it’s also great for drawing apps. Enough of the finger paint!

the trackball is something you can’t replicate with a touchscreen or a keyboard. I wish this had a keyboard but 90% of the time I’m going to miss a trackball on the Droid.

They should have made it an optical pad instead of the trackball. Get all the glory of the trackball without a moving ball prone to getting stuck, and it doesnt stick out either which is nice. Even blackberry figured that out.

Now, tell me how to highlight something without a trackball or a 4-way-joystick. Having such a thing also makes navigating through long texts you’re working on a breeze.

What are you looking for in a design? It’s a slab design with a big AMOLED screen and a fast processor. Compared to the iPhone without the AMOLED and at 320×480 running a slower processor I can see how the phone would look and perform better. I can only assume you mean there is something wrong with the physical casing. I think it looks fine. Silver like the Sprint Hero and with minimal clutter without removing the few hardware buttons that you really miss on an iPhone. I think the design is fine for a reference phone or the first of an upcoming generation. Not everything has to look like an iPhone.

I find it very useful when a page (such a on the web) has many tiny links in a row. Sometimes you just cant tap it right with your finger. Its good to get things like slider precise. I also find it good for game control and its also very nice for when your lazily laying there and you have one hand or something just to navigate with it.

i actually think that too. when the first tweets about the google phone popped up with the statement “Like an iPhone on beautifying steroids.” i was expecting something quite different then this not very beautiful device ^^

Quickly zooming down a webpage without having to shift the phone in your hand.

It’s not desperately needed, Android handles fine if you never want to use it, but nor is it useless, it’s just there if you need it, unless you don’t :)

@ Dr. Jeckyl

How do you know the trackball is useful? Give me one situation where a trackball is needed on a touchscreen device.

Sounds more like they’re aiming for publicity to me. Why only the Nexus, why not for all Android 2.0 handsets, is the Nexus platform THAT different?

I guess “Support for the Android 2.0 platform” wouldn’t catch as many headlines eh? Or am I just too cynical?