Curious about the bright minds behind the OLED-wrapped, Android-powered Snapdragon in your pocket? Google's just posted its first in a series of videos about the
Nexus One's magical journey from concept to production, and this particular episode calls in Mountain View's own
Erick Tseng alongside
HTC project manager Tomasz Hasinski and Lloyd Watts of Audience, which provided the phones dual-mic noise reduction tech. Don't expect too much depth here -- the entire video's only four minutes long -- but after Erick talks about the Nexus One's unprecedented fusion of bleeding-edge hardware and software design, we get to hear a little bit about HTC's selection of soft-touch materials and a large display for the device and Audience's involvement in improving voice quality before getting a super-brief glimpse at three docks. One of them is already available -- the
desktop dock -- but the other two appear to be a standard desktop dock with an integrated spare battery charger and the nav-friendly car dock on the left and right, respectively. The video gives no clues when we might actually see these available for purchase -- but since they've finally shown them off here, it can't be long, right? Follow the break to check out episode one in full.
posted February 5th 2010 12:42AM
@Crabs I agree, magical should stop being tossed around so idly.
"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." Arthur C Clarke
@Crabs old + magical is what 2010 is all about!
@BUNT2 wow, talk bout proof of theory. lol.
But the oled in this is worse than an lcd in others?
@BUNT2 No the OLED on it is amazing, just hard to read in direct sunlight. Indoors, I've never been so awed by a phone display..such rich colors and deep blacks...
@B3astofthe3ast but you do realise it for many a screen you can see indoors only is unacceptable?
@BUNT2
but did anyone else realize what CMF stands for according to that video
Color, material, texture...
lolfail.
@FrankJ Fell or fail?
@BUNT2
AMOLED
NOT OLED!
If this thing had a full blown OLED, it'd cost WAY WAY more.
@GenericMessage I bet CRT would cost even more
@BUNT2
CRT!? I much prefer the amazement of a mechanical TV's display.
mmmmmm
@GenericMessage you don't out BUNT the BUNT!
BUNT BUNTS!
@GenericMessage
From what I understand they are the same. AMOLED just describes how the OLED is controlled (Active Matrix). So yes, it is a "full blown" OLED.
source: http://www.samsungblog.co.za/blog/samsungteam/2009/05/what-oled-and-amoled
@corylulu
Colour, material and FEEL!
@ramifications
Considering I currently work for the company who invited OLED on various OLED (price minimizing) projects, I thought maybe i'd know!
Turns out I don't, thanks for the learnin'.
@BUNT2 You know, maybe I got a weird freaky version of the Nexus One, but it really isn't bad in sunlight. I just haev to turn the brightness up to the max and it is quite viewable. Of course I live in the Northwest, and have only had a few days of sunshine since purchase, but I have specifically tried to see what the big deal is, and I would say it is better in direct sunlight to any pre-iPhone LCD screen I have ever used. Th iPhone still beats it, but not enough that i would make it a purchase point. I am not one for watching movies on my phone in direct sunlight. And for everything short of that it is readable and works, at least for me.
hey that's the dock for the iPaq 4150! I still have mine.
@BUNT2 I live in South Florida ("The Sunshine State"), I've never had a problem seeing the the screen in direct sunlight with the screen at the highest brightness setting.
@corylulu Was wondering about that
@B3astofthe3ast I agree, right before the Nexus was released. I though, I already know everything there has to it. But after I saw this video, N1 became even clearer to me.
The (autofocus, CMF, Noise supression detailed, docking mechanism) never seems to become so clear than what the video portrays.. This next episode for this vid, is sure worth waiting for to see. All the questions about Nexus One Answered: http://bit.ly/nexus-one-official-details-and-questions
@GenericMessage What's a "full blown OLED" ?
@BUNT2 Not really. Shade works too. Why would anyone want to use their device in direct sunlight?
I love my N1. Is this what love is? I never knew!
@numbnuts I would love it a lot more if it had HARDWARE BUTTONS. How many times must I try to hit spacebar on the keyboard and then accidentally hit the home key instead, completely ruining whatever I was working on? It's a goddamn UI disaster.
@bradsh
I've owned it since January 8th and literally never had that issue.
@bradsh I had it happen once, but that's about it. Seems avoidable, once I was aware of the potential for the problem it's no big deal.
Verizon please.
@porplemontage
been holding off on getting the droid/Pre once they announced this was coming to Verizon, but what the heck? No news on a release date yet? Come on, my current phone is on its last legs. I cant wait that much longer for them to get their act together and release it.
@porplemontage I was going to wait for big red, but my current crap phone is dying. T-mo's no contract plan is much cheaper, and I can no longer deny the benefits of GSM... It also helps that in the Miami area we have great T-mo coverage.
DID any on see i guess is a phone???? 52 sec in the video could this be the SUPERSONIC the screen looked big like the hd2 but it was rounded off like they did the HERO??? I hope so......am jus a sprint customer wishing..lol
@jflo86 Thats just the screen of the nexus one without the casing around it. Thats why there is an LCD ribbon :)
Sorry to burst your bubble.
@Kmobs *OLED ribbon
@Kmobs darn....thanks though am really waiting for sprint to get on board and get a big screen phone(lets face it thats what most people want)....hero came close but the roundness ruined it...so i guess i have to keep waiting...lol
@BUNT2 *AMOLED ribbon :D
@andthemaniam you just lost yourself a customer!
Just a general android thought right here.
I think Google is making a big mistake straying from open source and branching their kernel code. I want to believe they're not evil, the nexus one is a beautiful device and runs great. I just don't know how much I trust Google and their obsession with private information. Being poor contributors to the open source movement and this creepy obsession scares me away from owning an android phone.
@a12ctic
You're way too paranoid IMO
See a Doctor
Will sacrifice some thinness for keyboard... please?
@pi rules
Droid fits the bill. And its getting 2.1 "this spring".
@ramifications
He meant a real keyboard.
@dansus Y!! OK, since no one is ever going to address these hardware keyboard guys I will. Get with the times people, learn how to type on screen, Wow. You can put that hardware keyboard right next to your OG sony walkman.
nice video! also sweet to slyly show off the 17" unibody mbp with the matte screen as well ;)
I never thought I could love something as much as my N1
This strikes me as odd, especially considering how other HTC designs have been so much more inspired, radical, and interesting. The Touch Diamond, for example, the HD, HD2; those are radically different designs that appeal on specs and appearance.
The Nexus One on the other hand looks relatively uninspired. Either Google held HTC back, or the two of them decided that something more mainstream would sell better. The dock is cool, sure, but the appearance of the thing itself doesn't really captivate.
Also, HTC is fond of sticky backs, but to date none of mine on a ton of HTC devices have actually *stayed* that way. In fact, most of them discolor to a disgusting yellow-gold color from being held in my hand.
@Nerdtalker I disagree... I think the Nexus is a sexy looking phone. Its not bright and flashy, but it is smooth and sleek... and it fits perfectly in my hand. I have thoroughly enjoyed having my Nexus... and have received many complements on how it looks (though that could be just the screen. Who knows?).
@Nerdtalker - I absolutely agree. The original Touch Diamond is by far the nicest looking device HTC built up to now. The Nexus One's front is bland, and the back simply ugly with that annoyingly-slightly-off-center protruding camera lens...
@Nerdtalker
I disagree; unibody construction with an elegant design that is simple; reminds me of another, better known phone that is similarly simple and elegant.
@Nerdtalker
I disagree, the Touch Diamond design (by One and Co), was probably one of the worst designs out there because it looked great only on paper.
Let's break it down: having angular points on the back mean subject to high wear. Rubberized maybe okay, but the cost-cut versions of shiny plastic wore down in ONE week of normal usage. Also, angular meant it didn't properly fit in any case, and rocked unstably on a table.
Then, the 4-button flat face. It was interestingly capacitive, but being all the same physical surface lost deterministic behavior. Pressing left/right on the "d-pad" would either actually do it, or accidently dial, hang-up, home, or zoom. That's unacceptable for any normal usage. It's like making your accelerator and brake a single, small pedal, and you had to touch it just right.
Then, One and Co put buttons on the left-side of the case. When that design transitioned into the Touch Pro, sliding out the keyboard now block ALL those buttons, but pushing those buttons would ridiculously wiggle the phone face.
There's so many time-proven methodologies the Touch-Diamond broke. It's probably one of the better reasons the HD2 went back to physical buttons after loosing all practically by the TP2.
IMO, the Kaiser/Tilt was the best design HTC ever. Plenty of buttons, easy to reach by memory and feel, no high-stress angular points, and lacked only a decent CPU/ram and VGA screen. But instead, HTC broke that polished design due to the iPhone chase.
I love this phone. But one thing is missing... If I asked really nicely, do you think you guys would make an Android app? I mean... you have one for WebOS.... :P
@lbelle0101 : i.engadget.com works great on my hero. (even if its called the "iphone engadget" website)