Galaxy Nexus with Android 4.0, First Impressions

My first Android phone was HTC's Desire HD a year ago, and the Galaxy Nexus looked like a great opportunity to upgrade - being the first new Android with a major software upgrade and nearly all-round improved specs.

The the first thing I noticed was how insanely light it is compared to my Desire HD, despite having a larger screen. Partly this is due to the plastic build, and although I'll miss the DHD's aluminium frame, the trade-off is definitely worthwhile, and the Galaxy Nexus still feels well built.

It was great to see all my Apps automatically download when I first turned on the phone. A couple are missing as they haven't been updated for Android 4.0, and my beloved Swype keyboard also won't work yet*, but I expect these will be fixed soon enough.

The most promoted new features in Android 4.0 haven't blown me away. Face unlock is fun to try, but I'm not convinced it's any quicker or safer than pattern unlock. Android Beam will only work with other Galaxy Nexus's currently - bit pointless when I don't know anyone else with one.

The new on-screen buttons work well, and the choice to remove Menu and Search makes things a lot simpler. Apps like YouTube can hide the buttons giving extra screen space, which is a genius idea - just too bad not many apps take advantage of it (yet).

Where Android 4.0 really shines though is the vast amount of small improvements. A lot of these, such as customizable dock items, Chrome bookmark sync and improved folders and contacts were things I'd added to Android 2.3 with third party apps, but that often resulted in a mess of styles and UI's. Having them all built in the system makes the OS far nicer to use, and it was satisfying to uninstall about half my apps just for not being needed any more. For average users who don't bother too much with customizations, it's a massive step forwards.

The screen is the first in the UK with 720p, and along with Samsung's super bright display it looks incredible. I'd say the resolution increase from QHD is only slightly noticeable, maybe something to do with the pentile matrix, but this is still the best screen I've seen on any current smartphone.

Some people have complained about the camera only being 5mpx, but I find photos more clear than the 8mpx shooter on my Desire HD. My only possible gripe is that zooming can look a bit grainy, not something I noticed before.

After a few days of use it's hard to judge the battery life, but it seems to get through a day with most of it's charge left. I still wouldn't risk going away for a night without my charger, but it seems pretty good considering the display size.

If you're thinking of switching to a Galaxy Nexus it might be worth waiting to see what Android 4.0 flagships Samsung and HTC come out with next year, not only for hardware improvements but also to give certain apps to catch up with Android 4.0 and make full use of it's potential.

If you are buying a new Android handset now though, I'd say don't even consider any phone still shipping with 2.3 - Android 4.0 is lightyears ahead.

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*It's February, and Swype for Android 4.0 is here! First impressions are that it works as well as before, I think it's massive improvement on the stock keyboard.

Things I want to see in Android

With an announcement of Android Ice Cream coming any week now, here's a few not-often-mentioned things I'd like to see added, in either the upcoming or a subsequent release.

More Chrome-like Chrome-lite

Considering that the Android browser is often referred to as Chrome-lite, it surprises me how little it has in common with desktop Chrome. It's understandable that there needs to be major differences between the two, but there's some obvious areas where similarities could be a major selling point.

There's a lot of behaviours that could be the same, but aren't. Like the Omnibox for example - in Chrome you get a drop down list of suggestions when you type a keyword, but Android leaves you wondering what's going to happen next. The browsers greatly lacks tabs, which work well in alternatives like Firefox.

There could be huge potential if data could be synced between the two browsers, I'd like to be able to access my desktop bookmarks without the need for a flaky app.

Google seem reluctant to brand the Android browser as Chrome - maybe to avoid confusion with Chrome OS, but now that almost every other company has made the jump (Firefox, Safari, IE9), I'll be happier when I see the Chrome icon in my Android dock.

Better Web App integration

Native mobile apps are my biggest annoyance with smartphones at the moment. I find it ridiculous that a company would develop an App that only works on one device, though developing for one platform is only slightly better. It's good to see some companies moving to cross-OS web apps, but this is a problem on Android where it doesn't treat them anything like native apps.

Android should allow web apps access to a web-based API to let them specify an App icon, request to add itself to the homescreen and work with Intents to seamlessly work with the OS like a native app. I see no reason why they couldn't be given access to Android features like the camera, notifications or even the phone - all with tight permissions required.

It's probably a long way off but I'd like to see native apps phased out on all mobile OS's and every web app designed to work across all platforms.

Online Hub

The web-based Android market was one of the best things to happen to Android this year, making it much easier to find Apps and manage your account. I'm also a big fan of Google Contacts, which lets you save and manage contacts from your web browser - a feature not many people seem to know about.

It'd be great if Google merged all these browser-based Android management sites into a single online hub, making them more discoverable and easier to manage at the same time. Better still, there's a lot of features they could add - SMS management, phone tracking, cloud file storage and integration with Google Music and Books.

Android Messenger - Huddle?

BBM is one of the main reason that so many people still use Blackberrys, and Apple have already caught on with the upcoming iMessage. With the highest mobile market share it would seem crazy if Google missed out on having their own free messaging system - except they already do in the Huddle App bundled with Google+.

The trouble with Huddle is that it requires a Google+ account, and even G+ users don't seem to be using it much yet. Google should spin it off as a more standalone product, keeping it well integrated with Google+ but allowing anyone with an Android phone to jump on board too. Bundle it as a default App with Android and reduce the focus on SMS to a memory of a time before smartphones.

A week with a Chromebook

I was lucky enough to win a Chromebook (Samsung Series 5 version) in a puzzle contest Google ran on their site, so mostly as a thankyou to Google and also for a few people that were interested, here's a few thoughts after using it for a week.

My first impression after opening the parcel was "it's tiny!", before realizing I was looking at the picture on the box. After removing the packaging it was a bit more like what I expected.

I won't focus too much on the hardware, but the Series 5 is a well built machine, if not particularly revolutionary. It's a bit heavy compared to a tablet, but light enough to carry around. The shiny black case has a clean look and the small Chrome logo adds a great final touch.

After turning on it asks for a few details like your Google login and Wifi details, then it's ready to go. I was pleased to see all my extensions from my Windows/Mac Chrome installs load up straight away and work exactly the same. If you use Chrome already then there's no big surprises in store.

There's a couple of Chrome features I'm missing, which is the ability to drag tabs side-by-side for comparing, and drag tabs between windows so they can be merged. I hope these are added soon.

I've been using it to do all my regular browsing without any problems, the only thing I really miss being Dropbox as I use this to transfer files my phone and other computers. The File API sounds like it could add Dropbox support, so I hope this comes soon.

It's a shame Google Music isn't out in the UK yet, because I haven't found a cloud alternative to Spotify that I really like, so I haven't been using it much for music.

Besides from those though, I don't particularly miss having native applications. That said, I haven't tried developing anything on it yet, which I think I'd find a more difficult transition (Google did make an excellent post and coding on Chrome OS though, which I will look into some more).

The battery life is amazing, in fact I haven't had to charge it yet after a few days use. My previous laptop can hardly last through a film, so this is my favourite thing about using it so far.

The Chromebook is a really handy thing to have around, and although I'm still reverting to my Windows 7 comfort zone for any lengthy computing, this could change over time. I think most people would get on just fine using one as their main computer and love the speed, simplicity and long battery life.