T-Mobile G1

Given the runaway success of the iPhone with consumers and the entrenched position of both Windows Mobile and the BlackBerry with business users, you might wonder why anyone would want to launch another new smartphone platform. Of course Google isn’t just anyone, but there were still some doubtful mutterings when it announced its open source Android operating system and the Open Handset Alliance (OHA) in November 2007.

Well, one year later and the first ‘Googlephone’ is here and although there are a number of handset manufacturers and mobile operators in the OHA, the first Android-powered device to go on sale is from T-Mobile. Here’s our review.

We’ve read some mixed reports of the T-Mobile G1 handset itself, but it’s nowhere near as ungainly as those early leaked photos suggested. While not on a par with the iPhone or even some of HTC’s Windows Mobile smartphones, it’s well-made and has a solid, if rather functional, feel.

The black rubberised coating is pleasant to the touch and should be tough enough to do without the same kind of after-market case protection that the iPhone requires. Short of the discreet Google logo on the back of the handset and T-Mobile logo on the front, there’s little in the way of cosmetic adornment. In these days of shiny smartphones studded with twinkling LEDs, this matte simplicity does make the G1 look a little like a prototype than a production model, but we really rather like this low-key approach.

HTC is no stranger to Qwerty keyboards and sliding cases, but the one it has crammed into the G1 has a twist. It has a similar two-part sliding design to the HTC Touch Pro, but rather than slide back and forth on runners, the G1’s screen is pivoted on its bottom edge and sweeps open in a narrow arc. Totally pointless, of course, but but the sprung mechanism makes it easy to operate with one hand and the screen snaps into position with a very satisfying ‘clack’.

The keyboard itself is only so-so – the keys are relatively large and well-spaced, but have barely any profile and it’s difficult to feel if your finger is positioned properly to press one. Some keys are also in odd positions – Shift sits to the left of the Space bar (rather than on the row above) and Return on the right of the bottom letter row (ditto). The fat lump of plastic that sits at the right of the case when the keyboard is open doesn’t interfere too much with typing, but it’s value as something to hold in with the phone in landscape mode is limited by the tendency to accidentally nudge the trackball that sits in its centre.

HTC (and perhaps T-Mobile) is to be applauded for recognising that a 21st Century smartphone needs a capacitive rather than a resistive touch-screen. The G1’s is smaller than the iPhone’s, but it has the same 320 x 480 resolution and works just as well. Actually, scratch that – make it “almost as well”.

The problem is that while the G1’s touch-screen is superbly responsive to the lightest of touches, Google seems to have omitted certain useful features to distinguish Android from the iPhone’s operating system. Most obviously missing is Multi-Touch, and so zooming in and out of web pages involves pressing the screen to bring up two zoom buttons that work in increments that are just that bit too small.

HTC and Google also seem to have taken a few tips from Windows Mobile on streamlined interface design and rather than stick with a single interface for all Android user interaction, it’s chosen three. So, while the touch-sensitive screen is used for most things, you have to lift finger and press a physical Menu button to access any context sensitive settings.

Equally unnecessary is the trackball – dragging and tapping the screen works perfectly well, so the need for a physical control that duplicates this functionality is a mystery. And if you want to type anything, from a short SMS reply to a new web address, you need to flip open the keyboard – there’s no on-screen alternative. And while we’re moaning, what's happening with the accelerometer? The G1 has a built-in motion sensor, but doesn't use it – the only way to flip the screen into landscape mode while web browsing is to select the option from a menu or open the keyboard.

These complaints may not sound like much, but the constant back and forth between input methods is tiresome, and someone at Google or HTC seems to lack the nerve to commit a single, simple input method. The iPhone may have been criticised for its lack of a physical keyboard, but it’s reliance on the screen for everything makes it much simpler to use.

These hardware and interface quirks aside though, Android works well. It could do with a good going over by a good interface designer (the clumsy icons and other graphics look like My First Smartphone Skin), but this doesn’t affect its operation. For anyone familiar with smartphones, there isn’t much that’s new, but Android’s pull-down notification bar is one neat innovation. This sits at the top of the screen and shows small icons to show waiting emails, text messages, and so on, and you just pull it down like a roller blind to see the full alerts.

The G1 must be tied to a Google account from the moment you first switch it on, after which it automatically synchronises your Google Mail messages, address book and calendar. You can add other POP and IMAP email accounts, but with no PC synchronisation available or Microsoft Exchange support, it’s Google or nothing for everything else.

The built-in calendar and address book applications are typically rudimentary, but there is, of course, the option to install others from the Android Market. Again, the lack of a PC sync (the G1 appears as a mass storage device when plugged into a USB port) means that you need to browse the Market on the device itself and install over an internet connection, but this is no great hardship. Limiting application installations to the 72Mb of available internal memory, on the other hand, is – memory cards can only be used for media files.

Third-party improvements won’t do much to improve the G1’s credentials as a media player, though – the monumentally dumb decision to use the miniUSB port as the earphone socket leaves it dead in the water in that regard (though this looks set to change shortly). Oh and the much-touted built-in compass that gives a virtual reality-like street-level view in Google Maps? Useless in the UK – at least until Google makes its UK Street View data available.

As a version 1.0 smartphone – both for hardware and software – the T-Mobile G1 is an interesting demonstration of what Android is capable of, but it still looks and feels very much a proof of concept rather than a finished product. In fact much of Android’s appeal seems to lie in its future potential rather than its current capabilities and we’re a little disappointed that Google (and to a lesser extent, HTC) didn’t aim a little higher for the very first Android-powered device.

As it stands, the onus is very much on third-party developers to turn Android (and the G1) into something fit to compete with the iPhone and its ilk. We hope this happens, if for no other reason than the iPhone could really do with some viable competition, but it’s impossible to recommend Android and the T-Mobile G1 on the basis of what it might become one day.

We will say that if you don’t want a music phone and don’t mind using a work-in-progress, then the T-Mobile G1 is certainly worth a look, but don’t expect it to be as smart as other smartphones – at least for the next six months or so.