Nexus One Google Phone Steals Spotlight from Apple Tablet (Reviews)

Left: The Google Nexus One phone. Photo: AyoubZubairi.

Until a few days ago the rumored Apple tablet computer was the big buzz in the tech gadget space, but yesterday's launch of of the Nexus One Google phone has been grabbing all the attention since then. Here's a recap of some of the opinions and reviews of the Google phone (announced just in time for the CES 2010 expo) so you can decide whether it's a good choice for you.

One place to start is Google's own page for the Nexus One, www.google.com/phone. Of course it's biased, but the 3D tour gives you an overview of the phone's features and what Google thinks are its most important assets.

Engadget offers its Nexus One review here, examining everything from the hardware to the internals, design, display, camera, telephone features, software, battery life, and more. Their verdict in a sentence: "It's a good Android phone, but not the last word -- in fact, if we had to choose between this phone or the Droid right now, we would lean towards the latter."

Walt Mossberg of the Wall Street Journal and All Things D sums up his review in its headline - "Google's Nexus One is Bold New Face in Super-Smartphones." He calls it "the best Android phone so far, in my view, and the first I could consider carrying as my everyday hand-held computer," but adds that "The iPhone still retains some strong advantages."

David Pogue, the personal technology columnist of the New York Times, offers a review of the Nexus One here, and also discusses it in a video. He finds that the Nexus One "isn’t quite as earthshaking as Google seems to think it is" and "is missing some important features that iPhone fans take for granted."

Robert Scoble links to plenty of Nexus One info from his Twitter page, www.twitter.com/Scobleizer, and also offers this review-in-a-tweet: "My 140 Character Google Nexus Review? Way better than Droid. Close enough to iPhone that it will take major market share. Very impressed." He also has an audio segment that answers questions about the Nexus One that he's been getting on Twitter. (By the way, Scoble is now at CES and will be tweeting updates throughout the show.)

There's plenty more information out there are the Google Nexus One, but this will give you a start.