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Nexus One vs. iPhone 3GS Face Off

Some have speculated that the Google Nexus One is an iPhone beater handset, but is it really? Well the guys over at ibtimes have delved into this and have come up with a face off battle between the iconic iPhone 3GS and the Nexus One.

First off they compare sizes, with the iPhone 3GS being 115.5 x 62.1 x 12.3mm with a weight of 135 grams, while the Nexus One measures 119 x 59.8 x 11.5mm weighing in at 130 grams. They conclude here that it is a tie due to not a significant difference in size and weight.

On to the display and the iPhone 3GS offers a 3.5 inch capacitive multi-touch screen at 480 x 320 pixel resolution. The Nexus One delivers a 3.7 inch WVGA AMOLED display, which they say the Nexus One wins here due to a larger screen, although there is no multi-touch it can offer higher resolution.

Next comes the camera and video recording with the iPhone 3GS having a 3.15 megapixel camera with auto-focus but lacks zoom and flash. The Nexus One packs a 5 megapixel camera with auto-focus, LED flash and 2x digital zoom, thus the Nexus One wins on this score.

On to wireless and connectivity with both handsets being quad-band GSM, 3G/GPRS/EDGE/WiFi and Bluetooth, but in this case the Nexus One wins due to Google including a microUSB port which the iPhone 3GS doesn’t have.

Then there’s the operating system, the iPhone 3GS runs Apple’s proprietary iPhone OS 3.0 while the Nexus One runs Google’s Android 2.1 OS which they conclude that as the iPhone OS is probably the biggest drawback to the iPhone, the Nexus One wins again.

Next we have the processor; the iPhone 3GS packs an ARM Cortex A8 600MHz, while the Nexus One packs a Qualcomm Snapdragon 1GHz processor, thus the Google phone wins as it is “blazingly faster.”

As for the browser, will the iPhone 3GS sports Safari and the Nexus One sports a webkit browser, and as the Nexus One webkit browser supports Flash based web pages and JavaScript it wins again.

When it comes to music and video though, the iPhone 3GS comes out the winner as although both handsets come with a media player which supports multiple video and audio playback, the iPhone can also double as an iPod.

On to memory and yes you guessed it the Nexus One wins this one due to it incorporating microSD expansion unlike the iPhone 3GS.

As for features they call it a tie as both the iPhone 3GS and Nexus One are packed with rich features. Finally they come to their verdict which is that the Nexus One beats the iPhone 3GS by 8 to 1. But the true test will come when the Nexus One is out and about with the public.

Comments

12 thoughts on “Nexus One vs. iPhone 3GS Face Off”

  1. Interesting take. I think you’ve underestimated the integrated experience of the iPhone, but I’m hoping the NexusOne helps smartphone uptake overall as an apps developer. This will be closest thing to a vertically integrated production process for an Android phone.

  2. y3k-bug says:

    I don’t understand how you claim that the Nexus One wins on memory, when it only ships with 4GB memory.

    Further, it’s maximum expansion is to 32GB, the same amount as a top flight 3GS.

  3. Andy says:

    What about apps? I have seen LOADS of competitors fall as sites like this rate them as iPhone beaters. The quality of te screen on the iPhone is brilliant, I don’t see how it can be improved. As for Memory, you haven’t told us how big it will be. Because I have 32 gb. I hope the competition makes apple release the new iPhone. Because this one has been 2 years at the top, assuming this phone actually competes

  4. Jason says:

    I’m no Apple fanboy (in fact I am the opposite), but what these sorts of comparisons fail to take into account is the iPhone’s massive library of extremely cool and useful apps.

    As far as tech specs go, the Nexus is better, and if it had multi-touch it would be better in virtually every conceivable way. But as long as things like Pandora are exclusive to the iPhone, Apple is going to win IMO. If Nexus had the same set of applications as Apple it would win, but it doesn’t so it won’t.

  5. milano says:

    andy are you even serious? please kindly tell me you are joking alright…
    You honestly believe that the screen on the iphone is so great? For pete’s sake the screen is smaller, the resolution is lower, not to mention the most important of all, Nexus One’s AMOLED is far more superior to iPhone’s crappy LCD. Moreover, iPhone’s screen ratio is stupid, 3:2? it’s the stupidest thing, in order to make the video maintain it’s own ratio while using iphone…you have to turn it into a smaller size and it means you can’t even use that 3.5″ screen completely. iPhone screen is brilliant? :facepalm:

  6. GIO says:

    cracks me up when it says iphone wins the one catagory where you can use it as an ipod well the nexus can do that also, in my house i have 2 blackberries (mine and the wifes) and 2 HTC heroes( The Kids), we sold our ipods on ebay due to the fact all of our phones were able to replace our ipods, for both music and video…….

    and i love how iphone users say we have lots of apps, tons of web wrappers and duplicate apps (apps doing the exact same thing with different names)…..what you need to look at is the android apps are free (or at least mostly), where apple will charge $1.99 for a web wrapper (web page short-cut)

  7. Tansen says:

    The Nexus One wins spec-wise hands down, even without multitouch. But the iphone has been undefeated for this long for reasons that have nothing to do with specs, or even the apps. The simplicity of the interface makes the iphone a winner because it does what you want it to do very easily. Just one or two taps gets you anywhere you want to go. No menus and settings, at least not out front. I would very much like to try the Nexus One, but I am quite happy with my iphone.

  8. Unbiased infamous says:

    I’ve used both device and all in all at the end iPhone wins due to the following reasons.

    – apple store
    – games/apps
    – streamline stable user experience
    – iTunes
    – jailbreak

    iPhone > android > windows
    😉

  9. Ras says:

    I have a Nexus one and the screen is much clearer and brighter with the OLED display and 2.5 times as many pixels. Also it is definately multi-touch so I don’t know why you all think it isn’t. It also supports 32 Gb of memory. I use Pandora every day just like I did on my blackberry so I don’t see how it’s exclusive. The biggest reasons of all that it is far superior is the phone only comes un-locked with no ties to any provider and the software is completely open.

  10. Den says:

    I see that you are arguing with the phones. I have not experience yet a nexus one but I have experience iPhone 3gs for 5-6 months. You see I may not have the right to judge the nexus but i assure you that the iPhone is the best experience for your buck. It’s common sense interface can understand by everyone, no help needed. Yes nexus is more hightech but what about the human interaction? You, what is more important to you?

    Eg. How ease when you type on the onscreen keyboard, did you find it difficult?

    What about the accuracy on your browser, did your device select the link you wanted to even you zoom out to the max

    these are few questions we have to ask ourselves

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