Android has entered the building!

[ring_wraith]

After heated speculation and anticapation, surpassed possibly by only that of the iPhone, the GPhone is finally here! Well, it isn't a GPhone as such, because only the software is Google's. But who cares! Here it is, the T-Mobile G1 in all its touch screen glory. Fellow Geek, I command thee, Drool!



Image Courtesy cNet Asia


And of course, some specs of and features :

• One-click Google search and easy access to all Google Applications - Quick and easy access to the Internet in one click. One touch access to Google applications:
• Maps (including satellite, traffic and street views)
• Gmail
• YouTube
• Calendar
• Google Talk
• Size–4.6 x 2.16 x 0.63 in
• Weight–5.6 ounces
• Display–65K color screen, HVGA (480×320)
• Talk Time–5 hours
• Standby Time–130 hours
• Expandable up to 8 gig memory…
• No stereo bluetooth.
• Gmail account required to sign in and use, no corporate access email available.
• There is a required data plan associated with this device; it will not work without the data plan active, sorry no prepay.
• GPS is confirmed. No video capture. 3.1 mp camera.

Source

IMHO, this is the future of mobile computing. The iPhone does a lot of stuff really well, and looks great while doing it, but at the end of the day, when the "ooh!" factor wears off, people will be looking at productivity and expandability. Considering features like a full slide out QWERTY Keyboard and the army of developers that have sworn their souls to Google, the G1 has what it takes to last, and win the metaphorical race.

By the by, the G1 has not yet been launched as of the time of thread creation, so there may be some really minor changes.

[gary4gar]

Looks Good
waiting for reviews

[Pathik]

Yes it has! Wooohooooo!!

[gxsaurav]

Still sux when it comes to features. No Video capture on a device with such a big screen....what were they thinking

[Sumeet_naik]

Its comes loaded wit all google features.. Who wud have known this?

[Pat]

No video recording it seems.
No A2DP.

Initial impression: Browsing experience is not as good as on the iPhone.

[Tech.Masti]

And also no file transfer on bluetooth, but the price is good enough, $179 = Rs.8k around....

[dreamcatcher]

Originally Posted by Pat

No video recording it seems.
No A2DP.

Initial impression: Browsing experience is not as good as on the iPhone.

Stop comparing everything with the iphone.Let this release first.

[gary4gar]

Originally Posted by Pat

No video recording it seems.
No A2DP.

Initial impression: Browsing experience is not as good as on the iPhone.

How can you compare a 8k phone with 31k iPhone?
They have no match, both are entirely different

[chandru.in]

Originally Posted by Pat

Initial impression: Browsing experience is not as good as on the iPhone.

Oh! Can you please tell me the store where you bought it to form your Initial Impression?

[Pat]

To all those oversmart guys:
http://www.engadget.com/2008/09/23/t...ideo-hands-on/

And to other "intelligent" people":
This one is $179 with a 2 year contract..Just like the iPhone is for $199!!

[amitava82]

Think I'll wait for 2.0 and a better looking one.

[Pat]

Official website here:
http://www.t-mobileg1.com/default.aspx

Some interesting points I observed from various hands-on videos, video of the conference and some articles:

3.17 inch screen
3.1 MegaPixel Camera
No A2DP. Though it will be possible in the future via software update.
No Video Recording. I am sure there will be apps to fill that void.
Audio Jack is the proprietary HTC one..Unfortunately not 3.5 mm
Features 256 MB Flash Memory (MicroSD slot available: Phone ships with 1 GB MicroSD)
Can download songs from amazon and apps from Google Market Place.
No Desktop Sync App (wtf ? )
Need to sign-in to google to use the phone ? huh ? In that case, the phone is practically useless for most people in India who do not use data-plans at all.(even if they are using an iPhone )


I am really curious to see how the onscreen keyboard looks like (Not a single hands-on video shows that) This is extremely important as it determines if you would be able to surf the internet using one-hand. All videos I have seen use the hardware keyboard to type URLs/Mails/Messages/Contact details.

[ring_wraith]

^^ It's got a full slide out qwerty, how does the onscreen kb matter?

[NucleusKore]

8k? By the time we get it here it will be 16k

[cooldudie3]

Looks quite ugly, the design has no feel and cannot be compared to the iPhone. But I wonder about the features...
I rather go for Nokia E71 or Blackberry Bold

[debsuvra]

Not having the A2DP and video support is quite awkard for such a phone. After seeing the inaugural demo last night and the features, I think android is still a half baked product (may be three-quarter baked). But the code base and the platform is strong, OSS and does have places for a lot of improvements.

Since people were compairing the phone directly with Apple iPhone, atleast some iPhone features were expected. G1 does have a accelerometer like the Apple one but the touch screen does not support multi-touch yet. Software upgradation will not help either since the screen simply does not have that capability. Also there are a lot of randomness and discontinuty in the whole UI of android. Sometimes the analog and digital clocks displayed in the home screen is not showing the same time together!

[Jayanth.M.P]

People $179 is the offer price for a 2 year minimum contract. In India it will be somewhere around 25-30K.

[Pat]

Originally Posted by ring_wraith

^^ It's got a full slide out qwerty, how does the onscreen kb matter?

It matters when you are travelling and want to surf/sms/mail using one hand only! Infact it matters a LOT!

[ax3]

ya ya ..... nice phone ...... bt it will cost us 30k > ........

[NucleusKore]

Originally Posted by Jayanth.M.P

People $179 is the offer price for a 2 year minimum contract. In India it will be somewhere around 25-30K.

Aaaaaaaaaaah! So there's the catch.

[comp@ddict]

Anyone got an idea of the street price of this baby?

[MetalheadGautham]

Its NOT Google Phone and its not THE android. This is just a ghost of what to expect in the future. Since its the first phone based on android and since android still needs around an year to become complete, this is nothing (yet).

I am waiting to see what Motorolla, the company with rather awssome linux phones, does with Android. I am hoping for something like Moto Rokr E6 part II with full qwerty keyboard, multitouch, a nice package manager, VLC Media Player Android edition (soon to be released in another year or so), 5.0MP Cam, Video recording, etc and a price tag of 20K

[Faun]

lol...are there other candidates too or its finished here only.

I like Moto designs Hope they come up with something good !

[IronManForever]

Personally I like the mobile phone but didnt find anything to like in the Android part of it.

@ MetalheadGautham
Motorola? Please... By not releasing the kernel source for ROKR E6, it committed a moral crime and seriously crippled the phone's potentials.

[x3060]

am hoping to see a mod of this getting released in xda developers forum for my htc...
now thats free of cost :-P

[thewisecrab]

Great news
However, there is a lot of Misconceptions about it
New channels have called a "Gphone", "Phone from google" etc. when clearly Android is only a platform

[ico]

1) Blame the phone developers for skipping out a few features, don't blame on Google and don't start saying, "Android is crap". Its the phone which is missing out the features, not the platform. Though the development of Android is yet to get completed. If its the platform which is missing features, those will surely get rectified in future updates.

2) It has been designed by HTC for T-mobile.

3) I don't expect it to come to India under the T-mobile branding, and if it will come, it will enter the Indian market by the name of HTC G1.
http://www.gsmarena.com/htc_g1-2533.php

4) Everything isn't iPhone. In India, even if it is launched @ 20K, thats NOT going to be network locked as far as I feel.

5) HTC very well knows to price their products well.

[Pat]

Originally Posted by gagandeep

1) Blame the phone developers for skipping out a few features, don't blame on Google and don't start saying, "Android is crap". Its the phone which is missing out the features, not the platform. Though the development of Android is yet to get completed. If its the platform which is missing features, those will surely get rectified in future updates.

And what makes you think we are discussing the platform and not the phone G1 (Unless ofcourse you just go by the title of this thread) ?

[iinfi]

cost will b 30k in India jus like the iPhone..... fone looks good....