Should one buy the N1 ?
whalesalad: I've had a Nexus One for a few days now as well (ordered on launch day) and I can say that it's a fantastic device. The aura of excitement I had with the experience on my first day owning it was akin to the one I had after coming out of the IMAX 3D theater after seeing Avatar. It's just cool. Let me elaborate.I'm a Mac nerd. I hack on my mac, I worked at an Apple store for a couple of months for fun, and I really believe that they have their shit together and produce magnificent products. I never owned an original iPhone, but had a 3G the day they were released (see a pattern, like many of you I am a gadget freak).I eventually just got bored with it. It's a great device, but like I said I'm a gadget freak so I needed a new fix. Android was an attractive platform because of it's tight integration with Google (I'm an apps user), and T-Mobile offered much cheaper plans. My girlfriend is also on T-Mo, so the path was clear. I bought my first Android device in October of 09, a T-Mobile MyTouch 3G. It took a lot of getting used to. I figured that since the iPhone was the gold standard for smart phones, a lot of the Android experience would be a copy and therefore I'd learn it quickly. Sort of... but no. Unlike the iPhone, there are many devices running Android and most of them have a lot more external buttons. The UI depends on it. The back button for example, and the menu button, are critical on Android. Being a UI guy I learned things quickly, and after hacking and tweaking the phone with Cyanogen's mod, I came to like it. I missed my iPhone though, and longed for a better android experience; especially after the Droid came out, running Android 2.0. Unfortunately I had unlocked my iPhone and given it to my girlfriend, so I wasn't about to take it back.Enter Nexus One. I had known about the physical device for a long time. Most people referred to it in the HTC community as the Passion. I was pretty damn excited when the Nexus materials started to leak. The device was gorgeous, and the specs were fantastic. I quickly sold my MyTouch on Ebay and bought the Nexus as soon as I could.Best $530 I have ever spent, by far. The new OS is an amazing improvement on the old. The experience has almost done a 180. Everything is smoother and quicker. Things are more convenient and not as convoluted as they once were. I'm sure the 512MB of ram and 1GHz processor have a great deal to do with that, but I'm not complaining. The hardware is gorgeous too. It feels great in your hand (much like an iPhone) and like many say the screen is beautiful.I've never owned a Droid but I've played around with one. I don't like the hardware keyboard and the device is slow. It doesn't have the OS that the Nexus has (2.0 compared to 2.1) and there's a big difference. The snapdragon processor is amazing. This thing screams compared to a Droid! Unfortunately... if you're on Verizon you have to wait a while for the CMDA version... but it's worth it! The Droid was a great effort, but it's not as nice as the Nexus.tl;dr - I went from iPhone to Android (with a MyTouch 3G) and was unimpressed. I'm a UI guy so I'm real picky. I just got myself a Nexus One, and I'm finally able to say that the Android experience is on equal playing field with the iPhone. No other Android device can say that, except the Nexus One.