The Nexus One looks amazing. The G1 looked amazing, the Droid looked amazing, the Droid Eris looked amazing, and now the Nexus One looks even more amazing.

The kicker is that it’s looking like you’ll be able to buy it without also getting a two-year phone contract to go along with it, albeit at a much higher upfront cost. But, given that Skype and Google Voice are readily available, that might not be such a bad thing.

Kevin Tofel, writing for jkOnTheRun, has a similar outlook, except using the now-Google-owned Gizmo VoIP service in lieu of Skype:

I’m betting on the Google Voice, Google Talk and Gizmo integration because if it comes to pass, it could be the beginning of the end for cellular voice plans.

Also:

Sure enough, I found the T-Mobile Total Internet plan, which is $39.99 a month and offers up to 10 GB of data per month. With the plan, you can make voice calls, but you’ll be paying by the minute.
…
These days, the voice component of a smartphone is more of a necessary add-on rather than the primary function.

Here’s a comparison of the cost over two years of owning a subsidized Nexus One with a phone+data T-Mobile contract ($79.99/month) versus an unsubsidized Nexus One with a data-only T-Mobile plan ($39.99/month), a Skype subscription for unlimited calls to mobile and landlines anywhere in the US and Canada ($2.95(!)/month), and a SkypeIn number ($30/year).

So, despite paying hundreds of dollars more upfront in buying an unsubsidized Nexus One, you’d recoup the initial difference in cost after just over 10 months, and after two years, you’d save $482 (even more after taxes)—well over the original price difference and nearly the cost of the phone itself.

I can’t believe I’m saying this as an iPhone owner and zealot (my wife won’t be able to, either), but I could easily see myself doing this in light of AT&T’s suckitude, my growing frustration with phone companies in general, and my near-complete dependence on Google Apps.