Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock for the past six months, you’ll have heard this little mobile platform that Google developed has slowly, but surely, gone supernova. If nothing, the tell-tale signs are evident — every manufacturer worth its salt now has an Android offering out in the market, and we’re looking at two of them today — the powerful Acer Liquid, and Google’s own pride and joy in this segment — the Nexus One.

The Acer Liquid launched in India as the first Android phone with an ultra-fast 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon mobile processor, but the euphoria was short-lived, with the processor being hardware-locked — and therefore forced to underperform —at 768MHz instead. Not to say that that’s bad — I’m sure Acer has seen battery benefits out of this move - but there’s a slight sense of disappointment of what could have been. The Liquid performs more than capably, even while I ran multiple applications in the background while surfing the web. Ah, the joys of multitasking on a phone which can handle it!

As an Android device, Acer hasn’t toyed around too much with the default Android v1.6 user interface, and it renders beautifully on the bright 3.5-in capacitive touchscreen. The Liquid comes with two exclusive pre-installed applications — Splinlets and urFooz. While the former lets you stream music from a large number of international music albums (local content is on its way), the urFooz application lets you create a comic avatar of yourself that you can use on social networks and elsewhere on the web.

You also get Documents to Go for reading Microsoft Office documents, and nemoplayer for multimedia playback on the WVGA resolution screen. And of course, the standard stuff —Google Maps, GTalk, the excellent Gmail app are all there, and you can download much more from the Android market. I just loved the OLED notification display on the top of the phone, which gives you a number of notifications like a message icon for new e-mail and texts, and a phone icon for missed calls.

If I have one qualm about the device, it’s with the design. The heavy use of plastic — top, bottom and back — means that you don’t get the feeling you’re holding a premium phone. Pulling the battery cover off was a worrisome experience — you have to dig your fingernails into the top and pull hard, almost upto the point where you feel you’re going to snap something off. And when you compare the Liquid to the current range of Android devices, it looks far bulkier than it actually is, and the added bulk doesn’t seem to be there for any particular reason.

And that shows up even more when you look at the Google Nexus One. It is nothing short of handsome, right from its thin profile and curved edges. Google and HTC have got it right with the Nexus One, the shape and size of the phone is absolutely fantastic. An even though it houses a bigger display than the iPhone, it feels far trimmer. But the 11.5mm thickness doesn’t come at a compromise — This phone is also powered by the Snapdragon 1 GHz processor, which is more than capable at handling the Nexus One’s ‘Live’ wallpapers, 3D graphics and multiple applications running in the background, and then some. It is one of the few phones running the latest version of the Google Android OS (v2.1), something you would expect from a device launched by Google.

Among all the stuff that impresses about the Nexus One, the standout feature is the gorgeous 3.7-in 480 x 800 OLED capacitive touchscreen, by far the best mobile phone display on the market today, blowing away the iPhone’s almost-yesterday (480 x 320) display. The screen is an absolute pleasure to use, and Google’s added some nice graphical touches, including the scrolling carousel of applications and the innovative photo viewing experience. Oh, and did I mention this baby has noise-cancellation built in?

All this power and bling comes at an expense — possibly the Nexus One’s only Achilles’ heel. Despite Google’s smart processor usage and a screen which adjusts brightness to save on battery, the battery lasts under a day if you use it heavily, so be warned.

Google’s touted the Nexus One as a super-phone, and they’re not that off target. Since it isn’t officially launched in India, you can ask someone coming in from abroad to pick one up — Google’s launched it unlocked from any carrier from day one. A stripped down version (which might be a bit laggy) for India is on the cards, but I suspect it won’t be as much fun!

Acer Liquid S100

Rating: 8/10

Price: Rs 24,900 including 2GB microSD card

URL: http://mobile.acer.com/en/phones/liquid/

Google Nexus One

Rating: 9/10

Price: approx Rs 27,000 (US $529)

URL: http://www.google.com/phone

In control

Seasoned corporations know how handy it is to have a presentation remote with you. No more fumbling with the PC when you’re trying to make an impassioned pitch.

Targus’ new AMP09AP presentation remote has the usual tricks — backlit buttons for easy visibility in dark presentation rooms, and a laser pointer to highlight key content on the slides. And if you’re the nervous sort, the AMP09AP has KeyLock Technology — it switches off all but the essential buttons — integrated in to it to help you avoid unnecessary button presses. Plus it comes with a back-up battery compartment that can be used as an emergency power source, ensuring you always have enough power to complete your presentations.

URL: http://www.targus.com/

Price: Rs 2,750