G1 Phone May Not Be the Best Phone Ever but It Is Right Now. Or Not?
October 25, 2008 |
Fortunately for Profy we have had one of my posts about T-Mobile G1 phone indexed quite well so it makes its appearance on the first page in Google’s results when people search for a few terms related to the very first phone powered with Google’s mobile operating system Android.
But of course this post is not meant to brag about how good it is in terms of traffic to be positioned like this when people search for a trendy gadget (as they are now heavily doing for the T-Mobile G1), instead I wanted to draw attention of our readers to the comments on that post. The thing is that the position with Google search means that people often arrive to this post searching for more information or willing to share their own experience – so the post got quite a number of comments from the early owners of the device. My idea with this post is to share a few comments from the first owners of the phone now that it has been officially out since Wednesday.
I have also done a quick search on other blogs (using the blog comments aggregating system BackType) to see if there were some interesting comments from G1 phone owners as well and wanted to share some of my findings here as well.
My own impression after this research is that the majority of the G1 owners are quite happy with the phone and here is what they say about the purchase on our blog posts here:
I’ve had the G1 for 3 days now and without a doubt this is the best phone I’ve ever laid hands on, with every passing moment I learn new things and see new app’s, and now that I’ve learned everything (well almost everything) I’m very VERY happy with the purchase and will no longer purchase any other phone. All these reviews comparing the G1 with the iPhone in my opinion is way off, they are nothing alike and as the days pass you’ll see new app’s creating a new world of tec. IMHO the G1 may not be the best phone ever but it is right now.
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I have not had any major issues with it being slow. Some of the freeware games are crap, I haven’t got locale running yet, but all and all I am very satisfied. I’ve got ssh and that’s really important! I believe the experience will get better as the software platform matures. And if you aren’t happy with the G1 specs, wait for a different phone. I think that is the greatest strength of Android.
And here are a few examples of what people say on other blogs as well about their experience with T-Mobile G1 phone. Please, note that I have deliberately decided not to use comments from the blogs dedicated to Android or T-Mobile G1 only as their readers will most certainly fail to be objective about their beloved gadget.
I RARELY dive into anything new like this but something told me this device would be worth it. And after only a day with it I say it was VERY well worth it.
As soon as I opened the box I saw that all the articles calling it ugly were BS. It’s no head turner but it’s far from ugly and my highly critical wife felt the form factor was very functional anyway. From all the articles I just swore this phone was going to be huge and I was surprised to find it fits nicely in my hand and even pocket. And even with the few applications that are available in the market I have found quite a few that are very useful. In fact I am challenging myself to see if I can replace my laptop with this phone for everything outside of keyboard intensive work like programming or working with documents.
I don’t know where you saw lackluster design and that’s certainly not the consensus I got across the internet. But the phone’s design appears to be just fine and I don’t see any reason it wouldn’t be ready for mass consumption. It’s already head and shoulders above almost all cell phone offerings out there besides the iPhone.
I’ve been using my G1 for a few days now and I definitely like it a lot! The keyboard is very comfortable to use and even though I’m in an area that won’t be running 3G till next year the EDGE network runs mighty fast on it, even while streaming on YouTube. All in all I’m glad I took advantage of the presale that we had as T-Mobile employees
If I were you, I would wait to see it in person. I know it isn’t the popular thing to say, but having played with one for two days now, I find it a very nice hardware design, and am actually quite fond of the size, build quality, and even look of it. Pictures really don’t do it justice. It is much more attractive in person that the pictures make it look.
At Engadget T-Mobile G1 shipping announcement
But it definitely would not be fair to say all the comments are actually positive but I can certainly say it was much more difficult to find negative comments from T-Mobile G1 owners than it was to find positive ones from them. Of course, there are multiple comments from iPhones owners and Apple fans who insist on how happy they are with their best ever phones but since I was looking for the comments from people with real-life experience with T-Mobile G1, this type simply would not fit. But I have also found at least one comment on Gizmodo’s post about the first commercials of the T-Mobile G1 phone that made me think not all the users are actually as happy as the majority of comments suggest:
I bought one and am promptly going to return it. It is gimmicky and feels like it was put together by a bunch of nerds, oblivious to knowing what elegant design means. Sticking with bberry and waiting for storm.
This comment is very indicative of another camp where people who bought the phone with no information but the promotional videos from Google and T-Mobile are very disappointed with what they actually get – disappointed enough to be ready to return it. I am not sure if such opinions will be numerous but I guess the potential is here and there will be further disappointments and more similar comments as well. After all, buying the phone after seeing nothing but a video may not really be a decision you will never regret once the gadget is delivered.
If you are one of the proud (or disappointed) owners of the first Android-powered device ever, let us know in the comments what your impressions are, it is definitely very interesting to many people only considering such a purchase. And if you are a blogger, share with us what your readers think about the device as well as I could easily miss some gems of the comments.
