Thoughts on the G1
Wednesday, December 3rd, 2008
About a month ago, I got a G1 from my local T-Mobile dealer. I’d like to bore you with the details.
- I like the style of the phone. At it’s most basic, the G1 is a Sidekick with a better OS and rounded corners. Since my last phone was also a Sidekick, I’m right at home. I do wish the G1 had the translucent trackball, which you could program to light up in different colors in different situations1.
- I also love having a physical keyboard. The iPhone keyboard sucked when I used it. This one is perfect for me.
- I like the size of the screen and the apps that come with the phone. Linking things in to my Google accounts has made my life one hell of a lot easier.
- Everything you’ve heard about the battery life is true…if you’re an idiot. Yes, if you leave every service on all the time2, the battery will be dead in two hours. It just so happens that there is a great app called Locale which fixes this little problem. Developed by a group of MIT students, this app tracks where you are using both Wifi and GPS and will switch off services when you are in a certain location automatically. With will also change your ringer volume and make decisions based on system status, such as low battery life. It completely rocks.
- The App market is still underdeveloped, but it’s a new platform, and that’s to be expected. There are some great apps in the Android Market, such as Park Mark, Wikitude, Shop Savvy.
- The only downside I’ve found is that sometimes the memory gets pegged and the whole phone slows or pauses When apps stop responding, the system handles it gracefully, asking if you want to force the app to close, or wait for it to finish. I’ve never had a full-out crash or needed to reset the phone.
Would I recommended it? I already have, several times. The most common criticism of the G1 is that it’s not an iPhone. That’s just fin with me. I love the openness of the Android system, and I cannot wait to see what people find to do with it.
