You’d have to have been hiding under a rock for the past week or two to not notice Google is making its own phone and it’s finally here: the Nexus One.

Manufactured by HTC but sold by Google, the phone has had early adopters and the casual user alike interested in what it will be like, so read on to find out how the UK version fared in our hands.

A lot has been made of the screen, and it's probably a bit overhyped. Yes, at 3.7-inches it's a little large, but it's not the biggest: both the Toshiba TG01 and the HTC HD2 beat it comfortably.

In our eyes, it's the perfect size for an internet and media glutton – big enough to wander around great expanses of internet browsing and watching videos without eye strain, but small enough that it doesn't get wedged in any pocket you put it in.

Slimmed down

At less than 12mm thin as well, this is certainly more iPhone than any other phone out there – in fact we bet that some Google employees have been hiding these phones in iPhone cases just to use them safely in the street, such is the similarity.

The top of the phone houses the 3.5mm headphone jack, which is nicely tucked away into the chassis. However, it follows the contours of the shell, meaning that when using your headphones there may be some of the jack left exposed.

The bottom of the Nexus One houses the microUSB port, as well as four golden dots, which we assume will be used for docking add-ons (possibly Google Navigation Sat Nav?).

The OLED display is also beautiful, as we've come to expect from this kind of technology – not only do the blacks look super dark and the whites clear and crisp, but the colour rendition is superb. Some early reviews have hinted that the saturation levels are too high, but in our eyes it only increases the beauty.

Specification

Processor	Qualcomm® QSD8250™, 1 GHz
Operating System	Android™ 2.1 (Éclair)
Memory	ROM: 512 MB RAM: 512 MB
Dimensions (L x W x T)	119 x 59.8 x 11.5 mm ( 4.69 x 2.35 x 0.45 inches)
Weight	130 grams ( 4.59 ounces) with battery
Display	3.7-inch AMOLED with 480x800 WVGA resolution
Network	HSDPA/WCDMA: 900/AWS/2100 MHz Up to 2 Mbps up-link and 7.2 Mbps down-link speeds Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE: 850/900/1800/1900 MHz (Band frequency and data speed are operator dependent.)
Device Control	Trackball with Enter button
GPS	Internal GPS antenna
Connectivity	Bluetooth® 2.0 with Enhanced Data Rate and A2DP for wireless stereo headsets Wi-Fi®: IEEE 802.11 b/g Micro-USB port 3.5 mm audio jack
Camera	5.0 megapixel color camera with auto focus, 2X digital zoom, LED flash, and geo tagging
Audio supported formats	.aac, .amr, .awb, .wav, .wma, .mp3, .mid
Video supported formats	.mp4, .3gp, .3g2, .m4v
Battery	Rechargeable Lithium-ion polymer battery Capacity: 1400 mAh Talk time: Up to 10 hours for 2G networks Up to 7 hours for 3G networks Standby time: Up to 290 hours for 2G networks Up to 250 hours for 3G networks (The above are subject to network and phone usage.)
Expansion Slot	microSD™ memory card (SD 2.0 compatible)
AC Adapter	Voltage range/frequency: 100 ~ 240 V AC, 50/60 Hz DC output: 5V and 1A
Special Features	Proximity sensor Ambient light sensor G-sensor Digital Compass

By Gareth Beavis