Full Review of the T-Mobile G1 Android Device

palmsolo writes "Want to see the biggest and most in-depth review of the T-Mobile G1 Google Android device from a person who has been using it for a week? Check out over 260 photos and 5 videos of the device and just about every screen of the Google Android OS. Find out how well HTC, T-Mobile and Google did with this first-generation device." I played with one for a few minutes and found it a solid unit. It feels less polished than the iPhone, but the screen and keyboard are great. It'll be a real test of Open Source to see what happens with the iPhone App Store's closed system vs. Android's open one.

Comments

Open source a selling point?

[anomnomnomymous]

In all the ads/product reviews I've seen so far, none has mentioned that it's build on an open source framework.
Whereas people will of course be plucking the fruits of the (free) apps that will be developed, right now it's not a selling point that makes any impression with the 'normal' user.

I hope that, once released, there will be a place where all the apps will be collected (maybe accessible from within the phone), otherwise I don't think that people will -ever- know about the existence of such apps.

Re:Open source a selling point?

[ThinkingInBinary]

I hope that, once released, there will be a place where all the apps will be collected (maybe accessible from within the phone), otherwise I don't think that people will -ever- know about the existence of such apps.

There is a Market app on the phone that allows you to download free apps. In the future it will also allow developers to sell apps. It's also perfectly possible to post source code on SourceForge or Google Code or elsewhere, and I'm sure third-party directories of Android apps will pop up.

Frankly, advertising open source to an end user is meaningless. Advertising "lots of available apps" and "if you're a programmer, you can write your own for free" is more likely to make an impression.

Then how do you feel about the G1?

[SuperKendall]

Severely restricted bluetooth, poor / absent MMS capability... Both blackmarks for me.

Since the G1 has the same limitations then, you must continue to be sad.

I still don't see why anyone would use MMS when they can email or post photos. I do find it odd the iPhone still has the same limited Bluetooth support, and that Android has matching limitations... I know it would hurt battery life but I really feel they should let the user choose here.

Re:Not quite so open

[Idiomatick]

4) They are simply covering their asses incase they accidentally send a program with malware through their store. If you install an ap through a source other than the store they cannot killswitch it. Which means about 10seconds more effort to install something at WORST.

Why in the hell would you do that?

[hellfire]

"Because he's comparing the first generation of this phone to the first generation of that phone. That's not unreasonable, given that Android will see major upgrades quickly, just as the iPhone OS did."

Timing is everything, and everything moves quickly in the tech industry. The original iPhone without 3G is over a year old. That's old news. By the time Google has updated it's phone, Apple will have more updates too. Comparing what you can get now to a piece of technology that's a year old is dishonest and smacks of the old tactic where PC consumer mags that would always compare the latest PCs to older Macs and declaring that PCs won in head to head tests.

This is not properly comparing apples to apples (or as the case may be Apples to Androids). Compare what you can get now from Apple/AT&T with what you can get now from Google/T-mobile. I have no desire here to smack down google or be an Apple fanboi, I'm just saying for a smart review, you need proper comparisons.