So today I finally got to touch an Android phone. T-Mobile, Google, and HTC put on a big media circus in New York City (see our live notes), complete with Google co-founders Sergey and Larry coming out on rollerblades to tell us how cool the phone is because you can hack it just like a computer. (Sergey wrote an app that uses the built-in accelerometer to measure how long it takes for the phone to hit the floor when you throw it in the air because, well, he’s a geek). And you really have to keep that in mind. There will be many Android phones, and they will all get better over time. It’s a platform, yada, yada, yada.
The T-Mobile G1 is $20 cheaper than the iPhone, at $180 for existing customers, and comes with two data plans: $25 a month (with unlimited Web access and limited text messaging) and $35 a month (with unlimited everything). It goes on sale October 22 at T-Mobile stores, but existing customers can begin pre-ordering on the Web already. Expect a huge marketing push. This will be the biggest marketing campaign in T-Mobile’s history. (Although they didn’t say it at the press conference, I suspect Google is footing the tab). The commercials are already out on YouTube.
But how does this one stack up against the one and only iPhone? It doesn’t have quite the finish of the iPhone (both in terms of hardware or user interface), but it comes pretty damn close. (John Biggs at CrunchGear calls it “almost perfect”). And more importantly, it matches the iPhone on many fronts. It’s got GPS, WiFi, a touchscreen, an accelerometer, a camera, Gmail, Google Maps, a Webkit-based browser (just like Safari on the iPhone), and an App market.
The first Android phone even has some things that the iPhone doesn’t, like a full keyboard that flips out from under the screen like on a Danger Sidekick (Andy Rubin’s old company). And it also sports a nubby little scroll ball like on a Blackberry (I thought RIM had a patent on that). And did I mention the compass? It’s got one built in (in addition to the accelerometer and the GPS), so that when you look at StreetView on Google Maps and swing the phone around it shows you a picture of what you are facing. Some developer is going to write a cool hiking app that taps into the compass, I’m sure. Oh, and there’s one more thing. You can run more than one app at the same time. That’s huge.
But is that it? Is that Google’s answer to the iPhone—a keyboard and a compass? I’m afraid so. There are a few other minor things the Android G1 can do that the iPhone can’t. The e-mail is push instead of pull, so you are always up to date. (Although, oddly enough, you can already push and sync emails, contacts, and calendars with Microsoft Exchange on the iPhone, but not with any other mail server). And anything you do in a Google app, whether in email or Calendar, is automatically synced to your Google account. (Hear that, you Meshers at Microsoft?). The phone comes with a music player that can play any DRM-free songs, and a link to Amazon’s MP3 store. Take that, iTunes.
The touchscreen interface lets you swipe pages or drag and drop things around. When you scroll through your contact list, a tab appears on the touchscreen that you can pull down for faster scrolling, which is nice feature. And search is built into every part of the phone. You can do “deep” presses a dedicated search button to initiate a search in practically any app.
But remember, in the end this is not really about Android versus the iPhone. It’s about Web phones versus the brick in your pocket. Simply matching the iPhone on many of these features—especially Web browsing and email—is going to be enough to help redefine the mobile market. The table stakes have just been raised. From now on, phones need to be nearly as capable as computers. All others need not apply.
So how fast is the CPU compared to iPhone? What I want is a phone that can have apps running in the background AND play Super MonkeyBall at the same time.
A way around iTunes and a physical keyboard are enough for me to choose this over an iPhone.
Will there be a line and if so, how much shorter than the iPhone?
Looks pretty slick to me, I can’t wait. I think may finally be ready to give up my Blackberry.
This phone is for freaks! iPhone is for normal people. This is the difference.
I need a phone to be nice looking, have nice functions and keep at least 1-2 years. I do not need to hack it (!!?)
Google should have better concentrated to update their apps for iPhone or to offer a .me alternative for free…
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Let’s the games begin! {seesmic_video:{“url_thumbnail”:{“value”:”http://t.seesmic.com/thumbnail/dD9S9LjvJY_th1.jpg”}”title”:{“value”:”Let’s the games begin! ”}”videoUri”:{“value”:”http://www.seesmic.com/video/lhUmgDTmHe”}}}
it doesn’t have headphone jack
That’s a deal breaker for me
Does anyone know what’s the hardware specs on it?
What about visual voicemail? Does T-Mobile plan to add that capability to the G1?
I am a T-Mobile customer for a while now and my upgrade will cost $299. I am not sure who gets the $180 price. All the tmobile customers i asked say its $299. I expect this to be part of their huge marketing push…
Yep, same for me. I *think* this is the price if you are still under your current contract (which I am, a few months left). I’m assuming that the 180 price is if your contract is up and you are month to month. That said, I can’t verify this anywhere. Arg.
I’m a tmobile customer in the middle of a contract and I got the $179 price. I think it’s because I haven’t upgraded my phone in over 2 years, even when I extended my contract.
I am a tmobile customer and am doing an upgrade and i got the 179 rate I’M SO EXCITED I CAN’T WAIT!
i feel like many people won’t buy this because of its keyboard.
You obviously haven’t struggled with the iPhone touch-screen keyboard my friend.
If you struggle, you’re not doing it right…
Not sure how much time you’ve spent with the iPhone keyboard, but I can type fairly quickly with two thumbs. It would be nice to be able to turn off the predictive typing feature though. (It gets in the way when you’re not typing with one finger.)
Does it run Flash ?
Great question. I hope so as that would give Adobe plenty of leverage over Apple to get Flash on the iPhone.
Sorry, until it can actually sync with my desktop apps, the Android phone is useless. Google better figure out the desktop portion of Android ASAP. And no, just integrating with google products will not cut it. It needs to sync easily with Windows, OSX, and Linux.
The phone also needs a standard headphone jack built in, and better storage options.
Sync what? You can access the MicroSD card over USB. It wouldn’t be hard to write an app to sync your phone app files with your computer app files. If you don’t want to plug in over USB, there’s net access. The beauty of Android is that its an open platform. If you have an itch, you’re pretty much free to scratch it.
Agree with Brian. And there’s no shortage of freeware for all your syncing needs (portable or otherwise): Toucan, WinMerge, etc.
Do your homework…windows mobile has been doing push email and instant contact and calendar sync for many years. It’s called exchange and it works great.
Exchange sucks for people not using Windows.
I like it! Waiting to see how Apple reacts.
Gawd – that is the ugliest phone. Google you are going to have to come up with something sexier than that. The Google phone looks like a 45 year old suburban housewife with a FUPA compared to my hot 22 year college girlfriend (iPhone).
Jason,
Most of the times, you end up breaking up with your girlfriend
Cheers
RK
The Google phone looks like a 45 year old suburban wife, huh?
Well tell the Missus to slip on a negligee… cause Daddy’s home!!!
I don’t want to have sex with my phone, I want it to do my laundry.
Does that mean you don’t want to have sex with your wife, and you only want her to do your laundry? that sucks
the trick is to get a wife/phone that’s sexy AND can do laundry
It seems like android has captured the 1800’s throwback misogynist market. Do you want it to pick your cotton too?
Notice I said 45 year housewife with a ***FUPA***. If you don’t know what a FUPA, call your buddy. No one longs for a FUPA.
But hey, if that is all you got go for it. They make Kia cars and Walmart too. You might outta look into it.
Oh snap.
I vote for the 22 year old, I can do my own laundry.
Eww, I really wish I didn’t Google that just now.
Although the definition of “Fupa Chalupa” on Urban Dictionary was a great laugh.
Not too shabby. I still love my iPhone…but the Android platform shows that another viable option exists. (Sorry RIM — your phones are miles away from the iPhone)
Competition is healthy and that’s what we have here. The Android OS will improve and will force Apple to continue to actively develop on their end. (Hmmm…Steve Jobs if you’re listening — how about Copy & Paste and perhaps multiple apps running at the same time!)
Just remember, we’re basically in the 1st inning in terms of True Web/Handheld Computers/Mobile Game Platform based Cell Phones.
{RING, RING} Oh, excuse me…i need to answer my iPhone.
This open-source Linux smartphone, will have super-cool apps, (like VLC for android) comming soon. As a linux programmers dream, Google Android will have full OGG multimedia playback, and will play OGG/THEORA mobile content from sites like OGGTV. As the Linux programmers get their hands on it, it will have a Super-ammount of downloadable apps.
And hopefully we’ll get to install and configure all these apps from the command line…. yay.
Based on the pictures, I would say this device fails in the looks and feel categories. But as a potential game changer… android+chrome+gears… win.
Disappointing! Seriously.
No thanks, Google.
you forgot a big one. copy/paste. it can do it!
it’s close to being a ugly pieace of shyiet
Isn’t competition great.
Will this phone be usable on several providers?
michael
It will be interesting to see what the Revenue line is on this bad boy come October. I like the keyboard, as touching the damn iPhone gets annoying not being able to feel the keys.
lots of words but no information…how about runtime, cpu, ram, features, specs, size. I am impressed by the wealth of non information you can pack in so many words…
The iPhone will rule the world until someone can throw together something better than iTunes. One touch buy and sync, easy peasy, that’s what people want… like it or not.
A bunch of cool features for sure. Competition is a good thing. The consumer wins in the end. Its not even close getting me to switch from the iPhone just yet, but I welcome competition!
Probably the best thing about it is that it’s actually going to work as a PHONE which the iPhone completely falls short on. Worst phone ever. EVER.
Iphone is way too expensive and they totally lock you into a contract. THat is not very cool. $1,000 a year on a phone?
“The phone comes with a music player that can play any DRM-free songs, and a link to Amazon’s MP3 store. Take that, iTunes.”
Uh, iTunes play DRM-free songs just fine. I ripped all my CDs and import them into iTunes and iPod on iPhone plays them like any other songs.
Hey,
How do you know if a song is DRM free?
It may be $20 cheaper, but it also has 7GB less storage. And pimping a music store with a non-standard audio jack? I think the Blackberry Bold & Javelin with updated OS and more media apps will be a more formidable iPhone competitor.
What a coincidence! 8 GB of MicroSD storage on Amazon is $20!
I might also note that this means for the same price, it has 1 GB _more_ storage.
How many people here are making a purchasing decision about a phone and going to choose this over the iPhone? I’m not a huge fan of the iWorld especially now that their into app censorship, but the iPhone is clearly better. In fact in terms of features the G1 barely beats the 3 year old Samsung i730 I’ve got now. With only a $20 difference between the iPhone and G1, no exchange support for the G1 (which means I’d have to have two phones, the G1 and one for business e-mail), larger form factor, etc. The G1 is like most of Google’s products, a beta. Let’s hope it’s not another one of their perpetual betas that never quite makes it to prime time.
“in terms of features the G1 barely beats the 3 year old Samsung i730 I’ve got now”
Hyloka, say whaaatt??
Last time I checked, my I730 didn’t have: gps, decent OS, capacitive touch screen, compass, low profile, push gmail, a decent music player, OR an app store.
You can keep your 730, I’d take a G1 anyday.
The i730 has a touch screen and slide out keyboard. We can argue about the OS, but that would be a waste of breath because yes, WM has its issues, but it does have built in audio and video player (video lacking on the G1). And you’re right, it doesn’t have GPS or an accelerometer and Gmail is pull (like everything else out there). But, the i730 has a headphone jack, bluetooth, wi-fi, IR (nice to use as a remote when you’re out and about) and more applications than you can count, you just have to hunt for them a little more.
My point is that most of what is in the G1 in terms of hardware has been around for 3+ years. My phone may have a higher profile, but honestly the G1 isn’t the most beautiful thing out there. Arguing the asthetics of the G1 and i730 is a bit like Julia Allison and Rachel Marsden arguing who’s prettier while standing next to Angelina Jolie (yeah, the iPhone is Angelie).
I’m not saying that the G1 doesn’t have a few more features, but if a 3 year old phone comes close to it, that’s just sad. Compared to what’s out there (iPhone)and coming down the pipe very soon (Omnia, Xperia, etc.) the G1 is weak. The i730 may be a brick, but you can forgive a 3 year old phone for that, especially when it’s feature set is right in the same league as the new “geek wonderphone.”
By that logic the i730 has most of the features of a Treo 600, which is five years old.
This guy has a point (the iphone does like dick in the ass a little