[Nexus One General] big_adventure:
It's amazing how all over the place the returns are.

I have owned the following phones in the last three years :

iPhone 2G

iPhone 3G

BlackBerry Bold

iPhone 3GS* (borrowed for 2 weeks to see if I wanted to go back...)

Milestone

Nexus One

I, personally, got the best battery life out of the iPhone 2G - I got three days out of it, consistently. BUT, I did not have an unlimited data plan, I did not use it for mail, I always got apps from the store over WiFi, I never streamed music, video or anything else. I had no RSS reader. I listened to some music, played the OCCASIONAL game, sent some texts and made a few calls.

Next would be the Bold. I POUNDED that thing and ALWAYS got at least 2 days out of it. I would send dozens of SMS, read and reply to at least 40 emails/day, use GTalk with my wife for at least 50 messages a day. I'd read RSS feeds with Viigo.

After that, every single phone on the list requires charging every single day.

On the iPhone 3G, I would do a little surfing, maybe a little video, some emails and some text. Music on the metro coming and going to/from work. Charging every day was mandatory.

On the 3GS, with how App Store had better and better stuff, I killed it (as in forced shut down) 5 out of 15 days - all that with no widgets and no multitasking. I would read Le Monde, do some browsing, read tweets, read emails, make a couple of calls and texts. I started stocking the charge cable at work and in my backpack during my weeks with a 3GS, because it wouldn't make it through a day. Most friends and colleagues who have them do the same.

I received the Milestone in December. I loved it, and really started pounding a phone - 100 GTalks a day, some SMS, all email, NewsRob for RSS, Le Monde, News & Weather widget one we hacked that on there (following the Jan 5 release of the N1), twitter and facebook, browsing. App downloads, widgets left and right, plus CONSTANT dev work, image building, flashing, testing, etc. I would get a day if I took my foot off the gas, but if I pushed it too hard, I would kill it. There were a couple of battery killers that were avoidable but which I didn't avoid from time to time - leaving Qik, the browser on the google homepage (with autolocation on) the Camera or Maps open, then letting the phone go "idle" with the screen asleep keeps the GPS on and would eat the battery in an hour or two. This left me high and dry a couple of times, until I paid a bit more attention. The Milestone got better 3G than any iPhone and worse / less-consistent WiFi.

I picked up a Nexus at the beginning of March. It gets somewhat-to-significantly better battery life than the Milestone. I still have to charge it daily, but there seem to be fewer battery-death bonehead choices that drink the go-go juice and leave you without your electronic BFF. Most of that is probably Android 2.1 and the UV kernels - I noticed that the Milestone was better with 2.1 as well. It also gets 10dbm worse radio reception with the same SIM on the same desk on the same network in the same office. But it gets MUCH better and more reliable WiFi, and that is better still since FroYo. I use it a ton - RSS, chat, SMS, calls, LOTS of browsing, Le Monde, NYTimes in Newspapers Full, lots of games in spare time, Google Listen for Podcasts, Music, Movies, taking pictures and videos and posting them online with Twitter, Facebook, YouTube or Buzz, etc.

The Nexus has one MASSIVE problem, as far as bettery goes - charging it on any computer USB port, and many thrid-party USB charge plugs (AC or DC) is atrocious - hours and hours to get just a few percent. I don't know why - Apple can use 1A from anything, RIM / BlackBerry can come close to 2A. My Milestone would take at least 1A from anything. But the stupid HTC kit won't take more than about 400mA from a computer or a non-shorted USB charger. SOME 3rd party stuff will be exploited up until 1A, as will the charger that the N1 comes with, but if not, you're going to see slooooooow charging.

As far as the music player: I want 2 things - good sound and the ability to pause and skip with the mic button. Every iPhone does this, and so does the N1. The N1 DOES support headset buttons (it's own set comes with them), but I use my Shures with a simple mic adaptor. I almost never see the interface - I put on a playlist and shuffle it. DoubleTwist makes sure that I have the same lists on my iPod touch and my Nexus, so I really don't notice the difference.

If you use the interface a lot, well, then the player on an iPhone is the best there is. I just don't use the interface often enough to make that a selling point.

As far as sound - the Milestone got SIGNIFICANTLY more volume and better sound then any iPhone and a ridiculous amount more than an N1.

Froyo just rocks. I miss a couple of CM features, but there are sooooo many good things baked into Froyo - tethering, copy/paste in received GMail messages, SD card app storage, cloud-stored settings, Flash, incredible performance.

Your Mileage May Vary.