The
T-Mobile G1, the world's very first commercially available Android-based handset, ushered in a new era of mobile computing when it launched earlier this year. The
long-awaited Googlephone had finally come to fruition, and it managed to warm the hearts of just about everyone that touched it. But like any phone, it wasn't without its flaws, some of which are still being worked out today. For those of you who decided to pull the trigger, you've had the past few months to see how it stacks up. The question is, how
does it stack up? What are you hoping for in the next firmware update? Are you completely satisfied with the hardware? Are you longing for a capacitive touchscreen and and a slightly less noticeable chin? It's okay to criticize your dear G1 -- it's all in the name of love, after all.
posted Dec 19th 2008 7:44PM
Tool.
everyone just shut up about making other phones into the iphone
Larger, capacitive touch screen, bluetooth tethering. That's all I ask.
It is capacitive already. Bluetooth enhancements are on their way already.
Give it to other networks! t-mobile sucks
Agreed. I'm looking to an Android phone to replace my iPhone when my AT&T contract is up in June. The G1 looks nice, but no way am I going to T-Mobile.
Exactly!
1. Jailbreak it.
2. Change the stupid security features that only let you run apps from the internal memory
3. Configure the file system so that internal mem works seamlessly with SD.
4. Make it work with dropbox
Amen. At least Sprint and AT&T.
Though I am currently with VZW, I am looking for a reason to switch as they are the only carrier I know of that cripples their phones just so you have to use their services so they can nickel and dime you to death. I had to hack my crappy V710 back in the day just to use Motorola Phone Tools to upload my own rings.
Give it a 3G network, that'd be the first thing. (Aware T-Mob has started)
Onscreen keyboard *please*
Faster effing CPU, thing can reeeeeealy lag
Better contacts interface on the phone part
Multiple gmail ability (on the main push account)
Make the damn chin slide up also, gets in the way
Get rid of the pathetic troll losers commenting in the App Market, if Engadget posters were that bad the comment system would be shut off on more than just the Storm article
More than 5 apps worth using bandwidth on.
And finally: Copy/Pas... oh wait, we DO have that!
t-mobile actually has by far the best coverage both where I work and live. I've tried verizon and cingular through the years, t-mobile is the best I've come across
Most of that is dead on, especially the bit about the trolls in the Android Market, they definitely need to at least have thumbs up/down voting on comments and sort by rating.
"Make the damn chin slide up also, gets in the way"
See, I really disagree there. If they did that the trackball would be really far away from your thumb while typing. I find it really nice to be able to navigate around on screen (and within text) with that which holding it with the keyboard out.
Its a tradeoff for sure, hopefully something like the Touch HD will get android so people can chose chin or not. Thats that thing that makes me most thrilled about Android, form factors for phones are very personal and one mans feature is one mans bug. I'm sure in the next 12-18 months we will see every single permutation of hardware design running Android, so it will really be a picky buyers market.
1.) Make it thinner
2.) Allow apps to run from SD Card.
3.) Give it UMA
4.) Up the internal memory so that it can run a little smoother.
5.) Find someway of working a deal out with 3rd party vendors/developers/manufacturers to create accessories/peripherals for it (or at least a decent pair of headphones).
PS.... T-Mobile is FAR superior to most US cell providers.
Ps- not it's not. It depends on where you live. AT&T is the best in the Albany region of NY.
I really don't understand this hostility that some of the people here have toward T-Mobile. Perhaps it's where I live (Dallas, TX area), but T-Mobile has been quite good for me most of the time. They tend to have better prices than the other providers, the 3G network is pretty speedy, and their customer service has always been outstanding whenever I have called for something. I've been a customer for 6 years now, and really haven't had a reason to switch, especially now that they have some compelling phones like the G1. Since I travel a lot, a GSM phone is a must for me, which basically limits the choice either T-Mobile or AT&T, but as I said, I've not had a reason to jump ship.
As far as what improvements I'd make to the G1... well some of them are already coming in the next update, such as A2DP support, hardware accelerated video recording, and on-screen keyboard support. I'd also add an integrated 3.5mm jack since a lot of people are whining about that. Also increase the screen resolution to 800x480 and maybe make the device a little sexier. I personally never thought that the iPhone looks all that great (it's kinda boring design IMHO), but perhaps make the G1 look more like some of the other HTC offerings. Overall, the company's industrial design is quite good, so just continue along that path.
Yeah, I think I like the chin as well. I've been working with a friend's Touch Pro, and the hard buttons and touch control aren't that convenient when they slide up. Most of the other stuff is fine, but T-Mobile has fantastic coverage where I am, but I am waiting on 3G like most people are.
I live in the Cleveland area and T-Mobile is pretty great up here.
Verizon EV-DO, T-Mobile and AT&T have bad service around my parts.
Do you live in the desert, jungle, or any other place where there isn't an abundant amount of human beings?
Oh, I forgot, more RAM for more apps!
No, Rhode Island, The second densest state in the Union.
WTF I get low ranked for saying how T-Mobile service is where I live?
"The second densest state in the union"
No need to insult the intellegence of your fellow Rhode Islanders there...
+1 Mich, I should have seen that coming. Props.
Hey I'm from RI to, live on the south coast so I'm on Edge most of the time, but when I go up to Warwick - Providence there is 3G. Coventry even has 3G in parts! When I'm at home I use my wifi network, so it solves that problem.
Anyway, I'd change the phone by making better apps. 90% of them are terrible, there needs to be a mass google app release with decent games and applications. Other then that, I like it. Could be a little better looking, but it's not horrible in black.
I would say T-Mobile is the fairest of the major US carriers, and that counts more than rural 3g coverage (at least to me). I think the improvements it would benefit from are
-Ability to use and on screen keyboard (this could be toggled in the "Menu" menu) this would save wear and tear on the slide mechanism and would save the annoyance of sliding the phone to enter just a few letters.
- either A2DP or standard 3.5mm headphone, this needs no further explination
- Video recording would be nice. I realize this is a legal issue but it is still worth mentioning
- cutting down the thickness of course, but that isnt worth trading the removable battery or real keyboard for.
-Unlimited gmail accounts using the native gmail application as opposed to adding additional gmail accounts via imap.
-Ability to play more video formats, right now the phone is limited to h.264 codec
-The phone has a high quality camera, but only if under perfect conditions. The autofocus is great but the photos turn out blurry because of long shutter lag and slow shutter speed.
Flash is on its way so I wont say more than that.
The G1 is fantastic and with the features I listed above it would be 99% perfect for me. I can't wait to see what android phones will evolve to be over the next couple years.
Doesn't it already have a capacitive touchscreen?
yep
Nope. You need to push to select... Huge weakness in my eyes.
no. it IS a capacitive touchscreen.
Haha, yeah, it does already have a capacitive screen. Very nice screen actually.
major fail there engadget, when are you going to drop the act and go all apple?
All i have to say is "Capacitive Touchscreen" and I'll automatically get Highest Ranked?
i would give it a better camera, and maybe change the design, that is it really.
How about a CDMA version
Here are the G1 improvements/changes that I have in mind for the G2, along with concept images showing a new design (Touch HD with hard buttons and a slideout tilt screen) and a remake of the classic G1 with subtle improvement changes to its exterior and interface, browser... etc:
Concept images of hardware, browser and interface:
http://www.talkandroid.com/android-forums/android-hardware/341-t-mobile-g2-phone.html
I believe these changes should be implemented for the G2 to at least have a chance against next year's hi-res "iPhone HD" (a reasonable prediction) as well as the highly anticipated WM7 Tegra phone offerings.
Hardware additions:
1) Tilting screen (a must for watching movies, live TV ...etc and a big upperhand over the iPhone HD as well)
2) Subtle front camera on the edge of the speaker. (like the X1's cam, for waving hand gesture control apps [available on WM7], and video chats)
3) 3.5 headphone jack
4) TV out (and/or HDMI port)
5) Dedicated Lock/Unlock side switch (like the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic "Tube")
6) Face sensor (turns off screen to save power during calls, like the Nokia "Tube")
Hardware Improvements:
1) Screen resolution 800×480 or 800x600 (no question about that; iPhone HD and Tegra are going to kill it otherwise)
2) A complete design overhaul e.g. http://img95.imageshack.us/img95/6746/slidingg2hdthreespotliglu0.jpg OR keep the classic G1 "basic" crude look with a smaller, less protruding "chin" piece with no angle transition (flat phone, please) and a bigger screen (see next point)
3) A bigger, flush screen that fills the sliding part front (dead space makes the G1 appear to be ugly, as opposed to the Touch HD's minimal dead space on the front)
4) Ultra low-power Tegra-like processor (GPU+CPU) capable of seemlessly handling Open GL ES 2.0 gfx effects, transitions, and lengthy HD playback
5) More inward travel with keyboard key strokes
6) More responsive/sensitive compass
7) 5MP camera with flash, and NO SHUTTER DELAY.
8) OLED screen (OLED displays appear brighter and sharper than LCDs, even when viewed at an angle. They are viewable in sunlight. And as a side benefit of ditching the LCD backlight, OLEDs are battery thrifty. OLED screens refresh faster, so they're better at displaying video.)
9) A one-touch Omni-directional Nub instead of the Trackball (you can't constantly hold down a direction on the trackball. Much better for web scrolling, ESSENTIAL for gaming)
10) Better battery life. (Will happen with OLED screen and Tegra)
Browser:
1) Java V8 implementation for faster page rendering (Chrome's Java language)
2) Tabs instead of Windows (like Chrome, easier to switch/open a new tab)
3) Smoother scrolling/zooming, multitouch drivers.
4) More on-screen controls, PLEASE, at least on touch and a few seconds after:
a) "Back" & "Forward" (which bring a "cover flow view" for the pages in the history when you hold either of them)
b) "Refresh"
c) "Stop"
d) "OPEN NEW TAB"
e) "Bring on-screen QWERTY"
f) "Bookmark Page" (brings up Bookmarks when held down)
5) Flash, Silverlight, Realplayer and Quicktime support.
6) Ability to have Googled words available on a bar/button to easily jump to on a page (like Firefox, not Chrome)
7) Browser Widget support (like Opera Mobile recently)
Maps:
1) Full Google Earth with smooth OpenGL ES 2.0 rendering support
2) "Live Mode" addition (enkin)
Other:
1) Full Bluetooth 2.1/3.0 capability out of the box
2) App installation possible on memory card.
3) Multiple video codec support out of the box (notably: xvid, divx, rmvb)
4) All icons are, actually, really small widgets i.e. they update with new notifications e.g. the "Gallery" icon shows miniature existing images and stills from the user's gallery, some icons are minimized widgets that expand while blurring the background when clicked
5) Holding down the "Home" button brings a "Panels" view of all the windows of the currently running programs like the X1 panels view , or a scrollable "Carousel" view like the Tegra UI.
6) Multilingual on-screen keyboard (Arabic, Chinese, Dutch, English, Farsi, Flemish, French, German, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Urdu...etc)
7) Screen orientation changes according to the Accelerometer, regardless the status of the slide-out keyboard.
8) Pressing the "menu" button brings up an attractive semi-transparent Blackberry Storm-like menu overlay with illustrations and a 1-word description on each button
9) Customizable camera hand gestures e.g. waving the hand sideways at homescreen shifts between the 3 desktops, waving the hand downwards always pulls down the status bar, waving the hand upwards brings you back to the homescreen (these gestures are used for scrolling when on the ChroMo browser).
10) Better memory management. The G1 already lags after a whole of extended usage without a reboot.
WoW factor:
1) OpenGL ES 2.0 3D homescreen transitions e.g. having the 3 homescreens laid out on the 3 sides of a rotating triangular prism ---> http://img227.imageshack.us/my.php?image=swipingg2hdms7.jpg
2) OpenGL ES 2.0 media players effects
3) OpenGL ES 2.0 browser effects with easy navigation of web pages, with full previews, zooming, and categorized headers on hitting "Back" or "Forward"
4) Google's "G" logo on the back that lights when the phone is on, flashes when recieving a call/notification, slightly fades with low battery.
Welcomed improvements:
1) Slimmer phone (It's possible as Tegra is a smaller processor, low-power, requires less battery juice, and the same can be said about the OLED screen)
Wallpapers of design on the forums link...
@TareX
Are you getting paid for your ideas/renders? Because you sir, should.
I was drooling while reading your post. Thank you.
- Headphone jack
- A more responsive touch screen
- No keyboard (if you have a touch screen, whats the point?)
i have a keyboard on my glyde and i wouldnt have it any other way. texting on a virtual keyboard is a PINA
As an Iphone user, let me tell you that typing on a touch screen is a huge pain in the ass, and it is much slower than typing on a regular qwerty keyboard.
About the only (physical) change I'd like to see on the G1 is a switch to the form factor of the HTC Touch Pro (screen flush with keyboard, instead of there being a lip when the screen is up).
To each his own, but I find typing on a virtual keyboard (at least on the iPhone) to be fastly quicker than using real keys for one reason -- you can essentially touch-type with your thumbs; no need to seek and then press.
However, god help you if you ever try to enter text while NOT looking at the keyboard. In that case you're WAY better off with a physical 'board.
Raising the keys on the keyboard would be kinda nice. With flush keys, you may as well be typing on a touchscreen...
What about working in another local 3G networks?
i would use the form factor of the HTC Touch HD
http://www.gsmarena.com/htc_touch_hd-pictures-2525.php
AMEN
I'm glad you posted a link to the Touch HD...i'm sure NO ONE here has seen that before
/rolls eyes
i thought the same thing until i saw the n97. let's put a little Android on that hotness and see what happens =)
Yeah, up his for suggesting that HTC take the form factor of their HTC Touch Pro, and substitute it for the form factor of their other phone, the G1.
What a douche.
@ron
I just saw the hands on video with the N97.
Darn you for mentioning the N97
My wallet cries in anticipation.
It squeaks, which is okay, but kind of annoying. Also, like any OS, it gets somewhat sluggish after continually trying new apps. Hopefully "cupcake" will revive some energy back into it. The battery is actually fine for me - as long as the wifi is left off, it lasts for 2 days.
Overall, I love it, but it would be nice if it played Doom. =P
I agree. My battery door is creaky when I type which gives it a cheap feeling, and the back lighting on the keyboard washes out making buttons really difficult to see in certain conditions. Other than that, the software is fantastic and I'm more than happy with T-Mobile's 3g service in San Francisco.
-absolutely positively needs outlook support
-the backlit silver keyboard on the brown version is rendered unreadable if you're in a bright place
-no notifications for new non-gmail emails
-if you enable the pattern unlock and lose your phone, there is no way for a person who finds it to call one of your contacts - the pattern unlock screen should display a number that can be called if the phone is lost
-no way to close apps - the os will run several apps at once that you aren't using anymore and this slows things down
-limited to no ability to manage sd card without a computer
-no headphone jack
-I find the magnifying glass function in the browser pretty much useless
-the default music player won't show my album covers because it doesn't support the file type
-camera performance is poor
"-no way to close apps - the os will run several apps at once that you aren't using anymore and this slows things down"
This is by design, the OS stops and starts apps automatically as needed to manage its resources. If you read up on the developer docs, its actually pretty ruthless about it when necessary. That being said, they clearly have a little work to do balancing out that algorithm, but this is in fact central to the way the framework was designed. In fact, if you did have a task manager and you force killed apps, you would be slowing down your experience in most cases as one of the things the os does is "freeze" apps that are no longer in use, but as soon as you fire that app up again, its already totally resident in memory and ready to go.
"-limited to no ability to manage sd card without a computer"
there are several very good file managers in the Market that let you manage the SD card to your hearts content.
Make it less f-ugly. Something along the lines of an HTC Touch Pro with Android would have been perfect... just replace the middle button and nearly useless "touch wheel" with that rollar ball and I think we would have had a total winner... why oh why did they make it so ugly?
I'd get rid of that chin. And no keyboard.
Agreed. That chin dealio makes it unnecessarily bigger.
Also, wider screen would be nice.
Really, have you ever used one? What's wrong with it? All the chin does is provide me with yet more inputs for the device and the Blackberry-esque trackball, to those who have never used/seen the phone, the chin looks like a bulge that would get annoying but after having one for about a month, it's great.
Lol you must have never used a real keyboard before. Having a virtual keyboard is cool but nothing can beat the real thing.
Non-Virtual Keyboards - FTW!
It's really not that bad, and when you see itm it makes sense almost. You can lay it face down to get the speaker and it keeps the screen and the trackball off the table (don't want that trackball to get smashed do we?) I barely notice it.
Now when it's charging, that's a whole nother story, but I've adapted.
The chin would be fine if it stayed with the screen when opening up the keyboard. I have pretty big hands but that chin still gets in the way, particularly when reaching over to the left edge of the keyboard. That way they could have either made the keys larger or fit more keys in, requiring fewer ALT presses. I do love that trackball, though, it makes browsing and clicking hyperlinks much easier, rather than having to magnify to hit tiny links. It also works really well for moving the cursor around in text boxes.
I tried a store demo G1 before buying, and the chin is definitely in the way of my massive right thumb, which renders the right side of the keyboard pretty much useless for me. I understand the comments about keeping the trackball low, but I don't think I'd ever use the trackball when the keyboard is hidden -- I would stick to either the touchscreen, or using the buttons by feel. Therefore, I'd rather have a trackball, or better yet an analog joystick (like PSP or laptop nub -- take your pick), and put it with the keyboard underneath. Just leave enough face buttons to access call functions by feel, like a voice dialer start button. Other than call, hangup, or menu, voice dialer is the only other use I have for any non-keyboard controls.
I redesign the packaging, It looks like a really cheap toy.
I liked the box it came in...
Wow, you are low ranked before you even post look at the time stamps.^^
1) Battery life - it was so bad, I ended up returning it. Shameful, the battery life.
2) Industrial design - surprising okay to hold... for short periods of time. Anything longer than five minutes though, and hand cramp.
3) Apps. More. Now. The basic out of the box package leaves a *lot* to be desired.
4) Guitar pick. Seriously. Second biggest improvement in touch usability, ever. I am a believer.
jasonb,
if you turned it into an iPhone, that will just cripple the G1
Thin it up.
How about the ability to edit an email you are forwarding, son of a BITCH!
Make it look better.
'i' agree 'i' would make it look more like my iphone 3g as thats made by apple
which means its the best quality you can get in a phone, example iphone was the first phone with a touch screen
Yay! Clak is back!
@CLAK: The iPhone is not the first phone with a touch screen. It was the first to use it as the primary way to interact with the phone.
lol that dude said that the iPhone had the first touch screen. I forgot that Palm and 99% of WinMo phones that came before the Glorious iPhone didnt have touchscreens.
Apple - The inventor of the touchscreen and everything else that is godliness and sterile.
On-screen qwerty.
smarten up the case a bit
I love this phone I just wish it was more solidly built.
My screens a bit wobbly - wish that would stop, other then that a 3.5 mm would of been nice.
*takes out flame thrown*
Looks like
* turns it on*
its time
*fires it in the air *
for a flame war.
YEAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
I'd give it a bigger battery, by 50% or so. Maybe a little bit faster processor because there is a little bit of lag at times. Stereo Bluetooth will be added with teh Cupcake update, so I'm not going to count that.
Other than that, I'm VERY handy with my G1!
Happy. I'm very HAPPY with my G1
Stupid Firefox spellcheck...
-3.5mm Headphone jack
-More service providers
-The keyboard buttons raised
-Its not in my pocket.
how about making it into a nokia n97? what i'm really trying to say is: 1) add on some sexy! it's ugly. 2) put it on at&t so I can get rid of my iPhone for something with a keyboard. 3) i haven't tried the G1's touch screen yet but - sure, let's go capacitive 4) i haven't used the keyboard either but i've read some complaints that it didn't offer good feedback - so let's change that too.
Get rid of that chin.
why do people even bother with this thing? its a failure IMHO.
explain....
There's no logical explanation. It's obviously not the greatest phone out there and yeah, there's a lot of ways they can improve it but for a first-gen device with T-Mobile, it's got everything I want/need.
Don't know yet, waiting for my G1 to arrive can't wait, though it's not like any other phones I wanted were problem-free either.
Id give it a headphone port (so annoying), maybe make the plastic around the kyboard a bit darker on the bronze one, it can be hard to read the keyboard in some light conditions. Better battery, better camera and get apple fanbois to shut up about the iphone. Other than that, its perfect!
Other than the battery life I like the phone, I can live without the virtual keyboard would be nice to have both though. I think we will also see some better apps when people can start charging for them, although there are a few good ones now.
Only things I'm really missing are:
- install apps to SD card
- better battery life
- virtual keyboard for one handed operation
- sometimes the os scrolling gets a bit laggy
- flash would be nice sometimes
pretty much all of those should be addressed by software updates soon. The hardware is really nice, IMHO.
As far as things people harp on all the time that don't bug me in the slightest:
- slide out keybaord --- huge selling point for me and many others
- headphone jack --- would be nice i guess, but really not a big deal with the adapter. I have not once missed not having one.
- the chin --- this is actually quite nice, other sliders move the whole screen face up, which would put the trackball out of reach while you are keyboarding. having the trackball and back button right within thumb reach is really nice. the 1 mm that the chin slants forward is such a non-issue its laughable that people always cite it.
Have you tried Chomp for sms? It has this fantastic portrait on-screen keyboard with feedback (vibration).
It's almost like a port of the iphone messaging app (pretty colored bubbles) it's bounds past the default app.
Resistive touch screen so we can use a stylus, please.
On screen keyboard
Headphone port
Make a CDMA version for Verizon and Sprint users
Wow I don't think I've ever seen the first post be "Lowest Ranked." Congrats.
Oh yeah, umm....I wish they could strike a deal with Verizon.
Make it like an HTC or Lenovo OPhone...would be pretty sweet looking
You do know that this was made my HTC, right?
give it a more responsive touch screen. The only thing the iphone has on the G1 is its screen, you can just barely touch it and it responds how you'd expect it to. The iphone requires a bit of pressure to register a touch. Build in multi-touch functionality into the OS, add a headphone jack and you've got a winner. Does it support exchange push email? I haven't played with one in depth enough to notice if it did or not.
I think people are mistaking a bit of OS lag on androids part as hardware lag. Sometimes things do get a big laggy, but I find on some apps like the phone dialer i can just lightly tap out a full number as fast as i want and it completely registers the number correctly. That makes me think the hardware is plenty snappy, but the OS still needs some optimization, to be expected for a brand new OS on a brand new device.
I'm very curious how the Cupcake branch is going to be in terms of speed improvements.
@vitriolix
the dialer should always be snappy because the telephoning operations are set with affinity to the first core while all other operations are set with affinity to the second core.
I'd make it free... the data plans too.
hey Engadget, the G1 has a capacitive screen. Im suprised that anyone blogging on this site wouldnt know that but im not too suprised by now . My only complaint is that the screen has a slight wobble when opened. Other than that its a great phone, and with the next major update it will be better in ever way than the iPhone except in the looks department.
(@Jordan: I read somewhere that a capacitive-compatible stylus is being worked on)
Current owner here, and what bugs me the most about the phone is the fact that it's hard to find accessories for it. I'd love to see it being compatible with the apple dock. Yes I know it's a pipe dream.
Already mentioned: Better camera, headphone jack, A2DP, battery life.
Add a more responsive camera, better IM and email app and for quick text reponses a virtual keypad