Aftermath: Our Thoughts on the HTC G1 and Android with video
The smoke has cleared, the dust has settled and T-Mobile’s G1 release event is history. We gave you plenty of live blogging action despite the fact our brand new Dell Latitude XT tried as hard as it could to screw the pooch. Then we gave you a solid hands-on gallery to feast your eyes on. Now it’s time for the wrap up; our thoughts about the HTC G1. First and foremost, don’t be fooled. In the leaked images and even in some of our gallery shots the G1 looks a bit cheap and plasticky. Seriously though, it’s not bad at all. The main case of the handset has that great rubbery feel from the Touch et al, and the phone has a very good weight to it. It’s not heavy at all but it’s also not too light so as to feel like a tinker toy. We like the slight bow of the G1 toward the bottom where the call/end/etc buttons are as it created a nice ergonomic fit when the phone is flipped sideways to expose the QWERTY keyboard. The slide on the screen by the way, is very tight and smooth. It has a great snap to it as you slide it open and closed, and the fact that it doesn’t slide straight up (the slider track on the back of the screen is shaped like “(” rather than “|”) is oddly cool. As for the keyboard there was a lot of concern but we’ll clear it up for you right now. It’s not bad at all – we’d give it a “B”. The keys have good spacing and are positioned perfectly in terms of a conventional keyboard layout (no craziness like having the “Z” directly beneath the “A” on the E71) and they have a good feel as you type. The rubber material catches your fingers well and speed demons will most definitely be able to bang out messages with a vengeance.
Now then, on to Android. We would have loved to sit back, relax and play with it all day but unfortunately we only have a few minute to cruise around and check things out. So far, we like what we see. The OS is blazing fast compared to a few competitive options and it seems to handle multitasking well. Of course the WiFi and T-Mobile networks were completely hosed so we couldn’t do much with the browser or the Android Marketplace (which Mr. Sergey Brin referred to as “the App Store” twice in his short talk!). Towards the end of the event Wi-Fi was a little less strained so we were able to catch a video of Google Maps in action. While it’s really more of a novelty than anything else, the Street View with compass mode is VERY cool. The dude giving the demo got a little excited with compass mode so you aren’t really able to get the full feel as he flailed his hand around, but it essentially places you on a point and lets you move the handset round while the vantage point mimics a person standing on the street and looking around.
The other features of Android that we played with were all solid and much more visually pleasing than we were expecting. From all the little basic apps, to finger swipes and motion animations, to third-party app integration – Android has the feel of a seasoned veteran despite the fact that we’re still a month away from the start of its rookie season. As for the near future, it is most definitely not going to fail to impress. Development is going to kick into high gear right out of the gate and unlike the restrictions Apple puts on third-party iPhone developers (no background processes, no access to much of the OS, etc) Android development is going to soar. Long story short, we’re impressed and October 22 can’t get here soon enough. A big shout is in order for T-Mobile as they did a great job of putting the event together. The location was convenient, the venue was great, everything was laid out perfectly and we hear the food was pretty tasty as well. It would have been nice to get our hands on some of it but we were busy beating the Latitude XT into submission…
hey do u guys think this is better than a blackberry bold? Also, do u think it will bbe released with Rogers in canada.?
Truman + his rant = epic pwnage.
No doubt, a $3k apple laptop has it’s place; sitting in a starbucks surfing for “does the iphone has a copy/paste function?”
Nice job truman.
AHA… I see
Thanks Zach 
Overall I’m very impressed with android and the G1. Ordered mine this morning and can’t wait for October 22.
street view is awesome !
truman is the shit
You can use right click on a mac, and if you want you can bring the browser full screen. Truman, you obviously have not used a Mac, at least not a recent one.
Truman…get some paste for those roids…won’t be quite so cranky…
Yawn…looks like a child’s phone, jerky as heck, same old sidekick reference design. Score another KO for the iPhone…
Sad thing is, Google has there 3G services capped at 1GB of usage and if that is exceeded service speeds will be reduced to 50kb/sec!! So don’t go balls crazy using that android now ya hear!
with t-mobile ‘messages’ include all types, they don’t distinguish between text/mms/IM
The 400 messages is ALL messages (text, video,mms) the 35.00 will be a better value if you text more than 400 in a month.
razor1973: The android OS automatically manages all running activities (google’s name for what amounts to a screen in an application). If the foreground activity needs more resources then the device has remaining the OS gracefully kills the oldest activity you haven’t used. The state of the killed activity is saved and automatically restored when you return to the task so any half entered text and what not isn’t lost. In addition unlike iphone applications can spawn background services to complete tasks when their activities are not showing. So a music player would have an activity to choose the song to play. Once you choose the song a service is created to actually play the track. You can then browse the web. Android will kill the screen you chose the song with if it needs the RAM but when you browse back to that activity the activity is right where you left it whether it was killed or not.
Think of it like virtual memory extreme. Instead of swapping the entire application to disk android swaps only the bits of the application you have changed since it started running which takes a lot less space. Once Android starts the application up again the state file is applied and it’s as though you never left.
I asked about the messaging issue. IM is considered web, sms and mms is messaging.
The 1gb cap as well, they said that they reserve the right to cap, but it’s not an automatic throttle down. It’s a deterrent against tethering, if you are a constant burden they slow you for a month as a warning.
Well T-mo got me to sign a contract for another 2yrs. (I haven’t had one in 5 years).
@ Tarex & Zach
I think the woman getting the Demo in the Vid was from Bloomberg News…. the dumbass who asked the stupid question during the press conference. I’m surprised I didn’t see an Anderson Cooper type there asking if the G1 can be used overseas. What is this world coming to.
~ shouts to the BGR team, truly a blog for the people
since it has wifi is it hot spot or tmobile at home compatible?
hot spot is, @ home is not. maybe an app will be made for uma?
@Easybutton, UMA is a hardware function not a software function. UMA will not work with the G1.
lol @ truman.
Clown Shoes.
Why when I try to preorder (I’m a current Tmobile user) the price is listing $299.99
Am I not special?
It depends when the last time you upgraded your phone, 179 is the full upgrade price, 299 is partial upgrade, 399 is full retail price
As a long time Sprint customer and brand new AT&T employee (don’t ask) I have to say I’m a little bit jealous. I like the phone itself, my only problems are with the service. Obviously VZW has the best 3g coverage followed by Sprint and then AT&T, but T-Mobile is a far ways behind. 21 markets? So if I don’t live in a big city I don’t get 3G? I assume that’s why they decided to throw in WiFi, smart move. I’d like to see AT&T pick this up and just change to 850Mhz UMTS and I’d have my new phone. 1 Gig data cap? 5 gigs I could see but 1 gig is rediculous. T-Mobile gets a second glance for the hand set, but the service does not hook me. I’d like to see the handset offered on all 4 major carriers.
The 400 message plan is the same as T-Mobiles regular message plan, you get SMS/MMS with that.
Hey for $10 more get Unl;imited on both, that’s a great deal.