In the
grand tradition of TMI, the
G1's gone through a teardown for your voyeuristic pleasure. Underneath that chubby matte shell there are all sorts of build-related details that you probably didn't need to know, like the fact that Panasonic built the main board, the compass was built by Asahi Kasei (exciting, we know) and the keyboard element is thin. Some might say
too thin. Perhaps of most note is the trackball, which is basically identical to what RIM uses -- minus the fancy glowing effect. All riveting factoids, we assure you. One item of worry is that the engineers doing the teardown noted the particular thinness of the plastic bar connecting the sliding display to the phone, and raised the troubling possibility of breaking the display off from he handset. We certainly won't be stress testing that element, we can assure you.
posted Oct 31st 2008 10:01AM
does this mean we can make it have a glowy trackball?
No, it means they just tore apart a G1 that I would have gladly had.
Unfortunately that isn't possible. The trackball assembly in the BlackBerry doesn't actually contain the LEDs that illuminate it. The glow comes from the LED that is on the circuit board that the trackball sits on top of.
its got rims balls!
Actually, it does... piffling details like lack of an LED in place are merely obstacles to be overcome!
I don't think I'd bother (if I had a G1), but it's definitely still possible, and we'll probably see someone doing it before too long.
Maybe you can buy a cheap BB and a G1, go on a quest of tearing down the BB and acquiring the glowy orb.
Once the glowy orb has been successfully withdrawn from the feiry chambers of BB hell and then place it in the heavenly bowels of the G1.
Once the glowy orb has been successfully withdrawn from the feiry chambers of BB hell ,place it in the heavenly bowels of the G1.
Oops, should have proofread before thinking about the perceived awesomeness of above comment.
FAIL!
I wish they had just reworked and refined the MDA/Wing design, which already was pretty solid, instead of this completely new swing-out screen. I played around with it in a store, and while the two halves themselves feel solid enough, the link between them definitely feels somewhat flimsy and prone to breakage.
Please do stress test the sliding bar and set up that moves the display -- this is a real issue. I looked at this phone at a T-Mobile store last week and it seems that you could easily catch the display on something (like your pocket as you reach to pull it out) and rip the screen right off - or at least damage it. If the hinge is bent I am guessing the display won't close correctly. I would be very interested to know your opinion on this.
It's not as flimsy as it seems. It snaps out aggresively and if you actually look at the mechanism, its made in two parts. One arm keeps it on track, and the other, more sturdy, metal arm, is actually attached to the phone. The piece that engadget is talking about, is the part the keeps the phone on track. There is no need for it to be big and bulky, as its purpose is relatively simple. The phone snaps up, and the little thin plastic piece keeps it from going any old direction. There is absolutely no way that this phone is going to open up when you pull it out of your pocket. And, why would you have a touch screen phone just floating freely through your junky pocket anyways? Doesn't make sense to me, unless you like having a scratched screen. =S
@BlurMagic:
Because cell phone cases are made by the devil. I absolutely cannot stand cell phone cases or clips of any kind.
I carry my G1 loose in my pocket and it's doing fine. I also carried by T-Mobile dash loose in my pocket for over a year and its screen has absolutely zero scratches on it, not even fine ones under direct light.
I do agree, though, that the G1's hinge feels pretty rock solid. There are three pieces to it, they seem to have overengineered the thing to ensure it will work forever.
Haha. Yeah. I had a Dash and the screens are really resilliant. I actually replaced the one on mine because i accidentally pressed it against a desk corner, while it was in my pocket... =[
So that's why i no longer carry phones in my pocket. Plus my Shadow got scratched up from the rivets on the pockets of jeans...
Besides the "street view" in its maps, there isn't one thing about the G1 that would make me upgrade (downgrade?) from my iPhone.
and iPhone gets street view in version 2.2
why do you fanboys always turn up regardless of the topic...?
and what about cut and paste?
I found a few things that were great about the G1 while there were other things that could use some work.
On the positive, The screen was nice, the QWERTY was excellent and beats poking at a screen, the free apps were great and I can only imagine how it will be when the market has been up and running for a while. Integrated apps were great. Multitasking was nice and the thing never ran short of memory that I could see. Copy and paste is good as well. One of the best things was that it does not require you to use proprietary software to manage what is on the device and I can just drop stuff onto the card via USB. No Activesync or (thank god) iTunes was necessary.
On the negative, the one I tested had poor GPS functionality. It may be something that can be fixed via software update as my HTC phone has had excellent GPS capability since the before the iPhone 3G was even announced. There is no Exchange app yet and that would be something that I would wait for. iPhone is ahead on that. Also, there was no app to let me listen to shoutcast radio which is something I do regularly on my old HTC phone.
Other than that,
@wildman - what -about- cut and paste? Sheesh. I smell another "oh, the mac uses a one button mouse" comment for the next ten years. I just can't figure out how I've managed to use my 1st gen iPhone for 18 months without it. (?)
But answer the posters question - why would one downgrade to the G1, other than a hatred for all things Mac?
Maybe it's the replaceable batteries? Form everything I've heard, you're lucky to get through half a day with one battery, so sounds like you need them. Is it the physical keyboard that has your pants tightened up?
@neodorian
The G1 comes out of the package with the GPS sattelites turned off. You manually have to go into the settings and enable the phone to look for the GPS sattelites. It's a feature that is pretty hidden, but i have noticed alot of confusion from people about this topic on the forums over a tmonews.com. I have a G1 and when the sattelites option is not enable the GPS is shoddy. However, if you enable the sattelites option under the settings for location, the GPS is accurate within several feet.
@Flashpoint,
You can easily convince me that the iPhone has a better interface (today) than the G1. However, the biggest advantage of the G1 will be its appstore. Apple has a 'closed' store. Developers work to build an app and later find out that Apple bans it from the store. Over time I expect independent developers to completely bypass the roulette inherit in the Apple store. The open Android system would make a much more enticing target. So, I expect to see many more creative apps on the G1.
Amazing, since my wife's trackball has already stopped registering movements in one direction (up). Her Curve is flying high. That said, her keyboard backlight has never worked, and my compass is as reliable as a middle-schooler.
We just got us some bum phones. Luck of the draw...
Outta see a doctor about that.. nyuk nyuk nyuk.
I take it you haven't had the time to warranty it yet? Certainly it'd be covered by a minimum 90 day or 1 year warranty.
Phone insurance FTW!
Why is everyone so keen on calling it the GooglePhone? It's also the GunPhone.
I stress tested the heck out of a dummy phone with the same shell hardware and slide out keyboard as a real phone.
You can bend it one way or another, but it always retracts flush with the phone - smart design.
I think they deliberately built some flex into the keyboard to prevent stressful torsion on the slideout keyboard.
The slide-out keyboard won't break or loosen up unintentionally.
Ok listen up apple fanboys.
The G1 and the Iphone are 2 completely different phones for 2 compeletely different groups of people. I will admit that the iphone is prettier then the g1, there is no denying that. However, if your not interested in Itunes and apple related stuff, perhaps the g1 better suits you. As the G1 is open source, all applications on the market are free, and i have had my phone for only 5 days and everyday there is atleast 10 new applications/games that pop up. That are free. Apple charges for all of its apps. Lets see here....g1 = free. apple = pay. Do you want to pay for every app, or have them all free? Androids "flaws" (software) will all be solved by the incredible linux community. I personally dont see ANY flaws with this phone right now, but then again i dont use exchange. Anyone who thinks the iphone is better then the G1 only says so because they don't understand what open source means, and what potential it brings to the mobile phone world.
Will it blend?
Here is those videos of the T-Mobile G1 been ripped apart
http://www.androidforums.com/showthread.php?t=1476
Does anyone know if gps costs anything when I turn it on. I have a g1 and finally found out how to use this feature.