Recently, someone on YouTube posted a video of how your hand effects the signal strength on the Nexus One (via Engadget article). Based on the comments that came out of the article, I don’t think it illustrated just how terrible of an issue this is.

As my video illustrates, all it takes to lose two bars worth of 3G service on the Nexus One is for you to simply hold your phone. In low coverage areas, this can spell the difference between not having 3G, and having it. On top of which, a simple shift of the hand can cause drastic changes, like dropping a call or important data transfer.

I think this continues to show how much Google is lacking any kind of effective usability testing within their Android department. Sure, HTC put the phone through the ropes, but it boggles the mind to think how something this severe would have made it through.

Update (2/18):

I got a email from Google today about the problem. This is what they stated.

Thanks for your note. There are a variety of factors which feed into the quality of 3G connectivity on mobile phones, a number of which are dependent on the environment rather than the phone itself. For instance, a software update can’t address the experience of users on the edge or outside of 3G coverage areas.

We have taken note of your feedback and we are already working on this.

I really don’t see a software solution to this problem. It has everything to do with an extremely poor placement of the antenna. I empathize with the difficulty of where to put such things. They have to pay attention to growing concerns over radiation from these devices while holding them up to your ear. Which, is why they’ve started to place them at the bottom. It’s just, that phones should be single hand devices. In using them as such, people tend to cradle the bottom of the device with their palm, in order to free up their thumb to type on the screen. The default positioning of the hand on this device completely covers the antenna area.

I see no way of fixing this other than by moving the location of the antenna.

Google’s bread and butter has always been it’s simplicity, speed, cohesion, and reliability. While this has worked wonders on their search engine and services, it has not always translated well to their Android phone operating system. This breakdown is never more apparent than in their recent release of the Nexus One Desktop Dock.

The key draw of the Nexus One Desktop Dock is it’s ability to receive stereo audio over Bluetooth. If you were to connect the dock to your stereo system, you could transmit and control music from your phone without wires. A very exciting prospect. Unfortunately, Google utterly fails with it’s execution.

Who Reads Manuals, Honestly?

You don’t need to be a rocket scientist to setup the Nexus One Desktop Dock. I mean, there’s only one cord for power, and another cord that’s for audio. Those cords can only plug into the port with the respective shape. Also, the phone is only going to fit into the device one way, standing up and facing forward. So, who’s going to read a manual? Nobody.

If history has shown us anything, it’s that people do not read manuals. They blunder along as far as they can go, then consult the manual when they hit a bump. And, herein lies Google’s Usability FAIL. When you first dock your phone, you are presented with the following screen.

This is the setting box you need to check in order to send audio via Bluetooth to the dock. Yet, the language for this setting makes no mention of this. This selection also sounds scary, and that by checking it you’ll silence your phone. There’s one more key point, the “Remeber setting” checkbox is pre-checked! If you do any of the following, this settings box will go away, and never come back.

• If you press, “OK.”
• If you hit the, “Back” button on your phone.
• If you remove the phone from the dock.

So, you’ve done one of the above and you played a bit with the Clock application. Now, you want to try the Bluetooth audio streaming. You can’t find the dock when scanning for it in your Bluetooth settings because it’s not currently turned on. Suddenly you realize what that pop-up setting box was for. How do you bring it back? There’s nothing in the Clock application, that which appeared when you docked your phone, that will display the setting. Removing the phone from the dock, and pouring through the phone settings will not reveal a way to make it reappear either. And, guess what? It’s not in the documentation or support forum for the dock either.

As far as the user is concerned, they blew their only opportunity to get their dock to work.

So What’s Missing?

It turns out that there actually is an option in your settings to re-enable the dock’s audio. In order to find it, you have to have your phone docked, then you navigate to Home > Settings > Sound & Display > Dock audio.

This is something the average person would have no way of stumbling upon. It’s also a key component, completely overlooked, in order to use the dock.

They could have fixed this by:

• Not having “Remember setting” automatically checked.
• Provided some feedback as to where the dock settings could be found after you choose your setting.
• Documented how to find the setting in the manual.
• Provided a shortcut to the setting in the Clock application’s menu.

Until this happens, it remain a shocking usability blunder made by Google.