myTouch 3G hands-on (with video!)

We just got a look at the myTouch 3G, and while it's great to see T-Mobile's next Android phone all official and everything, there are certainly few surprises for those of us already familiar with the HTC Magic / Google Ion. We found ourselves, despite the best knowledge otherwise, still looking fruitlessly for a 3.5mm headphone jack -- it was silly that the G1 didn't ship with it, but this year it's downright shameful. At least the included adapter is nice. Please, HTC Hero, come and save us from this madness. Fresh off our play time with the Hero, we found the stock Android 1.5 keyboard to be quite a bit of a step back. It's certainly usable, but we found ourselves missing the spacebar quite a lot, and the responsiveness just wasn't at HTC's level, though prediction was pretty good. The included zippered case is nice, though we don't know what we'd use it for, and the unboxing experience is generally pleasant and uneventful.

In a lot of ways, the phone seems like a last generation product, but it's obviously the only one of its kind available in the States at the moment, so we suppose T-Mobile would beg to differ. Every single cover we've seen so far looks completely horrible, and while it's nice to have "options" (T-Mobile's big marketing play with this phone) we'd think twice before putting a pic of our dog on the back of one of these. Perhaps the best news making the rounds is that T-Mobile is thinking about putting a visual voicemail app in the forthcoming app pack, though it wasn't pre-loaded on any of the handset we checked out, and apparently the app pack is more of a curated Market than a single app combo download. Peep an enthralling video of the hardware after the break.

myTouch 3G hands-on (with video!)

[Serus Posted Jul 8th 2009 1:33PM]

I don't suppose anyone has seen anything like the HTC Magic PVT32A Model that has 288 MB of RAM instead of the typical 192MB eh? I can only hope I suppose..

[(Unverified) Posted Jul 8th 2009 1:38PM]

Wow great video.

Can't hit the buttons - so that is the phones fault.

Not as thin as the iphone - so the phone is not that great by reference...so surprised

Hey it's Android - great insight.

[Quikboy Posted Jul 8th 2009 1:44PM]

I don't know why, but I really like the phone's hardware. I just wish it would have gone with Windows Mobile 6.5 though.

[SSteven Posted Jul 8th 2009 4:00PM]

Personally, I wish it they would have put IBM OS2 Warp on it.

[(Unverified) Posted Jul 8th 2009 1:57PM]

Remember:

If it's made by HTC, they have no sympathy for thee.

Junk junk junk pure plain and simple.

[(Unverified) Posted Jul 8th 2009 2:30PM]

The true sexy will be the Samsung Galaxy with a hacked Hero UI...

[(Unverified) Posted Jul 8th 2009 2:34PM]

Honestly, someone explain the thinking going on in these developers' minds. Why would they use a white-ish trackball for the black model? It sticks out so glaringly and is just ugly.

[bigshape Posted Jul 9th 2009 6:31AM]

the trackball has a light inside it and flashes when you have an incoming call...

[hondamx525 Posted Jul 8th 2009 2:41PM]

The track ball is clear because it lights up like the sidekick for messages, missed calls, etc.

[(Unverified) Posted Jul 8th 2009 4:40PM]

I'd rather have the Apple iPhone, HTC makes phones that doesn't seem to integrate nicely with the OS (because it is made by different companies). iPhone has a very secure OS that takes technology from the award winning OSX leopard.

[(Unverified) Posted Jul 8th 2009 4:46PM]

white trackball = yellow trackball after a few months of use.
Seriously I dont know why they dont just stick with black trackballs.

[Darwin Posted Jul 8th 2009 5:09PM]

Yet another phone that would have been a revelation a year ago but gets its ass kicked hard by the iPhone 3.0 OS and the iPhone 3GS. This is like everyone trying to compete with the iPod before they all pretty much gave up. Everytime something came out that was as close as good a new iPod would come out that set everyone else back a year. I also don't get the feeling that Google has much of a sense of urgency about Android which would be a mistake if true.

[jakey Posted Jul 8th 2009 9:03PM]

Eh, not really. You have the Hero and Sony's Rachel coming up. They're every bit as enticing as the iPhone 3GS. And Google's doing Android for free (no licensing fee) so it's pretty amazing how far it got.

The myTouch 3G is basically a G1 without the keyboard, it's not exactly representative of an upgrade in terms of Android phones.

[(Unverified) Posted Jul 8th 2009 7:42PM]

why don't we all just settle down and wait on the tegra based android which will kick iphone and hero butt.

[dank414 Posted Jul 8th 2009 11:55PM]

yah those personalized back covers are hideous.

[soccersgreat Posted Jul 9th 2009 12:53PM]

it's a G1 without a keyboard. No thanks

[(Unverified) Posted Jul 9th 2009 2:13PM]

lack of 3.5mm headphone jack is pathetic

[(Unverified) Posted Jul 13th 2009 10:53AM]

Have to agree with you... I was disappointed, but I wanted an android phone (my BB is dieing a slow death) and I can't wait for someone to do this OS some justice. But i have a 3.5 and don't use it alot so its not a huge deal... but i agree its a huge error leaving that out on the G1 let-alone the MyTouch.

[mandroid Posted Jul 9th 2009 11:40PM]

3.5mm are you serious? "i wont get the phone because doesn't have a 3.5mm jack" u people are a joke. i understand the ram part but the jack which comes with a adapter inside the box or zipper case, please cry about something real. bt is the way to go anyways

[(Unverified) Posted Jul 13th 2009 12:02AM]

A monkey in a jump suit could have done a better review than that.... My god. But seeing how easy he typed was nice i've pre-registered for this phone and really trying to make sure its what i want in the 14 days i get to return. And frankly that was a waste of my 3 min, where do they get these people to make videos/reviews.

[(Unverified) Posted Jul 15th 2009 1:01PM]

HTC

[(Unverified) Posted Jul 30th 2009 4:01AM]

Ive had a Vodaphone magic here in the UK for a week now and I love it. Smaller than an iphone, true not as many apps on android and poor camera but otherwise cannot fault it, battery life is good even with gps! Nice and quick and lovely looking phone. On screen keyboard is fine in landscape mode

[(Unverified) Posted Aug 3rd 2009 1:12AM]

The phone looks hot. I have been a happy owner of the G1. Besides the low battery life the phone is sick. Android is the way to go and I will definitely check out the mytouch before I decide to get rid of my G1.

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 14th 2009 2:05PM]

Looks nice to me!