THIS WEEK saw the unveiling of Google’s own Android handset, the Nexus One, one of the most anticipated handsets of the past few months.

While Google’s latest venture is being touted by some as a serious challenger to the iPhone, the company has been more circumspect about it, referring instead of presenting consumers with a choice.

Comparing the two, the Nexus One certainly seems to stand up to the iPhone’s specs. Similar in some aspects – both have Wifi and Bluetooth, for example – there are some areas where each phone shines.

In terms of power, the Nexus One’s processor is a hefty 1 Ghz, compared with the iPhone’s 660Mhz. It also has double Ram, at 512MB.

Visually, the Nexus One is both slimmer (11.5mm) and lighter (130g) and still manages to cram in a marginally bigger screen – 3.7 inches compared with the iPhone’s 3.5 inches.

Both handsets include voice control. Apple has a certain amount of voice commands in its 3G S, including the ability to use access tracks on the iPod function. However, Nexus One goes a step further, with every text field capable of being controlled via voice commands. In theory, this means you can send text messages or e-mails, compose your newest status update for Facebook or send a twitter update without having to tap in the text.

The iPhone has a 3 megapixel imaging device built in; the Nexus One includes a 5 megapixel camera and an LED flash – something the iPhone lacks.

The Nexus One has a beta Flash Player, an important element for some web browsing that the iPhone has yet to include, although it has been promised. However, unlike the iPhone, the Nexus One doesn’t support multi-touch. This means no “pinch to zoom” features, a useful feature on the iPhone.

Apple also wins on built-in memory – 16GB or 32GB compared with the Nexus One’s 4GB – but the Google phone has the ability to increase its capacity up to 32GB with a removable SD memory card.

But despite having expandible memory, the Nexus One only allows you to store applications on the phone’s internal memory – 512MB of it – rather than to the memory card. This puts a severe limit on the apps you can store. However, Google has already promised that this feature – an effort to prevent piracy, apparently – will be scrapped at a future date.

One area where Apple really has the edge is in the amount and variety of applications available for the handset. The App Store has almost 100,000 apps for download; the Android Market has only 18,000.

There are some other advantages to the Nexus One. Unlike the iPhone, it allows multi-tasking of applications. With the iPhone, this is limited to Apple programs.

The Nexus One is also built to run with Google applications, such as Gmail, Google Earth and in some countries, Google Voice.

However, the iPhone will probably retain the edge when it comes to multimedia files – for the time being at least. The iPod integration with the iPhone is one feature that other phones should aspire to, making its easy to access files. Nexus One instead tries to entice you with “dynamic wallpapers”.

Apple also has the ability to synch with iTunes, something that Nexus One lacks – it’s manual synch only.

The companies seem to be operating under different business models. Apple initially tied networks into exclusive deals that saw them take a revenue share from iPhone customers’ phone bills. However, Google has decided to sell its handset through its own web store, giving people the chance to buy it sim-free from the outset for $529 (€370). A sim-free iPhone, on the other hand, could set you back as much as €900 from third-party sites. The Nexus One is not yet available in Ireland, but plans are already being made to bring it here.

Apple also takes a cut of the revenue from applications sold through the AppStore, with all potential third-party add-ons screened thoroughly by Apple before being approved as suitable for download to iPhone users. Chances to get apps outside the AppStore are non-existent at present, unless the iPhone is jailbroken, which is frowned upon by Apple.

Android, on the other hand, is much more open. Google’s Android market may sell applications, but anyone can develop a program for the Android interface.

It is not yet clear if the Nexus One can take the iPhone down, but it should certainly make the market more interesting.