T-Mobile G1 Box

To my delight while I walked back home today, I noticed a package at the front door. My new phone has arrived a day early!

My New GPhone

Many of you know I gave up my iPhone early this year in favor of a Dubai-bought Sony Ericsson W910i. Then I dropped it and it stopped booting up (or continually rebooting) That phone was awesome had it not been for the stench of that technology that shall not be named. Okay, it’s name is Java.

So why did I let go of the iPhone, it’s an awesome gadget. And what’s better with the GPhone? The iPhone’s problems are well publicized, to me however, the worst was not being able to copy and paste, expand memory, take video, and building apps that can take total advantage of the phone’s capability. Does the GPhone do that? Yes and no. There are problems with it, so here is my first impression of the GPhone:

The Bad
•This is not in iPhone. It feels cheap and plasticky. Don’t look for style here.
•The only way to enter text is using the sideways-keyboard.
•The interface does stutter at times. Not as intuitive as the iPhone.
•What’s that smell, oh no, the stench of Java is here.
•I really hate the plastic cheap feel of this phone.
•The camera app is very slow to start and it must be the worst camera app I have ever seen on any phone. It is really bad.

The Good
•The Android Market place is way cool. First think to try is the barcode-scanner apps.
•I got all my mail, contacts, calendar events all setup with one login in less than 10 seconds.
•3G on T-mobile is decent. We shall see.
•iPhone Bluetooth Headset works better with this phone than it did with the iPhone
•Streetview map with compass mode is a Matrix-like experience. It’s like looking through a crystal ball. Must see to know what I mean.
•I have an SDK with access to all the phone’s features. This is mainly why I got this phone and am willing to put up with The Bad list above.
•In 90 days I can call T-mobile to unlock the phone and can use it abroad with a local SIM card.
•The camera actually has an auto-focus.

I can’t get over how cheap this phone feels compared to the jewelry styling of the iPhone. Oh well, they all end up in the trash one day.