My hands on with the T-Mobile G1
Now I’m not one of those important VIP level bloggers who gets neat gadgets sent over from companies for early review, because of that I have to wait like everyone else to get my hands on a new gadget.
Yesterday I decided it was time that I took a look at the new T-Mobile G1. I went by my local T-Mobile store and they had a bunch of the phones prominently on display. My first impression? This thing is junk.
Need to know more? Keep reading after the jump.
That’s not to say it isn’t a solidly built device. It certainly is. It has a soft-touch rubberized finish similar to my T-Mobile Shadow, and has a really nice sliding mechanism which locks into place with quite a loud snap. It does tend to bend and creak a bit when pressing certain parts of the touchscreen in, but only the most anal among us would be bothered by it.
The keyboard is the usual level of HTC goodness that we have all come to know and love, but unfortunately even for my large hands the bulge at the end of the phone made typing on the device less than perfectly comfortable. Also, I somehow kept managing to roll the trackball around while i was trying to type, which led to a bit of frustration, though I think that it’s something I would probably eventually get used to.
All in all, the hardware looks better in person than it does in photos. It’s a lot smaller and thinner than you would imagine. Other than the somewhat glaring omission of a dedicated headphone jack, the device itself is really not too bad. Though to be honest, it can’t hold a candle to other HTC devices like the Touch Pro or the Touch Diamond.
The software is really the place where the phone falls apart. While parts of the OS, like the homescreen and the windowshade notification system are really fantastic, other parts feel dated or non-functional. I’m really a stickler for consistancy in a device, and this phone is not consistant in the LEAST.
For example, there are (for some odd reason) TWO e-mail apps built into the phone. One is dedicated to Gmail, and the other for your POP or IMAP email. Is there any REAL reason this couldn’t have been one application? It’s really kind of silly. Another stickler for me is the total mess regarding media support. The music player is bare-bones at best, and other than a YouTube app, there is no video player to speak of.
Unfortunately, the video players that ARE available on the Android App Market are at alpha level at best. Performance is terrible, and the stability just isn’t there yet. The same can be said for a lot of the other apps, but that is sure to improve over the near term.
My biggest gripe with the G1, is that while the OS WILL be good, and the software WILL be good, and the UI WILL be good, it simply is NOT good yet.
The device isn’t done. And I have a feeling a lot of the people on T-Mobile, who will buy this expecting it to the be the T-Mobile version of the iPhone will be sorely disappointed. Hell, I expect that people buying this phone expecting a finished PHONE will be disappointed. What this device really is, is something to get the developers acquainted with the platform. It’s for the geeks and the early adopters. It’s for people who like to tinker and rebuild and customize to their hearts desires.
Over the next few months the situation with the G1 will get better, and starting next year, the next wave of Android devices will make this one look like it came from the Stone Age. So unless you’re REALLY into trying Android, I’d say hold off on this one. It’ll be better soon.