Part 1 of 2
G1 w box
The T-Mobile G1 is the first handset that uses Android, Google’s open-source phone operating system. It is manufactured by HTC for T-Mobile and it is also known as the HTC Dream. The G1 is powered by a 528 MHz Qualcomm processor with 256 MB of RAM and 192 MB of ROM memory. It features dual input having both a touch screen and a sliding full QWERTY keyboard. Initially, the original build of the OS does not have a virtual keyboard, but that was remedied with its latest build codenamed Cupcake. It is a quad-band GSM phone and a mobile internet device using 3G speeds when coupled with T-Mobile’s data plan. Originally, T-Mobile insisted that the G1 be sold and used with the data plan, but has since relented and allows its customers to remove the plan either by calling its customer service line or by accessing their respective T-Mobile account online. Other features include both a wireless and Bluetooth antenna, and a 3.2 megapixel camera. The G1 also has a slot for a micro-SD slot. The T-Mobile package already includes a 1 GB card. It comes in three colors, white, bronze and black.
Why did I buy the G1?
Two features attracted me to it. First, the fact that it is a new phone OS that is open-source and by Google and will surely be embraced by the open-source and enthusiast community. I like to sometimes mess with my phone to see how much you can extend its use and value to you via new applications. Open-source guarantees, at least free to reasonably-priced application in its future. I also want to support more choices, as I abhor cartelized industries wherein one or two companies dominate a service or a product. . The second reason is the full QWERTY keyboard. I never warmed up to the iPhone’s virtual keyboard and the constant mistype on text messages and emails is infuriating. And I send a lot of SMS and emails so that is an important feature for me. And since I am out-of-contract and can get the G1 at an attractive upgrade price I decided to get one.
I have been using the G1 for more than three months and here are my impressions
Software side
What sets the G1 apart from other smartphones or mobile internet devices is its OS. Android is Google’s first attempt to come up with its own phone OS and has build the OS and the use of the phone around its own web application. You will need a Gmail account to be able to activate the phone. This marriage between phone and OS is so tight that the G1 is all about cloud computing. It does not sync with any of the usual PIM software like Microsoft Outlook, iCal or Mozilla’s Thunderbird, instead you do it all through your Google web applications.
I think that the cloud computing aspect of the G1 was the hardest to adjust to since I am used to coming home every evening and syncing my phone to my computer to dump whatever updates I did whether it be calendar, mail or contact information into my desktop or vice versa. I use Gmail but before the G1, I was not using Google calendar and limit the amount of contact information that I store in my Gmail account. The reason for this is both privacy and security. I have heard numerous horror stories of people’s email’s being hacked for me to put information like addresses, phone numbers and birthdates onto an email web application. Unfortunately, it is a no go with the G1 if you do not do that. I guess I just have to be extra careful with my online habits and be vigilant in regularly changing my password. So I relented and transferred my calendar information that resided on my iCal up to Google calendar, choosing the private view as a default view, uploaded my contacts to Gmail and sync the Google account to the G1. Syncing was painless and updates are recorded on both the web application and the phone as long as you have an internet connection. There are however glitches, at times calendar items that you have deleted on the web application will show up again on the phone, but it’s more an exception than the rule. I can still update my desktop calendar as I have sync Google calendar with iCal. It works well except for an occasional hiccup of the calendar going offline. With regards to the contact information, I have to do it indirectly by using my iPhone to sync to Google and then sync Google with the G1. It is not ideal but it works. All of my emails are Gmail’s so that was not hard and since both the iMac and the G1 can do IMAP, updates are automatic. However, the G1 does not have native Exchange support. Both my two phones previous to the G1, the iPhone and the Dash does, and I do use Exchange to get my work email into my phone. There are 3rd party solutions, but none are free and I am kind of bummed to pay for something that should have been standard. I heard that the reason for this lack of native Exchange support can be blamed on Google’s insistence on tightly integrating it with Google application. But I am hoping that Google relents in the future as I am sure a lot of G1 and any future Android handset users will want that as a standard feature.
Just like the iPhone, the G1 also has its own marketplace to download phone applications that will further extend the G1’s capability. The choices is lacking, especially when you compared it to the iPhone’s “there’s an app for that” store. Of course, this is more a symptom of the newness of the Android OS and that the G1 is the first phone to have it. I guess by year one, we will have more handsets, ergo more phone applications.
Overall, the feel of the OS is a bit unpolished, but still I like it. And Google is known for constantly improving its product and the recently released 1.5 build of the OS, Cupcake, proves that. It added a virtual keyboard and fixed some of the little annoyances with the OS. So I see an exciting future for this OS.
continued on Part 2