T-Mobile G1 review
Sure, we hit up the press event and got some early hands on action, but there’s nothing like a really solid review, right? We’ve been using the T-Mobile G1 for around a week and we’ve literally combed through the entire device. So much so that we split up the sections piece by piece and separated it into hardware and software. If you’ve got a G1 on the way or are passionately considering scoopin’ one up, you are out of luck they are all sold out might want to take a gander at what we’ve put together.
Hardware:
The hardware part is a little tricky. The phone has supposedly been in development for years, yet we can’t get beyond the feeling that this device is a little bit too prematurely at the prime-time stage. The black model especially just looks like a prototype in a couple areas. One being the four physical buttons on the banana end of the handset. Those are send, home, back and end/power. While the tactile feedback of those buttons is fine, you often times try and select one, and it doesn’t register anything. That’s because of the small size and physical surroundings if you will. They are basically flush with the case, thus making it difficult sometimes to accurately push one of them.
The screen is very crisp and actually offers the second best touch-screen experience ever, yes, compared to the iPhone at number one. For all you Storm lovers, we haven’t officially reviewed the Storm yet so that is why it’s not in this list if it did in fact make it on. It’s a capacitive screen which means that force isn’t necessary. Essentially the touch panel registers the minute electrical pulses in your fingers instead of looking for an actual physical touch input. That works great and we’re happy to say the screen has a high-quality feel all around. It’s not glass, rather a very hard plastic which we love using.
Now onto the probably one of the G1’s biggest features — keyboard time! There are two parts to this; the keyboard is better than most, but not quite perfect. The reason is that the keys are about 1-2mm too flush with the case. There is a bunch of room under the flip, and we really would have loved to see HTC jump up the ‘board a little bit. If they could, they probably would, so it’s most likely not their fault, but that would have made for one of the nicest QWERTY typing experiences to come along in a pretty long time. The layout is completely fine and you won’t have any trouble navigating at all. That includes a very clean white backlighting on the keys and the actual hard/soft plastic feel the physical keys have.
When you take the battery cover off the G1, the first thing you might see is the vibrate mechanism. It’s actually the first time we’ve ever seen one exposed on a mobile device and it gives off a weird vibrate feeling. It’s sort of a rough ass vibrate that makes you feel like the phone is going to explode. Ok, well maybe not that bad, but we guess a stronger vibrate is better than a weak one? That’s what she said.
The speakers are another big important feature of the G1 as this is pretty much a consumer-targeted phone. The placement is again, (noticing a trend here?) flush with the casing. There’s a tiny raised dot which theoretically would help divert sound off a flat surface when resting your phone on, but it honestly does little to remedy the muffled sound you’ll get. The actual speakers are pretty decent when not on a flat surface, but we had trouble hearing alert sounds when the phone wasn’t right next to us or when it was in a pocket.
The camera isn’t all too bad, but for some reason we were expecting more out of a 3 megapixel + camera. Performance even in daylight didn’t work out too well for us, and pictures never got that sharp and crisp look we were looking forward to. Forgot about low-light performance. Without a flash, that’s a non-starter.
Now, onto the actual flip mechanism… it works very well. HTC has made this thing really durable and it slides out with ease, and the same goes for closing it. It’s pretty violent (read: not smooth) but we don’t have any qualms about it. Put it like this… if people are experiencing hardware problems with the G1, we highly doubt it will be with the flip assembly.
Summing up the hardware bit, we’ve just got to get this out of the way; WHY IN THE HELL IS THE DAMN THING ANGLED AT THE BOTTOM LIKE A BANANA? Can someone please enlighten us? This does absolutely nothing for the handset, it just makes its more difficult to hold and carry in a pocket or something else. It really annoys the crap out of us that it isn’t just flat. Heck, everything on the device is flat — buttons, camera, speakers — why not keep in the tradition of flatness?
Software:
There’s no real task manager. Sure, you hold the home button and get a recent list of open apps, and you can install a 3rd party program that makes it easier to switch applications with shortcut keys, but still, sometimes you just want to completely close something. In all fairness, the G1 and specifically Android does a pretty decent job at managing memory, but we have run into a couple “wait for application to respond or close” errors while putting the phone through it’s paces.
We realize this is just the beginning and we’ve got more hope in the platform itself than we ever had before, but for something that was being cooked up for so long, and something practically started by the Sidekick king himself, we can’t understand why there are so many general inconsistencies and non-existent functions.
For instance, the device has an LED in the earpiece to designate charging status (orange for charging, green for full), yet that can’t be used as a notification light for missed events. There’s no keyboard options like key repeat rate, delay, no trackball sensitivity options, and worst of all, when you set a lock for the device, there’s no timeout option! Let’s repeat this. When you set a lock password for the phone, which isn’t a password at all, it’s a specific drawing on the screen which is pretty cool yet highly insecure, the phone will lock and require a password each and every time the screen goes off. For people who the screen set to a 15 second or 30 second timeout, that means you’ll have to unlock the phone by pressing the power button, the menu button, and then drawing your pass-phrase on the screen every single time. Absolutely ridiculous we say.
We’ll explain the inconsistencies for you so you know what to expect and get an idea for how we say the phone is definitely v1. In maps, you can press menu + z to bring up the zoom keys, but you can’t do that in any other application like the web browser, for instance. Just plain stupid. Android could be at least 40% better if all these inconsistencies were addressed and actually let you do more with less, instead of making you work harder to get to the same place.
What about an on-screen keyboard? You’re out of luck. It’s way stupid in our opinion that you can’t pull up a T9 layout and fire off some quick 4 or 5 letter word to a friend in an SMS. You are forced to slide the phone open, and bang out your sentences using the physical keyboard. This can get extremely tiring seeing as there’s practically no way to send off a quick message when it’s closed. Heck, we would have ever appreciated some canned pre-loaded responses. That would have probably held us over for a bit, but nope, there’s no way to basically enter any information other than dialing a number when the phone is closed.
Let’s look at Wi-Fi on the G1… it works pretty well most of the time, but we have run into a couple occasions of the phone staying connected to a much weaker saved network rather than switching to a stronger saved one. The biggest issue you’ll run into using Wi-Fi on here is that it absolutely murders the battery. Even when the phone is locked your battery is dying rather quickly. You’d be lucky to get around three hours of semi-rough usage with Wi-Fi. On the other hand, if Wi-Fi is off, the battery life should really impress you. It’s got a 1150mAh battery which is definitely decent and should power you though the day. We were just a little depressed about the Wi-Fi situation as our Bold and iPhone are both on Wi-Fi and have no issues whatsoever, especially when they are just in standby mode.
Phone calling is pretty straightforward here, and the speakerphone sounds great when it’s not obstructed. The interface is clean and is one of the areas where the G1 looks really, really polished. It’s semi-iPhone like with a swap call button, merge call button, speakerphone button, and keypad button. Call quality was also very good with the G1 in our limited calling tests.
One of favorite applications on the G1 is the SMS app. It’s just very natural to use and makes texting seem fun again. You could think of it as a unified MMS/SMS inbox since everything that is sent to you will show up in message threads in that application. It’s very natural and logical to have such a clean interface where text messages along with photo messages, audio, voice notes, and slides all are seen in one conversation. Big ups to Google for that one, we likes. But what about email? We’re sad to report that emailing is probably one of the worst things the G1 does. It’s clunky, slow, and unresponsive if you are on EDGE. Plus shortcuts are pretty much non-existent.
But, if we go back to the whole unity thing for a second, we’re just not sure why Sidekick king failed to address the issues of inconsistencies and a general lack of usability in some areas, while adding great features in others. Unless we’re seriously missing something, and we doubt we are, there’s no way to instantly flip in between messages, or anything like that. On a Sidekick you have the left and right shoulder buttons to flip through conversations in an application and that applied to every application; IM, SMS, email, even the web browser. But there’s nothing like it here. What’s the point of having 4 dedicated hardware buttons and a full keyboard when there’s basically no shortcuts? It really hinders the overall user experience and will cause people a lot of unnecessary headaches.
Speaking of instant messaging, how is it? As far as smartphones go, it’s one of the worst experiences we’ve had. Google Talk is the best out of AIM, Yahoo, Live Messenger and Gtalk (no surprises there, right?) but it’s still not that good. Reconnects rarely worked for us, we would get signed in and out for no reason, you can’t hide offline buddies, and while you can press menu + space to flip between conversations, the whole thing is clunky at best. So, how are the rest? They work over SMS, people. Utter. Fail. One of the stupidest things we’ve seen in a long, long time. Now, there’s been some debate over AIM and the other clients using data or SMS, but even if they don’t use SMS they are still horrible. Messages take forever to come in, you have very limited options in terms of communicating (read: text only, no media), and again, reconnects aren’t smooth. This should be the “killer app” on the G1 out of the box. Yes, there will be 3rd party solutions, but that doesn’t negate the fact that so many things are just unpolished and rushed here.
There’s the whole theory that basically anything can be added by a 3rd party developer, and for the most part that’s true. We’ve seen applications wonderfully throw themselves in the mix on the phone, and that was incredibly refreshing to see. But, when you have a base package and are leaving a lot of what makes an OS great (intuitiveness, cohesion, user-interface, consistency, and polish) to 3rd party developers, that’s probably not the smartest idea. Why? Well, you might like green and your friend likes blue. Someone might like a putrid mix of green blue and yellow, too. Just because what one developer thinks is the right way to craft a UI for something doesn’t mean another one will feel the same way. That’s going to be the biggest uphill battle for Android in our opinion. Forget about the corporate market for a second, think about how fluid the iPhone is. Heck, think about how consistent a BlackBerry is? Since your first BlackBerry up until now, did you ever have to look at it twice, or did you instantly know what you were doing? Now take the fact that nothing is seamless across even Google’s own OS applications, and let’s now throw in about 5 different form-factors, and 15 different hardware configurations, and 3 different navigational configurations. See what we’re getting at?
How in the world could someone perfect the Android experience across that broad range of hardware when even the first unit doesn’t do that? In the meantime, we think the up-and-coming mobile consumer/prosumer will love the G1 as long as they know what it is. It’s not a BlackBerry, it’s not a Sidekick. You could think of it as the adult Sidekick though, and that, my friends, is what people have been waiting for, for a very long time.
Well the First gen Iphone didnt have a standard headphone Jack either. they quickly fixed that and I would not be surprised if HTC quickly did the same. I also wonder how many of you actually read the review. In the end they said “In the meantime, we think the up-and-coming mobile consumer/prosumer will love the G1 as long as they know what it is” The pointed out some of the minor flaws (all new releases have them) and just left the good stuff out. It obviously needs some work, luckly most of the stuff I care about is firmware updates and third party apps (maybe a bad idea to assume they will be written but lets be real… they are already in the works)
There’s an ota on the 22nd that might address some concernt I’m a casual user and I love my g1. Didn’t have a problem doing what I gotta do !!!!!
take that fanboys http://tmonews.com/2008/10/g4tv-reviews-the-g1/
like apple really care about this sh!tty site? I thought so.
I am coding up an application right now that will make it hover and fly into my hand like a light saber when ever I command it to with my mind. Ok so maybe it won’t hover but it will kick the but out of a gen one i Phone and give the latest one a good fight. I have done a bit of research and the specs are good the build quality so far has been consistently good (unlike the iPhone)the OS stable, it seems the main things that people don’t like are mostly preference, I do agree that the os could be a bit more streamlines, but it is basically a beta product that is being launched and again I repeat the OS is already stable. I have looked at the emulator and SDK and it makes it easy to code your own programs. Being very open you can customize it to you. So most of these grips people have will fade away. I have a list of features I would love to see on android, on my blog, some of which I may have to code myself or with help of friends. But the nice thing is I won’t be a outlaw if I do because its open source
It seems to me the phone is already more stable than most windows operating systems lol ok maybe thats not saying much. But geez it has a pretty strong Processor : Qualcomm® MSM7201A™, 528 MHz I believe I read that this processor is specs are 528 MHz ARM 11 application processor and a 256 MHz ARM 9 microprocessor on a single chipset, a decent amount of memory and supports a 16Gb micro sdcard! Which means I can swap cards for when i am in different moods. (iPhone to my knowledge has no way to expand memory) I couldn’t find the processor speed of the iPhone on its site, seems its something Apple (Steve) thinks I don’t need to know, or I missed it. I am tired of people making me do things their way with expensive stuff I buy. I sold my PSP for a GP2X and I am getting a G1 and I also dualboot Ubuntu. I embrace the freedom to choose. Do you?
BG… I don’t know you nor do I care too, but I can tell you an Iphucker! So here’s my run down on the G1 GOD PHONE! BG (writer of this article) I have to tell you that you suck at your evaluation job! Man… it seems you’re some poor IPhoner that’s jealous of the Tmobile G1 technology and don’t quite know how to rap your mind around how to use even if you did have the opportunity to do so, also you continue to compare it to the I-Phone which is the Jesus Phone versus the Tmobile G1 “GoD PhonE when it comes to technology, Jesus is just the son of GOD… Read me? The headphone jack being missing is not a issue at all, being that you can’t listen to radio and talk on the device at the same time, but you have to do so one at a time, so I kind of appreciate that mini usb A2DP just so I can listen to music on the headphones and then if I recieve a call I press the talk button and hear them in my headsets, which is a great failure with 3.5mm, software wise the Tmobile device destroy the Iphone which doesnt allow the user any control over the apps they would desire, I doubt you did any research on the android market and evaluated their application, because if you did you would see why your Iphone lovers either leaving to go Android or hateing the fact that it lacks the technology this phone is doing, for instance; when do you know of a phone that scans your eye inorder to log into your personal info (Biowallet), what cell device you know can scan any item with a barcode and pull up the stores within 50+ miles of its location using GPS to find where each store is at and also notifying you when the price get cheaper for that product and gives you the option of seeing it online with a list of websites it’s available on contrary to the surrounding stores in the current location you may be at at the time (ShopSawy), and even visa has created an application for this GoD PhonE to add to the numerous of applications being created and the ones that’s already available in the android market. The acceleratormeter is very awesome with this device and has no lag as I’ve seen in the Iphone when turning the device, but has lighting fast response. Also, there is already an application that’s being created to sync the device with Exchange and etc as you should know, but Google is to me more better than outlook and exchange, keeping in mind that Google whole goal is to make us Google Extremist enjoy Google to the extreme with this device. Hardware wise this cell can kill Iphone hands down, I know Iphones to freeze at moments and then you have to take it to the dealer to reset it or something, but Tmobile G1 can fix that issue with just detaching the batttery and “walah”. lol. Also, it takes 16 GiG of memory right out the box, with a 3.2 megapixel camera, a stunning keyboard with the ability to have virtual keyboard which an app is in development. There’s so much to converse about this cell device, like why would Google be looking for a media player when they’ve informed everyone that they’re leaving it up to third-party developers to create what suites us, so hands down I believe “Tunewiki” is ASTOUNDING for the Tmobile G1, it take media playing to another level and I’m satisfied with that app for years than the road, plus they’ve also created a camcorder app for it, so now we can video record, you can get the detail on androidcommunity.com. So for this to be the worse phone according to your illiteracy, that makes Iphone the most garbage device of the year when it comes to smart phones, and trust me we didn’t even began to get into the true technology, I’ll allow you to see over 1.5 million users utilizing this device that has way more helpful advantages than the Iphone, your opinion of it’s flaws are all minor and not very important, what you should be worried about is why is that the Tmobile G1 is getting Microsoft Silverlight and your Iphone isnt or how is it true that a Tom Tom application is in the works? YES! LOL. In THE WORKS! So see… this is nothing like the Iphone… it’s way more phenomenal. So stop being jealous Jack and get one… if the iphone can’t beat the G1, how will it stand besides the G2? Iphucker! (Laughs Triumphantly). Google first device destroyed it’s rival 3rd one. lol. Tmobile G1 is Thee GOD PhonE “Jack “ass.
God, how depressing. Gizmodo and Engadget say similar things. To late to cancel, though.
Maybe tmobile will get the BB Storm?
Don’t be a sheep, use the phone yourself and see if it works well for you, Reviews are told through the reviewer’s bias, the only true way to find out is to be there first hand. If you keep an open mind, and try it your self I am sure you will be nicely surprised… Thank the universe for Reference Numbers!!!!
BTW its not like any of these reviewers had an agenda lol!!!!!! 
Ummm wow…if I see the word bias(ed) one more ‘effin time…seriously though bg hire some decent writers…it seems the tech blog scene lost its way…we should be psyched about this device because the os is left unpolished…we’re all still geeks right? Some of us are devs!! I mean these reviews come off like some mr.gadget or whatever his name is ‘tech’ segment on local news stations…we all get the concept yet get mad when google doesn’t cross our t’s and dot our I’s…I just want a review aimed at the geeks not the consumer…open platforms are not for everybody…get an iphone if you dnt wanna get ur hands dirty…3rd parties make great apps and I can’t tell you how many windows phones I’ve killed effin with the registry and downloading shady apps…that’s the spirit…I don’t know anymore this site lost all its spunk engadget blows and gizmodo is just engadget for stoners….which is hilarious but still….not good anymore…im goin to ars peace. LOS ANGELES JUNGLIST WHAT!!!!!!!!!!!
I may not get all the sweet stuff to review however when I get stuff I try to be straight forward and not put a douchebagish twist on anything. Yes and I invent my own words too. So yes now I am going to shamelessly plug my blog because this blog makes me look so good
http://d4rk-4ng3l.blogspot.com
well, i am a few days behind on this review, but i just got my device (work for the company) and i love it. I agree with a lot of this review, but i will say that the open platform has kept me glued to this thing since I got it last week. Every day more applications are available and contrary to what others are saying on these reviews the size is perfect and it does not in any way feel cheap or plasticy. It feels solid and fits in my hand better than an iphone. The auto focus on the camera can be a pain but the touch screen is great and the google apps preloaded make it so much fun right out of the box. Oh, and I might add, the speaker phone is the best I have EVER used, I was in a busy parking lot with some street racer cars driving by and I held the phone at my hip and talked and the people inside one of my locations could hear me crystal clear. Hope this helps!
These are some of the features that are easily implemented with the software of the G1 but havent been setup yet. The third one is a hardware feature issue.
1. Stereo Bluetooth: I love this feature on my other devices mostly for music. I have a bluetooth stereo speakerphone that i love but i cant use it for anything other than calls with the G1 in its current state. i would love to just send it over bluetooth and have it play.
2. UMA/Hotspots calling: Yes this really should have been a launch feature but I know from other devices like the blackberry curve, the software has to be optimized to not kill the battery since its running over wifi. Blackberry has done a great job with there version so I imagine its only a matter of time before we get it on the G1.
3. 3.5mm audio jack: This is a HTC thing, they ship the G1 with a very good quality headset but many would like to plug up the device to a auxillary or use different headphones. I believe i have seen adapters for this but the last one i saw for 10 dollars was a motorola branded one and i wouldnt take a chance on anything other than htc.
4. Corporate email and outlook: these should come in time considering the phone lends itself to users who actually have a need for these services.
For more see http://www.G1-Forum.com
re: michael jones
http://www.boygeniusreport.com/2008/10/16/t-mobile-g1-review/#comment-299253
if you raise the keys it may not close and they will eventually trap dust and fall off
I have the G1… this is a good review. As it is with pretty much anything… nothing will ever live up to what people want.
Probably my biggest complaint is the headphone jack… but at the same time I never used my phone as an mp3 player my I-Pod does the job np.. and since i don’t listen to music when i’m not at my desk or in my car all is well.
I think the review on this is pretty bad. No offense. But some of it really isn’t even true. I have it and I really do love it. Obviously it’s not going to be perfect, it’s only the g1. Once the g2 or g3 comes out that will be a lot better… I love everything about it though, the only things that I dislike is the fact that it takes MORE than 10 seconds to take a picture, it’s ridiculous. Another thing that I don’t really like is that it doesn’t look that nice, it looks kind of cheep. But really it is a good cell, and I would recommend anyone to get it.
I just surfed the web today and was checking other sites of forums about people with Pre-ordering their phones after Oct. 3rd – 21st that we had to wait till November 10th. I have just read that it is supposed to be shipped out for all pre-orders during this week!!! WOW!! i do not know how they did it, but it has been confirmed that they will come about 3 days prior to the shipped date that you receive from UPS tracking!! Although mine is not shipped yet, hopefully it will be soon…
http://www.G1-Forum.com is a website that’s dedicated to the T-Mobile G1.
I had the SK LG before this phone. SK never had good reception, was always looking for service, and I had crazy amount of dropped calls. I have been using the G1 and it is like a breath of fresh air. I don’t think people should get discouraged. It is a good phone. Yes the aim should be better, other then that it is worth it!
I dont normally post comments on blogs, but I did feel the need to post after reading this article.
I am going to have a hard time believing much of any kind of review that comes from this website after this. There are alot of things that just simply are not true about the phone, and many things that are just mis-understood.
I pretty much stopped reading the article when the IM application starts to get talked about; Hiding offline buddies? That can be found in the settings menu…..
Wi-Fi DEMOLISHING the battery? Not really. I can leave the phone on all day with wifi and Edge, with heavy calling and I still only have to charge it once a day.
Regardless, I hope that BGR is able to get its reviewing skills up to snuff and actually USE the product before reviewing – not a half-baked pre-launch sounding review. (One that had many inaccuracies at that) This is one more reader you lost because of this article – not because of the negatives about the phone, because like all things it has negatives, but the article was written poorly and not even correct.
ahahahahahahaahah goodd one on the ” thats what she said ” actually had me laughinggg hahahaha .. but im getting this phone for christmas..
1. will they tweek all the problems by then . ?
2. for aim.. the messages take a while to come threw ?? i am really looking forward to aim and texting on this device but is the aim good ?
please commenntt over thiss with pros n cons and details on the a.i.m pleeaseeeeeeee
I previously was using the blackberry pearl and one thing that I hated was not being able to see some links sent via email etc. Hence why I was so excited about the G1. I agree there are a lot of things that lack in this design one thing that I can not get passed is constantly losing the ability to receive or make calls. I have had this phone since the 20th and the past week I have had issues with using the phone for calls. Called Tmobile and they acknoledged that G1 phones were having these issues. How funny is it that the phone does everything else but make phone calls.
Also my phone has turned off a number of times and has made it difficult to turn on. I called for a replacement phone and will give it 1 more week, if not, going back to my BB pearl for CALLS, very quick email and AIM service
no its actually a good devise, i think like the first Iphone, the carrier could have waited a little longer and get theyre s**t together…the phone itself takes a few days to get used to but hey ive had it since launch and hasnt crashed on me once. I know of people that have the Iphone and it crashes on them all the time…all in all i think that Android is here to stay
I really feel that the e-amil weakness of the G1 needs to be made VERY clear. It is the worst experince you could possibly imagine. Google mail on the G1 only get to Goo… Really I have to use the WEB browser on the G1 to use the ‘WEB’ Gmail as what is sync’d directly by the G1 is not usable.
No edit capabilities are available, except to edit subject.
Touch the forward email option and it will not allow you to edit the Quoted Text.
So while everyone is focused on the fact that the G1 cannot connect to Outlook Exchange I was blown away with the poor excuse for its own Gmail support; in a nutshell the feel of GMail on GoogleWEB is not there at all. If emails are a part of your daily activity IMHO the G1 is not a tool you want to invest in until a third party application is developed that is racked on this website with four stars or better.
As for my busines email activities I’m forced to use OWA thru our business exchange server. Usually this is considered a last ditch effort as OWA in itself is not a robost enviroment BUT it is light ahead of what you get on the G1 – I repeat it is Light years ahead of anything else on the G1 one today (Nov.2008)
I hope this helps someone thinking about getting a G1 for business eMail, wait or pay the pain I’m suffering.
I was surprised myself at how poor the G1 handles email and I’m not just talking about Outlook.
The capabilities of the email client are terrible. Nothing like GMail on the WEB – as a matter of fact I have to use the G1 web browser to get to gmail because the native client is so bad.
No capability to edit emails.
IMHO if you need email capability to take care of business the G1 is not a toll you want to invest in at this point. A third party application is seriously needed to make this a usable platform. I’m sure this will come but without it today (Nov.2008) it is only a phone; which works quite well.
Just wanted to say I got the G1 last week and love it! It’s not perfect but no phone is. I wanted to clear up the fact that the LED lights DO IN FACT light up for alerts. Whenever my phone is in sleep mode and I get a text, missed call, etc; the green light blinks.
As for the Banana shape… If you lay it face down, it keeps the screen from actually touching the surface. Kind of a good idea…
The iphone is so bad the texting is garbo i hated it after a week i sold it for 400 more than i bought it for now i have a sidekick lx i had a slide and a iD i love my lx i cant live without it…for christmas the only thing i asked for was a g1 and i cant wait it looks better than the iphone and the sidekick i just hope the aim is good