Sure, the T-Mobile G1 may appear to offer you the most value for you money, but let’s focus for a moment on the not-so-enticing aspects of the first-ever Android phone. Gizmodo has given a rundown of some of the features that might make the HTC G1 a little less appealing to you gadget junkies out there.
First off, it doesn’t come with a desktop sync app and everything will be done online through Google contacts and cal. It’s a bit of a hassle especially if you’ve got a lousy internet connection or worst-case scenario, there’s no internet connection at all in the area where you’re at. Google is not ruling out the possibility of a desktop sync app coming out in the future, but as far as the here and now is concerned, there’s no such app.
Second is the fact that despite the G1 sporting a 3.1-megapixel camera, it doesn’t allow you to shoot video and, with the exception of YouTube, there’s no video playback. Again, this is something that Google is not firm on and will actually allow developers to work on it if they wish to.
A microSD card also needs to be present for you to download music (or video) which is a bit of a pain, but is not so critical in the greater context of things. Unless you’re the type who likes to swap SD cards and occasionally forgets to put one in the mobile phone, you shouldn’t encounter much a problem here since most often than not, the SD card is just sitting inside the G1 waiting to be used.
It doesn’t feature multi-touch and lacks a 3.5mm headphone jack. Personally, I don’t find the lack of multi-touch such a big loss since it does feature a trackball and a full QWERTY keypad, but the missing 3.5mm headphone jack is a bit of a concern since you can’t just hook up any ordinary headphone unit to it. The use of a mini-USB adapter only adds to the cable clutter you’ll have to lug around.
Last, but not the least, the G1 is for now locked with T-Mobile. They’ve also mentioned some minor flaws such as the hidden QWERTY keypad and how its annoying to use if you’re the type who likes to text a lot. There’s also T-Mobile’s capping on 3G data usage, but that’s more on the provider side and not the fault of the Android phone.
So now that you’ve seen the not-so-beautiful side of the T-Mobile G1, is the Android phone still a great bargain for you? Personally, I’d wait for the other Android-based phones to hit the market before making any final decisions. By then, the Android APP store will also be flourishing with 3rd party software that will bring out the best in the Android phone.
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