Google Nexus One review: A week with the superphone

Day four

Signal performance has started waning. The reported problem of signal drop-off when you hold the handset at the bottom is definitely present in the handset we're using. Wi-Fi is also seemingly unreliable; the device has stopped reconnecting automatically and has started needing a restart to remedy this problem. It's somewhat frustrating but hasn't made us fall out of love with the device just yet.

Getting help from Google is proving to be a laborious task. We sent an email to the support department the one that the public uses rather than any special press assistance department yesterday evening and have still heard nothing back from Mountain View. Typing the call for help on the virtual keyboard was a pleasure though. Using the keyboard in portrait view is a different kettle of fish. The speech input often pops up uninvited if you fail to lift your finger up properly or the keyboard simply disappears back whence it came if you try and catch the letter A' right-thumbed. After a day of emailing this left us needing a stiff drink.

It would be entirely more manageable if the speech input could be trusted but we wouldn't run the risk of sending emails to colleagues or superiors with its questionable accuracy. We're confident this is a glitch that will be ironed out soon enough if it hasn't already.

Day five

There's still no word from Google technical support. Other emails and messages are coming through thick and fast though (if you have a data connection). It's not that surprising that so many people are making the hop from competing devices over to more full-featured smartphones with this sort of performance.

Productivity's great too, with Documents to go' and Think Free' you can get work done on the hoof; the price points of both apps are pretty competitive too. With the lag-free, speedy interface of the Nexus One you can realistically view the device as an ultra-mobile and we had no trouble at all editing our blog,

FTP'ing files and managing file archives.