The Google Nexus One phone, Mountainview’s hotly tipped secret piece of Android hardware, debuted in the wild over the weekend, with Googlers falling over themselves to show off the new phone through Twitter. All the activity was focused in the area around Google’s HQ in California, but we reckon we might just be seeing it over here sometime too. Read on to find out why.
Rapid developments took place over the weekend around the Google phone we’ve been hearing rumours about for the last few weeks. First, Silicon Valley blogs started reporting that Google staffers had been handed out the new handset, believed to be a rebadged HTC Bravo, seen in the recently leaked roadmap. Then the inevitable pictures emerged on Twitter and other social media. Argument is still swirling around how the Google Nexus One will be sold in the US, whether unlocked, on contract, or even solely to developers, however.
Google Phone now a certainty, say tipsters
Although not the exact Android HTC HD2 we were hoping for, the Google Nexus One phone is certainly worth getting excited about: it’s got the same nippy 1GHz Snapdragoon processor under the hood, a 3.7-inch OLED screen, 5 megapixel camera and Android 2.1. But could it be coming to the UK? Google certainly hints at it in an official blog post, which, while not naming the the Google Nexus One phone, clearly alludes to it.
“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,” Google’s vice president of product management, Mario Queiroz wrote on the Google Mobile blog on Saturday.
That Google is testing the Google Nexus One phone worldwide is certainly promising. It’s also worth noting that Google developer phones have gone on sale to the public before, as the T-Mobile G1/Dev Phone 1, and HTC Magic/Google Ion. Both of those were HTC devices, and HTC’s last flagship Android phone, the Hero, arrived in the UK first too, so the outlook is promising.
Of course, whether it’ll still be called the Google Nexus One phone remains to be seen. But are you really fussed about the name when there’s an OLED screen to be played with? We didn’t think so.
