So I figure that I would start but letting you all know that i have officially switched from using a blackberry to an Android phone. It’s rather shocking to me too as I have been using a blackberry device for approx 10years. The main reason for switching? I suppose the blackberry is somewhat falling behind the times with its rather useless browser and multimedia applications. I have been using the G1 for about 6 weeks now and here are my thoughts.

So got the HTC G1 because the idea of having a keyboard seemed like the right choice for me.

Impressions after 6weeks….

I really like the Android platform, it is flexible, open and rather easy to use.
The Hardware needs much improvement. The handset feels cheap and underpowered, as well as lacking a 3.5mm headphone jack and the standard battery is one of the worst I have seen. I ended up buying an extended battery that turns this phone literally into a brick. (see photo) but this battery lasts forever 3 full days of average to heavy use. (but i cant find a case for it )

The integration with GMAIL is truly great! Syncing real-time push on my mail, contacts, calendar and is a pleasure to use. I am also a google premier user so my business email is also real time syncing.
There are hundreds of free applications that are great and do provide to be very useful. some of the applications i am using are AKnotepad, twitterride, thinking space, flixster. Of course you need to be careful not to put too many applications on this phone as it WILL bog down. This happened to me a a did a factory reset to bring it back out of SLUG mode.

The Browser is decent and very usable i quite like it, pages are viewable and the screen res is pretty good. I do get 3G reception, but something seems off…It doesn’t really feel like 3G speed to me i think this has to do with the underpowered processor in this phone, everything seems to be slower than usual. I would say that the Internet speed on 3G is slightly below average compared to other phones I have used on my carrier (ROGERS) – Yes I am in Canada.

Looking back im not sure i really need the keyboard, seeing that all phones eventually will not have keyboards, I’d better get used to it!

I think i will stick with the G1 handset for a little while until the other manufacturers (samsung, sony , lg etc) start releasing their newer phones using the android platform.

I will continue to post thoughts on this phone as i continue to use it.

TF

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