T-mobile’s HTC G1 “Googlephone” Unboxing and First Impressions of Android
By Giania • Oct 21st, 2008 at 1:02 am • Category: GuidesA whole two days early, my G1 arrived on my doorstep. And now, for your viewing pleasure, the unboxing, and for your reading enjoyment, my first impressions of this snazzy new phone and it’s Google-developed OS, Android.
I will say right now that this won’t be the first or last of Android unboxing posts, and as far as photographic accumen is concerned, definitely won’t be the best. My goal is to make up for it with witty and thorough commentary. We’ll see how that goes, yes?
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- The first picture I took with the G1's camera feature was a picture of the camera I used to get the first pictures of my phone. Is that too recursive?
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- The contents of the shipping envelope. An old phone recycling envelope, an info card, and a card advertising accessories.
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- second shot of the outermost packaging and envelope inserts.
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- Detail of the front of the outer sleeve.
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- Side of the inner box visible with the sleeve on.
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- Outer edge of box sleeve.
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- Back side of the sleeve. It should be noted that the phone image on both sides of the box is slightly embossed and very glossy.
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- Sliding the box from the sleeve. You like that baby? Yeeeeah you do.
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- The box next to the sleeve!
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- Back side of the box itself.
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- Open your heart to me, baby, I hold the lock and you... sorry. The front of the box is a small panel that holds the booklets, and the main area of the box holds the phone is a smooth foam block, with cords etc underneath.
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- The sleeve and box, with only the booklets unpacked.
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- Another shot of the boxes and booklets.
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- Gutting the beast proved a rather easy feat, and an assortment of wires tumbled forth from its central mass. A USB connector, the battery, the charger, a sleeve for the phone, and a set of headphones.
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- Another angle of the disassembled package.
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- Close up of the packaged bits and pieces.
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- Oh god oh god, there it is, what do I do? Should I take it out of the foam? What if I drop it or something stupid like that? Ah jeez.
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- The back side of the phone, out of the foam. A small set of holes for an outer speaker, and the aperture for the camera. As well as the enigmatic "with Google".
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- The keyboard! Sliding the screen up is smooth motion requiring firm but gentle pressure (no worries about accidentally clicking the screen open or closed in other words). My one complaint with the phone so far is that the keys are so flush with the body and smooth that it's hard to tell by feel if you are touching one or more keys.
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- To remove the back cover, slide the screen up to reveal the keyboard, and press down on the cover edge provided. The cover will peel off once you've popped it off the inner lip. The back is softer and more pliable than the front and main body of the phone. The SIM card goes in before the battery, sliding in a niche on the left.
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- Another angle on the inner area of the phone without the battery and SIM inserted.
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- The battery and the sim are IN.
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- It's ALIVE! Muahhahahahaha. This is the first screen upon powering the phone (by holding the red "hang up" button down for a second or so).)
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- I had gotten a few pictures of the screen during setup, but they looked so blurry it was giving me vertigo. So a photo of the main menu will have to do, even if it's really not so great.
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- I decided to test the search function. A familiar search pulled up a few predictable sources, and I noted that there were no "image" or "news" results, just the standard web results. I followed a series of links, and found the image I wanted. There it is, in all it's glory: Frosted Butts.
All-in-all I am thoroughly pleased with the Android’s first phone, the HTC G1.
Visual
The screen is gloriously crisp and clear, and decently bright. Won’t be able to say how it fares in sunlight until tomorrow, but I have a feeling that it will do just fine. Text renders nicely at default display sizes, and images scale really well. I can’t wait to try some ebook reading with this.
Visual Input
The trackball almost seems like a vestigial in the face of a smooth touch screen experience. People familiar with the iPhone’s multi-touch interface might find it primative or clunky, but as one of thousands of people who have little to no experience with the Cult of Mac I find it really easy to adapt to and use. The zoom functionality seems like it will take some getting used to, although I didn’t mess with it much so it’s almost too early to say.
Visceral Input
The buttons take a few seconds to figure out, but it’s no worse than figuring out the buttons on any other phone. (If anything this was MUCH simpler than the Sidekick I had previously, with its esoteric symbol set.) The menu button works as the primary toolbar access key for every app on the phone that I’ve used so far. The back button works to take a step back in every app built into the phone, also. The hangup button will lock the screen if you aren’t on a call, which has its uses but flustered me once or twice when I blindly tried to use it like a general “cancel” button, as it doesn’t serve that function. The rule here seems to be: When in doubt, use the home key. The home key will bring up the desktop, no matter what you’re doing. The camera button was a little funny to master, until I turned the phone sideways so the button was on the top edge instead of on a side. The volume buttons are placed right where you can reach with your thumb while talking, a feature I could predict coming in handy during calls.
Typing
The keyboard itself earns a mention outside of the central button set. The search key makes finding things a click and phrase away. The keys themselves are a bit too indistinct to really instill good touch-typing confidence, but maybe with more use that feel will improve. My small device keyboard experience is limited to the Sidekick, whose bubble-like keys provide good force feedback and have enough of a unique feel (think hard bubble wrap) that it doesn’t take long to adjust to touch typing with your thumbs. This doesn’t feel like it has the same learning curve, but again, further use will prove or disprove that theory.
(G)Mail
Gmail was integrated beautifully! The interface is really enjoyable to use, displaying all the mail labels and important bits of info right in the inbox (or label) message listing. If you have set up filters to sort your messages by label and unclutter your inbox then you’ll probably like the list of labels and the way it marks labels with new messages (highlight color, bolding, and # of unread messages). You can also add shortcuts to Gmail filters right on the desktop (any or all three panels of desktop, I might add).
The Web
The browser itself is VERY sparse in functionality. Still, if you give it an address, it will give you you the corresponding item on the web, and that’s all a browser is really supposed to do. Other desires are sated through other aspects of the phone. I prefer to think of the entire interface to be a hybrid OS/browser environment (for what is an OS but a graphical file browser, after all?), and the part that displays web pages proper is simply very matter-of-fact about it’s function. This forgiving opinion may change if and when I encounter usability issues with favorite locations.
Apps
The Android Marketplace - the application store - despite projections that it would be flooded with utter crap applications, is surprisingly sparse. I went and grabbed a couple early starters, including one called Shop Savvy that I had heard about during the G1 press conference. More on those later, but I will say that they downloaded really quickly, and installed very simply. I look forward to all the realized potential utilities the future of this phone holds.
Bluetooth
Not having any bluetooth devices (I know, I know, I’m clearly a luddite just now coming into this century), I wasn’t able to test how neatly those sync with the device. I have heard a few concerns regarding this feature elsewhere, but truthfully it’s of little worry to me and probably to a lot of others. Recommendations on a reliable bluetooth headset that’s comfortable for someone who wears glasses are very welcome.
Last Look
The first picture I took with the G1's camera feature was a picture of the camera I used to get the first pictures of my phone. Is that too recursive?
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