What Do Deal Hunters Think About the Nexus One?

Two days ago Google launched their own phone — an HTC-manufactured device with Google sticker) — named the Nexus One. The device is apparently is the hottest thing going today. One tech blogger who, only a few weeks ago, said the Motorola Droid was the most awesomest phone is now googling about the Nexus One’s superphone super-awesomeness.

The Nexus One phone is currently available in the U.S. for $179 with a new T-Mobile contract (Verizon coming later this year) or $529 unlocked and ready to work anywhere. Of course anywhere really isn’t anywhere – it doesn’t work with Sprint and with AT&T you only get the 56k baud EDGE speed.

All of that aside, the phone and the live demo looked pretty sweet. Much sweeter than the Samsung Ace I am using from the last decade. I’m hoping to upgrade to something more modern at some point this year.

You can read the professional reviews of the phone on a variety of tech blogs. As a deal hunter, I thought it would be interesting to take a look at what the deal hunters think of the phone. Deal hunters are more like regular people than tech bloggers are (in terms of looks and finances) so it might give us a clue as to how the phone will do beyond the early adopter purchases. Remember too that many people are locked into iPhone 3Gs contracts and won’t be busting out of them to move over to a Nexus One.

The best Nexus One deal hunter thread is on SlickDeals. A couple hundred replies and the overall product has a negative rating of -119. My guess is that most of the negative ratings come from the $529 pricetag. It’s a bit shocking that Google wouldn’t use the traditional pricing of discounted with plan and then unlocked as an option instead of trying to sell the unlocked version first.

Some of the more interesting comments:

• Yeah, it’s sweet, but paying the retail price is NOT a Hot Deal.
• I’ll wait for a refurb.
• Google hasn’t done much to show that this phone is revolutionary or a game changer.
• You pick an iPhone at this point, you’re basically telling the world you’re about 3 years behind the times.
• the demo on their web page shows the ability to make calls via google voice. this seems like a great deal in that case. $520 up front plus $50/month for 5GB data is WAY cheaper than an iPhone. Did it say somewhere that you need a voice plan? What am i missing?
• Ridiculous price for the unlocked version! I hope at that price they collect dust on the shelves so they’ll have to price them down to a reasonable price point.
• seems pricey for an iphone knock-off
• It is waaaaaaaaaay to expensive for an unlock phone, but two THUMBS UP to Google for putting it out to more than one carrier unlike Apple. AT&T sucks crap

The early termination also seems to be higher than other mobile devices:

“You agree to pay Google an equipment subsidy recovery fee (the “Equipment Recovery Fee”) equal to the difference between the full price of the Nexus handheld device without service plan and the price you paid for the Nexus handheld device if you cancel your wireless plan prior to 120 days of continuous wireless service. For example, if the full price of the Nexus handheld device without service plan was $529 USD and the price you paid for the Nexus handheld device was $179 USD with a service plan, the Equipment Recovery Fee you pay will be $350 USD in the event you cancel within the first 120 days of carrier service.”

I look forward to reading reviews from those who bought a Nexus One (and those who received a freebie from Google) about how good the service and the phone is. It does appear that the Android OS might become a real competitor to Apple this year — especially if they can woo developers.