Caveats in Daily Use

A friend of mine, Janak Parekh, is a big believer in reviewing units after thoroughly using and abusing them, to give people a good sense of how the phone is in daily life. Since I've been using this phone for around two months, I hope to use this section to give you some of those insights. I'll provide them in list form, chronologically through the day:

• Before getting out of bed, the phone is grabbed from its dock (I love the contact-charging, no cords to unplug, no rough undocking procedure) and e-mail is checked along with Google Reader. I've always loved using Google Reader on the Android browser (it's the same interface as using it on an iPhone or iPod Touch), and by 5:30am, when I actually leave the bed, all news feeds are checked.
• At the train station, I switch on my pair of Jabra BT8010 headphones. While this model didn't sell particularly well for Jabra, I love them and use them to listen to music on my phone as well as take phone calls. They can be paired with up to two devices at a time, so I can use them in the morning with the Nexus One and during the day with my Macbook Pro. On a few occasions, the pairing breaks or the stream is interrupted if a particularly large (or low-speed) data connection is happening on the device. Not sure if this is due to the CPU being used or radio interference. At the best, it lasts 1-2 seconds. At the worst, I've had to repair the headphones (which takes about a minute). Not a frequent enough issue to make me go to wired headphones.
• While on the train, I can listen to a bunch of music I have sync'ed using DoubleTwist, podcasts, and even download new music I haven't sync'ed yet that is stored in my Dropbox (the Dropbox app, released in early May, is a great tool for Dropbox users to remotely access, and download, files). Now I just wish the mail client would let me attach a file other than an image.
• At work the device doesn't get data, but I can leave WIFI on all day and lose virtually no battery life if it's docked (in fact, I'll have a full battery when I leave). I grab the phone to take to meetings and use the building's WIFI network to check mail and do light web surfing to research topics if need be.
• On the way home I can use Google Navigation to find a new restaurant or shop I haven't been to before. I find myself not using Navigation too often, however, when I need it, it's great to have. Definitely something that I wouldn't want to pay a monthly fee for, but am grateful to have on my device for free.
• If I'm out walking around Manhattan, and using the device frequently, I slip on a plastic clear back and side case available at T-Mobile stores nationwide. It gives me a bit of peace of mind, especially taking the device in and out of my pants and sweatshirt pockets.
• Finally, at night I like to stream music from the phone (in its dock) over a small radio next to my bed (either my music, or last.fm recommended music). Last.fm's ability to "scrobble" the music I listen to from my library to my last.fm account (and use it to determine my musical recommendations) is awesome.

Those are just some of the ways I've incorporated the Nexus One into my daily life. It's worth noting that when a device is fun to use, you'll find many ways to use it. The Nexus One is definitely more fun to use than Windows Mobile 6.x, and thus, gets much more use than my WinMo phones did.

Conclusion

The Nexus One has been called the first true iPhone competitor, and the praise is not unwarranted. Assuming you don't have the connectivity issue that plagues a minority of users, and have the cash to pay for it, I doubt you'd be disappointed in this device. And with Android 2.2 on the horizon sporting some awesome new features, the Nexus One shouldn't outlive its useful life for quite some time!

Jon Westfall is the Executive Editor of Android Thoughts, a member of the Thoughts Media network. He works in New York City as the Associate Director for Research & Technology at the Center for Decision Sciences, a part of Columbia Business School.

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