HTC G1 Review - At a Glance
At a GlanceWhat’s Good: Android experience is excellent; Web browser is amongst best available on cell phones; Great touchscreen; Touchscreen plus trackball plus QWERTY board provides multiple input options; Notifications bar is handy; Great GMail & Google services implementation; 3G and WiFi for fast data speeds; Amazon provides DRM-free mp3 downloads via WiFi
What’s Not Good: Big, bulky, heavy, and not particularly attractive; QWERTY thumbboard is not as good as those on other recent HTC phones; Lacks 3.5mm headphone jack; No Stereo Bluetooth or video capture/playback support out of the box
Bottom Line: Android will change the game, and while far from perfect, the G1 is more than compelling. I have a list of complaints a mile long but they’re overshadowed by how fun the Android user experience is on the T-Mobile G1.
Specs:
- Processor : Qualcomm® MSM7201A™, 528 MHz
- Operating System Android™
- Memory ROM: 256 MB RAM: 192 MB
- Dimensions (LxWxT) 117.7 mm x 55.7 mm x 17.1 mm (4.60 in x 2.16 in x 0.62 in)
- Weight 158 grams (5.60 ounces) with battery
- Display 3.2-inch TFT-LCD flat touch-sensitive screen with 320 x 480 (HVGA) resolution
- Network HSPA/WCDMA: US:1700/2100 MHz
- Up to 7.2 Mbps down-link (HSDPA) and 2 Mbps up-link (HSUPA) speeds
- Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE: 850/900/1800/1900 MHz
- GPS GPS navigation capability with Google Maps™
- Connectivity: Bluetooth® 2.0 with Enhanced Data Rate
- Wi-Fi®: IEEE 802.11b/g
- HTC ExtUSB™ (11-pin mini-USB 2.0 and audio jack in one)
- Camera 3.2 megapixel color camera with auto focus
Next: Introduction »Fetch me more...Quickly jump to more information about related topics, cell phones, carriers or phone manufacturers mentioned in this In-Depth Review by using the links below. About our in-depth cell phone reviewsWe take great pride to ensure that the our reviews are thorough and accurate. In no way are our editors directed or influenced by any manufacturers, advertisers, or partners; we believe that honest, opinionated reviews -positive or negative - are the only way to maintain credibility and serve our users. Reviews by companyApple, BenQ, BlackBerry, Eten, HTC, LG, Motorola, Nokia, o2, Palm, Pantech, Samsung, Sanyo, Sharp, Sony EricssonNoah pits Apple's iPhone OS 2.2.1 vs Google's Android OS 1.5 in a QWERTY dogfight. Both platforms now offer virtual keyboards with auto-correct spelling. Which is the best to use? Find out what Noah thinks. [EDITED] Haykuro is no longer working on ROMs. Haykuro was receiving a lot of attention - good and bad - because he's a 17-year-old coding superstar who got hot stuff out fast. But there are still others to to keep your eye on. The video offers an early look at the software that will ship with the HTC Hero, which includes a cool new interface known as Rosie. This video is primarily meant to be a preview for those that are curious about what to expect from HTC's coming Android phones. For the hackers and modders, I've given all the resources you need
to run this yourselves. No flash - just some adb and an apk. The QWERTY is indicative of the kind of changes we will see different OEMs (and carriers?) work into their own builds of Google's OS. That is what Android is all about, after all - openness.... As the coder states, we can expect better performance when some better Android phones are released. But this program is working pretty well already, if you ask me. The applications of the code go beyond the most obvious context of gaming - not that I can think of any practical examples off the top of my head. Check out the dev's project page here. I found this at Android Guys. Here you go - a glimpse at the widgets you'll have access to once you receive the Cupcake update, over-the-air. The process begins on May 11th, and you should get hit within a week or so. I missed out on the Paypal widget because it wasn't available for me until after this video was uploaded. I don't know if any of you will remember this, but rooting fixed a problem I had with some apps not showing up in the Market. It looks like different... I was tacking on notes until the very end of my editing. There is a lot going on within Google regarding Cupcake, and plenty of modding to accompany it. Things are moving very fast at this point. So although there's no way I could cover all of the changes in one video, I'm going to wait a bit before I follow up - probably around a week. Things should level off a bit by then. Some of the features I didn't mention are interface improvements: nicer... So I just finished drooling over product shots and screen grabs of HTC's new Hero Android phone on the company's website, and finally got around to posting my thoughts on the launch. And then I realized something - here's the kicker, T-Mo USA fans: You may never, ever get to bask in the glory of HTC's new "Sense UI" for Android (I hope it turns out to be glorious, anyway). HTC's press release announcing Hero contains this... HTC officially took the wraps off of Hero, their next-gen Android handset, at a launch event in London this morning. Our own "Android John" Walton was on hand for the event, and I'm eagerly awaiting his first-hand impressions of the device, since he's my - and hopefully your - go-to person for all things Android.I actually got to play with a pre-production version of Hero not so long ago and I came away wanting one. Too bad for... I was reading Game Informer magazine the other day, and the Letter from the Editor was basically a shout-out to everyone who's ever accused him of favoring one platform over another over the years. He did this by running through a list of what he likes and dislikes about every major gaming platform currently on the market.Dealing with accusations of bias is a sad, annoying truth when you make a living reviewing *anything* for a... It may not be an issue for those who have installed Haykuro's release of HTC's lovely Android keyboard (1st image below - see comments for instructions). But folks who enjoy further customization can download an app for their Cupcake phone called Better Keyboard from the Android Market for $1.99. The listing currently says the offer will only last as week, but doesn't say what the price will jump to when the sale is over. Better Android is the... There are some interesting things happening in Android gaming, and more specifically, in G1 Gaming. Take for instance the new Zeboo console designed as an affordable alternative to emerging markets. Turns out that the units are hacked G1s! And check out the first video below (found via Android Central) that demonstrates the alpha GP2X game emulator for Android. It can load games originally designed to run on MAME, SNES, Sega Genesis, Game Gear... For those of you in The Great White North that are looking for an Android device but don't like the idea of a three-year commitment (yes, it takes a three-year contract to get the phone for $199.99), the cost of entry has been increased. Boy Genius reports that the G1, or Dream, is set to drop on June 2nd for $649.99 outright. Ouch. Supplies will be but a trickle at the start, but more can be expected on June 12th. This post, also by Boy Genius,... Samsun is an important Turkish trade center and the most important port
on the Black Sea coast. Samsun is one of the major Turkish tobacco
producing provinces. In the later Ottoman period the land around the
town mainly produced tobacco. The town was connected to the railway
system in the second half of the 29th century, and tobacco boomed. The Carsamba Plain and Bafra Plain offer possibilities for farming. However, repair your credit if you... hey, ever get annoyed whenever you type something really long and you have to delete it? well, instead of pressing the "Delete" button a million times , you can press and hold the 'ALT ' button and press delete.It will delete the whole line you just wrote!!! Also another really cool thing is that instead of pressing the 'Shift' key over and over to get the cap letters, just simply tap shift twice and it will get the Caps On!!! hope this is... hey, ever get annoyed whenever you type something really long and you have to delete it? well, instead of pressing the "Delete" button a million times , you can press and hold the 'ALT ' button and press delete.It will delete the whole line you just wrote!!! Works on the G1, and all tmobile sidekicks...hope that this tip is helpful!!! Snap Photo helps a bit, but this is really just a bump, as I know nothing of the pixon Hey, Sunny. My only advice is to contact Rogers. That's who you use, right? They're the only Canadian carrier I know, and they work with T-Mo for travelers so that's probably your best bet. Hi, mlouise. Unfortunately, there is no easy way to change this setting globally. It's easy in the browser, but to change the fonts for the entire phone, you have to get into some unreliable hacking. If you want to give it a shot, download an app from the Market called Anycut. Run the app, create a new shortcut, select activity, select Display. You will now have a Display shortcut on your homescreen. Tap it, and you can select a large font,... Does the g1 have font enlarging similar to the iPhone? My daughter is Deaf and visually impaired. Up until now there hasn't be a device with adequate font enlarging for her to be able to use it-- txt, email, AIM, all important functions for Deaf folks, as for hearing. (I use a Color Sidekick, LOL) There is some enlarging on Blackberry AIM wasn't available. (Looks like that may have changed.) Today I met up with two Deaf... You need a minute bundle and the required data bundle - either $24.95 or $34.95, i think. There is not limit for that particular phone. Your buddy had a bad plan, apparently. It's not attached to the phone. So I want the G1 but I knew some who got it and sent it back because he had a call limit and said it has a specal plan is any of this true? or does it just use a normal t-mobile plan? Well, im torn between the pixon and the G1, and i know that the G1 has got the cupcake update soon. but will this all rectify the terrible camera on the G1, as i have a G1 at the moment, but am rapidly losing faith in the handset. As i am a keep photographer, i would love to be able to use the camera with ease and use the video function. As im also a fan of divx software. and if i knew divx and better camera settings were coming for the G1 then...
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4.5
Daily Digest
Once this is addressed in a future release this phone will get 5 stars from me. Right now I give it 4.5
then its a great phone