T-mobile G1 aka Google Android phone releases today

**hozay09** · 09-23-2008, 08:17 AM

This is T-mobile's answer to the market. Google's 1st Android powered device releases today. The conference begins is today at 1030am & we'll see what they have to offer. So far what we know...

Quote:

TmoNews has just uncovered new specs and info on the phone. Here's what they've got so far: the phone is 4.6 x 2.16 x 0.63 inches, weighs 5.6 ounces, features a 480 x 320 HVGA display, sports 3G (obviously), GPS, has a 3.1-megapixel camera, supports up to 8GB of memory (though no format is mentioned), and will feature 5 hours of talktime with 130 hours of standby. Strangely, the phone won't do video capture (what?), won't have stereo Bluetooth, will require a Gmail account, and won't be sold at stores outside of a 2-5 mile radius of T-Mobile's 3G coverage area. That last bit sounds a little odd to us, but we're guessing a lot of the functionality of this device will be shot in non-3G areas.

**CHAOS** · 09-23-2008, 08:47 AM

fucking looks like a speak and spell designed phone

**Silver SRT4** · 09-23-2008, 09:42 AM

looks like shit

**Vertabreaker** · 09-23-2008, 09:43 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CHAOS

fucking looks like a speak and spell designed phone

Lol reminds me of the dane cook skit. "Speak and spell like the devil"

Hahhahahaha

"Play wITH! MEee!!!"

**Silver SRT4** · 09-23-2008, 11:14 AM

Actually looking at some different pics the model in black doesnt look too bad.

**Vissionary** · 09-23-2008, 12:16 PM

Hardware wise, that's a sorry "answer to the market". I hope android doesn't disappoint though, the idea is greatness but I think the OS might be a tad overrated.

**Vissionary** · 09-23-2008, 03:59 PM

Quote:

While I was more impressed by the T-Mobile G1 than I thought I'd be, the list of catches for Android and the phone are quickly piling up—some that might very well be dealbreakers. Topping the list, it's tightly integrated with your Google account—so tightly that you can only use one Google account with the phone . If you want to switch to another account, you have to do a whole factory reset.

A Googler told us the workaround they've been employing is using a separate IMAP mail app for their secondary Gmail accounts, but that still screws you if you've got calendars on multiple Google accounts—like if you've got a hosted Google Apps account for your site and a personal one, you've gotta pick one or the other. This is a technical limitation of Android 1.0, so it should be fixed in the future, but for now, as someone with a work account and a personal one, it definitely stings.

Contacts and Syncing: As mentioned, there is no desktop syncing app. It's all about the cloud—your Google contacts and cal are considered the masters. So if it's all on your desktop or god forbird, MobileMe, you've gotta move it over to your Google account. At launch, however it'll be able to do remote syncing, so if you make a change or download an app on your desktop, your device will automatically sync up. Still, it'll be open for developers to fill this market, as well as the lack of Exchange support. Whether this is a plus or minus might depend on how you feel about Google being the masterkeeper of your contacts and info.

Video: There's no video playback at all right now, except for YouTube. The expectation is that developers will create video playback apps and the requisite support. That's one of those big holes we worried Google would leave to developers to fill. Same story for video recording. Devs can add it in, though we've heard the video quality will look much better after Qualcomm's video accelerator is released.

Hardware Inadequacies: No multitouch on the G1 and there never will be, since the panel itself doesn't support it. However, Googlers said they expected a full touchscreen device with multitouch in the future. The lack of a headphone jack, though kinda common for HTC devices, is pretty galling, especially for a consumer device. Mini-USB adapters are annoying as hell.

Miscellaneous: You've gotta have an SD card for any kind of music or video playback, once the latter arrives—there's no internal storage for media playback. It's one of two problems we ran into with Amazon's MP3 store, the other being that you can only down tracks over-the-air with Wi-Fi. We'd like some over-3G action.

For all of the choices when it comes to navigation, the fact that you have to use the QWERTY keyboard for all text entry can be annoying, since it involves a lot of flipping the phone around to type if you're navigating vertically. Some onscreen action would be nice, but once again, they're leaving that to developers.

Finally, it's locked to T-Mobile. A Googler lamented that as well since it goes against the openness of Android, but said that in the long run, that won't matter, since there will be a ton of devices. But like everything else, in the meantime, developers can step in and release an unlock app. On the Android market, even. So Android's strengths—and weaknesses—really are as much in developers' hands as they are Google, hardware makers and carriers'.

**Vissionary** · 09-23-2008, 06:38 PM

**Vissionary** · 09-23-2008, 06:56 PM

**hozay09** · 09-23-2008, 10:05 PM

Im reserving my opinions until i get to try it out.

09-23-2008, 08:47 AM	#2 (permalink)
CHAOS SOT Screwdriver Goes Where Mod Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: Fucking Bullshit. Posts: 20,245 gXboxLive Leaderboard: 44^th	fucking looks like a speak and spell designed phone __________________ SOT - you aint... no goon.

09-23-2008, 09:42 AM	#3 (permalink)
Silver SRT4 Tokyo Drrrft Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: Phoenix, Arizona Posts: 2,280 gXboxLive Leaderboard: 86^th	looks like shit __________________

09-23-2008, 11:14 AM	#5 (permalink)
Silver SRT4 Tokyo Drrrft Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: Phoenix, Arizona Posts: 2,280 gXboxLive Leaderboard: 86^th	Actually looking at some different pics the model in black doesnt look too bad. __________________

09-23-2008, 12:16 PM	#6 (permalink)
Vissionary SOT Super Moderator Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: SoCal Posts: 45,070 gXboxLive Leaderboard: 43^rd	Hardware wise, that's a sorry "answer to the market". I hope android doesn't disappoint though, the idea is greatness but I think the OS might be a tad overrated. __________________ SOT - We'll pull your endocrine system out of your body and make a hat out of it.

09-23-2008, 06:38 PM	#8 (permalink)
Vissionary SOT Super Moderator Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: SoCal Posts: 45,070 gXboxLive Leaderboard: 43^rd	__________________ SOT - We'll pull your endocrine system out of your body and make a hat out of it.

09-23-2008, 06:56 PM	#9 (permalink)
Vissionary SOT Super Moderator Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: SoCal Posts: 45,070 gXboxLive Leaderboard: 43^rd	__________________ SOT - We'll pull your endocrine system out of your body and make a hat out of it.

09-23-2008, 10:05 PM	#10 (permalink)
hozay09 SOT Moderator Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: The Ghetto Posts: 2,570	Im reserving my opinions until i get to try it out. __________________

Thread Tools
Show Printable Version Email this Page
Display Modes
Linear Mode Switch to Hybrid Mode Switch to Threaded Mode