First Android phone review... the HTC G1

Richdog

Richdog

Richdog

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Yup... Android has arrived. Read the full review here: http://www.engadget.com/2008/10/16/t-mobile-g1-review/

Interesting snippets:

On the keyboard side, the physical layout here is generous to say the least. Clearly a lot of thought went into making this QWERTY usable, and usable it is. While the keys aren't especially raised against the backing (in fact, they're nearly flush), they are fairly responsive and widely spaced, making two-handed typing a breeze. The placement of the "chin" does get in the way of speed typing at first, but once we figured out how to avoid over-extending our right hand to get to certain keys, it became less of a problem. Alternate key characters are distributed in a reasonably sensible fashion, and you're provided with another "menu" key on the left side, though we rarely found occasion to use it. We had a little bit of re-learning to do going back to physical input after using the iPhone, but once you get the hang of it, this keyboard makes dealing with lots of email or IM sessions a breeze. Our biggest gripe on input? The keyboard is the only way to interact with text on the phone. If you need to send a quick SMS, you have to get the keyboard out. This can be an incredible pain sometimes...
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Along the bottom of the phone is HTC's totally meaningless ExtUSB port, which actually can accept micro USB plugs. Why we're forced into this odd connector type and denied a 3.5mm headphone jack is beyond us. We were told at the phone's launch that there would be an adapter included with devices (at some point) to allow regular headphone use, but honestly, who wants another adapter to worry about? Something tells us that if you're buying a phone that's supposed to "do everything," having to fiddle with some janky piece of plastic just to connect your earbuds is going to get real old, real fast.
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As we said above, the display is a capacitive LCD touchscreen. At 320 x 480, it's the same resolution as the iPhone, though the pixel density is slightly tighter here due to the smaller size (3.2 inches). Overall we found the screen to be outstanding. Colors are bright and vibrant and both text and graphics display crisply, helped immensely by rich, deep blacks. While at full brightness it's still not as stark as its nearest competitor, that actually turns out to be a plus -- this strikes just the right balance and is very easy on the eyes, even in low light. The choice of capacitive touch is a godsend. We were worried HTC would punk out and throw another resistive screen our way (hello Diamond and non-capacitive-compatible Windows Mobile!), but they pulled out the stops and it pays off big time.
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As far as the hardware is concerned, the 3.2MP camera itself has some great and not-so-great features. On the plus side, the lens actually focuses and can snap fairly close shots, allowing for near-macro pictures depending on conditions. It's a great touch that we found lots of use for. On the other hand, due to that slow refresh and really, really mushy quality of the camera button (as well as awkward placement along the edges of the keyboard and body), it's hard to know what you're going to get. We ended up with plenty of blurry and totally unusable pictures. Additionally, performance in low light was abysmal, rendering grainy shots that were practically useless. In good light performance was greatly improved, but in comparison to other phones we had around, the results were fairly disappointing overall. If you're looking for some kind of digicam stand-in, forget about the G1... taking pictures is definitely not the phone's strong suit.
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So some good and not so good things then. Will be interesting to see how the platform evolves over the next 6 months and beyond.

I think i'd still prefer a Tube though... :)
 
I've got to be honest, that review makes the G1 sound awful =/

The 3G performance video, it took 1 minute 30 seconds to open the engadget website :eek:

The GPS system looks completely borked and the camera on the phone looks like it came off a phone that was one third of the price.

The design doesn't look that great either, I've got to same I'm more than a little disappointed.

It's still early days though, so we'll see if they improve any of these faults.
 
I cancelled my orange upgrade and was looking to switch to t-mobile for the g1 however from the reviews I feel as though its just another phone on the market and does not equal the iphone. It is however early days and the software will improve.
 
Basically its good, but whats better about it, is the absolutely MASSIVE potential it has. If the app market place takes off properly, and a few little things are sorted out in updates along the way, and a phone manufactures a better phone, i would definitely switch. For now though its just the very very embryonic stages of something (hopefully) big.
 
Really dont like the way it looks, as said the os and android part will and could be massive I do think it looks a little playschoolish and could have been designed a little better in comparison to the iPhone.
Im on t-mobile and was going to wait but after the videos on YouTube i went a bought the new 3g iPhone to replace my 2g, and its as many reviews have pointed out still the best phone on the market.
 
mikeossy said:
Im on t-mobile and was going to wait but after the videos on YouTube i went a bought the new 3g iPhone to replace my 2g, and its as many reviews have pointed out still the best phone on the market.
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:confused: I think that's in the eye of the beholder, some people may say best on the market some may definitely disagree.
 
LeperousDust said:
:confused: I think that's in the eye of the beholder, some people may say best on the market some may definitely disagree.
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Maybe, and I will reserve a little judgement till i see one in the flesh. But I must admit the internet/forums/user groups arent going bonkers over this phone as they did some 18months ago when the iPhone was announced.
 
mikeossy said:
Maybe, and I will reserve a little judgement till i see one in the flesh. But I must admit the internet/forums/user groups aren't going bonkers over this phone as they did some 18months ago when the iPhone was announced.
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I'm not at all saying the G1 will be better than the iPhone i mean in general the iPhone isn't categorically the "best phone out". Also just because people aren't hyping it all over the show because a certain excitable audience are easily hyped, doesn't mean it won't be popular. The N95 didn't really get a HUGE hype before it came out, it was definitely waited on but no huge silly queues etc... Just consistent MASSIVE sales.
 
Google android was never about the hardware.
The software seems solid, now to wait for hardware that can do it justice.
 
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