Re: Introducing the T-Mobile G1
It might depend on what you're used to, and what you're using it for.
It's smaller in reality than it might seem in pictures. The screen has the same number of pixels as iPhone, but they're packed together tighter. Although slightly bulky, it's not a problem.
Battery life is on a common complaint. If you use the phone heavily, you might barely get a full day's worth, or not.
On mine, the keyboard is not quite level; some keys are more flush, and are not backlit evenly. On the bronze/brown model, the keys are sometimes unreadable. The backlight comes on, but is not that bright. Because the keys themselves are light, you can't read them. The keys are too flush overall; they were better on the Sidekick. If possible, try the actual one you're gonna buy.
No virtual keyboard (yet). You have to open the phone to type something.
I've had occasional problems where I will answer a call, and I can hear the other person, but they can't hear me. Or neither of us can hear each other. It then works fine when I call them back.
The phone must be linked to a Gmail account. (It might work on a business account that Gmail handles, and not require an @gmail.com address.) Contacts and Calendar are synced with Gmail. Managing them on the phone is not quite full-featured, and you may be forced to use a desktop web browser. (If you use the browser on the phone, with Calendar you are forced to use a mobile version of the site.) For example, on the Sidekick, I could edit an event so that it occurs every three weeks (instead of just weekly or monthly) and set an alarm for 25 hours in advance (instead of 24).
The time is almost always in the top right corner, but nothing about the date. You can do a swipe motion to see the date, but it does not include the day of the week! To add insult to injury, the main widget on the home screen is another clock, although it's analog.
The browser is good, but because of the way pages are presented and resized with Multi-Touch, iPhone is better. Maps is good, and very handy.
No built-in video player, although there is a separate YouTube app. You can download a video player from the app Market, but it and the built-in music player seem kinda low-rent. In general, the Market does seem kinda sparse, although that might be because there are only free apps now. The Pac-Man is pretty much dead-on, though.
The Android OS is promising, and the development tools are pretty good.
