Google have made all heads turn with the release of their first smartphone - the Google Nexus One Mobile Phone. Even before its release, this mobile handset had stirred much interest over the internet. And now, it seems to have soothed the itch of many Apple iPhone critics, who were craving to see an iPhone killer. However, one cannot just steal away credit from the Apple iPhone 3GS. After all, this was the first one to set a whole new platform for mobile phones, bringing about a drastic change in the human-smartphone relationship.

Nonetheless, a comparison between the 2 coveted handhelds is drawn here:-

Both handhelds offers similar networking capabilities, with support for WiFi, Bluetooth, 3G and GPS.

Processor - The Google Nexus One uses a Qualcomm Snapdragon 1GHz processor with a 512MB RAM, while the Apple iPhone 3GS uses an ARM CortexA8 600MHz processor with a 256MB RAM. Clearly, Google's smartphone offers faster processing.

Screen - The Google Nexus One has a 3.7", 480 x 800 pixels, AMOLED capacitive touch display. The Apple iPhone 3GS has a smaller 3.5" capacitive touch LCD with a lower resolution of 480 x 320 pixels. However, the iPhone 3GS offers multi-touch capability and is supposed to be more intuitive than the Nexus One.

OS - The Google phone is an Android 2.1 handset and is capable of multi-tasking. The Apple phone is based on the iPhone OS 3.1 and cannot multi-task.

Memory - The iPhone 3GS has an in-house memory of 16/32GB, but no memory expansion with microSD cards. On the other hand the Nexus One offers microSD memory expansion up to 32GB.

Camera - The camera built into the Android phone is a 5MP one with zoom and flash. This camera can capture 720 x 480 videos. While that housed in the iPhone is a 3MP one, without flash. The maximum resolution for video shooting is 640 x 480. However, the touch-to-zoom feature of the iPhone is nifty and allows variable levels of zooming.

Voice Features - There are 2 microphones integrated into the Nexus One, which is said to cut out background noise during calls. The Apple iPhone has just 1 microphone. Another useful feature offered by Google's handset is voice dictation for emails, which the iPhone lacks.

Apps - The iPhone has the advantage of accessing above 100,000 apps from the App Store, while the Android MarketPlace is still a budding application store, with about 16000 odd apps.

Battery - The Google Nexus One has a removable battery, which can be replaced by the users themselves. Talktime promised is about 10 hours for 2G and 7 hours for 3G. The Apple iPhone, on the other hand has an irremovable battery which can be replaced by taking it to an Apple Store only. The talktime offered is about 12 hours on 2G and 5 hours on 3G.

Retailing - There's a major difference in the retailing of both handhelds too. The iPhone 3GS is now available with contracts from various mobile phone networks with an effective cost of about £500. The Google Nexus One is directly available from Google, SIM-free for a cost of about £331, and then you have to get yourself a pay-monthly SIM.

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Watch this YouTube comparison video.