T-Mobile G1

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Review

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’.

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