T-Mobile G1
Towards the end of January I treated myself to a T-Mobile G1. You know, I never thought I would own a Google phone. I never thought I’d have a Google-owned/tainted anything, besides my gmail account, which I use for business correspondence. But the phone is just too damn sexy for its own good.
I didn’t pay much attention to the hype surrounding it, until a friend of mine came over one night in early January with his new T-Mobile G1. I watched him play with it for a bit (ignore the dirty connotations that sentence brings up, please), and then I asked to check it out. My big thing is the keyboard — are the buttons easy to maneuver? Feel? Press? Well yes, yes and yes. The combination of touch screen, full QWERTY keyboard (plus separate numbers — no more hitting the ALT key to type in a number, or ALT + ALT to type in a whole string of them and ALT again to exit out of the number mode) and call/home/menu/back/end buttons made navigating the phone’s numerous features quite easy. Bonus: the spiffy little clickable mouse ball that I only discovered after buying the phone. Hah.
I had been having the “itch” to upgrade from the phone I had then, the T-Mobile Dash. A very nice phone, not a thing wrong with it (besides it totally laying the smack down on its original battery, which I replaced last December), but I bought it back in August 2007, and I was getting… bored.
So, while I was in Philadelphia on January 27th, I decided to check out the T-Mobile G1 in person. Then I had to call several stores and drive to three different ones in order to track down a white G1. Apparently white is in high demand. I’m not exactly sure why that is, besides the obvious fact that the Apple iPhone is available in white, so wouldn’t it be neat to have its competition in the same color? I do admit, I love having the phone in white. Both my friend and Dan (Dan liked my phone upon sight, and I got him one in black two days later) have theirs in black, and the black is okay… but just not for me. The big downside to having a white G1 is that the keyboard contrast, quite frankly, sucks major ass. Thankfully, I am a typing queen, and I quickly memorized the placement of the keys and spacing between them and such, so I only occasionally slip up and use a double quote instead of a single, or type a period instead of a comma.
Hardware-wise, the phone feels nice. It feels even nicer with the clear case I bought for it and put on the phone before I even turned it on. I also left on the original clear plastic shields. They don’t interfere with the look of the phone or the ability to view, read and use the touch screen, and I’m grateful for the added protection. Whether the phone falls off our furniture or gets jostled around in my purse, it’ll be good to go! The area surrounding the call, home, menu, mouse ball, back and end buttons aside, the phone will be in pristine, mint condition for years to come!
The keys are wide and raised just enough to distinguish one from another. They’re not spaced too close together, which was a peeve of mine with the Dash. All of the buttons and keys are very responsive, and the mouse ball is almost too fast.
The screen’s orientation is vertical when closed (the screen slides over the keyboard area), and automatically switches to horizontal when open.
Software-wise, this phone is just AMAZING. It’s fast to start up, fast to power down, and switches through applications seamlessly. Oh, and the apps… don’t even get me started on the Android Market. There is an application for just about anything. I’ll give you a perfect example of “anything” with the list of apps I have installed:
- Backgrounds: lists categorized backgrounds from Flickr that are the perfect resolution for use as G1 wallpaper
- Flashlight: turns the whole screen white, and disables screen timeout. Great for using as a flashlight, and yes, I have used it!
- Lexic: word game. You have three minutes to create as many four letter words from a 4 x 4 or 5 x 5 grid of random letters. Insanely addictive.
- Mileage: handy app that logs mileage for vehicles. Logging options cover the cost of gas, the number of gallons you purchased, and your current odometer reading. It also supports multiple vehicles.
(On a related note, we’ve put over $100 in the Hyundai in less than a month. Ouch!) - OI Shopping List: a cute app that lets you create shopping lists. Check or mark off items as you purchase them.
- PingDroid: quickly update Ping.fm.
- ShopSavvy: some sort of shopping app. I haven’t used it yet.
- Sudoku: self-explanatory.
- The Weather Channel: should also be self-explanatory.
- Tiproid: quickly calculate tips and bill splitting for restaurant bills.
- Toddler Lock: Ryan really likes this app. Basically, it “locks down” the phone, and it can only be removed by pressing a certain sequence of letters and numbers. While in the lock down mode, shapes in various sizes and colors float around the screen, and quiet music plays in the background.
- ToggleWifi: one-click to turn wifi on or off (as opposed to going to Menu > Settings, etc.).
- Twidroid: keep tabs on your Twitter friends and post updates, and photos, too!
- World Traffic Cams: just what it says. I haven’t used it yet.
- Yellowbook V2: app that enables you to search yellowbook.com directly, without loading up the browser.
In summary, since this review is long enough by now, the T-Mobile G1 is an amazing phone, and I have no regrets about purchasing it. The battery life leaves a little too be desired, but turning off GPS and wifi (when not in use) and keeping the screen brightness turned to the low end of the scale can really make a big difference. I’d say that I have to charge my phone every two days, and I can go two days or so with frequent use before it will die completely. The “inconvenience” of having to remember to charge isn’t too bad — Dan and I have a charger in the living room, two in the bedroom, chargers in each cars, and USB cables in case we want/need to connect the phone directly to a computer. So, we’re good to go!
Rating: 
Amanda
If I had Tmobile *drool* I’d so get this phone.It’s sexy. Beyond sexy actually.
jim R.
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Jim