[Ben]

So, I've finally got my hands on a Nexus One, and it's my first real experience of Android. I'll be posting my experiences here.

Setting up was easy enough, though the tutorial is a little off-putting. The notifications system seems really nice, as does voice search. The multiple home screens plus a separate menu of what seems to be everything is a little odd to me at the moment, and I'm never quite sure whether I'm pressing the screen, touch sensitive buttons, or scroll ball, so operation is a bit haphazard. Performance seems ok if a little jittery, the screen brightness is all over the shop but that must be due to how I'm holding it, and I don't like how I have to push the power button rather than the scroll ball to wake it up. I'm not quite sure why it can't get my weather or why it thought the time would be acceptable at GMT+8. Tapping inside a text box to get up a keyboard even when the cursor is already there is odd, too.

That perhaps sounds a bit too negative... seems like a great, if not very generic, phone. But right now I'm wondering: Why would you have one of these if you could have an iPhone?

[miffed]

My initiall experience was pretty similar - I think this was 50% down to being spoiled with the iPhone , and 50% learning a new system , something that happens by itself on OS X , ...but on Android there is a bit of learning to be done ! I found that if I ever got confused , pressing the menu button would normally offer me what I was looking for .
I also found Android to be a little "neutered" to begin with , ... its only when you learn what the various buttons do , learn how to choose widgets , pick some nice ones and customize your device that it feels like you own , then , with your pretty , self customised UI you can actually start to enjoy the features of the phone properly !

Nexus one eh ? .... You don't tend to just "stumble" on one of those !!! Whats the score ? :D

[Hands0n]

Welcome to the club, Ben. I'm somewhat glad you chose the Nexus One to cut your Android teeth on. It is a worthy contender for the Apple crown, although I don't believe that it quite makes the grade. Certainly, it is best of breed in my opinion.

First time on Android is a little bit like the first foray out of Windows and on to Linux. There's probably a good reason for that :D

I quite like the relative freedom that Android offers, even if it is slightly an illusion. It is different from the iPhone OS, and there are attributes about it that the iPhone got rid of over a year ago. Mostly these are down to the hardware being less than adequate, although [again] the Nexus One has the most powerful hardware to date - or certainly at the time it became available.

Give it a day or so of constant use and you'll likely be suitably impressed with Android and what it can do. The multi-tasking and retention of state that introduces is quite significant. I never missed it on the iPhone until I experienced it on the Android. Now I hanker after it on the iPhone!!

I'm a bit worried about the screen brightness being "all over the shop" and am trying to imagine how on earth you are holding it to cause it such confusion. Seriously, I have never, ever, experienced screen brightness being random and variable. If it continues any then I'd suggest getting the handset replaced pretty pronto. That is not normal behaviour at all.

That aside, how are you finding the Amoled display? It is pants out of doors and in bright sunlight but gorgeous in more subdued lighting. I can hardly take my eyes off of it.

I'll be looking out with interest to see the further adventures of you and the new handset.

[Ben]

Ok folks, what's the current best wisdom for syncing Apple contacts up to Google? I don't really use my Google contacts so there's not a lot of useful stuff on my Nexus One at the moment.

Widgets are a bit of a hidden gem, aren't they?! My Android experience is much cooler now I've got Facebook and Twitter widgets on the go. The Facebook app kinda sucks, but the Twitter one is ridiculously nice?! Seriously, why isn't the iPhone Twitter client better? I also manually sorted out my weather (shame location based weather isn't working).

The virtual keyboard isn't very nice. Hands0n - I've heard you talk of alternatives? I can see why they'd be necessary! I'm actually not too blown away by the screen, either, but then the icons are so much nicer on the iPhone so it has something to show off.

Music on the Nexus One's speaker is atrocious. I listen to music from my iPhone speaker every morning when I'm in the bathroom and it sounds great. Not sure what that's all about!

[Hands0n]

Contacts to Google is easy.

Use Sync on your Mac to cross-sync Contacts between MobileMe and your Google account. Job done :)

I use the HTC keyboard. The package is called HTC_IME.apk and can be found on XDA forum. It is essentially the Sense UI's keyboard.

Is it the screen or just the UI design you are not to warm towards? I love the OLED in normal light.

[DBMandrake]

Music on the Nexus One's speaker is atrocious. I listen to music from my iPhone speaker every morning when I'm in the bathroom and it sounds great. Not sure what that's all about!
I wouldn't say that the speaker in the iPhone (3GS) is "great" for music....too much distortion and not enough bottom end... but it is good for podcasts, I listen to podcasts on mine all the time from the speaker while about the house...

It looks like the speaker holes at the bottom of the iPhone 4 are significantly larger than the 3GS, and with tiny speakers like these the small hole is one of the primary reasons for distortion at higher volumes, so we may see an improvement in volume / sound quality from the iPhone 4 speaker :)

(Not that you could test it in a noisy Apple store, I couldn't even hear the speaker from the iPad at all with all the noise in the shop! :) )

[Ben]

Believe me, compared to the Nexus One the iPhone speaker sounds like a Linn.

@Hands0n - I'll have a play with Sync later :)