Digital Trends

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

Video

The G1 doesn't include a native video player – you have to download a third-party video player. T-Mobile told me that the G1 can play MPEG-4, 3GPP, H.263 and H.264 files, but we were unable to get the G1 to play H.264 clips.

While the Amazon store does offer downloadable video, so far there is no way to buy and play videos on the G1. By far, Android's inattentiveness to native video playback is the G1's greatest functionality misstep.

Web Browsing

Web browsing on the G1's HTML Web browser, email checking and reading, and downloading apps from the Market prove much faster on a 3G network than via EDGE. But T-Mobile just launched its 3G HSDPA network a few months ago. Right now T-Mobile 3G is available in 92 cities, with 120 expected by the end of November. By comparison, AT&T's much-maligned 3G network is available in 350 markets.

Without 3G, many consumers may be disappointed by Android's EDGE Web surfing performance, as well as the performance of many of the third-party apps that depend on high-speed connectivity. In our own usage, pages such as CNN.com, ESPN and The New York Times pages loaded in less than 10 seconds using 3G, but took more than three times longer in EDGE. The iPhone's 3G connection also filled pages faster than G1's Wi-Fi connection by around 5-7 seconds.

Like the iPhone, the G1 presents the Web via a handsome full HTML browser; what you see on your big desktop screen is what you see on the 3.17-inch G1 screen, albeit a bit smaller. You can view the Web in either landscape or portrait mode, although with the screen up in landscape pages less side-to-side scrolling is required.

Apple's Safari browser on the iPhone delivers an entire page on one screen that can then be zoomed in on via the phone's multi-touch pinching. Android gives you a large, readable section of a page that you have to move around left-right/up-down to explore. When you touch a Web page, + and – zoom controls pop up on the bottom of the screen.

Both images and text are beautifully rendered on the G1 screen, with baby-butt-smooth fonts. You can even copy pictures from the Web and store them on the G1. 

Accessories

The G1 comes with a travel charger, a USB-to-mini-USB cable and USB earphones. The G1 will recharge when it's connected to a PC; if you travel with a laptop, you won't need the travel charger.

The included earbuds have an inline mic, switch hook, volume control and lapel alligator clip. Double-tapping the switch hook skips music to the next track. The earbuds themselves are not that comfortable, and fit too loose in the ear for our tastes.

There's also a soft carry case included but no belt clip. Simply slipping the phone into breast pocket will work just as well.
Of course, it's improbable that the G1 will inspire the range and number of clever and functional accessories iPhone has – no other phone yet has aroused that kind of accessorizing frenzy. 

Camera

The G1's 3MP camera does iPhone's 2MP cam one better. But like the iPhone, the G1's camera offers no additional options such as zoom or flash, although there is a weird kind of vanity mirror that looks more like it was intended as a design flourish that just happens to be shiny enough to see your reflection. There's also no video recorder, which is disappointing, but creates an opportunity for some ambitious third-party developer.

The G1's 3MP pictures are impressive, with just vague bits of blurriness is spots – this isn't exactly a DSLR, after all. Colors are mostly bright and pop out well, especially in direct sunlight.

Indoor shots are a bit murkier, as you'd expect, with more blur given how long and still you have to hold the phone – two or three seconds, an eternity in digital camera land, while the shot is captured and processed.

Image Courtesy of T-Mobile

Battery Life

The G1 has a rated talk time of 5 hours, the same as the iPhone, but just 130 hours in standby: A little more than two days, or less than half of the iPhone's rated 300 hours standby.

In our unscientific tests, music played for around 11 hours, less than half of the iPhone's 24-hour music play time. Rated music and video play times were not released.

But like the iPhone, you're likely to re-charge the G1's battery every night or even more often than that – although, with so many cool things to play with, it's unlikely you'll make it through the day on a single charge.

Conclusion

Even with all that we've covered here, we've barely touched on the G1's overall sophistication: It's a wondrous achievement for a first-gen operating system. As such, the G1 is the Phil Mickelson of cell phones – that is to say, it ranks as a star compared to nearly every rival except for the Tiger Woods of cell phones, the iPhone. In some ways, the G1 is easier to navigate than the iPhone and, depending on your keyboard tastes, it may be easier to compose text on. But the G1 is also clunky, and sometimes unwieldy. Not to go all French on you, but it lacks the iPhone’s simple joie de vivre and savoir faire. What may ultimately hold the G1 back is the lack of a nationwide 3G network, which means that, to make a simple automotive comparison, most of the time it will run on low octane EDGE fuel and lessened speeds hardly worth of its race-car-grade engine. The handset’s lack of accompanying iTunes-like sync software is also a major disappointment. But Android has loads of potential and is likely to be installed on sleeker phones more worthy of its sophistication and functionality. As first impressions go, consider us impressed.

Pros: 

• Android operating system best available, other than iPhone
• Bright 3.17-inch touchscreen
• Physical QWERTY keyboard
• Complete user customization
• Access to online music and application store
• Excellent music player
• Excellent sound

Cons:

• Clunky and heavy
• No 3.5mm headphone jack
• No comprehensive iTunes-like sync software
• Lack of T-Mobile 3G markets
• No native video playback
• Short battery life for music playback