What should I buy?

[darkLuke]

Hello everyone.

I would like to buy a new phone but I have a problem which one should I buy.
I'm thinking about Nexus One and Motorola Milestone (I know there are topics about it but I none of these helped me with my choice - unfortunetly).
On the beggining I was almost convinced to buy N1 but now I get struggle.

Some people are saying Milestone (Droid in US as we all know) after update to 2.1 will be as fast as n1 and even faster in 3D graphics.

So main things that i need to compare are:

Battery life
it's not the most important thing, but it needs to work from 7 to 18 - I'll browse web, listen to music and (i'm sure about it) playing with the phone.

Speed and suppot in the future
I don't want phone which won't be supported by official updates because of hardware/whatever reason they can find. Will the droid bbe that fast as nexus on this video? YouTube - Google Earth on Android - Nexus Vs Droid

Screens.
I know that N1 got amazing screen but is it that much better than milestone ( I mean if I dont have these phones to compare them ide-by-side will I be dissapointed with milestone's screen?)

User experience
Here i'm not talking about differences in the software but as I found some games are not play-able (or however to say that) so here Milestone has a point (however I probably wont use keyboard to type because It's flat but maybe by the time it won't be the problem) if there is no way to play these games on n1 (i don't need keyboard for every day use)

Dock stations.
About docks for N1 except for one thing - if Dock and phone are parried with bluetooth all sounds will come from speakers (connected to dock) but what will happend if these speakers are off? I will have no sound at all or it will "know" about it and it'll play sounds trough phone speaker? And another thing. If go out of bluetooth connection music will stop playing (nothing surprising here), but what gonan happend if I come into my house with bluetooth turned on (devices are paried ofc.) - all sounds will automaticly start playing trough my speakers or i need to dock the phone - and then when i take it out it'll wotk?
And Milestone.
What in/out puts does it have? Only one mini-usb?? There is no charging input to allow me just charge the phone and if i turn my PC on then to move data?
How does it works?


I think that's all i wanted to ask.

Sorry for bit chaotic grammar but i'm originally from Poland

 

[sic4672]

Hello everyone.

I would like to buy a new phone but I have a problem which one should I buy.
I'm thinking about Nexus One and Motorola Milestone (I know there are topics about it but I none of these helped me with my choice - unfortunetly).
On the beggining I was almost convinced to buy N1 but now I get struggle.

Some people are saying Milestone (Droid in US as we all know) after update to 2.1 will be as fast as n1 and even faster in 3D graphics.

So main things that i need to compare are:

Battery life
it's not the most important thing, but it needs to work from 7 to 18 - I'll browse web, listen to music and (i'm sure about it) playing with the phone.

Speed and suppot in the future
I don't want phone which won't be supported by official updates because of hardware/whatever reason they can find. Will the droid bbe that fast as nexus on this video? YouTube - Google Earth on Android - Nexus Vs Droid

Screens.
I know that N1 got amazing screen but is it that much better than milestone ( I mean if I dont have these phones to compare them ide-by-side will I be dissapointed with milestone's screen?)

User experience
Here i'm not talking about differences in the software but as I found some games are not play-able (or however to say that) so here Milestone has a point (however I probably wont use keyboard to type because It's flat but maybe by the time it won't be the problem) if there is no way to play these games on n1 (i don't need keyboard for every day use)

Dock stations.
About docks for N1 except for one thing - if Dock and phone are parried with bluetooth all sounds will come from speakers (connected to dock) but what will happend if these speakers are off? I will have no sound at all or it will "know" about it and it'll play sounds trough phone speaker? And another thing. If go out of bluetooth connection music will stop playing (nothing surprising here), but what gonan happend if I come into my house with bluetooth turned on (devices are paried ofc.) - all sounds will automaticly start playing trough my speakers or i need to dock the phone - and then when i take it out it'll wotk?
And Milestone.
What in/out puts does it have? Only one mini-usb?? There is no charging input to allow me just charge the phone and if i turn my PC on then to move data?
How does it works?


I think that's all i wanted to ask.

Sorry for bit chaotic grammar but i'm originally from Poland

I can't give you a solid answer because most of it will come from user preference, but maybe I can give you some facts that might help your decision.

Battery Life: Both of these phones will give you similar battery life with similar usage. The main thing to keep in mind is what apps you have that tend to frequently run in the background and eat battery without doing anything productive. Be selective on your apps and this should help.

Speed and suppot in the future: From a strick hardware perspective, the Qualcomm QSD8250 and the OMAP 3430 are very similar. Both are based on the same ARM instruction set and both have dedicated GPU unts. The Qualcomm is clocked 400MHz higher than the OMAP. It has also been slightly more optimized by Qualcomm so it will be faster clock for clock. I believe the Qualcomm GPU is slightly better that the PowerVR SGX 530 found in the OMAP, but I haven't found any proof of this yet. Now what this translates to is very minor differences in user experience, virtually none at all. This may change in the future as software takes better advantage of the hardware, and that is why I personally will be getting the N1. As for software, both basically run vanilla android. The N1 gets updates striaght from Google while Motorola has to test the software before pushing it to the Milestone. This means you will get updated software sooner with the N1.

Screens: Both have fantastic screens, but there are minor differences. The Milestone has a true 16:9 screen (854x480 pixel) while the N1 only has 800x480 pixels. The N1 uses AMOLED for better color reproduction, but poorer visability in direct sunlight. The Milestone uses Gorilla Glass (google it for details) which is supposedly much strong and more difficult to break than standard sodium glass used in most phones (I don't know if the N1 uses gorilla glass as well, can't find documentation).

User experience: This one definately comes down to personal preference. I'm sure the keyboard will probably provide a better gaming experience though.

Dock stations: For the N1, I'm fairly certain that when you turn off the speakers, the bluetooth will disconnect so the sounds will come through the phone. I also believe the N1 will reconnect to the dock when you are within range and it will start playing through speakers. I don't know this for fact so you may have to find reviews on the dock. The Milestone only has the usb dock, so it will basically only charge the phone. You would have to remove the phone from the dock to connect it to a computer. Take everything here about docks with a grain of salt because I haven't researched docks very much.

I hope I was able to give you some insight that will help you with your decision. I'm sure that you will love whichever of the two you finally decide to buy. Good luck in your decision.

 

[sooper_droid12]

Hello everyone.

So main things that i need to compare are:

Battery life
it's not the most important thing, but it needs to work from 7 to 18 - I'll browse web, listen to music and (i'm sure about it) playing with the phone.

I will be one of the few DROID guys to post here to give you this side of the coin in the N1 or Milestone discussion. Honestly, sic4672 was/is one of the more sobering and near objective points of view that I've read on this side of the forum. That being said, I won't say too much more than he/she did.

I agree on battery life; both phones are comparable in that department and what I've read between the two phones, it really depends on user behavior, apps running, but also just which one you get off the assembly line as each device can be wildly variable. Some guys report light use and a battery that lasts 3 days! While I've never seen that myself, I know that I carefully measure out my usage and keep an eye on processes, I can manage two days on a full charge.

Speed and support in the future
I don't want phone which won't be supported by official updates because of hardware/whatever reason they can find. Will the droid bbe that fast as nexus on this video?

IMO, this is the #1 reason to get the N1 (or any Google phone). You are assured that you will get the latest, greatest and most necessary updates to your phone. There are no carrier or manufacturer's QA/QC hurdles to jump through, only what Google thinks will work for your device. In that way, there is absolutely no reason in my mind why ANYONE would want to get an Android phone that's NOT being sold by Google. To me, this is a fatal flaw in Google's business model, because it directly shoots their carrier partners in the foot.

The off-shoot though is that you get an open and free phone. And in the long run, that's probably a better model. Right now, there are growing pains, but Google will fix 'em... they always do (to take a line from Robocop).

As for speed... the differences between the two platform (chips) are so minor. Spec for spec, it looks like the Snapdragon platform just toasts the OMAP. In fact, the Scorpion CPU is an admirable integer performer. That's what it's built to do. However, the OMAP platform is one of the better SOC executions made specifically to push graphics. This is one of the reasons why you do not see a notable difference between the two applications of Google Earth.

To demonstrate how potent the OMAP chip is, some rooters have overclocked their OMAPs to just 800MHz before they start matching integer performance of a 1GHz Scorpion CPU. So, it's no slouch. Out of the box, it is what it is. The way Android OS uses computing power, it relies heavily on the CPU instead of making real use of the GPU. So, in this case, you'll see a smoother experience with the N1 vs. the DROID. The SGX GPU in the OMAP platform is considered to be the next best thing to the Tegra chips. N1 uses an ATI Imageon-based GPU, which isn't bad. But again, it's about how well the CPU/GPU are integrated and communicate on the SOC design.

Screens.
I know that N1 got amazing screen but is it that much better than milestone ( I mean if I dont have these phones to compare them ide-by-side will I be dissapointed with milestone's screen?)

Differences in screen are plentiful. As mentioned below, Moto's screen is full 16:9 WVGA and is protected by Gorilla Glass. The HTC screen is a Samsung-sourced AMOLED, which inherently has issues in direct sunlight (wait until the the next iteration of AMOLED, called SUPER AMOLED, which does not have this problem). Beyond that:

1) The N1 screen is richly saturated and for some people that's a pleasing experience, but it is far from being accurate.
2) The N1 screen, though spec'd at 800x480, actually uses a technology called PenTile Matrix, which Samsung describes as "Visual VGA". By using a 2x2 subpixel structure, the N1's AMOLED screen is able to mitigate some of the short-comings of AMOLED tech, namely blue pixel aging. The caveat in using 2x2, instead of the typical 3x1 structure is that there are ACTUALLY LESS pixels than the stated 800. A statement released by Samsung project manager stated that "it's not important what's actually there as it is what the eye perceives," hence "visual" VGA.

For the Milestone/DROID... it is LCD, so there will obviously be more of a power consumer than AMOLED. HAVING SAID ALL THIS... at the end of the day, it only matters what the user thinks. If you like the Milestone's screen, don't let anyone tell you otherwise. If you like the N1 screen, don't let anyone tell you otherwise. I've seen both in person and the N1's screen is very nice. You can't lose with either.

User experience
Here i'm not talking about differences in the software but as I found some games are not play-able (or however to say that) so here Milestone has a point (however I probably wont use keyboard to type because It's flat but maybe by the time it won't be the problem) if there is no way to play these games on n1 (i don't need keyboard for every day use)

One of the coolest things I like to show my friends (all being around mid-30s) is to show them I can play our old-school Nintendo and SNES games on my phone. And honestly, I don't know how I could ever play these games without a physical keyboard. That being said, the developer for the emulators has released an expanded virtual game pad for keyboard-less devices like the N1 and enabled trackball use. I don't personally like the virtual d-pad as it's inaccurate much of the time, but you can play these games on the N1.

Dock stations.
About docks for N1 except for one thing - if Dock and phone are parried with bluetooth all sounds will come from speakers (connected to dock) but what will happend if these speakers are off? I will have no sound at all or it will "know" about it and it'll play sounds trough phone speaker? And another thing. If go out of bluetooth connection music will stop playing (nothing surprising here), but what gonan happend if I come into my house with bluetooth turned on (devices are paried ofc.) - all sounds will automaticly start playing trough my speakers or i need to dock the phone - and then when i take it out it'll wotk?

Bluetooth has a limited range, so if you leave your house, it's unlikely that the dock will pair up. And the only way your speakers will play when you enter the house is if you left your radio/receiver on and you're listening to music coming in.

And Milestone.
What in/out puts does it have? Only one mini-usb?? There is no charging input to allow me just charge the phone and if i turn my PC on then to move data?
How does it works?

The Milestone has a microUSB port and a 3.5" headphone jack. Like the N1, if you connect the device to your PC, it will charge, but at fraction of the rate using the adapter. Either way, whether it's plugged into the wall or a computer, your phone will charge.

 

[sic4672]

Honestly, sic4672 was/is one of the more sobering and near objective points of view that I've read on this side of the forum. That being said, I won't say too much more than he/she did.

Thank you very much for the compliment. I try to be as objective as possible. I was obsessed with the droid for the longest time, but after I saw the N1 was coming to verizon, I decided to go with it to hopefully future-proof myself for about a year. After looking at various SoC manufacturer's road-maps, I noticed the QSD8650 would pretty much be top dog for the next year here in the states. I also learned a bit from your post so thank you for the valuable information. (btw, he will do fine )

 

[AnotherFatalEpic]

Someone should make a video of a person driving in a car with the N1 BT paired to the car audio listening to a song have them pull into their garage and shut off the car and once they step out show it auto-pair BT to the Home speaker system and continue playing.

 

[darkLuke]

Thank You very much for help guys. I think I'll buy N1 (because there are pll trying to connect keyboards to android phones Have Keyboard, Will Travel: Android Phones Capable of Using USB Keyboard. | AndroidGuys).

 

[phenixdragon]

I have to agree with the part about the Nexus One in sunlight. It sucks. I only had mine for a week and today, I was outside and it was overcast but it was really hard to see the screen. I am not worried about summer time coming up. When I ride my bike (motorcycle) I have a mount for the phone. The iPhone work fine in direct summertime sunlight, I fear the Nexus One is going to be hard to see.

 

[darkLuke]

I have few questions (I dont wan't to open another toic so I ask here).

does N1 have compas (like HTC HD 2)?
And if I'm in UK - is it cheaper to buy just phone from google and buy dock + charger here or buy all form google?

 

[Rusty]

Yes the N1 has a compass, and it will be cheaper to go all in from Google, just don't get the charger from them.