Google Confirms Nexus One Phone

Google has finally confirmed the existence of the long-awaited Google phone – the Nexus One. Although Google did not reveal technical specifications, numerous sources have posted pictures online.

Designed by Google, the Nexus One is made by hardware partner HTC – from the same mold as the HTC Passion – and will run Android 2.1.

Google's iPhone Competitor - The Nexus One

According to TechCrunch, Google plans to sell the phone unlocked. This gives Google a huge advantage over other smart phones such as the iPhone and Blackberry, which are still constrained by carriers.

Although the Nexus One has not officially been announced, it’s release seems inevitable seeing as the company have already provided handsets to its employees for real-life testing. The Google Mobile blog offer some explanation:

We recently came up with the concept of a mobile lab, which is a device that combines innovative hardware from a partner with software that runs on Android to experiment with new mobile features and capabilities, and we shared this device with Google employees across the globe. This means they get to test out a new technology and help improve it.
Unfortunately, because dogfooding is a process exclusively for Google employees, we cannot share specific product details. We hope to share more after our dogfood diet.

Spec’s are slowly leaking, Erick Schonfeld at TechCrunch says that the Nexus will run on Qualcomm’s speedy Snapdragon chip, sport an OLED display, be thinner than the iPhone, and feature two microphones along with a “weirdly large” camera. And According to blogger Tnkgrl, the phone is super snappy, much faster than the Droid.

On the downside, there are rumors that the Nexus One is a GSM phone running on T-Mobiles 3G band. That means AT&T can only provide an EDGE only service plan. These rumors have been confirmed by Gruber and Tnkgrl. Gruber posted on Twitter:

“The bummer I’m hearing about Nexus One: it’s GSM and unlocked, but on T-Mobile’s 3G band, so it works on AT&T but EDGE-only.”

Another potential problem could be the lack of multi-touch. According to Tnkgrl, none of the installed Google applications are mutli-touch, so there’s no word as to whether the Nexus One will actually support multi-touch.

Nevertheless, with Google’s control over the Nexus One’s hardware and software, the new smart phone from the Internet giants looks set to become a good contender against the iPhone.

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