G1 Phone Review

Article by gadget on Gadget Heaven · +Mark Taylor ·

G1 Mobile Phone

T-Mobile G1 Mobile Phone

Google is a household name and the company that simplified and improved the internet search engine to become the market leader. With the advertising funds that they make from their search engine they have gradually been sticking their fingers into many different pies outside of the company’s basic remit which is essentially helping people locate things on the internet and selling advertising space.

First there was Googlemail and now there is the G1, the company’s first mobile phone which is pretty much brimming with the cutting edge technology that smartphones need to survive in the competitive marketplace. But what makes the G1 stand out from the crowd and why might you consider letting it into your life?

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G1 Technical Specs

The G1 is a champion of function over form, but we’ll get into that later. It is, like many of the current do-it-all handsets such as the iPhone, a touch screen phone. The screen is large and sharp and ample enough to display all of the things you could possibly want from a mobile device. The touch screen capabilities are also equally responsive as Apple’s phone as sluggish touch screen response and poor implementation have been the downfall of handsets in the past.

Like the iPhone and the Blackberry Storm the screen will respond only to your finger and not other objects like a stylus or a fingernail, which is worth bearing in mind. The screen is 3.2 inches and has a resolution of 320×480 which gives a decent viewing area and resolution that most will be impressed with.

The G1 not only features a full touch sensitive screen but sliding the screen sideways reveals a full QWERTY keyboard with physical buttons which is ideal for typing longer messages, memos or web addresses and is especially useful if you’re one of the many people who don’t want your screen filled by a touch sensitive keyboard that obscures much of the content.

This design is an echo from the T-Mobile sidekick, with relatively small buttons perhaps not suitable for the biggest fingers but fine for most users. Storage is handled via micro SD with up to 8GB supported which should be plenty for most people, though a bit more onboard storage would have brought it more inline with its rivals.

Wi-Fi, quad band and 3G are all present, and the G1 can conveniently transfer between 3G and any nearby open Wi-Fi connections seamlessly making browsing the web effortless. The G1 also sports a 3.2 megapixel camera, like the the iPhone, but we’ll get to that later.

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G1 Software and Features

The G1 is the first handset to utilise Google’s own Android mobile platform, and I’m happy to say that the interface that Android offers on the G1 is both user friendly and highly customisable thanks to the many applications that are offered. The home screen can be customised with your favourite apps, like Gmail, Google maps and many more downloadable apps that are either available now or will be in the future, downloadable from Google’s own Android Marketplace.

The browser software is well featured and can be viewed in landscape or portrait mode, and browsing is greatly helped by the full keyboard underneath the main screen, which will be a big bonus for some. The G1 also features a pretty standard music and media playing system that supports many mainstream file types, but it doesn’t feel like a lot of time has gone into making the software hugely helpful, but then the G1 is primarily a smartphone, not a music phone.

G1 – The Negatives

The first thing to say about the G1 is that it is a bit of an ugly duckling. The design is certainly unique, with the bottom of the handset curving in towards where your mouth would sit during a phone call. It is available in grey or white, both of which are not particularly attractive, but this is more a fault caused by the clunky, cheap looking design.

The G1 is most certainly not a fashion item, and it puts functionality way above external aesthetics. Also, the camera is pretty appalling, lacking a flash and most importantly any ability for the user to change the camera settings, such as white balance, which means that it is pretty much unsuitable for use in all but the best shooting conditions. It also lacks the ability to record video, but this may be rectified through the release of an app later in the G1′s life.

G1 – Conclusion

The G1 is an admirable first attempt from Google at creating a smartphone that is tailored to the business user, and though it lacks the media functionality of its rivals it does bode well for the future of the Android mobile platform and the devices that utilise it, and more competition in the marketplace can only be a good thing.

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