HTC G1 Cell Phone

In 2007, Steve Jobs proclaimed himself the iGod of the cellular world. As with every dictatorship, it only takes one idea to destabilize the hold on industry. In this case, the G1 is that device.

Running on the Android OS by Google, the G1 is a technically sound device. Android supports multitasking and is almost fully customizable. This allows the Android OS to be added to nearly any device. The benefits of the G1’s version of Android is that the phone flawlessly syncs with all of your Google accounts.

Calendar to Google Calendars
Contact to Google Contacts
Email to Any Email Account

I found this quite nice as I didn’t have to enter all the information into my phone for appointments nor when adding a friend to my contact list. To further improve, Android features specialized support for Gmail accounts. The interaction for Gmail is a bit smoother than other emails (which may have their limitations).

As an OS goes, Android gives a card based approach to your home screen. Like the iOS, you can swipe your finger across the screen to view another desktop. Each desktop is capable of holding widgets as well as short cuts (a step ahead of iOS). Where Android falls behind is in that you can only have three desktop cards. Later Android phones correct this issue, but the G1 was never powerful enough to support more than three. The Start Menus/Application Menu on the G1 is located at the bottom (or right) of the screen (depending on how the phone is oriented).Pulling this up will display all the applications and options installed. This makes it easy to access and use your installed applications.

Android offers a few security options. The first is a PIN based system. Like older phones, you can type in a four to eight digit PIN to unlock your phone. The other option is a password system. this  I found this annoying as it was like signing into my email every time I wanted to use my phone. The final option is the pattern. Using an array of nine dots, you draw a pattern that will serve as your unlock code. I enjoyed this because the patterns were often easier to remember than codes. If you find yourself locked out and you forget your pattern, you can then sign into your email address through the phone to unlock it. Needless to say, that was not a pleasant experience. While you are locked out of the phone, you can still call 911 or any other emergency number. I found it odd that you cannot call the carrier. This means that you would have to visit your local T-Mobile store if you could not remember your email address.

The sad part of this Android version is that it REQUIRES a Google account to function. Later versions do not. If you are looking to purchase a G1 but hate Google, I would first ask if you understand the irony of what you are doing. I would then recommend that you not purchase a G1.

The G1’s Android OS is upgradable to Android 1.6 (officially). I enjoyed the addition of the onscreen keypad. This stopped me from flipping open the G1 to text. With Android 1.6 came Navigation. Navigation uses the phone’s built in GPS to walk you though arriving at your destination. This function is nice because it recalculates as you drive. The problem with using Navigation is that it sucks the life out of your battery in no time flat. I recommend using a DC adaptor with your G1 (should you choose to use Navigate). If you use Google’s directions service (part of Google Maps), the G1 will happily display your current location and provide the most direct route to your destination. This service will not recalculate as Navigation does.

Like the iPhone,the G1 features web browser and YouTube applications. The web browser is a far cry better than most mobile browsers. It will display most websites. For more complex pages (like Facebook), I recommend using their mobile sites (usually m.website.com). I am somewhat disappointed that the G1 does not support Flash. For this reason, all YouTube videos may be viewed on the YouTube application. The YouTube application plays videos at the 240p resolution. Some 320p videos may play, but these often take a bit to buffer and are not as smooth.

To further multimedia capabilities, the G1 offers a music player. this is no more complex than most music players put in portable electronics as an after thought. I found this to be used very seldom as the speakers on the device do not get loud enough to enjoy the music. Competing with other phone, the G1 offers a 1.3MP camera. This camera can shoot still or video (with the update to Android 1.5). Videos can be instantly uploaded to YouTube. If you add other applications, you can upload to FaceBook or other common website.

The phone (itself) carries the quality that HTC is known for. Beneath the screen is a full QWERTY keypad. I like this keypad above all others because it features a number row above the Q through P row. This makes numbers easier to access. The slide design seems sturdy enough. I haven’t had any issues with mine in over 2 years. On the face, the G1 features home, menu, back, call, and end buttons. These are very convenient to use. Competing with Blackberry, the G1 also features a track ball. I find that the track ball is useful for websites with links close together and games. Other than those instances, I rarely use the trackball.

The touch screen is solid, but severely scratchable. I have bumped into many things with my phone and the screen has not cracked. The puzzling aspect is that when I have my keys in my pocket with my G1, I always find myself pulling it out with a new scratch. For this reason, I recommend a screen protector.

While the G1 is a 3G phone, and forces you to have an internet connection. For this reason, the G1 offers WiFi. As you would imagine, the WiFi drains the battery just as quickly as Navigation. This seems to be a problem I have found with all HTC phones. Searching the web on 3G uses much less power, but still consumes quite a bit of energy. The old adage that says “Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should” is fairly true about surfing the web on the G1.

The G1 is a decent phone. Reception is fairly clear. I have found that it will hold onto a signal slightly past clarity. This is either a good or a bad thing, depending on how you view this behavior. I have not had any issues with the G1 when using Bluetooth devices to make calls. I am  disappointed that the functionality of the G1 is less than my HTC Excalibur (aka: T-Mobile Dash). The Excalibur would allow me to use the Bluetooth device to voice dial, while the G1 does not support Bluetooth voice dialing. For a more advanced phone, this came as a surprise.

I am sad to say that the G1 was a major leap in celluar devices, but it is now obsolete. The Android Market (which add additional customization options to the G1) sports a vast array of applications that now require more system resources than the G1 could handle. When the G1 was first released, the average application was less than 1MB, but now some apps may run as much as 50MB. The G1 offers 75MB of storage space that is shared between text messages, cookies, applications, and any other functions that produce temporary files. Because Android 1.6 does not allow you to install applications onto the MicroSD card, you will fill up your device very quickly with apps from the market.

In the end, the G1 was a faithful device for me. It lasted two years and did what it needed to. While the battery would deplete as quickly as any other smart phone, the G1 still gave me access to my emails and other forms of communication with little effort. I would recommend the G1 if that is the best option you have available. I would even recommend it over modern iPhones. If you have access to another Android based phone, I would skip the G1 and find the better Android phone. This phone pioneered Android as a premier operating system for phones and set the stage for a greater good than Apple.