It's been a little more than a year since Google Android was announced and rumours of a little device called the HTC Dream started to leak onto the Web. The Dream has probably stirred up as much anticipation and hype as the Apple iPhone, not only because it would be the first smart phone to run Google's mobile platform but also because of its potential to overtake Apple's darling.
The T-Mobile G1, formerly known as the HTC Dream, will be available through T-Mobile on 30 October in black or white and will be offered on two tariffs. The Combi tariff offers you a free T-Mobile G1 with 800 minutes, unlimited texts and unlimited mobile Internet browsing for a total of £40 a month. On the Flext tariff you get a free T-Mobile G1 with web'n'walk for just £40 per month including unlimited mobile Internet browsing and up to 1,250 minutes or up to 2,500 texts or any mix of the two.
Design
The T-Mobile G1 is manufactured by HTC and has a similar look and feel to the company's other Pocket PC smart phones, such as the HTC TyTN II and the HTC Touch Pro. Measuring 117mm tall by 53mm wide by 15mm deep and weighing 159g, the G1 is definitely not the sleekest device, and we certainly wouldn't call it sexy. Instead, the words 'interesting' and 'weird' come to mind, mostly because the bottom section of the phone juts out at a slight angle. In a battle of pure looks, the iPhone would win hands down.
That said, the G1 has a solid construction and features a soft-touch finish on the back with a rubberlike texture, making it easy to grip and comfortable to hold. Also, there's a good reason for G1's larger size: a full Qwerty keyboard. There are a number of users who are reluctant to switch to a full touchscreen smart phone because of the lack of a tactile keyboard, so the G1 is certainly an attractive option for such customers.
To access it, just push the screen to the right. The sliding mechanism is fairly interesting in that the screen actually swings out slightly to the left before snapping into place. The sliding motion is smooth, but after a few days of use, we started to notice a creaking sound whenever we nudged the screen -- not good.
The keyboard itself is reminiscent of the T-Mobile Sidekick, as many observers pointed out during our review period. That's not necessarily a bad thing, since we like the Sidekick's keyboard. The buttons are small, but overall the keyboard feels roomy enough and shouldn't give too many users problems. If anything, we wish the buttons were raised more -- as is, they're set flush with the phone's surface. The bigger issue is that the bottom section of the G1 makes it awkward to hold the phone when typing messages.
When you slide open the phone, the screen orientation automatically switches from portrait to landscape mode. That's good, but the screen doesn't change when you physically rotate the phone in its closed state even though it has a motion sensor.
The actual display measures 81mm (3.2 inches) diagonally and has a 320x480-pixel resolution. It's vibrant and sharp, and like the iPhone and RIM BlackBerry Storm, the touchscreen is capacitive, so it will only respond to the touch of your finger and not your fingernail or other objects like a stylus. The G1 provides haptic feedback, but only for certain actions and not with every touch. First, you'll feel a slight vibration when performing a long press on an icon. Overall, we thought this was fine, but there were times when the G1 didn't register our actions, so some kind of confirmation would have been nice.
The T-Mobile G1's interface is generally clean, fun and easy to use, and we like that you can customise the Home screen with your favourite apps very easily. We would even say that the touchscreen's responsiveness is on a par with that on the iPhone's. But the phone's overall interface isn't as intuitive. For example, as with most every other phone, dipping into the menu layout every time we wanted to access something can get clunky. Yes, it's possible to drag out your favourite applications as shortcuts, but that means you need to spend quite a bit of time setting it up.
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User reviews8
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Tom Disturrbed Jones 6 May 2011
Good: Android, and fast internet
Bad: Out of date Android, slow processor, rubbish Qwerty keyboard and too big.
Comment: My first ever Android phone, I now own a Samsung Galaxy Apollo. I had this phone for a few days, It was an absolute brick to hold, my hand barely fits round it, and not even slightly practical. The android is Android 1.5, which is quite frankly the most out of date Android you can get on a phone. So about 100,000 of the apps on the Android Market automatically won't work, and all you'd want this phone for is Android. Because you might as well look elsewhere if you don't want a phone purely for Android. Slow processor, It's 400+mhz or something, it's very slow and struggles to run the simplest games and apps. My main gripe with this phone is the Qwerty keyboard, I only bought this phone because I knew it had a Qwerty which would help for texting. The buttons are stupid, they stick and are made of rubber so you have to put a hell of a lot of pressure, also you have to open the keyboard to have landscape view, making it extremely difficult to use. This phone on release was worth £400, You can get a Samsung Galaxy S for that price, which has over double the processor and is much better. The good is basically the internet is insanely fast, that would be the only reason I would have kept it, but I decided to upgrade to a Samsung Galaxy instead.
Good: Android, fast internet
Bad: Low Resolution screen, terrible touchscreen, Out of date Android, overpriced, Slow processor, an absolute brick and a horrific Qwerty.
Junaid 'Devs' Bux 29 October 2010
Good: the looks and the QWERTY keyboard
Bad: no standerd 3.5mm head jack
Comment: i want this phone so bad
Carl.W 10 June 2009
Good: Slide out QWERTY keyboard, Cupcake update makes this phone on par with HTC Magic
Bad: Battery life
Comment: I do believe CNET need to re-review this phone now that the Cupcake update has occurred.
The touchscreen is highly responsive, and where I was tempted to get an iPhone, as this phone is massively cheaper and has the luxury of three screens to arrange your favourite apps, it means that the phone is set perfectly for your lifestyle.
I've been waiting and waiting for the right phone that I can live with for 18 months, but a fortnight (two weeks) in I can safely say this will be my phone for longer than that.
The QWRTY keyboard takes a little getting used to if you, like me, have just moved from a conventional key design, but once you do, texting, and emailing is a lot easier.
Every smart phone is suffering from poor battery life when fully used, and the G1 admittedly is no different, but I can survive a whole day without charging, only to do this at home, or at my work's desk.
I love how integrated it all feels. Google are becoming a real competitor in this market and how much longer will we have to wait until we see them compete with the mighty Microsoft for becoming the desktop OS of choice.
I have been an Apple user for the last 5 years, but I can now comfortably say I will be migrating totally to Google in the next few months. The power of mobile phones is a lot more than just making calls nowadays...
Overall, highly delighted with my choice and am comfortable to whip this baby out anywhere and be content that my first smart phone is one of the best on the market.
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