Google’s G1: First Impressions | Walt Mossberg | Mossblog | AllThingsD:

Google’s G1: First Impressions

So, The Moss got his hands on a preview unit of the Google/HTC “G1″ phone, based on Google’s Android, planned for release sometime in October.
And what does he have to say about it? Let’s find out…

It will be sold in the U.S. starting next month by T-Mobile, for $179 with a two-year contract

OK, so it’s $20 cheaper than the base 8GB iPhone.

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.

Hmm so you need to bend your right hand around this big protuberance to reach tiny chicklet keys…

[the phone] 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.

Riiight, so you can’t even use it with your own data, unless they reside in Google’s Cloud (aka The Gloud).

The G1 won’t win any beauty contests [...]. It’s stubby and chunky, nearly 30% thicker and almost 20% heavier than the iPhone. [...] has a somewhat smaller screen.
Still, it feels pretty good in the hand when closed, although I found it more awkward when opened.

So, that’s a phone that feels good when closed, and in your pocket… and it’s butt-ugly and quite big with a small screen.

[in the browser] 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.

Hmm, so you can sort of zoom on a web page, with a “virtual lens”… neat and quite 90s-ish, maybe there is a magnifying glass effect, like this XP (?) screensaver.

There’s a very basic music player [...]. 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.

Oh right, it’s not even a recessed jack, it’s a bloody proprietary USB connector… And I remember the outcry when the first iPhone came out, and you could’nt use some headphones because the jack was recessed…

it lacks the iPhone’s ability to change the orientation of a web page or photo by just turning the phone. You also can’t move through groups of photos by just “flicking,” as on the iPhone.

So you get a phone with an accelerometer (Mr Page from Google came on stage to say he liked the phone because he was able to code an app that tells you how long the G1 stays in the air when you throw it?!) but it doesn’t change the display of the screen when you rotate the phone? And it has a touchscreen but you can’t flick through media?

The G1 also has much less memory than the iPhone. The base $199 iPhone comes with 8 gigabytes sealed in, but the G1 comes with just a 1 gigabyte memory card.

All riiiight, so it’s “cheaper than the iPhone”, but it has 8 times less memory.

the G1 will initially only be available on T-Mobile, whose high-speed 3G network will be up and running in many fewer cities than those of its larger rivals, AT&T (T) and Verizon (VZ)

OK, so the iPhone was blasted when it was released locked to a single carrier, then blasted again because AT&T’s 3G network is less widely available than Verizon’s… But T-Mobile’s 3G network “will be up and running in many fewer cities”… right now, they have, like, about 30 cities covered… and are planning for somewhere around 300 in a few month.

Sooooooo, with all this lavish “praise”, you might think that The Moss would give a lukewarm opinion on the G1, right?
No, here’s what he 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.

Now, this left me baffled: the phone is ugly, big, expensive, low-specced, uses a proprietary audio jack, has almost no built-in features, has only 1GB of storage, is tied to a tiny 3G network… and still it’s a “real alternative” to the iPhone???
And they talk about Jobs’ Reality Distortion Field?

Actually, the G1 and Android are NOT competing with the iPhone, they are on the same segment as Symbian and Windows Mobile: generic cellphone/smartphone OS.

I’m pretty sure the G1 will flop, not because it runs Android, which might be a nice phone OS, but because the phone is lame.

 

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 24th, 2008 at 08:41 CEST and is filed under Spot the Idiot, iPhone. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.