T-Mobile G1 Review

Google in association with HTC and T-Mobile released its own cell phone named ‘G1′ couple of months back. G1 was also the first phone to be running on Android, which is an open-source operating system developed by Google. The handset was developed by HTC, Google provided the operating system and T-Mobile was the official carrier for the G1. So that’s the background of the G1, lets get our hands dirty with the G1.

T-Mobile G1 specifications :

• Dimensions : 117 x 55.7 x 17.1 mm
• Weight : 158g
• Display : 3.2″ TFT touchscreen, 320 x 480 resolution
• Keyboard : Full QWERTY
• Camera : 3.2 MP with autofocus
• Connectivity : GPRS, EDGE, HSCSD, 3G
• Card slot : microSD
• WLAN : WiFi 802.11 b/g
• Bluetooth : Bluetooth v2.0
• GPS : Built-in receiver
• OS : Android OS
• Extras : Digital compass, handwriting recognition, trackball
• Approx. price : $200

Design and Keyboard

As the phone has been designed by HTC, it has a lot of resemblance of other smart phones designed by the company. G1 has a plain looks that score very low on attractiveness. The display is narrower than the iPhone but the phone features a slide-out full QWERTY keyboard. Below the display there is a row of buttons for which HTC has used up a lot of space. This extra space hinders in the use of keyboard, discussed later. HTC could have done a much better job with the designing, disappointing.

The slide-out QWERTY keyboard is something iPhone users are surely missing. Although Apple has done a good job with the on-screen QWERTY keyboard but iPhone but nothing beats the feel of real keys. The keyboard is accessed from the side by sliding the display to the right. The sliding mechanism is smooth without any creaking sounds etc. The keyboard has separated buttons which helps reduce typos. Typing on the keyboard is easy but the extra portion to the bottom of display does affect the ergonomics.

Display and User Interface

The G1 has a 3.2″ display, smaller than the iPhone, with a resolution of 320 x 480 pixels. The display is crisp and sharp with vivid colors. The display is capacitive like the iPhone, responding to only finger touches. It also supports haptic feedback for certain actions such as the long press. The long press is pretty useful as it reduces clutter without losing out on functionality. The display however does not have multi-touch, so now pinching to zoom in and zoom out.

The user interface is an important factor in a touchscreen phone and Google has done a lot of hard work to come with a nice and easy to use interface for the G1. You can customize the home screen by choosing the applications you wish to display there. The trackball is really helpful in navigation. Intuitiveness is something it lacks due to its deep menus. The interface is completely different from iPhone and a comparison would be unfair.

Music Player and Camera

The G1 is meant to be a cell phone rather than a music player. The music player application will not impress music enthusiasts which does all basic tasks fine but lacks the extra features. It can sort your music by genre, artist, album etc. and you can create playlists on the fly. No CoverFlow but still you can view the albums in list format. Shuffle, repeat functions are supported too. Songs can be converted to ringtones with the built-in option in the player.

Amazon store has tied up with Google to provide its DRM-free music on the G1. But the store can download songs only via WiFi and not the 3G/EDGE networks. Amazon store is as good as its iTunes counterpart and buying songs is also as easy. You can transfer songs from your PC too in the various audio formats that the G1 supports including MP3, M4A, WAV, OGG, MIDI, AMR, WMA. Only 1GB microSD card is bundled with the phone although it supports upto 8GB.

The G1 has a 3.2 MP camera with autofocus with strangely does not support video recording like the iPhone. The camera quality is much better than the iPhone. The camera app does not have any manual settings to change. Camera takes blurry shots even with slightest movement. The images captured are above average but certainly not the best we have seen with 3.2 MP cameras in cell phones.

GPS and Web Browser

The built-in GPS receiver has A-GPS support making it accurate and fast. Google Maps is the default application which comes as no surprise. Turn-by-turn directions are supported but are no real-time and lag by a few seconds. The GPS however has some bugs which need to be ironed out. It sometimes can not find out the location even when in open. People also report that it shows completely different location than where you are. Apart from these bugs, the application is good with Street Views and digital compass adding to its functionality.

The web browser is based on the Webkit engine, that is used by Safari too. The browser has full HTML support along with Java support, but flash is not supported. Panning across the page is easy with the finger, double tab zooms in on the page, zoom buttons come up at bottom of the screen. Both the portrait and landscape modes are supported. No onscreen keyboard is there and you need to slide out the QWERTY every time to key in data. Overall the browsing experience is average compared to the iPhone.

Pros :

• Physical QWERTY keyboard
• Great display
• 3.2 MP camera
• Digital compass
• Customizable Android OS
• Amazon Store is great
• Java supported browser

Cons :

• Unattractive design
• No 3.5mm jack
• Buggy GPS
• Average music player
• No manual camera settings
• Video recording not supported
• No flash support in browser

Final Thoughts

The T-Mobile G1 brings in a lot of new stuff to the table and differs from the iPhone. It has a physical QWERTY keyboard, great display and customizable Android OS that will attract a lot of users. HTC should have worked more on the design to make it attractive. No 3.5mm jack, buggy GPS and no video recording are big turn-offs. Overall the phone is a good alternative to the iPhone and new iterations will surely make it much more better.

Rating : 3.5/5