Nexus One Google Phone: Sorting Fact From Fiction

The amount of information that has hit the Internet about the Nexus One Google Phone is bordering on the ridiculous. Not all of it is accurate. Here's a quick look at what's real and what's not.Today, the Federal Communications Commission added some much-needed clarity onto the whole Google Phone craze. It has publicly approved a device made by HTC with the Nexus One name for use in the U.S. Because the FCC is the FCC, we know what it has published is the truth. The truths it reveals are these: the Nexus One will support T-Mobile's 3G network, and have Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, a mircoSD card slot, and it supports other GSM frequencies. That means this phone is not going to work with Sprint, Verizon, and others' wireless networks.

This information alone paints a somewhat clearer picture of what's going on here. That the device will only be supporting T-Mobile's 3G network makes sense, as Google has favored T-Mobile with its Android strategy to-date. The Google Phone -- which is a complete misnomer, by the way -- will NOT work with AT&T's 3G network.

Google employees have published pictures of the device on Twitter, so we know what it looks like. It is a large, slab of a phone that has four capacitive buttons at the bottom of the screen (similar to the Motorola Droid and HTC Eris), and trackball for on-screen navigation. Given the sheer number of independent pictures of the device published, I believe we can say with authority that this is what the phone looks like.

Those pictures also reveal that it is running Android OS 2.1.

These are all the facts at this point. Everything else is speculation.

The Wall Street Journal says that Google plans to sell the device, unlocked, straight to consumers. Google has not confirmed that. Price points are all over the place. Don't believe any of them.

Others report that it has a 1GHz Snapdragon processor inside (because the phone looks so much like the HTC Passion). This is simply not known to be true.

The only details that Google has verified are that the device is being tested by employees over the holiday season.

Until Google, HTC, and T-Mobile offer more concrete details, we can only assume that the Nexus One is simply an unannounced Android phone.