The T-Mobile G1, The Good And The Bad
Okay, the dust has barely settled, let’s analyse the good and bad things that came out of the T-Mobile G1 launch in an easy to digest supplement. Come on, it’s one of your five a day!
GOOD
- Out in 2008 in the US and UK. They told you so!
- Looks a bit less ugly than we’d been led to believe.
- $179. Cheap as chips. Using the patented $=£ exchange rate for electronics, we still may get off light in the UK!
- 3G and Wi-Fi. A bit of a given, but to make the most of the web-based stuff, we need lickedy split internet connectivity.
- Amazon MP3 Browser. Cheap music? No DRM? Connects to the web/Youtube for related content? Yes.
- Android. It’s an open platform for people to make new apps every day, manufacturers can shape the interface of a handset as they see fit, the App Store Marketplace will be bustling, and it could be the birthplace of really impressive stuff!
- The Small Stuff. Coming out post-iPhone has helped them fix some stuff. Nicer interfaces with all the widgets, pull down menus, more robust Google Maps and search mode for the entire phone.
The bad side of the G1 after the clicky!
BAD
- Worrying lack of specs talk aside from Larry Page’s hilariously vague “It’s a powerful as a computer from some years ago!” If it had more megapixels and higher resolution than some other phones, they would have shouted it from the rooftops. Leaked specs of 3.1 megapixel camera and HVGA screen were underwhelming. Better than iPhone, but what isn’t these days?
- Not a business handset means a lack of features for even a more hardcore handset user. What, not even Exchange support or decent push mail? Even Grandma needs that nowadays.
- No support (yet) for Bluetooth headphones. You’ve got the music, let me listen to it without rummaging through my pockets and hanging myself with wires!
- They sound overreliant on sitting back and letting the community produce all the content to fill the gaps in software and hardware, for free. If Android doesn’t take off, what then?
- Despite all the talk of mobile internetness, saw nothing on G1’s ‘Chrome lite’ browser that iPhone’s Safari couldn’t handle. Where is the Internet with a capital ‘i’ on a phone we were promised?
- No G1 for rest of Europe til 2009. That’s cold.
- SIM locked to T-Mobile. Expected, but why bother these days? All that ‘open’ development could blow up in their face when industrious hackers get involved…
- No PC-based client. No equivalent to iTunes means no other way of manipulating content. As fiddly as iTunes is, it’s lightyears better than trying to juggle things from the handset. It would just make things a bit slicker.
- No ‘wow’ factor. Looking past the rollerskates, no real thing about the handset itself that screams exclusivity, or coolness. It needs this to stand in an industry of megapixel junkies and multimedia powerhouses. Maximum risky…
- Google = Ads. G1 phone + lots of talk of ‘internet and locational awareness’ = mobile ads all in you face! They will be able to target where you are, and what you want. Scary.
What do you guys think? Will this pry you away from your Omnia, or convince you to hold out past the Xperia X1 to get aboard the Google bus? Let us know in the forums!
Tags: Apple, ericsson, g1, google phone, iPhone, omnia, samsung, sony, t-mobile, x1, xperia
