T-Mobile G1

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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.

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