The Nexus One is an over-hyped Android phone. But that doesn't stop it from being the best Android phone. It is, for two reasons: Hardware and software.

The Nexus One is probably HTC's best looking phone to date. The body is made up of two different materials: a metallic bezel that surrounds the front and side of the phone, which curves around to a custom-engraveable strip on the back. The battery cover and bottom of the phone are both covered in a rubbery plastic material that's solid and grippy, yet soft and pleasant. It's also thinner and lighter and curvier than the iPhone 3GS, and is much less sharp and masculine than the Droid.

Besides the requisite power and volume rocker buttons, there are five "buttons" on the face: one trackball and four haptic-based touch buttons. The trackball is basically useless—you'll only use it for its color-based notifications that tell you that you have a new email, text message or missed call without having to turn on the screen. As for using it as a scrolling device, the fact that scrolling around the OS or a webpage gives you inconsistent results depending on what "element" of the screen you land on means the ball is essentially useless for navigation. However, you will have to use it for text selection, because you can't hold your finger down to move the cursor—you have to use the ball to navigate to exactly where you want.

The four touch buttons for homescreen, back, menu and search do have haptic feedback when you hit them, but they're not that phenomenal either. Half the time they don't register a press when you want them to, and the other half of the time they think you're hitting it when you just wrapped your hand around the phone slightly too far.

You don't get a rocker switch for silencing the phone without looking, like on the Pre or the iPhone, but you can do the same thing quickly from the lock screen by swiping across the screen to the left. (Swiping to the right unlocks the phone.)