Just a couple of months later and and the HTC’s own branded Desire was launched, with almost exactly the same spec and look, but HTC’s device comes with a couple of additions that Google decided to strip out of the device.

So, which wins?

Screen
Both the Google Nexus One and HTC Desire feature the same crisp 3.7-inch, 480×800 pixel AMOLED capacitive touchscreen.

Body
Although the Google Nexus One and HTC Desire have almost identical insides, the design is slightly different. To the naked eye, they’re the same size,but the Nexus One shaves off 2mm from the width and 0.5mm of the depth.

Navigation
We’ve already mentioned the HTC Desire’s optical trackpad and would say it’s certainly the easier way to navigate around the Android device, with more accuracy than even the touchscreen.

UI
Being a Google device rather than an HTC -branded one, the Nexus One uses the Android Vanilla UI, albeit running on Android 2.1.

Verdict
It’s a close battle, but the HTC Desire wins, thanks to its better UI (including multitouch), wider availability and optical trackpad.

Read the full comparison on Know Your Cell