This is my review of the HTC G1 from T-Mobile. I must prefix this with saying that the G1 is my first “proper” phone, I’ve never really cared much for phones apart from being able to send a text and make a call.
Hardware
The first thing you notice about the G1 is the looks. I can’t say I’m overly bothered about how my phone looks but it’s fair to say it’s not about to win Miss Mobile UK; if the iPhone is Brad Pitt, the G1 is Adam Sandler. It’s not horrible by any means but the generous touchscreen and slide-out keyboard (both pro’s in my eyes) unfortunately do nothing for its “lines”.
Being a Linux user, looks and fashion obviously hold little to no weight in my eyes and it’s all about the software and it doing neat stuff. Android the platform is good, very good. Again, it’s probably still not quite at iPhone standards but with today’s release of cupcake (which spurred me on to write this) it’s getting pretty damn close.
One key point to note is the battery life: shitty. Really shitty. Turning off most superfluous services and not raping the internet means you can make it last from getting up ’til bed. Accidentally, I forgot to charge overnight once and it was just about alive in the morning. If you turn off absolutely everything and don’t touch it, it could probably last maybe two days but that sorta defeats the point of having a phone.
Software
The layout of the home page is pretty good, the top bar doubles as a notification area which can be pulled down to reveal more information about the notifications received. The main area on the home screen is available to place shortcuts to apps and widgets, and as of cupcake, live folders and a better selection of widgets. The interface pre-cupcake was nice and smooth, however the upgrade has really brought some more polish to the system with some nice animations which make it feel more natural.
One of the key factors in getting the phone was the integration with Google products. Now, this might not interest some people, i.e. the people that think Google is going to crack one off while reading your smutty email to the girlfriend, but if you’re not a fan of Google’s products then this probably isn’t the phone for you. The products available are: Gmail, Calendar, Contacts (which make much more sense now), Maps, Youtube and Picassa. Notably missing is Reader which I can only assume is for a good reason.
Having all the Google services on your phone only adds to their usefulness, Contact for example automatically pulls in your Gmail contacts and vice-versa syncs your phone contacts back to Gmail, which would help cut down on the number of Facebook groups created when phones are lost by a factor of at least 10. Gmail and Calendar integration is slick and unobtrusive, the usefulness of having one place to keep all your calendar appointments can’t be understated for someone who has no clue what date it is. I finally see the appeal of a Blackberry. Google Maps was pretty much for the mobile, I had a chance to use it walking around London with Street View turned on and it was the most fun I’ve had sans-lubricant.
With the cupcake upgrade, the ability to upload video to Youtube and photos to Picassa was introduced, which both work really well. If the quality of the recorded video wasn’t bad enough though, uploading Youtube wrings any last drop of quality out of it, leaving a bone-dry, shitty mess.
Apps
The Android Market is fairly new but has expanded to a fairly respectable size. It’s obviously nowhere near Apple’s but once you factor in that every 2-bit handset company will be shipping Android over their fucking awful piece of shit software they insisted inflicting on us for so many years, the user base of Android might be rivalling that of the iPhone in a few years.
Despite the relative youth of Android Market, there’s still some very decent apps. A few that spring to mind:
- Qype: a mobile version of their website but with ability to search nearby, very useful when in new places
- Quickipedia: Wikipedia formatted specifically for Android, never has taking a crap been so informative
- Locale: time- or location-based profiles that can trigger actions such as altering ring volume, enabling wifi etc. Useful for switching off ringtones whilst in lectures for example.
- Twitdroid: very capable twitter app so you can tell people you’re reading wikipedia on the shitter
- Pixelpipe: links in with their website and gives you the ability to post your blog/picture to pretty much every service with a shiny logo and a beta label
Honorable mentions to Last.fm, Shazam, aNetShare, Scoreboard.
I think that’s all the bases covered. All in all, a very good phone albeit with a few faults, namely battery life and looks. Are they big enough to detract from the quality of the software? Not a chance. Android has changed the playing field for phone software; a worthy competitor to the iPhone.
