T-Mobile G1 - Google Android Smartphone

I think the point i'm trying to make is being missed what i am trying to say is the scoring system seems to be based upon style and not substance but after all this is a technology site and i find it quite bizzare that something like the iphone which lets face it has a very bad specification still manages to get a 10 other than the OS the iphone has pretty much nothing going for it.

@G1 - right, I'm wading into this just the once - because it's absolutely ridiculous.

YOU miss the point. In short, both the iPhone and G1 share similar problems: some hardware limitations improved by very good software BUT mobile OS X is vastly better than Android given the latter's early stages of development (it's virtually a beta in the G1 - why do you think no other handsets will exist for many months?).

NEXT. The OS is more of a feature than the hardware. Let me explain: OS X (currently) brings the best mobile browser, the best Google Maps integration (still!), the best multimedia integration (it essentially swallows an iPod touch, for heavens sake), the best email client, the best YouTube integration, currently the best application store and even the best photo gallery (it's easily the most responsive).

Now quite frankly I'd give up MMS, an extra megapixel on the camera (the G1 camera is still naff) and I can type faster on the iPhone than I could on the physical keyboard of my old Vario II - took about a week to master, but I could never go back for the bulk saving. Oh and the Vario II keyboard is better than on the G1...

Gordon out.

Sorry to resurrect a zombie, but an important gotcha for any UK buyer is the voice dialling isn't active on the UK G1! How rubbish is that? It would have been a dealbreaker for me, had I known.

Had a G1 from t-mobile just before xmas, and I have to say it's the worst phone I've had, Build quality poor, some keys depressed and not sitting correctly. There's no BBC iplayer ever on wifi (you get it with iphone and ipod touch on wifi). No word (or any office) document reader or editors. No voice dialing. No Video camera. No sat. nav. No (3.5) headphone socket. No virtually anything we have come to expect from smartphones. The motion sensor does not rotate the screen! Only way to rotate the screen is to have the keyboard out and that can make it uncomfortable to hold. Worst phone camera ever! don't even think about taking a photo indoors as it can't handle low light or tungsten light and there's no flash. No synching with outlook or windows mail, no application to edit phone book or anything else from your PC, USB only charges phone and allows you to acess files on the micro SD card in the phone. Battery life very poor even when you turn off wifi, BT and GPS (with them on and a little web browsing, battery won't last a day! Web browsing tediously slow with the 3g and a wifi connection needed for reliable conection. My email works 20% of the time on 3G, yet 100% of the time on wifi! T-mobile insist there is good 3g coverage in my street, yet it drops off or is very, very low most of the time giving that retro feeling of a 14k modem. After some argument, they swopped the phone for another G1, but it's just as bad, and insist that there is no way to cancel a contract even when a customer can't get a connection and returns the phone in less than a week.