Minuses and conclusions
G1 Android Minuses
- No video player: Many $49 phones (with plan like my daughter's) offer MP4 or AVI video. I don't get it with a device priced from $179-$399. The manual talks about storing "video clips" on the microSD memory card, so I am expecting this in the future.
- T-Mobile Austin 3G network: Seemed spotty, even near downtown. Could barely get EDGE in my house located in a highly populated neighborhood.
- Wi-Fi range and speed: Compared to the iPhone/Touch, it seemed much, much slower and with lower range, but I didn't do any scientific tests.
- 8GB memory limitation: Will be hard to keep multitudes of applications, pictures, music, and (hopefully) video on 8GB. Subsets of subsets of your media collection are a bummer.
- 14-day evaluation period: iPhone offers 30 days through AT&T. A new phone, particularly a new concept phone, should have at least as many days as the de-facto "cool" phone.
Too Early to Determine
- Battery life: Much shorter than my BlackBerry Pearl, but then again it does a lot more.
- Open software implications: A few of the applications I downloaded gave me some errors, but I expected it because I experienced the same with the first iPhone and also because the platform is more "open" than the alternatives.
- Exchange Support: iPhone didn't have it at launch and neither does Android G1. Can't imagine that staying the same if Android G1 wants to ever get into medium and large businesses.
I like the Android G1 after 24 hours but as I said, the true test comes after weeks of real use. The exciting part is that I think like a fine wine, it will get better with time as the reported hoard of open source software shows up and the basics like Wi-Fi are improved, just as they were with the iPhone. Then I could love it. If you have tried out one of the Android G1s, I would love to hear from you and your experiences.
