Nexus One Problems, Nexus One Problems 2010 Information. One recurring issue in the forums is a problem with the phone either not switching to 3G or switching back and forth between 3G and EDGE too frequently — it’s not clear if this is a significant issue or if the complaints are just a symptom of Google’s less-than-stellar customer support.
InfoWorld writes of the concerns:
Google appears to be only accepting e-mail customer queries, to which it pledges to reply in one to two days — far too long, say most people who are complaining online.
Fast: The Nexus One sports a 1GHz Snapdragon processor from Qualcomm, and has on-chip graphical capabilities. This device is capable of some promising 3D potential. Future Android phones are likely to match or upgrade the speed to compete with HTC’s newest phone.
Pretty: OLED screens are quite pretty, and have incredible contrast ratios. The Nexus One is equipped with such a screen, running at a 480×800 resolution and 3.7 inches. That’s about 25% greater pixel density than Sony’s beautiful 11-inch 1080p OLED screen.
Fractured: The big problem facing Android is consistency. The Nexus One doesn’t have a keyboard. The Droid does. Upcoming Android phones will have keypads. Screen sizes vary. Internal speeds vary. This is a developer’s nightmare, and is particularly painful for game development.
Third partied: On the other hand, one of Android’s advantages, namely backgrounding apps, could come to the rescue. We’re starting to see hardware accessories for the iPhone go hand-in-hand with a software package on the device, but this only works when that app is open. On Android, we might see third-party accessories that hook into games via a backgrounding “connector” app. If a company like MadCatz made a slick controller that went along with an API to control games, and that became an industry standard, it could give Android gaming a major edge.
Ultimately, I think the direction Android is going will attract some great games. It’s a powerful platform, and the upcoming devices are, as Google coined, “superphones.” There’s a problem with the fractured versions of hardware and Android revisions, but if the market is fertile enough, developers will bite the bullet.
