Google recently unveiled the HTC built Nexus One, an Android phone poised to challenge even the mighty iPhone. I have praised Android in the past, and is the happy owner of an HTC Hero. I have even been talking about starting to create applications for the Android platform, but that is yet to happen. Even though the Hero is a great phone, it has a few shortcomings compared to the iPhone and the screen is what comes to mind first. The camera also sucks monkey balls and it doesn’t come with a flash. Neither does the iPhone, though, and I don’t really use my phone as a camera that much, but every time I do, I wish the Android camera was a little better, at least when there is not much ambient light around.

So, what about it? Should I ditch my HTC Hero in favor of a brand new Nexus One? It’s an impressive piece of hardware that is crammed with lots of equally impressive software and with the recent update from Google, it has also got multitouch support. The screen is huge, the Snapdragon processor is lightning fast and the phone has even got a “Tri-color clickable trackball”. Come on, what more can you possible ask for!?

Well, with impressive hardware usually comes a notable price tag and the Nexus One is no exception. I don’t live in the US, so getting a T-Mobile subsidized version is not an option. I doubt that it would have been an option even if I’ve lived in the US of A since locking yourself to a provider for an extended period of time can be a serious pain in the ass. The price without selling your soul to T-Mobile is a massive $529, which is a lot of money for a phone. But the Nexus One can, like most other phones with that price tag, also double as a camera, an MP3 player, a GPS navigator and probably a lot more that I can’t think of right now.

What do other people think of the Nexus one? I know two people who have already bought the phone and they are generally very pleased with it. Even though the phone is not for sale here in Norway, there are ways. You can buy the phone through a web proxy, have it sent to a post box in the US and then moved by air mail to Norway. It’s really easy, I did this when I bought my first generation iPhone using JetCarrier. They come highly recommended if you need anything sent from the United States to Norway, Sweden or Denmark.

The internet also likes the Nexus One. The only real biggie I’ve seen is poor 3G data connection and a lot of fall back to EDGE. This will most likely not be a problem in Norway, where the 3G coverage is excellent - at least in the areas I go. It can’t sync Exchange calendars, but my guess is that this feature will be added in a software update. Google was pretty quick to release multitouch support when people started to complain about that and I can’t see why they should not add Exchange calendar support. The general consensus seems to be that the Nexus One is a great handset, capable of going head-to-head with the iPhone and without doubt the best Android phone available today.

If you look at the big picture, $529 might not be that much money. But then again, why should I spend anything at all on something that I get for free at work? That phone is not my personal phone, but it doesn’t really make any difference if it’s my personal phone or not because I’m using it as it was. The Hero covers my day-to-day needs well enough for me to keep the money in my wallet. To be honest, I’d rather buy some something for you-know-who.

There you go, in just a few minutes I’ve talked myself out of spending my hard earned cash on something I don’t really need. This is a great way to save money!