Google Nexus One

Google began selling its own mobile phone a much-anticipated move aimed at protecting its online advertising empire as people increasingly surf the Web on handsets instead of personal computers.

The Nexus One joins about 20 other mobile devices that already run on Android, the mobile operating system that Google introduced in 2007 to make it easier to connect to its services and other Web sites away from home or the office.

Google designed the touch-screen phone in partnership with Taiwan's HTC Corp., which made the first Android-powered phone and will manufacture this one, too. Google will handle all sales online and has no plans to let consumers check out the Nexus One in retail stores.

The Nexus One has been in the hands of Google employees for the past three weeks, triggering media speculation and anticipation for the company's first attempt to peddle a consumer electronics device.

Given the hype, the Nexus One could be a bit of a letdown because it only takes a few incremental steps beyond what's already possible on handheld devices.

The Nexus One's $529 price tag is more than twice as much as the most powerful iPhone sold in conjunction with a two-year service plan from AT&T Inc.

Google is billing the Nexus One as the first "super" phone in an effort to position the device as a cut above the iPhone and other smart phones such as Research In Motion Ltd.'s more utilitarian BlackBerry.

It appears to be sleeker than other phones, as thin as a pencil at 11.5 millimeters and as light as a keychain-sized Swiss army knife at just 130 grams. Among other things, the Nexus One will offer more ways to customize the phone's home page and use voice recognition technology to perform more tasks, including composing e-mails and navigating Google's mobile mapping products.

But most of the features on the Nexus One are already on other Android-powered phones, and it probably will be a long time before it can offer as many different tools as the iPhone, which boasts more than 100,000 applications compared with Android's 18,000.

For the first few months at least, the Nexus One will only work on GSM networks — a limitation that means buyers in the US will have to use T-Mobile USA if they want the handset for high-speed Web surfing.

Consumers willing to enter into a two-year data plan with T-Mobile will be able to buy the Nexus One for $179, $20 less than the top-of-the-line iPhone with an AT&T subsidy.

The Nexus One should work with many carriers abroad, as GSM is the predominant technology used. Vodafone's wireless service in Europe also will begin to subsidize the Nexus One in the spring.

Specifications:

Size and weight

- Height: 119mm
- Width: 59.8mm
- Depth: 11.5mm
- Weight: 130 grams w/battery; 100g w/o battery Display

- 3.7-inch (diagonal) widescreen WVGA AMOLED touchscreen
- 800 x 480 pixels
- 100,000:1 typical contrast ratio
- 1ms typical response rate

Camera & Flash

- 5 megapixels
- Autofocus from 6cm to infinity
- 2X digital zoom
- LED flash
- User can include location of photos from phone's AGPS receiver
- Video captured at 720x480 pixels at 20 frames per second or higher, depending on lighting conditions

Power and battery

Removable 1400 mAH battery
Charges at 480mA from USB, at 980mA from supplied charger

Talk time
- Up to 10 hours on 2G
- Up to 7 hours on 3G

Standby time
- Up to 290 hours on 2G Up to 250 hours on 3G

Internet use
- Up to 5 hours on 3G
- Up to 6.5 hours on Wi-Fi

Video playback
- Up to 7 hours

Audio playback
- Up to 20 hours

Processor
- Qualcomm QSD 8250 1 GHz

Operating system
- Android Mobile Technology Platform 2.1 (Eclair)

Capacity
- 512MB Flash
- 512MB RAM
- 4GB Micro SD Card (Expandable to 32 GB)

Cellular & Wireless
- UMTS Band 1/4/8 (2100/AWS/900)
- HSDPA 7.2Mbps
- HSUPA 2Mbps
- GSM/EDGE (850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz)
- Wi-Fi (802.11b/g/n)
- Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR
- A2DP stereo Bluetooth

Location
- Assisted global positioning system (AGPS) receiver
- Cell tower and Wi-Fi positioning
- Digital compass
- Accelerometer

Graphics, video and audio
- Image: JPEG (encode and decode), GIF, PNG, BMP
- Video: H.263 (encode and decode) MPEG-4 SP (encode and decode) H.264 AVC (decode)
- Audio encoders: AMR-NB 4.75 to 12.2 kbps sampled @ 8kHz
Audio decoders: AAC LC/LTP, HE-AACv1 (AAC+), HE-AACv2 (enhanced AAC+) Mono/Stereo standard bit rates up to 160 kbps and sampling rates from 8 to 48kHz, AMR-NB 4.75 to 12.2 kbps sampled @ 8kHz, AMR-WB 9 rates from 6.60 kbit/s to 23.85 kbit/s sampled @ 16kHz., MP3 Mono/Stereo 8-320Kbps constant (CBR) or variable bit-rate (VBR), MIDI SMF (Type 0 and 1), DLS Version 1 and 2, XMF/Mobile XMF, RTTTL/RTX, OTA, iMelody, Ogg Vorbis, WAVE (8-bit and 16-bit PCM)

(With inputs from AP)