BATTERY
The 1150mAh battery life is nothing
special for a smartphone with so many functions.
Depending on how much you use the G1, you can expect
to recharge the device at least once a day. The good
news is that it seems to recharge very quickly.
HELP SUPPORT
When you first boot the G1 it walks you through a mini tutorial about using the notifications bar and scrolling through lists with your finger. This is very useful and a nice touch for increasing the ease-of-learning factor. You also get a very nicely designed full color manual. It's worth a read too, since it will teach you some useful keyboard shortcuts. Furthermore, you can dial 611 from your T-Mobile phone at any time 24 hours a day 7 days a week to talk to some one about any problems you may have. You can also walk into any T-Mobile store for support.
BUGS AND WISHES
It's obvious from the G1 that Android is a very
young and unrefined operating system. Let's start
with the software.
- No on-screen keyboard, handwriting/character recognition, or any kind of input option other than the hardware keyboard.
- Voice Dialing cannot be activated by the Bluetooth headset.
- Bluetooth stack only supports the headset profile. No file transfer, no serial ports, no wireless stereo, no PAN, etc.
- No video recording capability. No video emails or video MMS messaging.
- No task or To-Do list software.
- No note-taking software.
- No Exchange ActiveSync support (Even the Samsung Instinct's email program can connect to OWA).
- No IMAP IDLE support.
- Can't choose where sent messages get saved in IMAP folders.
- No predictive word/phrase completion.
- Hardware buttons required to access menu, and home screens (No touch screen navigation).
- Data connection to Google required at first boot.
- Voice recording capability only available for MMS messages.
- Can't open or save PDF, Word, Excel, PowerPoint files from the Browser or via email.
- Can't select multiple email/SMS messages for deletion.
- Data connection often disconnects itself and stays inaccessible for periods.
- No file manager included.
- Can't use stylus for more accurate screen interaction.
- Security pattern can easily be guessed by looking at the finger grease trails on the screen.
- No "Real" GPS navigation software available.
- Cut/Copy/Paste only available in text fields. You cannot copy content from other places like web pages.
When I first booted the G1, I was forced to log-in with a Gmail account, but even that wouldn't work for the first 3 attempts.
3rd Party applications are not without problems.
Even the native IM application has issues sometimes.
There are some issues with the "Market" application as well.
In terms of hardware design, some of the problems are:
- Very large device. You'll definitely notice it in your pocket.
- Device makes a lot of creaking noises when you squeeze it. Both the battery cover, and screen sliding mechanism make these creaking sounds.
- Sliding screen is very loud.
PURCHASING
T-Mobile G1 costs $180 with a two-year service contract
and is available from T-Mobile.com or any T-Mobile retail store. A $35 monthly
data plan is required and unlike Windows Mobile, the phone is barely
functional without it.
PROS
Completely navigable via hardware keys
Includes Google Street View with Digital Compass
Syncs with GMail, Google Contacts, and Google Calendar
Support for multiple and public Google Calendars
Over the air system updates
Trackball navigation
Customizable program launching keyboard shortcut combinations
Capacitive screen is very sensitive
Hardware keyboard
Interesting and innovative 3rd party application potential
Less functional limitations than the iPhone
CONS
Plethora of functional limitations compared to Windows Mobile and Symbian S60
Large form factor
Poor build quality
No upcoming appointments listing on the home screen
No T-Mobile HotSpot@Home support
Can't sync with Outlook
Can't sync with Exchange
Can't sync with anything except Google
No video recording
No tasks/to-do lists, notes, Office, PDF applications
Can only use large inaccurate fingers on the touch screen
Flat hardware buttons are tough to use
| Value |  |
| Ease of Use |  |
| Features |  |
Overall |
|
OVERALL IMPRESSION
It's pretty easy to see right away that Android and the T-Mobile G1 are not targeted at all towards any type of power user or business smartphone user. It is squarely targeted to the consumer. This is obvious by the lack of high-end software capabilities, lack of business related features, lack of security, and the plethora of consumer-oriented applications in the Android Market store. The T-Mobile G1 and Android in general seem to be designed to get the iPhone-hype crowd on the mobile internet and more-specifically, onto Google's services.
Many people think that Android's promise is in its open-sourceness and programmers' ability to do "anything" to the operating system and applications running on it. Well, maybe so, but so far I see a lot of very buggy, unimpressive applications in the Android Market. There are a few interesting items, such as the app that can scan barcodes on products with the phone's camera and then look up product information online while also offering price comparisons. That's great if you do a lot of shopping, but our economy isn't exactly ripe for that just yet. It's also pretty easy to notice a huge fragmentation of consistency in user interface design in Android even at this early stage. There's no central theme/skinning capability so application developers just design whatever they feel like.
So if you're a big Gmail user and don't care about many of the high-end features and business tools found on other platforms, then the T-Mobile G1 and Android may be a good fit.
