Google’s Nexus One Android phone has been in the news for some time now and there has been a lot of hype about it. Is it the iPhone killer we’ve been looking for?

Engadget already has one in their hands and a review is coming. A quick Google search reveals several other articles about the Nexus One but no real hands-on experience. That will most likely be saved for January 5th, the day of the Google press conference.

However, after reading the Engadget preview, I can’t help but being a little disappointed. Google set out to release their own phone who knows when yet what it seems to be is not anything revolutionary, just another smartphone loaded with good hardware and a good OS. Don’t get me wrong, Android is exciting to me and the HTC Hero is a great phone in my book but partially it is a great phone because HTC took the time to make it their own. Their Sense GUI makes the Hero the phone it is to a large extent. It shows a commitment by HTC to not just use a OS to make a phone but it shows that HTC is willing to go beyond that, make their own apps, widgets etc. to give the end user an Android experience that’s really worth talking about.

Yes, I haven’t actually held a Nexus One in my hand and I suspect the closest I will ever get to one is by running Android 2.1 in the SDK emulator but it does seem like Google could have done more and done it better.

I sure hope I’m wrong.