With the Google Nexus One winging its way over here, and Android phones being perhaps the most customisable smartphones around in all their open-source loveliness, we’ve come up with a selection of ways to personalise your Android phone, inside and out. So, let’s get creative and pimp those phones right up…
Slap on a new wallpaper
There’s a great selection of apps on the Android Market that offer tailored wallpapers for your Android phone, but it’s also pretty easy to make your own. For best results, make sure your image is as tall as the screen of your phone, pixel-wise. So, that’s 480 pixels for the old guard of Android, or 800 pixels for newbies like the Google Nexus One and Motorola Milestone. As long as it’s landscape, aspect ratio-wise, you’re good to go.

Replace that vanilla desktop
Whether you’re rocking HTC Sense, vanilla Android or some other OS variant, there are ways to get an entirely different Android experience – desktop replacement apps. There are loads of them out there, and each one offers a whole new look and feel for your phone. Some change the amount of home screens you have at your disposal, too. For some examples, check out Open Home and Sweeter Home on the Android Market.

Upgrade your software
To find out if there’s a new update for your phone, head on over to the support section of your carrier’s website. If your Android phone is a bit glitchy or slow, there’s a good chance an update will stamp out those problems.

Buy a great big memory card
Android phones so far have not particularly impressed us with their internal memory storage. You’re lucky to get 500MB included on-board, let alone 32GB. But 8GB microSD cards can be bought for peanuts – OK, maybe a bag or two of peanuts, but your phone certainly deserves one.

Get some widgets
The Android Market is packed with Widgets, many of which can be grabbed for free. Clocks, Twitter feeds, SMS message screens – these are just a few of the things Widgets can splash all over your home screen. Let’s not go overboard though, it’s a classy look we’re after.

Get a screen protector
OK, this is more preen than pimp, but few things compare with the sinking feeling you get when you notice that first scratch on your phone’s screen. A decent screen protector won’t dull the sensitivity of your capacitive touchscreen and it’ll keep the resale value up.

Make or buy a charging station
Your Android phone probably uses a micro USB connector to charge itself.  It may seem odd and proprietary at first if you’re not familiar with one – but it isn’t. We’d suggest purchasing a USB AC adaptor, or a desktop hub, at the very least if your phone didn’t come with one.

Keep your app collection trim
Android phones are certainly smart, but they’re also sneaky. If you have a huge collection of apps installed, many of them will be running, and perhaps downloading data off your connection, during the day. This will drain your battery more rapidly. Keep your phone in check using – yep – another app, such as AppManager from the Android Market.

Case the joint
Just because there aren’t many cases specifically designed for your phone, it doesn’t mean that there aren’t legions of the things that’ll do the job perfectly well. Any not too figure-hugging sleeve that’s designed for a similar-sized phone should do the trick. Or, if you want to get outlandish, how about a hollowed-out bible, the case of an 80s yuppie phone or the shell of a particularly large hermit crab. The world’s your oyster. Shame about the crab.

Bypass some built-in bits
Apps may seem like the obvious choice for frivolous things like clocks and games, but with Android they can also be used to take over some core elements of your phone. For example, Handcent SMS gives you a completely new SMS interface while Dolphin Browser is a web browser that’s designed to be more like Firefox than the built-in one.

YOU SHOULD READ – Google Nexus One – 10 Things You Need to Know