I'm looking to buy an Android phone to serve as both my main phone and dev machine. Is there a particular advantage to getting Google's developer phone (Nexus One) over one of the Droids/etc sold by the carriers?
Ask HN: Nexus One or Droid/etc?
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Re: Ask HN: Nexus One or Droid/etc?
#2nexus gets the updates first
but if you root one of the other ones you can stay up to date as well i guess
Re: Ask HN: Nexus One or Droid/etc?
#3This isn't as important for your personal phone, but the dev-phone comes 'pre-rooted'. Depending on which one of the Droids you are looking at, installing newer firmware may not be trivial. With a Nexus One, new firmware is supported operation, and Android 2.2 is actually supported on the Nexus One.
(The last thing you want to be doing while doing your own dev work is wondering if the camera/accelerometer/whatever API calls are failing because of a sketchy driver or whatever.)
(Even if you're not targeting right now 2.2, you still want to have the ability to test on it.)
Re: Ask HN: Nexus One or Droid/etc?
#4Personally, the Droids seem to be clunkier and of poorer quality. Plus you'll have to deal with whatever crap Verizon puts on it. The DroidX may have better specs, but I love my N1. It's a really solid phone.
Re: Ask HN: Nexus One or Droid/etc?
#5I bought a Neo Freerunner back in 2008. The Freerunner didn't have much internal flash capacity, and I had a world of trouble finding an SD card that was compatible with it. The Nexus One has more internal flash than the Freerunner, but still not much. So I'm getting an HTC Droid Incredible mainly because it has more internal flash so that I won't be "stuck" if I run into SD card compatibility problems.
Note that despite the confusingly similar names, the HTC Droid Incredible is completely a different phone than the Motorola Droid(s). Google themselves recommend to get the HTC Incredible if you cannot get the Nexus One.
However, bear in mind I haven't actually gotten the phone yet. Better ask me again after I've gotten the phone whether it was a good idea or not. At one time I also thought the Freerunner would be a good idea, but as a phone it was so flawed as to be unusable.
Re: Ask HN: Nexus One or Droid/etc?
#6Nexus One: This phone will always allow you to test out the newest updates with the least amount of pain. You'll always have the newest updates soonest.
Downside, however, is that any particular advantages / disadvantages won't really reflect the broader Android install base, since there are so few Nexus Ones. But there are relatively few serious problems that come with fragmentation when you are considering the 2010 crop of Android phones -- between all the big names, everything should work pretty well.
Getting a Droid (the original Motorola one) can give you a taste of what many, many people have and are using, same can be said if you got an Evo, DroidX, etc... And it can be a worthwhile experience to see how performance might differ when burdened by the skins (MotoBlur, Sense) that are on the phones as well.
Re: Ask HN: Nexus One or Droid/etc?
#7Thanks for the advice, everyone! BTW, does anyone have a data/voice plan they'd recommend?
Re: Ask HN: Nexus One or Droid/etc?
#8nexus gets the updates first but if you root one of the other ones you can stay up to date as well i guess
Rooting DroidX or Droid 2 will not help you. The bootloader is signed and checks, whether the firmware is signed by Motorola too. If it not, it will refuse to boot it.
So if you do not want to be stuck with whatever firmware version Motorola offers, get Nexus One.