I’ve only had the Nexus One for a day, but I feel compelled to write up how I use it, why I like it, and why I’m likely stick with this phone for a while longer.

For comparison, my old/current phone is a Blackberry Curve and has been for a while. 

Gone Google

Cube, like many companies I guess by now, have Gone Google. My Calendar, Mail, Docs, Contacts are all hosted on Google. This made the setup and transition to the Nexus very easy. I entered my Google credentials and within seconds, my mail, contacts and calendars were all synced up and ready to go. Which, unintentionally or not, makes this a seriously good business phone.

The integration with Google apps is very sweet and seeing that a huge amount of my online productivity activity is associated with Google, this is a big deal.

Android Apps

First up, I don’t really care much for apps. I believe the mobile web will eventually win, and that apps are here as a transitionary measure until we can sort out browsers that are good enough to emulate the web experience on mobile.

However, being able to have multiple apps open simultaneously is a big deal. I’m finally using my phone as an ipod, with Spotify playing in the background and twitter clients pinging me with updates.

My favourite apps, beyond the standard ones installed are Spotify and Foursquare. The Facebook one doesn’t add anything beyond what m.facebook can do, and the Twitter apps also don’t give me much more than the new improved mobile.twitter can do.

Keyboard

I’ve been a bberry curve user for years. I held out on the iphone as it didn’t have a physical keyboard. I’m incredibly slow typing on the Nexus and I’m not sure if I’ll ever get used to it.

Voice recognition, however, is pretty cool. I’ve resorted to speaking my text messages, with some good and some hilarious results.

I’m getting better on the virtual keypad and will keep at it for a while longer to see if I can adjust. I hope I can.

Feel the Power

The phone feels powerful. The apps, loading time, everything about it is seriously responsive and you feel that you can throw anything at it. I absolutely can’t wait for Flash 10 to make it to Android. That will totally revolutionise the mobile web experience, and probably kill off apps.

Connectivity

One thing worth noting is that I have a wireless 802.11n setup at home, which the Nexus can’t handle. It can only handle b/g, which I’ve long given up on due to interference issues. The 3.5G is lightning fast on O2 though, so I’m not missing wifi much.

Haptic feedback

Haptic feedback on the keypad is just awesome. I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of that. 

Overall

I’m really happy with this phone. It’s not really a phone, it’s a computer. It will definitely replace my laptop on journeys, as the bberry has done for a while now. I can see the day where I don’t own a laptop at all coming increasingly closer.

Bberry really have to fix their web browser to get me back on the curve.

I doubt this phone will be competition for the mainstream iphone user. Iphone’s are targeted for the every day user who just wants to pick something out of the box and it works. This phone is a little more powerful than that, and will predominantly be used by geeks until it iterates into more of a mainstream product.

I’m going to stick with the Nexus for a while. The only thing I know I’m going to miss like hell is the bberry BBIM. But with the Android being an open platform, I’m hoping someone can sort that out soon.