Let me strat this off by saying I am neither a fan of Nokia, nor HTC/Andriod. I am a fan of Google, but who here isn't? More importantly though, I am a fan of functionality.

I pre-ordered the N900 and ordered the Nexus One as it was released. The N900 was everything I hoped it would be. A true NiT with a phone stapled on. Just the way I figure it should be. NiTs aren't meant to be Smart phones, they're meant to be Internet enabled devices to help you when you're away from your computer. Therefore I can understand a little bulk.

Now that the Nexus One is here, it has me wondering which device I'd rather use as a phone...

Through using both devices for a couple days I've started thinking of which one could be the clear winner. Unable to place a clear winner I made a list of arguments why one would want or use one over the other.

OS Android, being accepted more widely and in more handsets, the OS is more mature, and therefore cleaner, sexier, smoother. And due to being made by Google has an interface built in for almost every Google app that exists, that looks just like the website, but runs like on a real computer. And has had time to mature, being used as a smartphone OS and not as an internet tablet OS. Of course that's where Maemo shines. It's ability to look and act like a real computer, places more function and potential in the interface. A fast paced ability to launch and switch between currently active 'Live' apps, leaves few things to be desired.

RAW POWER The Nexus One has. But you rarely see it in action since there's no multitasking, is one SINGLE app going to use up all of the Nexus One's 1Ghz Snapdragon CPU? Not bloody likely. On the contrary the N900's ability to multitask on a 600mhz CPU allows for it to get bogged down easily when not careful of what you're doing. However with a stronger CPU the N900 would *really* blow you away.

Web Broswer Right now the N900 is only phone on the market with Flash(9.4 to be specific) and in concert with Mozilla's base code, it creates a *best in class* web broswer, that doesn't try to emulate a desktop experience, it's actually produces a desktop experience. The Nexus One on the other hand firmly reminds me that I am on a phone and disappoints me with being countable seconds slower then the N900, changing formating on some pages, increasing font size to make it easier to read, and choosing the mobile versions of sites when available.
However as a bit of a side note Flash 10 *will* be coming to Andriod and has been shown by Adobe running on the Nexus One in a buttery smooth manor, better then Flash on the N900. So perhaps not all is lost, but the N900 still has the upper hand in the browsing area.

Apps A matter of much controversy. Which platform has better/more apps. I don't even want to breach this topic given how obvious it is, and if it's actually important to you, you should just go out and buy the iPhone. Fart apps are not why we're here. We're here because we want function. We want use. So here I go:

YES the Android Marketplace has more apps. As it well should. If at it's current age and popularity, it *didn't* have so many, I'd be laughing hard at it. However these things come in time. The N900 while not having more apps does have more potential in the app arena. With a 100% open source OS if you need it, find someone to write it. Or better yet, write it yourself! Upload it to the Repos and let people test it and add to it, and make it better. The N900 thrives on community. That's it's design. If you don't like it, go somewhere else. Go to the iPhone and enjoy your 13 billion apps of uselessness and leave us. We'll be content with our few hundred/thousand USEFUL apps that will come in time.

There, now that, that's out of my system, we can continue. :P

Design The Nexus One does win here. Clearly. Anyone will agree that while the N900 looks nice, it's bulky, plastic design just doesn't compare to the stylings of HTC with a simple clean, metal body that's thinner then the iPhone and only has 4 capacitive buttons on it's face(aside from an odd trackball)

Screen Actually they both win this catagory. The N900 has a higher pixel desity due to having a slightly smaller screen(3.5 inch) that is also transflective(sunlight readable) vs. the Nexus One's 3.7 inch AMOLED screen which is barely visable outside, but sucks almost no power and provides crisp bright colors with high contrast. Something I always appreciate

Input(typing) I've always disliked touch screen only phones because there's no tactile feedback for keys so I don't know when I'm on the edge and pressing down might select the next key over. The N900 indulges me and lets me type really insanely fast. The Nexus One introduces voice input for text. And it actually works. Unlike the older days of Dragon Naturally Speaking, straight out of the box it just.. Works.. Something I'm only just starting to get used to. So far I've decided it makes up for the lack of a physical keyboard as it's accurate enough that when I'm sick it can still figure out what I'm saying 6 times out of 10. Long as I don't ask anything too strange

Input(touching) I honestly wouldn't have thought there was as much of a difference as there was between the two phones. 1st off both phones are only single touch.The Nexus One has a capacative screen(capable of multi touch), what this means is that it measures the electrical energy from your fingers to generate a point of interest. This doesn't work as well as I'd hoped, however I'm used to the N900 at this point so I like to press hard and with a finger nail rather then my full finger. I expect this will get better in time.

The N900 uses a resistive screen which is *not* capable of multi touch. What that means is that it senses pressure to figure a point of interest, no matter the shape or points of pressure, it always finds the middle. ANYTHING can be pushed against the screen to control the device. A stylus, a pen, heck even a rock if you wish it. I've noticed the N900's screen while not responding to absurdly light touches will always respond to a little pressure. A reliability I've gotten used to. :P And using the stylus allows you both a mass amount of accuracy and prevents finger oils on the screen.

Camera The N900 has a real camera, comparable to point and shoots when using it in the sun, the auto focus lens and macro modes allow alot of creativity. However when looking through the nexus One, I was reminded of my old BlackBerry Curve only in higher resolution. What little focus did appear to be happening, it wasn't macro, by any means, and I'm sad to say stands no chance of being compared to a point and shoot, save for the humor of it.

Settings On Andriod it's a phone. Very obviously. The settings are all over the place and clearly you're just not *meant* to do some things. On Maemo I was able to find everything I wanted to change(for the most part) right out of the box. An ease fo use to be found in Maemo that might make normal phone users go insane at the sheer volume of options laid on their plate. An understandable take on both sides of the fence.

Limited storage. Few excuses for this really, I'm surprised they didn't take Nokiia's path and just make the Nexus One with 32gbs of storage built in, but I assume the size of the device limited what they could pull off, and they *did* put in a microSD slot capable of 32GB cards, which almost makes up for it, but the N900 supports up to 32GB internal *and* external so you can have 64GB total. (Yes I'm acutely aware Nokia only admits to accepting 16GB cards, but since the microSD standard goes to 32 if they support mircoSD they *should* support 32.unless they choose to limit it on purpose)

Connection Both run on TMO network and support wifi, but it's kind of a toss up here. The physical hardware of the Nexus One supports 802.11n(N900 is only b and g) while the N900 supports TMO's 3.5G network(Nexus One only supports as high as 3G). Both are next generation formats that aren't hugely supported yet in phones, so their inclusions in these is a pleasant surprise, but not as useful as they may sound. (3.5G is a battery vampire and wireless N is hard to find in public or businesses)

I believe that covers everything I noticed. I can't find a clear winner because they aren't both smart phones. One is a phone that pretends it's a computer, and one is a computer.that pretends it's a phone, but neither make it all the way and I don't think they should. They both serve their purposes well, it all depends on what the end user wants or needs.

However as a phone I think I'm more likely to use the Nexus One and when I want to browse the web while watching TV I think I'll have the N900 charged and at the ready. But only time can tell what I'll really decide to do.

Thanks for the good review. Interesting stuff. As much as I'd like to though, I sadly don't see the use of owning both the phones. One has to win I'm afraid.

Interesting, I've never gotten voice recognition to work on cell phones (and even Dragon Naturally Speaking and the one included with Windows Vista and Windows 7). I chalk it up to a combination of I speak fast, I sometimes pronouce words wrong, and I occasionally have a Chinese accent (all a result of me growing up in the formulative stages of language learning speaking Chinese and little English).

And seeing my Google Voicemail transcripts didn't have me exactly expecting that Google would do any better (though they do have a larger library of samples for the system to learn from). That's partially what GOOG411 and Google Voice are for (yes scary isn't it? )

I wonder how the Nexus would do with me. If you come to the get-together in D.C. in the off-topic forum if you bring the Nexus I wanna try out the voice recognition). I've tried the one on the iPhone (professor who loves Apple products had one) and I could never get it working reliabily.

Though how does it do with noise? I'm guessing you don't have to bring it up to your face to use the voice recognition since that would be a terrible design flaw to have to do that each time.

Excellent write-up OP.. I have to agree with Davost though. Almost seems like a waste of money to have both.. sell one (either one) and get good money for it. Theres just too much "overlap".. yes one has better phone features, the other better computer stuff.. but you've got to use one or the other more, I would imagine.

Or the rich option, use both! (if you can tether the N900 to the Nexus).

thanks apoc

ive been waiting for someone to compare the two and feel i made the right choice in buying the n900.

i totally agree with you on the typing of the n900 and was pleasently surprised how quickly and accurately i could type with my fat fingers.

thanks again

Some hardware corrections: N1 does NOT have 802.11n (that is some HTC bull crap talk), nor is a Snapdragon chip from 2007 without a GPU anywhere near OMAP3.

Anyway, thanks for the nice read. Too bad there is no "Thanks!" button...

Can we get a moderator to move this thread to the competitors forum? I think you can thank there.

From Google's mobile privacy policy: "To improve processing of your voice input, we may also continuously record in temporary memory a few seconds of ambient background noise. This recording stays only temporarily on the device and is not sent to Google."

My guess would be the device applies an inbuilt algorithm which subtracts the noise.

I whole heartedly agree, the Nexus One was actually originally purchased for my mother to use with a new software allowing her massage business to be brought, more or less, to the 21st century. Sadly the same day the Nexus One arrived the screen on my N900 broke and I've borrowed the Nexus One till my N900 comes back from repairs.

I do wonder how it would work for you, I speak as clear and monotone as possible just out of habit from other voice recog software so we'll have to wait to find out on that one. Hopefully I can make it to the DC meet up(only just stumbled on that thread earlier today and haven't had a chance to read when or where it is). As for noise, it has a backwards facing mic that cancels out background sounds. And I believe that helps a fair bit.