The iPhone may have ruled the roost for quite a while now, but the Google Nexus One is here to knock it off its perch. Will it though?

That’s a question only time can answer, but it’s a lot easier to check out the stats and compare them – to see which is better in theory.

When it comes to mobile phones, there are a lot of boxes to tick, from screen types to the amount of built-in memory, so we thought we’d try them, one-by-one to see which box-ticker uses the most ink.

The screen
The Google Nexus One features a 3.7-inch screen, up against the iPhone 3GS’s 3.2-inch example. As size of screen also dictates size of device, this is a subjective point to argue, but there are other factors that sway the fight in the Nexus One’s favor.

First there’s the resolution – it’s much higher on the Nexus One, 480x800 pixels against the iPhone’s 320x480. This allows for more detail on-screen with Google’s offering, and means you’ll be able to make better use of higher bitrate videos.

However, an even more important feature of the Nexus One is that it uses an AMOLED screen, offering better contrast and black levels than the TFT type used on the iPhone.

Winner – it’s a clear one. Google Nexus One

Touchscreen
Both phones use a capacitive touchscreen, so this is a more closely fought battle than that of the screen itself. In fact, it’s one we can’t really judge until we get our fingers onto the Nexus One’s offering.

However, we do know that the iPhone offers just about the most responsive touchscreen in town, so the Nexus One needs to be quaking in its booties right about now.

Winner – Jury’s out. Odds on iPhone winning

Storage

To be honest, both the Nexus One and iPhone are pretty bad in this category. Apple has made sure you can’t upgrade the memory in your iPhone yourself, leaving it to charge whatever it likes for the different versions of the phone. There are 16GB and 32GB iterations available at the moment.

On the other hand, the Nexus One comes with a measly 512MB of onboard storage and a 4GB microSD card bundled in the box.

Both are nothing to write home about, unless it’s to write a furious rant, but the ever-falling price of microSD storage means you can bump it up to iPhone levels without spending too much cash. Plus, if you want to watch movies on the go, you can always carry multiple memory cards around with you – they’re around the size of the nail on your little finger!

But the thing that sways it the iPhone's way is the fact that whatever size of SD card you have in the Nexus One, you can only ever allocate a maximum of 198MB to apps. This insane limitation is apparently down to the Android OS - so it could be removed with an update. But as of now, it still stands.

Winner – Both lose in our book, but the Nexus One's (cr)app storage limit means the iPhone shades it...

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