Google’s new G1 phone “won’t win any beauty contests with its Apple [iPhone] rival. It’s stubby and chunky, nearly 30% thicker and almost 20% heavier than the iPhone. It’s a bit narrower — more like a standard phone than a ‘smart phone’ — and longer, but has a somewhat smaller screen,” Walt Mossberg blogs for The Wall Street Journal.
Mossberg reports, “The G1 complements its touch screen with a physical keyboard, the lack of which has made the iPhone a non-starter for some users.”
MacDailyNews Take: Yeah, those users who’ve never used an iPhone.
Mossberg continues, “The G1’s keyboard is revealed when you slide open its screen. The keys are a bit flat, and you have to reach your right thumb around a bulging portion of the phone’s body to type, but it’s a real keyboard. And there’s also a BlackBerry-like trackball that supplements the touch screen navigation. I found typing on this keyboard to be OK, but not great.”
MacDailyNews Take: “OK, but not great.” Now there’s a ringing endorsement for making your device thicker and heavier in order to sport an antique mechanical keyboard.
Mossberg continues, “A second big feature, or limitation, of the G1 — depending on your point of view — is that it is tightly tied to Google’s web-based email, contacts and calendar programs. In fact, you must have a Google account to use the phone, and can only synchronize the phone’s calendar and address book with Google online services. Unlike the iPhone, it doesn’t work with Microsoft Exchange, and it can’t physically be synced with a PC-based calendar or contacts program, like Microsoft Outlook. So, if your world already revolves around Google services, you may find that the G1 fits like a glove. If not, you may be disappointed.”
“The web browser is based on the same open-source technology as the iPhone’s, but works differently. You can view a portion of a page, and use a zoom control and finger-dragging to see the rest, or you can view the whole page in miniature, as on the iPhone. In the latter mode, however, you can’t simply use Apple’s technique of tapping or ‘pinching’ to zoom in on a portion of a page. You must move around a virtual lens to pick out a part of the page on which to focus,” Mossberg reports.
Mossberg reports, “The G1’s multimedia capabilities are less polished and complete than the iPhone’s. There’s a very basic music player, and a built-in version of Amazon’s MP3 download service that works fine. But the G1 lacks a built-in video player — you have to download one from the third-party software store. Also, you cannot use standard stereo headphones with the G1. You need special ones, or an adapter.”
Well, you get the idea. Mossberg’s full “first look” review here.
It figures.
No one will convince me to give up my iPhone 3G.
No one.
Unless it is priced extremely low….I smell a flop.
First impressions of the G1 and i feel its a genuine competitor to the iPhone!
A great site to see all the G1 Video reviews & features is http://www.g1tube.com
call me smug but I simply love my iPhone.
Wouldn’t use anything else after this device.
Posted from my iPhone.
This is such a gross mischaracterization of Mossberg’s review which concludes:
“In sum, the G1 is a powerful, versatile device which will offer users a real alternative in the new handheld computing category the iPhone has occupied alone.”
Well that’s a clunky piece of junk for a cutting edge device.
But that said T-Mobile will likely sell a few of these. Android makes the Blackberry and the iPhone look so much better.
Windows Vista and Google Android Designers Agree: Giant analog clocks placed inches away from digital clocks are a GREAT UI idea for 2008!
No multi-touch? No sale.
And what’s with the icons strewn across the home screen like garbage? Is Android really Windows 98?
Gizmodo rips into Android’s inconsistent and clunky user interface:
http://gizmodo.com/5053734/how-many-google-engineers-does-it-take-to-tell-the-time
In other words, perfect for the Zune diehard users who will never get anything with an Apple logo on it. You know the two dozen users since adding Canada.
As someone said yesterday, the Google’s G1 is to the iPhone as a PC is to the Mac.
Like a PC, you can get a G1 to do everything an iPhone does, but you have to download apps and stuff from all over, be satisfied with a less then stellar user experience, live with the constraints for the phone provider, and hope that the apps from various sources don’t conflict with each other.
With an iPhone, as with a Mac, it just works.
In fact, I can see a whole series of future Apple commercials along the lines of:
I’m an Android, I’m an iPhone.
“stubbier, clunkier, thicker, heavier, less complete “
Sounds like an old girl friend. She was a gargoyle not a google.
Have to agree with marduk…just because it’s an election year and we’re used to seeing comments taken out of context, doesn’t mean MDN should stoop to this level…
Mossberg wrote a generally positive review; a lot of his complaints were about hardware, and there will no doubt be better designs in the near future. Also, the software is organic and will also improve in time (especiallywith open source solutions). The app store also promises to be less tight-fisted in what is accepted/rejected (also see current Joy of Tech
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All that said, I STILL love my iPhone!
Who cares? Just look at how this industry has been turned on its head since the iPhone debuted. The more the merrier.
@ Bah
Yeah but most of them are all copying Apple and cashing in on their BS tags and MKT that its a touchscreen like the iPhone and does things like the iPhone…
I think most people are missing the purpose of Android. It is not intended to compete with iPhone but to compete with other Windows Mobile phones. Easier market to enter because there are fewer phones that could use it and that lets them develop over time, and its not that hard to compete with windows mobile. It is Google’s first phone, they did not aim for the top rung.
You folks are missing an important point. Some people will NOT use ATT for various reasons. For example, I will not give up Verizon because I can call many, many relatives for free. On ATT that would cost me a bundle every month. At least this phone give the promise of a more sophisticated smart phone in the future. Hopefully, Verizon will get on board with this, but then who knows for sure.
Apple’s iPhone is not the only reason to choose a cell phone provider.
A wide open platform – completely open – as long as you only use Google email, calendar, etc. No, thanks.
Sounds like an old girl friend. She was a gargoyle not a google.
And you went out with her because???
OK, so we know why. Hope it was good.
Jesus Christ, I mean, Me, can MDN get over the fact that some people simply don’t like a touch-screen keyboard?! I love my iPhone, I love it’s keyboard and almost everything else about it but some of my friends and acquaintances who’ve tried it just can’t dig it without the physical keys. Does that make them a minority? Yes. Does that make them subhuman idiots with Gump-level IQ’s? No. It means they prefer something that others don’t. I wonder if MDN’s editors prefer butter or margarine? Toyota or Honda? Allah or Me? Mac or PC? Oh, right.
The G1 and Android are good news. It will attract more people to this kind of device and if they have any sense they will check out the iPhone at the same time – then it’s down to personal choice/budget and particularly – tiny keyboard v touch typing, and if they already have Amazon MP3 or iTunes.
Quote: “OK, but not great.” Now there’s a ringing endorsement for making your device thicker and heavier in order to sport an antique mechanical keyboard.
Here’s another (good) reason… Won’t be enough to make me chose any other phone over my iPhone but…
Have you tried to type an sms or email in a car on a bumpy road with the iPhone… Good luck! VERY frustrating to have a “virtual touch screen” keyboard in that situation.
Ok, I know, there’s probably not many bumpy roads in the US and that’s Steve Job’s reference when making a product.
But the world isn’t up to US standards.
So, we have to (happily) suffer until Jonathan addresses this with a (far in the) future iPhone design – or until the quality of roads improve in Africa, which ever comes first (it’ll probably be the iPhone 17G
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Those Blackberry-style trackballs suck!
“Sounds like an old girl friend. She was a gargoyle not a google.
And you went out with her because???”
Because she gargled.
Well, a lot of these shortcomings are in the physical design by HTC. It reminds me of the ROKR (is that right?) Motorola’s attempt at the first iTunes phone, certainly not what Apple had intended the phone to be. Perhaps Google feels the same.