T-Mobile G1 with Google Android Operating System - Product Review

As a loyal customer of T-Mobile, and a daily user of Google, I just couldn't pass up on getting the new T-Mobile G1 with the Google Android operating system. After waiting in line for two hours, I was able to get my hands on one. The verdict? Read on...

After using the T-Mobile MDA with Windows Mobile for the last several years, I was excited to see this new product finally hit the market. I don't ever wait in line for new products - until today. What got me, I guess, was the combination of the touch screen features with a full QWERTY keypad (a necessity for us old schoolers who learned to type on a manual typewriter, and think that T9 is the newest model of Terminator).

Here's how she looks in my hand:

As you can see, she's very sleek and sexy. Everything a phone should be. It comes with one touch Google search, which is very useful if you're a Googlephile like myself. The operating system is very intuitive and easy to use. It took me all of ten minutes to figure everything out about this phone that I could ever want to know. Don't believe the haters - this phone is easy to use if you have half of a brain, and very stylish.

Here she is from the side. A tad bit thicker than an iPhone, but for me it's worth it to have the slide out QWERTY keypad. She's still very thin, maybe not a size 0, but definitely a size 2.

It comes with 3G capability and I have found browsing the internet quick and easy. For $35 a month, you get the 3G service plus unlimited texting. This is the same price as the additional features I had before: unlimited texting (which Lord knows I need) was previously $15 per month, and the slower GPRS service was $20 per month. So this upgrade costs nothing on a monthly basis more than what you have been paying, assuming you like to text and use the Internet.

The phone itself is only $179.00 if you don't mind signing a 2 year contract. I didn't mind. And that is not in the form of a rebate or online only. You walk into the store, pay the $179, sign the paper, and it's yours.

There is no stylus, because no stylus is needed. It uses the same touch screen technology that an iPhone uses - capacitance instead of pressure - so your finger is all you need to navigate the easy to understand menu sets. Here's a video I made of how easy it is to slide menus up, down and around:



The QWERTY keypad is easy to slide out, it actually doesn't slide straight out but rather makes a short rotation on a hinged arm, up and to the left, then back to the right. Check it out (ignore the chihuahua hair that made a temporary home on the G1 during filming):



It was easy to transfer all of my contact information to the new phone, the sims card plugged right in and everything was there waiting for me. Within minutes I was texting, making calls, and surfing the web. It is incredibly intuitive and the Android system is not foreign at all, even to someone like me who is used to Windows Mobile.

Downsides:

There is only one downside to this phone. It comes with a 1 Gig micro-SD card, without which the 3 Megapixel camera will not take pictures. I decided to upgrade to the 4 Gig card, which I bought at the T-Mobile store for an additional $59. The problem, however, is that the phone doesn't recognize the 4 Gig card, and I can't figure out if it needs to be formatted (and if it does, how to do so), or what the problem is. However, when I put the included 1 Gig card back in and removed the 4 Gig card, everything works fine. So I am going to have to go back to the T-Mobile store and see if they can shine some light on the subject.

The only other potential drawback for some people is that you do have to set up a GMail account if you don't already have one. This is a requirement for the phone to work. I already have one, so no problem there. Although I can see the conspiracy theorists up in arms about this.

Except for those two minor issues, I love it! I would highly recommend the phone if you are a T-Mobile customer considering an upgrade. Happy Googling!

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