Well, I got the G1 last week and I’ve had time to play with it and learn its various nooks and crannies. A lot of reviews out there focus on initial impressions, so I thought I’d change that up and focus on a couple things that I like and don’t like at this point.
(It’s important to note that this week the app store opens up to all, so alot of these things may be fixed in the near future.)
LIKES
-It’s a mini laptop in my pocket! C’mon! I find myself surfing the internet and checking email everywhere now…which could become a problem.
-App store. Like I said, it’s still in it’s infancy, but it already has a lot of cool stuff which have been covered intensively elsewhere. Scanning products, alerting me of “predators” in the area…all cool stuff. And yesterday a twitter app came out along with a lot of games. It’s only going to better from here
-Qwerty keyboard. I always wanted one, and I finally have one.
-Form factor. Some people knock it, but I like it. It doesn’t have that ‘cut-in-half-bar-of-soap’ design that the iphone has, but I think they went a cool route with it. It’s definitely more impressive in person than in pictures.
DISLIKES
-Battery life. It wears out fast. Real fast. Average use of the course of one day and the thing is almost dead.
-Now the app store is open to all, some are junk. Like crash the phone junk.
-Oh yeah, the phone crashes occasionally. There was an update today. Hopefully that should fix some of the issues.
-Dealing with jealous Blackberry and iPhone users. Yeah, they’re quick to point out the flaws, but we all know it comes from a deep seated jealousy over the phone they wish they had got.
-Flimsy feel. While I like the form factor, it does feel a bit cheap. Feels like if I was quick to whip the screen open I could possibly rip it right off. Time will tell how it withstands the rigors of daily pocket travel.
-TMobile’s 3G service. Still in its infancy and available no where around amish country. It’s a shame, but luckily it still connects to just about any wireless network and saves the passwords/reconnects easily. And really, when are you not around wireless?
So that is my initial impression of the phone. I do like it very much, and with Google I only expect it to get better and better until I can’t live without it. They’re already taking over the world, might as well embrace it.
Your review is spot on. I would add as a big plus the seamless integration of Google apps. The 3G is awesome for me, but I am in NYC. On the downside, I am waiting for a Google Docs app. Overall, the phone is functional, but not sexy, but I imagine the form factor will be upgraded and improved over time.
Me and my 2yr old Samsung are jealous of your G1… but I’m a Verizon guy, so I doubt I’ll be getting one. Too bad for me.
@bomboloni -i agree about google apps. at least you can read ones that you already wrote. I don’t know if I would want to try typing that much on the keyboard. It does take some getting used to.
and i also agree that it’s not too terribly sexy, but it has it’s own appeal.
Very unsexy phone, keyboard is cool, TMobile 3G in rural areas sucks
G1 is about right as a rating
J Bentz pointed me towards your review after he saw I got my G1 on twitter. I am using Google Apps for my company and being a SEO, it just makes sense to try out the G phone. So far, I like it. The keyboard is a little hard on the right hand..but so far that is my only form compliant. I have 3 email accounts and it seems a little harder to check them all compared to Blackberry. My last downer is the camera is pretty slow, but about the same as Blackberry…I can’t really offer any comparisons to iPhone.