The G1 is the new smart phone from T-Mobile and I am lucky enough to own one!
So i thought i would tell you guys my opinion of the device.
Since there is really two parts to this phone i will split my review into two different sections and put a small comparison with the iPhone at the bottom. The hardware section (the actual phone)
The phone has a 8.1 cm TFT-LCD flat touch-sensitive HVGA screen with 480 X 320 pixel resolution which looks awesome and is very nice to look at both in the sun and at night. The touch sensitivity is very, very nice. As u drag icons and scroll through menus or around websites it feels very responsive and smooth.
The G1 has a full QWERTY keyboard that sides out from the back with great ease. I like the keyboard and the method by which u can get to the symbols just like the keyboard on your computer (i prefer this to the iPhones touch keyboard).
The camera is pretty good, not the best that you can get on a phone I am sure but it is good enough for me. The only downside to it really is that you cannot capture video on it.
The phone stores all your files on a micro SD card (i got a 8GB free with the free) which is by far enough for me. The only way you will use more than this is if you use it as your main mp3 player. If you are going to then you can lay your hands on a bigger micro SD fairly cheaply.
The battery is OK but if you use the phone a for about 12 hours straight like i did the day i got it then it will need charging once a day for its 3 hour charge period.
Other nice things about the phone are the Accelerometer, for senseing movement and which way up the phone is (nice for games developers i think *Day dreams about possible game mechanics*), the digital compass and the GPS. The GPS is awesome. Using your GPS and digital compass and google maps you can find any location and get directions to it. I have already used this to find a pizza place, phone my order ahead (part of the google maps service) and walk there to pick up my pizza. Very, very nice. The GPS has also been used for some game apps on the phone which is an awesome idea but so far all of them require alot of people with G1s in your locale to play (which will of course only happen in cities and only if your lucky) so i think these ideas need to be worked on a little more.
The last hardware item i want to talk about is the audio. The speak is quite loud and can be used to listen to music say when you want to show a track to your friend but is a little tinny for use most of the time. This leads me to the only issue i have with the G1 hardware. That is, the headphones. The headphones plug into the usb jack at the bottom of the phone so if you can say good bye to your skull candy headphones. The headphones provided are not bad and feature a good microphone and call answering button so its not too bad but i would like the option of what headphones to use.
This leads me the the second part of my review. The software.
The G1 runs the Android operating system. Android is an open source operating system developed by Google, it is based on the Linux kernel. The desktop environment is very nice and the software works seamlessly with the hardware.
Android features the "Android Market". A application where you can download applications for the operating system. There are hundreds and hundreds of apps ranging from Games to Tools that enhance even the phones simplest features such as texting. The Android market is full of apps that you will find useful. The great thing about this mobile is that instead of complaining about a thing that's not available on the phone you have the source code for the operating system and full access to all the hardware so just go ahead and program it into your phone (you program G1 apps in Java). Why not make it downloadable yourself on Android market so the rest of the G1 owners can benefit from your awesome idea, and all for free.
I believe you can charge for downloads of your application although i have not yet seen one program you must pay for to download (nice community).
The pre-installed applications include Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Maps, Google Talk, and the YouTube video player, all of which is use frequently.
For me, the nicest thing about this phone is that when i receive a e-mail or a IM my phone plays a tone just like when i get a text message. The reason i love this so much is that if my message is not that urgent then why waste a text message on it? I'll just email the person from my automatically synced with my google account contacts list and why they reply i will know as soon as it happens. If i want to talk people who are at their computer (most of the people i know, sad but true) then i will drop them a IM with google talk (or if u use AIM, IRC or MSN there are apps on the market for you) and talk to them from where ever i am. This is also true of other people with G1s (like my flat mate Harj) who I can constantly talk to for free.
This is the best phone i have ever owned, no doubt about it and for my contract of £30 a month and free phone (£25 is the cheapest option if you pay for the phone) it is well worth it.
Now for my promised section comparing it with the iPhone. I have played with he iPhone a fair amount and held them side by side and i can tell you this. If you are a fashionable idiot who is willing to pay over the top prices for an item that does less but has a slightly sleeker body then get the iPhone then do the rest of us a favour and stop showing it off. The G1 is far far cheaper and for a device with so many more possibilities is well worth buying over the iPhone. On the other hand there will always be people who wear tight jeans, scarfs, gel their hair up and listen to Blocparty who are always willing to pay huge money for a piece of electronics with a apple on it.
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