Ever since Android was officially made available for smartphones, manufacturer decided to add their own flavor of UI on top of the operating system. This led to significantly different experiences on different smartphones running the same OS underneath.

Google wasn’t happy with such variance in the Android experience. The company had an ideal view of how the operating system should work on an Android phone but it couldn’t force companies to ditch their customizations. This eventually led to the birth of the Google Nexus series, one of the most sought out lineup by Android enthusiasts across the globe. So if you have been following the Android landscape ever since its inception, it’s highly likely that you’ve heard or seen the first-ever smartphone in the Google Nexus lineup, the HTC Google Nexus One.

HTC was a major smartphone maker back then and it wasn’t a surprise that the search engine giant decided to partner with them to make its first smartphone. The hardware partners have changed a few times since Nexus’ inception, but one thing was common among all partners – they were given freedom to design these Nexus phones. But the software would be controlled by Google and it would become the base of how a perfect Android phone ran on the latest version of the OS. Being the first-ever Nexus smartphone, the HTC Nexus One has a special place in our hearts. So let’s take a closer look at what it had to offer back in 2010.

The HTC Nexus One had a typical HTC design. The back was slightly curved and the overall design was similar to the company’s Desire model. There were actually two versions of the Nexus One back in 2010. The first units rolled out with a Pentine AMOLED display but it would later be replaced by a Super LCD panel which reportedly offered better power efficiency and color accuracy.

The front had a tiny 3.7-inch display of 800 x 480 pixels. This was one of the better displays back in 2010. There were four capacitive buttons, which was typical of the Nexus lineup. But there was a trackball below these capacitive buttons which made the phone unique. It was a lot similar to Blackberry devices and offered easy navigation across the OS. Interestingly, this trackball also doubled down as a notification light, which looked pretty cool.

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As for the specs, the Nexus One was no slouch. It came with the Snapdragon S1 single-core 1GHz processor with 512MB of RAM and 512MB of ROM. No, this is not a mistake. The phone had just 512MB of storage, which forced the company to add a dedicated MicroSD slot on board. On the back there was a decent 5MP camera with autofocus and LED flash. The battery was average for its time at 1400mAh. Notably, it was removable, unlike Nexus devices that were launched later on. 2010 wasn’t exactly the selfie age, so Google and HTC decided not to add a front camera.

Previous Throwback: We Revisit the World’s First Camera Phone & Its Selfie Camera

The real highlight of the Nexus lineup has always been its software and the Nexus One was no exception. The phone came with Android 2.1 Eclair out of the box with voice-guided navigation and voice to text transcription. Imagine how far we’ve come in the last 9 years. Everything is voice-based now, with Google Assitant and Alexa taking over our daily lives. The phone also brought 3D icons and live wallpaper which looked pretty cool for its time. Given that this was a Google-backed device, the Nexus One received a number of major updates. The phone got Android 2.2 Froyo and also Android 2.3.6 Gingerbread. It could have been updated to Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich too, if not for its super-old hardware platform.

With these specs and software, the Nexus One would have sold pretty well right? Unfortunately, the phone didn’t fare so well in terms of sale.

Nevertheless, the Nexus One will always have a very special place in our hearts. It was the first-ever Google phone and is the reason why the Pixel lineup exist today!

So did you ever use the Nexus One? What are your thoughts?

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Last weekend, Xiaomi shot itself in the foot when it ran a poll asking fans to choose between MIUI and Android One. MIUI lost the poll with 43% of the votes while Android One secured 57% of the 14,769 votes. Seeing the results, Xiaomi deleted the poll.

On Monday, a product manager at OnePlus decided to run his own poll by comparing OxygenOS to Pure Android. Initially, OxygenOS was leading the poll which prompted CEO Carl Pei, who was certain they’d win to tweet that the poll shouldn’t be deleted.

In what appears to be a perfect example of not counting your chickens before they are hatched, Pure Android bagged another win at the end of the poll. With a total of 10,349 votes, Pure Android secured 58% of the votes as against OxygenOS’ 42%.

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However, OnePlus handled the loss well. Sticking to the CEO’s orders of not deleting the poll, the product manager tweeted that the results of the poll and users’ feedback will serve as motivation to make the OS better. I guess Xiaomi should have done this rather than delete its own poll.

(Source, Via)

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The Mi A1 is Xiaomi’s first Android One phone, which is actually the Mi 5X but with pure Android. If you own the Mi 5X and want to experience pure android, there is a ported ROM of the Mi A1 available for download. What if you own the Redmi Note 4/Note 4X? There is also a ROM for you.

XDA senior developer, GLokin666 has ported the ROM of the Mi A1 to the Redmi Note 4/4X. The ROM is based on version 7.9.21 of the Mi A1 and is sort of an alpha/beta build as some features such as the fingerprint scanner and infrared scanner are not working. There are also some camera features missing.  However other features work well and Gapps come pre-installed. It also comes with September’s security patch and supports for multi-language.

If you want to give it a try, you can download it from the source page below. If you are also a developer, you can  also give it a try and help fix the fingerprint scanner and IR blaster.

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The Redmi Note 4/4X is different from the Mi A1 in terms of design and specs, however they both share the same Snapdragon 625 processor and have 5.5” FHD displays.

(Source)

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Android Police editor, David Ruddock posted on twitter over the weekend that a rumour flying around says the Pixel XL will cost $649. Although he’s not sure if that is the price for the 32GB version or 128GB model. A preceding tweet already mentioned that there will only be two storage options i.e. 32GB and 128GB.

If it turns out that the price is for the 32GB version, it will still be in the price range of flagships from other manufacturers like Samsung and Apple. If the price is for the 128GB version, it will be no different from the launch price of the Nexus 6P 128GB version.

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Google is expected to launch the Pixel and Pixel XL at an event slated for October 4, but we might be getting more leaks before then. The new phones are also expected to come with Android 7.1 Nougat and a new launcher called the Pixel Launcher. There are also rumours that the search giant plans to revive the 7” tablet line this year with one made by Huawei.

Source: Technobuffalo

The post Pixel XL May Be Google’s Most Expensive Phone appeared first on Gizmochina.