mode” which allows them to appear and disappear again at the pinch of the screen.

US Version
The Nexus One is going to be a little bit better to you if you live in the US. First, as mentioned earlier, you get access to Google Maps for Navigation. Second, you don’t have to pay any import duty. The real clincher if you live in America though, is that you simply won’t be able to get the HTC Desire over there – not as it stands, anyway. It has no support for US 3G bands.

Conclusions
It’s a close call because, at the end of the day, they’re both very good phones. If you already have a Nexus One, then there’s no need to lose any sleep over the Desire. Likewise, if you’re absolutely busting to buy yourself a top Android smartphone now, then go for a Nexus One.

Additionally, you can probably root the Google handset and add on Sense and the FM radio as well, which together probably make up much of the ground. On the other hand, if you can wait and just hold on a few months more, then the HTC Desire is definitely a contender for the top Smartphone slot.

Version 2.2 of the Android platform is apparently available to download manually to be installed on the Nexus One smartphone, bringing the flagship mobile in line with the latest Google software.

This download has been discovered to be identical to the over the air update that certain US Nexus One owners received in the past few weeks and it is only 1.86MB in size.

To install it, owners apparently have to replace the FRF50 build number with that contained within the file.

The replacement file will bring the Android build up to FRF72 and this will deliver various Android 2.2 improvements, including a smoother, swifter web browsing experience and full support for Flash, according to Phandroid.

Interestingly, reports suggest that the Android update makes the Nexus One far better at detecting 3G networks, which results in better coverage for all owners.

Google has begun rolling out Android 2.2  update for the Nexus One as an OTA (Over-the-Air) download. Make sure to check the notification tray frequently for a “System Alert” for Android 2.2.

This update includes Adobe Flash 10.1 support since Google have announced the support for Flash Player 10.1 Public Beta.

 A number of web sites have already optimised their content for android 2.2 – this includes the BBC, National Geographic and others.

Good news for Google Nexus One users and other Android users since this really steals a march on other handsets such as the iphone where there will be no support for Adobe Flash 10.1

The Google Nexus One is available now from Vodafone UK.

http://vodafone.co.uk/nexusone

The Nexus One phone is available free on certain pay monthly plans from £35 (Talk 24 month plan, 600 minutes, unlimited texts)

There was a rumour that stocks had sold out but Vodafone have confirmed they have good availability of the Nexus One.

HTC’s Legend is easily one of the most gorgeous-looking Android handsets – that all-metal body certainly looks fab  – and the good news for UK consumers is that the device is coming to our shores at the end of this month.

The SIM-free price expected to hover somewhere around the £375 mark, including VAT.

That’s a marked improvement over the £450+ that many Nexus One owners are having to pay in order to import their phones from the US, although it should be noted that the Legend doesn’t boast a super-fast Snapdragon CPU.

There’s no word as yet about which network is going to step in and pick up the Legend in this region, but the smart money is on Vodafone, which is also releasing the aforementioned Nexus One in April.

As mentioned in previous posts software giant Adobe is known to be working on delivering Flash Player 10.1 for a wide range of smartphones (including the Google Nexus One Phone) on the market at the moment, but it seems that the company plans on leaving devices powered by various platforms out in the cold. Apple’s iPhone among them, and now we learn that handsets running under Microsoft’s Windows Mobile 6.5 operating system won’t get Adobe Flash v10.1 technology either.

Flash Player 10.1 is one of the most wanted technologies meant to soon arrive on mobile phones in the wild, most of you might know that. Windows Mobile 6.5 was one of the platforms said to almost certainly receive the solution, something that would have made a lot of users rejoice, yet it seems that Adobe changed its mind on the matter, and the older mobile operating system has been removed from the support list.

“You can expect the final release for Android and the Google Nexus One Phone to be available mid-year. All Android devices that meet our minimum s/w and h/w requirements will be supported. Unfortunately, I cannot say a lot more publicly about our port to the Android platform at this time. As for WinMo, we have made the tough decision to defer support for that platform until WinMo7. This is due to the fact that WinMo6.5 does not support some of the critical APIs that we need,” an Adobe representative stated, reports IntoMobile.

In the end, it seems that, even if Windows Phone 7 doesn’t taste Flash Player 10.1 when launched on the market, it will still receive the solution, as Adobe is focused on making the move. However, the owners of a Windows Mobile 6.5-based device won’t receive the news as lightly as one might expect, although they might still have the opportunity to enjoy Adobe’s Flash technology via Flash Light. Windows Mobile 6.5’s performance on the market will be affected even more by the move, that’s for sure, even if Microsoft is still focused on its development.

What are the benefits and advantages of Flash Player 10.1?

Ubiquitous Reach

Easily installable and updateable, the full Flash Player will be available on smartphones and other Internet-connected mobile devices, doubling the number of operating systems your content can reach and enabling uncompromised Web browsing experiences.

Flash Player Global error handling

The new global error handler enables developers to write a single handler to process all runtime errors that weren’t part of a try/catch statement. Improve application reliability and user experience by catching and handling unexpected runtime errors and present custom error messages.

Designed for mobility

To deliver on a high level of consistency and move onto mobile platforms with limited memory and processing resources, Flash Player 10.1 leverages hardware acceleration of graphics and video and many other performance improvements, such as rendering, scripting, memory utilization, start-up time, battery and CPU optimizations.

New mobile-ready features that take advantage of native device capabilities include support for multi-touch, gestures, mobile input models, and accelerometer bringing unprecedented creative control and expressiveness to the mobile browsing experience. Watch Flash Player 10.1 video demonstrations that show SWF content running on smartphones.

Expanded options for high quality media delivery

Flash Player 10.1 is ready to take advantage of upcoming media delivery technologies that will provide rich media experiences and create new business models. With new HTTP streaming and content protection features with Adobe Flash Access, premium audio and video content can be securely delivered within the browser. Streaming performance is enhanced with improved support for live events, buffer controls and peer assisted networking. Network context-aware services, such as smart seek and stream reconnect, will enable smooth, uninterrupted media playback and improved resource utilization on mobile devices.

The iPhone will no longer be the only smartphone with a Google Earth App.

Google Earth app for the Nexus One phone is available for download right now.

It will only work on the Nexus One initially, with other Android 2.1 devices in the future.

To get the Google Earth app for your Nexus One, visit this link from the browser http://m.google.com/earth

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Google’s Nexus One smartphone will launch in the UK in April with Vodafone.

You heard it first on the Google Nexus One Blog.

We’re told that Vodafone, had been keen for a launch in March but after discussions with Google they have now confirmed that that April is when the company will have a realistic chance of being ready for the launch. It is expected that the UK Google Nexus One will have full multi-touch browsing and full 3g wireless capabilities.

Google has obviously decided to delay launch to ensure that the UK unveling of the Google Nexus One gains maximum publicity.

The phone will go on sale from the Google Nexus One site at www.google.com/phone.

For those folks who decide not to buy a phone on the Vodafone network and decide to get an unlocked UK Google Nexus One then Orange, O2, Vodafone, 3, and T-Mobile all use the 2100-MHz band which works best for the Nexus One.

The cost is expected to be around £45-£75 per month on a pay monthly 24 month contract.

With its high-quality touchscreen, gorgeous design, thin and light weight features the Nexus One is sure to be a hit in the UK ….:-)

The Google Nexus One Blog has a brand new, unlocked Google Nexus One Phone worth over £400 to give away.

To win the phone all you have to do is post a comment explaining in your opinion what is the best feature of the Nexus One phone and why.