29 Mar 09 Review: T-Mobile HTC G1 – The Google Phone – Part 1

T-Mobile G-1. Nearly all the hype, all the excitement of the iPhone minus multi-touch (but with copy-paste, thankyouverymuch) and presented here in all its glory.

We at MobileWhack got hold of the HTC/Google G-1 mobile phone a couple of weeks ago thanks to the guys over at PureMobile. I have been playing with it during these few days and, while it falls a tad short of the iPhone, it’s an impressive first version that I suspect was intended more for the geeks out there than ordinary folks. After all, the geeks are the ones that wouldn’t mind carrying a bricky 5.6 oz phone as long as they get to show it off – you know what I mean.

I am very happy with the display: while slightly smaller than the iPhone’s, this is obviously the way of the future for phones and there’s no doubt about it.

Initial Setup
The Google phone requires a Google account before you can do anything – including activate the phone on T-Mobile. Since I wasn’t technically on their G-1 plan (which is a 3G/EDGE package with 400 messages/month), I could not, for some reason, activate the phone immediately, so I had to call in for support from T-Mobile. I didn’t realize the problem immediately and it took a couple of days before I had to give up. Once activated, you get to the main screen, which by default shows 4 icons: “Dialer”, “Contacts”, “Browser” and “Maps” – in that order. That sets the priorities just about right.

Importing contacts was simply flawless. I exported my Windows Address Book (which is where your iPhone/Nokia/BlackBerry contacts go if you don’t have Outlook or something like that on Windows) onto a file, uploaded it onto my newly created Google account and voila – within a short time all contacts were imported. As with any Google account, you get not only Gmail but a ton of other products like Calendar, Docs and so on.

Screen
The T-Mobile G-1’s display has a nice side-scrolling feature where your current wallpaper also scrolls. You have the main ‘center’ screen, and one each on the left and the right. The right one is probably the next most useful screen, with its Google voice search feature. It’s especially great for times when you are wearing gloves and it’s too friggin’ cold to take out your hands.

Check out the MobileWhack RSS reader application while you are there One of the default settings that I found a bit frustrating was the screen fading out to black every time. Let’s say I am on a call and I want to press any key (”Press 1 for English”), by the time I move the phone from my ear to in front of my face, the display would’ve faded out. This is quite different from the iPhone which has some sort of a sensor and blanks out the display only when you move the phone close to your ear or something; once you move it away, it will turn back on, and gives access to the number keypad. On the G-1, you would have to unlock the screen, go to the Dialer (that’s what they’re calling it the keypad) and then choose your key. This kind of slows you down when making a call.

Keypad
Any phone that presents a full hardware QWERTY keypad has got to be good, right? Wrong. Blame the weight of the G-1 partly on the slide-out keypad. On a related note, the color combination chosen on the keypad is disappointing; while the backlight clearly shows the silver on the keys, the orange for ALT keys cannot be seen at all. And if you’re in a low-light area, you can forget about ALT keys altogether.

Bundled Apps
The G-1 comes with a host of utilities including IM, built-in Calendar (not the online version), Email client, full-fledged web browser, integration with Amazon MP3, a music player and mobile YouTube. There’s also a Voice Dialer, letting you dial a contact by saying their name or number. This feature has been available on Nokia phones for quite some time now (a few years, actually), so it’s good to see that Google/HTC decided to include it.

The killer app is still Google Maps. It nicely integrates street views, so if you’re lost and Google happens to have street views around the area, you can quickly un-lost yourself.

Where can I get one?
That’s the right question. If you don’t like to be bothered with contracts and the like, you can get the HTC G1 for US $435 from PureMobile.

HTC G1 Google Phone from T-Mobile – Unlocked GSM Phone

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Tags: G1, Google Android, HTC, Reviews, tmobile, touchscreen