Not even a year ago, Google put out its Nexus One, a phone designed to be the new standard-bearing Android phone that showcased a "pure Google" experience. It proved to be prescient, as manufacturers flooded the marketplace with Android phones that were superior in many ways, almost none of which did not have a heavy skin on top of Android. When Google announced Android 2.2 "Froyo" at Google I/O in the spring, the Nexus One was the only phone capable of running Froyo until August when the original Droid received an update and other phones started to ship with 2.2. The Nexus S released last week carries on this Google tradition as a new high-water phone to introduce the newest version of Android. At the fast pace of innovation in the mobile space, it remains to be seen how the Nexus S will stand up one year later, but its predecessor has held the test of time.
One year later, the Nexus One is one of the few phones that doesn't seem incredibly outdated in the field of great Android phones. The industrial design is still on par with anything the manufacturers have put out, and the stock Froyo OS made it unique prior to the introduction of the Nexus S. The processor and specs were only recently passed with a handful of handsets, and only marginally at that. While most high-end screen sizes have exploded into the 4-4.3 inch range, the 3.7-inch screen fo the Nexus One is still a more sensible fit. What's more, screen resolution hasn't increased beyond 800 x 480 (or 854 x 480 if you're Motorola and want to be different) on Android phones, making the higher pixel density of the smaller Nexus One screen more appealing to some. It may be a boring old AMOLED display and not the hip Super AMOLED that Samsung is now shipping, but it has plenty of contrast and is better than fine in anything other than direct sunlight. In reality, the Nexus One might even feel more current today were it not for the originally poor-tracking and somewhat unresponsive screen it shipped with.
But while the hardware of the Nexus One has stood the test of time in Android years, it's actually in the software that Google probably won over many people, only to disappoint them in future phones. I'm talking about the free mobile hotspot capability, something that everyone wondered, "How is this possible?" when Froyo was released in the spring. When Google introduced native hotspot functionality, it was met with applause and signs of triumph from the Google faithful. More cautious observers, myself included, wondered whether they would ever be able to slip that by the carriers in phones that would eventually ship. True to form, the mobile carriers in the U.S. clamped down and required extra payment for that feature, even for people on supposedly "unlimited" plans. No phone, including the Nexus S, offers that servies for free without rooting the phone, something your average consumer is not going to do. On the Nexus One, though, that feature was completely free on both the T-Mobile and AT&T-banded versions. Even for the Apple faithful, a tip of the hat was all they could give when they took the SIMs out of their iPhones and fired up the mobile hotspot on the Nexus One.
I've been pretty hard on Google and Android lately, even declaring the Nexus One a failure in meeting Google's goals, but the Nexus One has been a lifesaver for this reason alone. Becoming familiar with Android on a stock Android ROM was invaluable, but the most lasting advantage has been utilizing this hotspot capability at no extra charge. Whether using the Nexus One as a primary phone or using an iPad SIM for data, I've appreciated having one of the only phones in the U.S. to allow this type of flexibility on the road. As Android becomes more commonplace and takes over the marketplace, I'll remember the Nexus One and the 2.2 tethering option as a kind gift from Google. And like any gift, its value will only increase as carriers and manufacturers make this kind of free functionality rarer and rarer.