T-Mobile G1, a hands-on introduction to the first Android phone

We’ve only had a few short days to get our feet wet with a T-Mobile G1 phone and while there are definite similarities to other devices and platforms, this is certainly a different beast. First and foremost, the entire Android ecosystem is much more open from a development point of view. While this is clearly a handset review, I’ve said before that the true story is the Android platform and more importantly, what will developers bring to the table?

Why would I say that? Because as good as the base functionality is in the phone, it’s the third party applications that will truly set the device apart. Sure, there’s great integration with Google services, but what consumers see after that will help or hurt the success of Android devices. Speaking of which: let’s get on with a high level look-see at the first Android device: the T-Mobile G1. There’s far too much to cover in a single post, so we’ll kick things off with a first look, both video and written, and then have follow-ups over the next several days. Don’t hesitate to drop specific questions in the comments.

Here’s the obligatory shots of the packaging and box contents. Not that we buy devices for the fancy packaging or anything.

In the box of my review unit was the G1 handset, a AC adapter with miniUSB charger, a standard USB to miniUSB cable, a basic slipcase and a stereo headset with a miniUSB end. Since there’s no 3.5mm headset jack, you have to use the proprietary HTC ‘phones unless you spend a few bucks on an adapter. I’ve heard differing stories about whether the adapter would be included with the purchase of a G1.

You’ve probably seen countless shots of the device itself, but here’s a quick run through. If you’d rather see the device and a few bits of usage, hit this video overview.

The front has a 3.17-inch touchscreen display, phone speaker and five buttons plus a trackball, which can be used as a button. The buttons are for accepting a call, going to the Home screen, going back, and hanging up or turning the phone off. Above the trackball is a Menu button which pops up contextual on-screen menu options. I find the Menu button to be a little small; it’s finger-width but very narrow from top to bottom. The trackball is actually very similar to that of an Apple Mighty Mouse. It seems fairly responsive, but very light-weight and I’m curious if you’ll see bunch of "schmutz" built up like you do on the Mighty Mice.

There’s an up and down volume switch on the left side of the device. I like how the volume control in Android isn’t just a master volume setting. Use it on a call and it handles the call volume. Touch it with nothing running and it changes the sound level for the ringer. Fire up a YouTube vid and it controls the music/video volume. Also on the left is the microSD slot, although it’s easy to miss. It’s covered with a thin small panel that can only be accessed by sliding the display out of the way. Once you open the cover, you’ll see the included 1GB microSD card and you can swap it out for any capacity up to 8GB.

The bottom of the handset has a simple hole where the microphone is and also has the miniUSB port for charging the unit or attaching headphones. The port is covered and the covering is attached so you don’t lose it, which is typical of solid HTC design.

The right side has a shutter release button for the built-in camera. Holding the button at any time brings up the camera functionality. On the back is the 3-megapixel camera sensor and speaker for the speakerphone.

Keyboard

Under the display is the keyboard and sliding the display to expose the keyboard causes the display to auto-rotate from portrait to landscape. I found that the screen rotation is near instant and was generally impressed. I’m wondering why HTC went with the sliding-arc style for the keyboard slide. Yes, it’s cool, but I also noticed that the display on my review unit doesn’t quite line up. The display near the "1" button is a little closer to the keyboard than on the other side, near the "0" button. It’s very minor, maybe an eight of an inch, but I noticed it right away. Since some will find the display too close to the top row of keys, this might be a small issue. Regardless of that, I find that with my small hands, I can work the top row of keys without any issues.

The keys themselves are a little small as well. In fact, they’re not much bigger than the keys on my Dash (another HTC device), however they are well spaced, which helps. There are five rows and it’s nice to have a dedicated number row at the top. Symbols are used by hitting the ALT key first and the Space bar is plenty big enough. I did keep mis-hitting the left Shift key as I was hitting the dedicated Menu key instead. That’s probably something folks will quickly get used to. The dedicated Menu key offers the same function as the Menu key on the front face of the phone and I actually found myself using the front key more.

The keys are backlit, but not by very much, at least not on my review unit. Only the letters and numbers can be seen easily; some of the ALT symbols are hard to see or can’t be seen at all, which I think is an oversight. In fact, I struggled to see the key lettering in mid- to low-light situations due to little contrast between the gray key color and the transparent letters.

Access to internals
Before we hit up the Android OS on the G1, I should mention that the entire back cover of the device is removable. I had hard time actually removing it and I wish HTC had made it easier, even though you won’t need to open it often. To remove the back cover, there is a thin and narrow tab to the left of the keyboard, which is the top of the device.

You push the tab away from the device and the back cover starts to come off. Once the cover is removed, you have access to the removable 1150 mAh battery. Take the battery out and you can access the SIM card.

Android interface

Enough about physical hardware, what about Android? Essentially, you have three "home screens" to work with, plus a pull-up menu and pull-down notification bar. It’s a great use of limited space. Like the iPhone, you simply swipe across the device to get from one screen to another and you can customize the background. The pull-up menu is at the bottom of the home screen and you simply flick it up to see the program menu. Only 16 icons fit on the viewable menu, so adding more causes you to flick the menu up and then tap & drag it further. Of course, you can always use the trackball as well.

I didn’t see a way to set the order of the apps in the pull-up menu, which would be nice. However, it’s easy to have a program shortcut added to a home screen: simply tap and hold the program icon for a second and the menu will disappear, leaving the shortcut on the home screen. You’ll also get a little haptic-like feedback as a notification. I don’t see how you can move a shortcut from one screen to another though: it appears on the home screen you had open when starting the process.

The top bar is for notifications and I find it very handy. Not just because it offers info at a glimpse, but because you can tap, hold and pull it down for additional info. Here, I see by the icon at the top left that I have a missed call. Pulling down the notification bar tells me who called, how many e-mails I have unread, etc… it’s a handy function and uses little space until needed. There are over 30 different status icons for the various functions and features in the notification bar. It’s like a little window blind full of information.

Phone use

Although the G1 is much more than a handset for calls, it works well as a phone. There’s an on-screen dialer application that uses the touchscreen and there’s also a Voice Dialer app. Pressing and holding the green connect hardware button enables the Voice Dialer. You can dial with your voice or speak a contact’s name. If the contact has different numbers, you can add "at home" or "on mobile" to your voice command. The voice recognition is reasonably accurate and offers an on-screen confirmation, so you’ll still need to make another tap.

Bluetooth pairing and usage works well, both on the voice calls I tested and also a Skype call over iSkoot. Pressing the Menu button lets you switch audio sources, merge calls, add a caller, and put someone on hold. I was very impressed with the speakerphone volume; it’s extremely loud and clear.

Gmail, Calendar, Contacts

It’s no secret that everything is tied to Google services and the Android platform integration is outstanding. There’s little you can’t do with any of the Google Apps on the G1 that you can’t do on a computer. For example, in Mail, you can use Labels on messages, select which Labels are synchronized, create a Signature and Star messages. About the only major function I’d like to see in a software upgrade would be the ability to create a Filter right on the phone. I also don’t see way to pull in shared calendars. There’s an "Add Calendars" function, but it’s only showing a single Google Calendar for me. Everyone in our family has a Google Calendar that’s shared with everyone else, so I was interested in having all of that info pulled down. Could be that I’m overlooking something here.

You can add up to five POP or IMAP accounts, but I didn’t test that as I only have two Gmail accounts and wanted to use the G1 with the personal one of the two. Contacts are pulled right down upon the first sync and can easily be added on the handset. I find that all of the Google Apps data syncs up to the service pretty quick, i.e. usually in just a few minutes. I did get some error messages with Contact synching. It worked fine out of the box, but then stopped working for the past several days. The message is "Sync is currently experiencing problems. It will be back shortly." Contacts are the only app I saw this and while I don’t change contacts that much and have them from the initial sync, I’m not sure what the issue is.

Instant Messaging

Simply put, IM through Google Talk is outstanding. The application can run in the background, so you don’t have to worry about it shutting down when you’re available. If you get pinged via IM, the notifications bar tells you along with a little sound or vibration, depending on your settings. It works with Google Apps for Domains accounts as well, so I’ve set it up using my GigaOM.com account as we use Google. You also get a bunch of Android-looking smileys. In addition to Google Talk, the G1 supports IM through AIM, Windows Live Messenger and Yahoo! Messenger.

Web browsing

Rather than describe the browsing experience in detail, I subscribing to the "a picture is worth a thousand words" approach, so here’s a brief video overview of the browser. My first impressions are that it’s better than other mobile browsers, but still has room for improvement.

Much more to follow

Since I’ve only used the G1 for a few short days and there’s so much to cover, I’ll drop here to catch my breath. This also gives you a chance to drop questions in the comments so I can hit them up over the next several days before I return the review unit. Meanwhile, you can see what Om thinks of the T-Mobile G1 as well. I should have known he had one… the tip-off was the little Android icon in the IM pic above.