Our resident gadget fiend has spent some time with Google’s first officially branded phone. How does it fare? Click that continue link to find out.

Are you having difficulty choosing between the Droid and the iPhone?  Well, your decision just got more difficult.  The battle for “smart phone” supremacy is heating up with the recent release of the Google phone, better known as the Google Nexus One.  Amidst a host of rumor and speculation, Google has decided to release its own branded phone, pushing its popular Android platform.   All things considered this would be a daunting task, even for Google.  So did Google produce smart phone dynamite… or a cellular dud?

First off, you can’t look at this phone and not say that it’s one sexy piece of hardware. Google licensed the help of Taiwanese cell phone maker HTC (creators of the G1, MyTouch3G, and Hero) to create this beauty specifically to Google’s specifications.  Collectively, Google and HTC really pushed the limits of design with this phone, somehow making it thinner, shorter, and lighter than the iPhone ( H/119mm, D/11.5mm, and Wgt/130g w/battery).  The phone feels great in your hand, is easy to put in and take out of your pocket, and contrary to its dimensions feels anything but cheap.

Under the hood of this mild mannered handset lurks the workings of a beast; the Nexus sports a Qualcomm 1Ghz processor, 512MB flash memory, and 512MB RAM.  It also comes equipped with 802.11b/g wifi, Bluetooth, a 4gb SDHC card out of the box (expandable to 32gb) and AGPS.  Add all those together, and you have a mobile device that rivals some netbooks.  The processor allows the accelerometer to snap the screen into position almost instantly, and the touch sensitive buttons and “standard” HTC trackball are very responsive.  A 5mp camera, a vivid 800×480 3.7” AMOLED display, standard 3.5mm headphone jack, and a microUSB connection make this a complete mobile media/data center.

By now most know you can’t have a Google cell phone without Android, so for the launch of its debut handset Google also decided to release a newer version of Android, version 2.1.  This latest version shows small but noticeable changes in the platform.  Gone is the somewhat confusing app launch drawer from previous versions, now in favor of one icon tap and launch design.  In addition to that are small dot indicators to the left and right of the new app icon that allows the user to know which of the Nexus One’s 5 home screens they are using.  Press and hold any of these dots and it launches a Web OS “card” style display that allows the user to see what’s on all 5 home screens and quickly launch the desired one.  One of the coolest new additions is “speak to text”, usable everywhere text is allowed; just hit the speech icon, speak clearly, and it will do the rest for you.  Though it’s not 100% accurate, 90% isn’t bad.   Google continues to work on this particular feature, so it can only get better from here.  Rounding off the additions to 2.1 are Facebook syncing to contacts, preinstalled Google gems such as Google Goggles, Google Voice, and integrated news and weather all tightly packed into a platform that makes every application and animation run smoother than a bead of sweat down a fat man’s butt-crack.

Google is taking a large risk selling the Nexus One on its own without traditional carrier assistance.  However, going to their site allows you to purchase the Nexus under 2 year contract through T-Mobile USA for $179 or unlocked for use on T-Mobile USA (3G speeds) and At&t (Edge Speeds) for $529.00.  There is also a CDMA version releasing for Verizon this summer.  Will all of this tech and cost going to be worth it to you and Google in the end? I guess we’ll have to wait and see.