T-Mobile G1 Quick Review

I've had my brand new, T-Mobile G1 for a full week now and thought it was time to write a review. This is not an extensive review, by any means. There are already enough of those on the Internet. This is just a short review of daily life with the G1.

Hardware
While the G1 hardware may not be the most strikingly beautiful, it is rather incredible. With WiFi, GPS, a 3MP camera, a compass, capacitive touchscreen, full keyboard, etc. the G1 definitely rocks in the hardware arena.

Software
This is where the G1 truly shines. It runs Android, the open source operating system from Google. This means that anyone, anywhere can write software for the phone, as well as write improvements to the OS itself. While there aren't a whole lot of killer apps availalbe at present, it is really only a matter of time. The phone has only been out for a week, remember.

Daily Use
The G1 is slightly bigger than the BlackBerry Pearl I previously had, but it still fits nicely in my pocket. The touchscreen is amazing...it responds instantly, is very smooth and makes navigating the phone way easier than I expected it to. The keyboard is taking a bit of getting used to, but I'm already to the point where I almost don't have to look anymore. Another week and I'll be a pro.

Another thing I didn't expect was the speed of 3G. I knew it would be faster, but I honestly didn't expect it to be THAT much faster. Webpages and maps load almost instantly, it's awesome. And when I'm at home, the G1 easily connects to my wireless network for even faster speeds.

I also love the various cool things it can do. For example, Shelsy and I went to the park yesterday and I was able to take pictures and upload them immediately to Flickr. The GPS in the phone automatically geotagged the pictures making them viewable on a map with no other work from me. Way cool.

There are some major missing features that everyone expects to be addressed by open source developers soon. The phone can't record video yet, for example. While these are definite annoyances, they aren't too much of a bother, especially since I know that they'll be fixed before too long.

So, all in all, I can honestly say that this is the best phone I've ever used. And with each new app that I download, it becomes even better. It is very, seriously, cool. :-)

P.S. If you have a G1, make sure you download the BarcodeScanner program. It can read 2D barcodes, also known as QR codes. If you're reading this in a feed reader, click through to the blog itself for a QR code to scan. :-)

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