By Jimmy Rogers (@me)
Contributing Writer, [GAS]

While news of this device leaked quite a while ago (and Google openly distributed it to their employees), the Google Nexus One still drew a crowd today, both online and at Google’s official launch event.  The new phone is similar to other Android devices, such as the popular Droid, but this one has been custom built by the Google engineers themselves.

There are several good resources out there already, most notably gdgt’s liveblog of today’s event and Engadget’s exclusive review of the Nexus One.  Also, Google has a dedicated product page over at google.com/phone.  All that withstanding, you, the lazy GAS reader, are probably too busy watching our funny videos to sift through those massive pages, so we have parsed out the most important highlights.

First of all, let’s get some specs:

• The device is both slim and light, as demonstrated in this slide at the launch event:

• Screen size: 3.7-inch (diagonal) widescreen WVGA AMOLED touchscreen
• Camera: 5 megapixels, LED flash, geotagging, video capture at 20fps
• Wireless Specs:
  • UMTS Band 1/4/8 (2100/AWS/900)
  • HSDPA 7.2Mbps
  • HSUPA 2Mbps
  • GSM/EDGE (850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz)
  • Wi-Fi (802.11b/g/n)
  • Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR
  • A2DP stereo Bluetooth
• Battery Life: It has a removable battery – check out the specs page for battery life under different conditions
• OS: Android Mobile Technology Platform 2.1 (Eclair)
• Storage:
  • 512MB Flash
  • 512MB RAM
  • 4GB Micro SD Card (Expandable to 32 GB)
• Location Tech: AGPS, cell tower and wifi location, digital compass, accelerometer

Ok, with specs out of the way, what’s next?  Well it uses the Android 2.1 platform at the moment (though future revs will bring new features like expandable SD storage).  That means it is very “open” and will allow a great number of applications to be developed for it.  In fact, I personally expect the Android app store to dwarf the iPhone app store, sheerly by wooing more developers with its openness.

Based on the various wireless technologies in the Nexus One, the current available carriers are T-mobile (which is selling it subsidized already at $179), Verizon, and Vodafone (in Europe).  Also, you can buy it unsubsidized directly from Google for $529, shipping today!

Without direct access to the phone it’s hard to say too much more.  For further reading, I suggest the hands-on review by Engadget and the latter part of the live gdgt feed, where the launch team answered some questions by the press.

What do you think of the Google Nexus One?  Will you buy it?  Does it compete with other smartphones you have/want?  Post below in the comments!

[Images from Google, Engadget, and gdgt (links above)]