All droids are equal but some droids are more equal than others. Google it. You’ll get the Nexus One. There are around 50 smartphones and tablets running Android today. That’s right, out of all the offspring they fathered with the Open Handset Alliance, Google finally have one to proudly call their own. What does it mean? Well, not that the ones we’ve seen so far are some poor half-blood droids but the Nexus One is supposed to be THE thing. For one, it’s the first Snapdragon-powered Android and it shows. The Nexus One is wickedly fast. The WVGA touchscreen is a treat to look at and it’s only the second AMOLED display to find on an Android handset. D1 video is sure to sweeten the deal too, and perhaps so will the Live Wallpapers. Awash in rumors well before launch, the Google Nexus One was officially revealed in January 2010 and it became available right after the unveiling event. Of course, the first units were to sell only in a very limited number of countries (UK, Singapore and Hong Kong). Anyway Google are to start shipping their Nexus One through various carriers across Europe, starting with Vodafone this spring. That’s about the time when Verizon subscribers will be getting a CDMA version of the device. Google have a phone to sell, so it’s a fair guess they’ll be seeing to it that everyone can have it. Now, will everyone want to? Let’s see. The Google phone has HTC fingerprints all over it. We just had the pleasure of the HTC Desire at the WMC and we quite liked what we saw. There’s no reason to expect less of the Nexus One – quite the contrary in fact, a little bit of nepotism only seems right. The Google Nexus One won’t come with the HTC Sense of course, but who would’ve expected so! The Android 2.1 novelties will keep you busy enough anyway, but the first thing on everyone’s mind will be: Is there any special Google treatment the Nexus One is getting? The latest of the Androids is in a way the firstborn, for all the good and the bad of it. It’s all in the name really: a name that will open doors but that carries a certain obligation too. Will the Nexus One raise above its droid siblings or will it get lost in the crowd? That’s the kind of questions we’ll be trying to answer on the pages to come. You’re welcome to join: let’s see what the Google Nexus One is made of (and packed in, as well). (GSMArena)
Key features
Main disadvantages
Google Nexus One Review
Nokia C5 Price and Specification
If you are on the hunt for a stylish smartphone but you run a tight budget, chances are the Nokia C5 is on your radar already. The compact Symbian-running handset looks well, costs little and can give you all the smart you need in a phone.
Even more so if you need your mobile phone to do voice-guided navigation. The Nokia C5 comes with a lifetime license that costs exactly zilch. Now, isn’t this one of the handsets to claim the best bang for your buck on the market? As always there’re compromises involved, but the price tag hanging on that metal body won’t make you think twice.
Key features
- Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE support
- Dual-band 3G (900/2100) with 10Mbps HSDPA and 2Mbps HSUPA
- Neat and well built, metal on the body
- 2.2" 16M-color QVGA display, excellent sunlight legibility
- Symbian OS, S60 3.2 user interface
- ARM11 600 MHz CPU, 128 MB RAM
- 3 megapixel fixed-focus camera with LED flash
- VGA video recording at 15fps
- GPS receiver and free lifetime voice-guided navigation license
- Stereo FM radio with RDS, Visual radio
- Bluetooth (with A2DP)
- Standard microUSB port (with charging support)
- microSD card slot (16 GB supported, 2GB included)
- Smart dialing
- 3.5mm audio jack
- Great audio quality
- Document viewer preinstalled
Main disadvantages
- No WLAN
- Small screen
- No accelerometer (hence no auto screen rotation)
- Fiddly memory card slot
- Document viewer doesn't support editing
Last week we reviewed the Nokia 6700 slide and while it wasn’t a revelation, it did well to reassure us Nokia still have it when it comes to neat, compact and affordable smartphones.
The Nokia C5 is not so much a rival of the 6700 slide, but a partner in the lower end of non-touch smartphones. We won’t get tired of saying that giving the user a choice is a good thing – you can have (and pay for) only the features that you do need.
The Nokia C5 all over
One thing that the Nokia C5 won’t give you is WLAN. We’ve been there already with the 6700 slide. It certainly doesn’t look good on the spec sheet, but we hope the performance and ergonomics will make up for that. (GSMArena)
