CES 2010: Google debuts the Nexus One

Google made two important announcements today. First was the Nexus One, a cool new HTC smart phone, available today. The other big news is that Google just became a cell-phone retailer, selling the Nexus One from its site directly to consumers.

In addition, the phone made more clear the enhancements to Google's Android operating system through its 2.1 Éclair version.

First, the phone. The Nexus will, as reported, cost $179 with a two-year contract from T-Mobile. It will also be available unlocked from Google at $529, which will allow you to use the phone with any GSM carrier, such as AT&T. The Nexus One will also be available from Verizon in the spring.

Measuring 4.7 in. x 2.4 in. x 0.5 in., it slightly taller, wider and thinner than the Motorola Droid; 130 grams. The Nexus impressive hardware features include:

Big screen. It has a 3.7-in. AMOLED 480×800 display touch-screen display, which makes it about as big and sharp as the Droid. The Droid uses an LED screen. The virtual keyboard has vibration feedback.

Advanced camera. It has a 5-megapixel camera with auto-focus, an LED flash, and 2X digital zoom. Video camera resolution is a modest 720 x480 pixels at 20 frames per second.

Fast processor. The Nexus One sports one of the fastest phone processors, Qualcomm's 1GHz Snapdragon.

Active noise cancellation. The phone has one microphone on the bottom and another on the back to help dampen background noise.

Other features. A multi-color notification LED under the trackball, as well as a compass, GPS chip, accelerometer, light and proximity sensors, stereo Bluetooth support, and WiFi.

One bummer: The Nexus One supports T-Mobile's 3G data network, but not AT&T's. AT&T users will be marooned on the carrier's sluggish 2G data network.

Now, the operating system, which includes all of the Droid apps such as Facebook, Google Maps Navigation, and also adds some interesting features and capabilities:

Advanced voice command. Voice command now supports all text fields, allowing you to dictate your Tweets on Twitter and command the phone to get you driving directions to any location. An upcoming Android version of Google Earth will also work with voice commands, so you'll be able to say things like "fly me to Fiji" to begin your virtual trip.

A new interface. The trademark pull-down screen for viewing all the apps has been replaced by a 3-D navi-cube, which you can flick up or down to see different pages (up to 5) of applications. You can also summon a mini-icon view of all the application pages so that you can jump directly to the page you want. There's also a new interface for viewing and arranging photos in a 3-D like fashion.

New widgets. One cool widget provides minute-by-minute updates on weather conditions.

My take: With its powerful hardware and impressive features, I expect the Nexus One to do very well in our Ratings. But I'm less sure about how well Google will perform as a cell phone retailer. Is it really prepared to handle consumer complaints about defective screens, twitchy applications, and other common cell-phone problems? Also, while I like the idea of buying a smart phone without strings, it's hard for me to fathom how anyone is going to recover the extra $350 shelled out for the unlocked version, even if you opt for a lower-cost prepaid plan. As our recent survey of more than 50,000 subscribers revealed, prepaid data plans—which you'll likely want if you buy this phone unlocked—aren't much of a bargain. The only other reason for buying the unlocked version is to use it on AT&T, but that's way too much for a phone that will not be able to run on AT&T's 3G data network, which it doesn't support.

Stay tuned for more my first impressions of this phone and more from the Consumer Electronics Show.

—Mike Gikas