Digital Trends

T-Mobile G1 October 19th, 2008 | by Stewart Wolpin

Can a phone serve as a workable PMP?

Like the iPhone, the G1 is designed as a cell phone that also doubles as portable media player (PMP). As an MP3 player, the G1 is not exactly an iPod, but the only thing you'll miss is the iTunes software.

Like any self-respecting MP3 player, you get the usual artist/track name/album, etc. segmentations to delineate your collection. The screen also displays title/artist/album track information, album art, a bright yellow progresss bar, track time elapsed, total track time, large touch music transport controls, Shuffle and Play All controls, plus one-touch access to your entire collection.

The G1 does not include media management software, but Windows Media Player worked just fine as a substitute to fill up the G1 with DRM-free AAC and/or MP3 tracks, although it took me more than an hour to completely sync a blank 8GB card with around 6GB of music. It also was easy to drag and drop music files onto the G1 from a Mac.

Google has partnered with Amazon as its online music store. Like the iPhone, however, you need a WiFi connection to buy tracks from the store using the G1. You can browse the Amazon store, and even listen to 30-second snippets using a 3G connection. You're restricted to Wi-Fi for actually purchasing tracks, however.

We did experience some screen delay when moving around in various apps and functions while music was playing.

Sound Quality

For voice calls, the G1's sound is crisp and clear, nearly devoid of the usual cell phone echo and warble. However, G1 could use a bit more of a voice volume boost; I had a rough time hearing everything my callers had to say while strolling down crowded New York City sidewalks.

Music quality through the free included earbuds was also better than expected, and should sound even better through a high-end set of headphones. 

Phone Functionality

Normally, this section of a review deals primarily with a phone's specific calling features. But the G1 is no ordinary phone – it's the first of its kind. Therefore, we'll use this opportunity to discuss G1's most salient feature: Its operating system, which includes the actual phone capabilities.

Android is not as sleek and original as iPhone's operating system; that's to be expected since it follows the iPhone by more than a year. As a result, Android seems derivative, but that's misleading. In a world without the iPhone, Android would be considered wondrous. Android offers a multitude of handy tools, and is nearly as intuitive as the iPhone. Plus, it has a couple of nifty tricks I'll bet Apple's software engineers wished they'd thought of.

Android's home screen is actually the middle of three screens; you finger swipe left or right to get to the additional displays. On the main screen is a large analog clock display; unfortunately, this is the only clock available, although it's hard to believe some clever developer won't create cooler timepieces. On the right screen is a Google search toolbar, but you can hold-and-drag this to main middle screen if you'd like as well.

Unlike the iPhone's plain black background, you can assign any picture in the phone as the home screen's wallpaper (although I'd choose something sedate or you won't be able to make out the function shortcut icons). The picture you choose is splayed seamlessly across all three screens.

You can place any shortcut icon, such as a photo, song or document on the home screens just like you can on any PC, not just applications, as on the iPhone. And anything on the home screen can be moved or removed. The bottom of the middle home page has a tabbed home menu page that you drag up, like a bottom-up window shade. To move a frequently accessed shortcut from this pull-up menu, just hold and drag the icon onto the main home page.

A screenshot of the G1 desktop

The trick Android’s creators got right that Apple’s developers missed concerns the top end of the screen. It's not just a status bar, but a pull-down window shade. If there's a waiting message, for instance, just pull down the status bar window shade to get specifics. When you're done, just lift the shade back up. It's really clever.

This status bar window shade is particularly handy when music is playing, and you switch to another function or application. If you want to get back to the Now Playing screen, instead of cycling through the home screens to tap the Music icon, you just pull down the status bar window shade to quickly return to the Now Playing screen.

G1's greatest advancement may be considered anachronistic in this new touchscreen world: Its six physical controls. These controls, always thumb-reachable, make the G1 far easier to navigate and control than the iPhone, especially the Back key, the trackball and the Menu bar.

When editing prose such as an email on the iPhone, for instance, you have to touch-drag a magnified cursor that requires an annoying amount of exactitude to place at precisely the right spot. Manipulating the cursor with the G1's nipple trackball is far quicker and more intuitive.

Each Android application and function has a sub-menu of necessary options, accessible via, duh, the Menu key. Any touch command not visible on the screen is just a Menu button push away.

These controls won't just be on the G1 either. According to manufacturer HTC, all Android phones require Home, Menu, Back and navigation control keys.

But the G1 misses one of iPhone's key technologies, which is fast becoming de rigueur for touchscreen phones: An accelerometer, which detects the position the phone is held in and adjusts the orientation of on-screen visuals accordingly. Instead, here, what's on-screen moves from portrait to landscape mode when you slide the screen up. You also have to manually rotate photos via a "rotate" control in the picture gallery menu if you want to make them full screen.

Like the iPhone, the G1 is also missing haptic feedback, but that's not such a big deal on a handset with a QWERTY keyboard. We did miss haptic feedback on the touch dialpad, though.

The G1 is additionally missing the gyro sensor that makes iPhone such a wonder. The phone doesn't know you're pulling it up to your ear in order to turn off the touchscreen or when you pull it down away from your ear so it knows to reactive the screen so you can end a call. It doesn't have to. After you dial a number, there's nothing on the G1 screen that can be touched, and the screen goes blank almost immediately after a call is connected. When you're done with a call, you have a physical red End key to push to hang up, screen on or off.

You can assign any musical track on the phone as your ringtone without paying T-Mobile or Amazon an extra fee. On the iPhone you have to pay for a track twice, once to listen to it and again to use it as a ringtone – advantage G1.

Ringtones are also loud – at the highest volume setting, tones played through the small speaker are actually distorted. Suffice it to say that the G1 is one phone you don't have to set at its highest volume to hear ring, especially if you choose a loud track to alert you. Holding the side volume down toggle at the home screen turns off the ringer.