Late to the Party: My First Impressions of the T-Mobile G1

Its been out for a little, but some of the kinks have been worked out, and today is my birthday so I just got it a few days ago, so deal with it.

The G1 is the first phone to feature Google’s Android development platform. The whole appeal of it is that is the first of hopefully many phones to feature Android. To put it simply, to use anything the iPhone has, you need an iPhone. The idea behind Android is the lots of phones will use it, so an application you use on one phone with Android you can use on another.

To put it in a nutshell, the G1’s software side is awesome, hardware needs some work. The G1 feels a little clumsy to hold and even cumbersome to text with, and the Android (for now) lacks an on screen keyboard. It can get very annoying to have to flip the phone open anytime you want to type anything at all. That is pretty much the biggest problems with the phone though. Its just a little in the way. It still works, and I’ve already gotten used to it.

So, is Android good? Yes and no. Right now, the Market has some really cool apps like Shazaam which you can hold up to any song, say on a radio, and it will identify it. Other ones include compare everywhere, which is a virtual barcode scanner that will show you reviews of items and compare prices to local stores. Being in college, I found a nearby Barnes & Noble selling a book I need for 20 dollars less. It works great. Games still need improvement, a couple are good but a lot are extremely simple like Snake. The Market will improve with time, however, as long as more developers get on board with Google.

A real cool feature, for me, is the desktop. If anyone uses a Mac they know about Spaces, a program to help keeping you organized by giving you any number of..well, spaces…to work on. The Android has sort of a dumbed down version. You have center screen, which is the default, and a left and right. You can flick inbetween them and customize them however you want. Want all your applications in the shape of a penis? Well its possibly.

These are just some quick impressions, and hopefully I’ll have more next week. One thing for sure is that the G1 is a good start, and if the iPhone isn’t an option for you, check it out. Coming from a Blackberry Curve, I’m loving it. Its leaps and bounds ahead.

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