Nexus One, still worth it?

[bambamboom]

Hey guys,

need a bit help, well technically my friend does. hes on the market for a new phone and hes quite in love with my nexus one (im def not gonna sell it though! haha). The only concern is whether the nexus one is too old now. He loves the build quality of the nexus one but is worried if its money well spent. He found a mint tmo version for about 320, but at the same time hes wondering if he should just wait and jump to att to buy a atrix or even an iphone 4. So bias aside, is the nexus one still worthy of a 300+ price tag? honestly?

i know its googles baby but what if google does what apple did with their 1st gen iphone. what if 2.3 will be the last upgrade available before google end of lifes the n1.

 

[RogerPodacter]

honestly does your friend give two craps if the nexus one gets an update or not? prob not. anyway my frient recently asked me the same thing, he loved my nexus one and was gonna buy one. he ended up not gettting anything but he was about to do it and found one near him on craigslist and all.

i dont think its a bad idea, i still think its the best phone out there i cant find one i like better yet which is why i keep mine. great build, awesome looking, color trackball, where else can that be found?

 

[Dirk]

I wouldn't sell my phone or recommend a Nexus One to a friend knowing that the power button would certainly fail and the touchscreen will give them issues.

For those reasons i couldn't recommend this phone to anybody!

 

[FishFan319]

I switched phones every month for a year, everything having some flaw. I've had this thing since June. No touchscreen issue, no power button issue. Pure Google, piece of art. Get it, keep it, love it.

 

[mindfrost82]

I just bought my 2nd one (the At&t version). I first bought one on the first day they released the ATT version, but then I sold it to switch carriers. I've been back on ATT for about 6 months now and I've missed my N1, so I just ordered another one from eBay.

I've had the Captivate and the Surround and I still want my N1 back.

It should be here today

 

[elegos]

DirkGently1: if it was how you're saying, the N1 should have been dropped out the market long ago. I've got mine and got not a single problem (but the touch axis problem, which is not felt not playing on my phone).

I'd suggest the N1, because it doesn't cost like the Nexus S, but still is Google Experience. If only the Nexus S had been pumped up a little more, I'd think about it as my next phone, but dual cores are behind the corner, Nexus S will be overtaken very soon... but still I'd prefere a Nexus S 'cause it's GE.

 

[Lythandra]

The N1 is a great phone and I still love mine BUT if I were in the market for a new phone right now I would wait till the dual cores comes out which should be very soon.

 

[bambamboom]

honestly does your friend give two craps if the nexus one gets an update or not?

its not high on his list but he would prefer something that isn't going to be neglected on updates.

like you guys stated, the dual cores is what hes worried about. with it being so close around the corner, would it be smart investing in year old (while advanced, its still a year old) tech? he just loves the design and quality of the nexus one but hes not sure if that is worth sacrificing the processer and other upgrades in different departments.

im just stuck on whether i should encourage him getting this phone, which is no doubt awesome but old, or wait it out.

 

[mindfrost82]

its not high on his list but he would prefer something that isn't going to be neglected on updates.

like you guys stated, the dual cores is what hes worried about. with it being so close around the corner, would it be smart investing in year old (while advanced, its still a year old) tech? he just loves the design and quality of the nexus one but hes not sure if that is worth sacrificing the processer and other upgrades in different departments.

im just stuck on whether i should encourage him getting this phone, which is no doubt awesome but old, or wait it out.

If he really likes the design and there's nothing else out there he wants, then I would say go for it for that price.

The way I look at it is if he can get a year out of it and be happy with it, then there will be better things out there a year from now anyway.

 

[Namuna]

I've had my N1 since day-2 (had to wait for overnight shipping! ). It's more integrated into my life now, then when I first got it.

...But, I'm definitely starting to keep my eye out for the next thing. The N1 is already starting to show signs of being passed on from Google (ie the current delay on getting official Gingerbread to us!), whereas the Nexus S is the current poster-boy.

If your friend requires no-contract phone and ~$300 is his budget? Well, that's just about a no-brainer that the N1 is recommended.

Other than that, I'd tell them to hold until the Duals become a little more prevalent and then start looking... Who knows, maybe the Nexus Two with Dual-Core (get it, it's a Nexus TWO and it has TWO cores! ) will come out

 

[Chahk]

I love my N1, but wouldn't pay $300 for it right now. It's nice to hear that the resale value is still up there (speaks volumes for HTC's build quality) but honestly, there are much better options out there right now.

If your friend is out of contract, he can pick up a G2 for free from T-Mobile with a 2-year contract. Other than the flimsy keyboard hinge, it beats the Nexus One in almost every category spec-wise. If you're worried about updates - G2 is just as unlockable and rootable as N1, with support from custom ROMs nowhere near stopping.

If your friend doesn't want a carrier-subsidized phone, then his best bet would be waiting a few months until the next generation of dual-core handsets start showing up en masse. Yes, they will be almost twice the price of a used N1 at that point, but that would be money well spent.

 

[draugaz]

Dual cores are fine and dandy, but I would not jump on the first available models.
Nobody knows how is the battery usage or is there are any other esotheric bugs introduced by the new SMP platform.

 

[Chahk]

Dual cores are fine and dandy, but I would not jump on the first available models.
Nobody knows how is the battery usage or is there are any other esotheric bugs introduced by the new SMP platform.

Good point. It's always a good idea to wait until the early adopters report in with issues. Power savings of dual-core processors is a fact on laptops and nettops, but yet remains to be proven on the mobile chip architectures. It's good to see manufacturers shipping larger batteries too (1930 mAh on Atrix), but only time will tell.

 

[skunz35]

I bought a N1 right when it came out and loved it, then I got an hd2 and its the best phone I've ever had period, but the nexus one is definitely one amazing phone

 

[draugaz]

Good point. It's always a good idea to wait until the early adopters report in with issues. Power savings of dual-core processors is a fact on laptops and nettops, but yet remains to be proven on the mobile chip architectures. It's good to see manufacturers shipping larger batteries too (1930 mAh on Atrix), but only time will tell.

Well, there is a concept of saving power by going multi-core and undervoting/underclocking at the same time. In theory you get more mips per watt.
But it has several relatively major ifs and buts.

First, you need to have something significant to process. The smartphone apps ten to be quite lean on processing anyway. Nobody uses their phones for prolonged number crunching sessions, the processing demand comes in short "spikes".
Second, those spikes should be parallelizable. Which is far from granted.
Third, you need to save more power than you burn on second chip. It is not only CPU itself, but also all this common glue logic around it which gets more complicated than in single core case.

Which altogether does not look like a sure deal to me. It can easily happen, that such dualcore device will greatly improve on video decoding battery life, but get even more miserable than usual standby times. Huge Attrix battery somehow does not look like a good sign to me.

In my opinion the hottest candidate for the second core would be a garbage collector. Which (if properly implemented) could dramatically improve the overall "smoothness" of the phone.
But something similar to the hyperthreading would do the trick too.

 

[elegos]

As of N1: I bought it when my Magic was starting going slooooow on recent versions of Android. My Nexus One is still highly responsive, and this is what I personally need for my daily usage. And I love to program tools on it: the screen is not small nor too big, it's just "perfect".

 

[hlwdim]

I think it depends on what you really want. In fact, I also thought the price of N1 is a little expense. But I still bought it since I really like it, no matter the appearance or the hardware configuration. For me, it's not too old, but your friend need make the decision by himself~~~

 

[Chahk]

Well, there is a concept of saving power by going multi-core and undervoting/underclocking at the same time. In theory you get more mips per watt.

There is another feature of these new dual-core chips, is that one of the cores can be toggled on demand. No sense in burning both cores if you're just checking e-mail or syncing calendars/social statuses, but a resource-hungry media app or a 3D game for example would spin up that 2nd core.

Huge Attrix battery somehow does not look like a good sign to me.

I'm feeling the exact opposite. Manufacturers are starting to realize that people actually use their phones for longer periods of time, and no matter how power-efficient you make them, a larger battery is always a good idea.

 

[b1337]

I love my N1, but wouldn't pay $300 for it right now. It's nice to hear that the resale value is still up there (speaks volumes for HTC's build quality) but honestly, there are much better options out there right now.

If your friend is out of contract, he can pick up a G2 for free from T-Mobile with a 2-year contract. Other than the flimsy keyboard hinge, it beats the Nexus One in almost every category spec-wise. If you're worried about updates - G2 is just as unlockable and rootable as N1, with support from custom ROMs nowhere near stopping.

If your friend doesn't want a carrier-subsidized phone, then his best bet would be waiting a few months until the next generation of dual-core handsets start showing up en masse. Yes, they will be almost twice the price of a used N1 at that point, but that would be money well spent.

i dunno nexus vs g2 i take the nexus still, g2 is bulky and laggy compared to N1 plus with tzones/web2go its a no brainer... N1 son!

 

[nazrin313]

Bought the desire hd a few months back but still im on my n1... dhd cant match the speed n pure google experience... luv the n1 sooo much i'll go so far as to say its the best phone i have ever owned...