A few lucky employees have much to the jealousy of T-mobile fans everywhere gotten some hands on time with the G1 and have posted their musings on the forums. One such user Sol Glow has posted his thoughts and impressions AND has been more than kind enough to keep a thread going with a Q&A session.
Initial Start Up
With that said the first screen you’re faced with is a log-in to Gmail account screen. If you don’t have a g-mail account (like me) you must create one before you can go any further on the screen. Once I created my g-mail account I had to verify a password. Something I liked is that the built in security of Google is imminent, as it told me if my password I had entered was solid or not. The password I originally entered was “yellow” meaning it’s not 100% secure. I changed a few letters and added a few extra digits and Google told me my password was as solid as a rock.
After The Log-In
Once I logged in I was presented with the home display which features the Myfaves icon on the top left, the clock on the top right and default buttons on the bottom of the home screen. I quickly loaded with menu button with a quick motion of my finger up and moved my “mail” icon to the home display right above my “maps” icon which was preloaded as the very last icon on the right part of the screen. Second I moved my “messages” directly next to my “mail” icon. Moving icons is a BREEZE to do and something I can see myself changing weekly as I download additional apps to the device (more on that later.)
The Camera
Because I had no data access the phone was basically eye candy, with messaging available via text. So, I took some time to check out the camera which I was disappointed had no zoom (perhaps I couldn’t figure it out?) but the picture quality was excellent. Even though I had no zoom initially, I was able to zoom in on a picture once it was taken and when I did zoom in on something in the photo is was as clear as if I had taken the photo right in front of what I had zoomed in on.
This camera takes exceptional photos, and I’m counting on a developer to create a video record mode and perhaps a “zoom” application to zoom in on a photo before I snap the pic. Once I snapped a pic I was presented with options to save, delete, or share the photo with friends. I did not try to crop a photo but may do that in the near future.
Because this phone relies heavily on data I’ll say two things. It’s pointless without the data plan (I can see why it’s required) and two, because it relies heavily on data, that’s something that I was given access to rather quickly. However I must say I was limited to connectivity on the EDGE data network. Now the fun begins!
Using Yahoo! Messenger
I did not have a Yahoo! Messenger account but I created one to see how the experience was. I must say that the lay-out of the registration page made hitting the wrong button extremely easy. There’s a “zoom” button (both in and out) when you attempt to “drag” the page from side to side. I found that I had to use the “zoom in” feature to access small, hard to get buttons, or buttons that were placed closed to each other. No big deal, but it did take a little extra time to register a user name. I’ll chalk that up to the EDGE data connectivity (like I will many gripes that I have about the Internet experience.)
Once I had my account created I had a friend send me a message. Lag? There was no lag on Yahoo! Messenger. It was as if I was on my regular home PC and a friend sent a message. The message was transmitted with great speed and the display that the message came in on was great. I then had another person send me a message. I wanted to see how it looked with multiple conversations while in Yahoo! Messenger. The drop down menu at the top of the screen alerted me that I had a new message. I used my finger to drag the menu down and was able to view my new message and respond. The threaded messaging was great, but I often wondered how I’d go back to my other conversation. That was a little difficult to figure out and I’m not sure I can explain it just yet because I’m not comfortable with the steps on how to go back to a conversation without navigating back to the home screen, then pull up the menu, then go to my IM messaging folder, so I’ll try to figure out a different way to do just that.
Anyway, the drop down menu when you have a new alert (e-mail, text, IM) has a few issues (like how to go back to a different convo) but again, I’ll say that I’m new with the device and haven’t gotten used to the IM applications.
I had somebody send an e-mail to my new G-Mail account I had just created. It was a simple text e-mail with a signature from the person that sent it. The e-mail came through in roughly 25-40 seconds after it was sent. So from the time it was sent from a desk top computer to the time it hit my G1 on the EDGE network was roughly 25-40 seconds. Certainly nothing to bark at.
Amazon Music Store
Since I had data access on EDGE I decided to hop on over to the Amazon Music store. Every song is just $.89. You have the ability to search by song, band, album, top 100 or top 20. I chose top 20. Even on EDGE the app worked quick. As a user you’re allowed a 30 second preview of every song on available on the store, something I totally dug and could find useful to make sure I’m getting the RIGHT song. For instance, I listened to a song on the top 20 called “All Summer Long.” It was one of those remakes of Kid Rocks song since he won’t sell his music on-line (he just signed an agreement with Rhapsody.)
The speaker was nice and loud for what it is. Even though I was on EDGE the song preview loaded pretty quickly. I didn’t bother to see if I could download a song while on the EDGE network so I’m not sure if you absolutely MUST be on a wi-fi connection or not.
At this point I’m going to take a slight break (fingers are sore) and I’ll make another post in this thread about the Android Market, importing contacts, and other positives and minuses I noticed in my time with the G1…..TO BE CONTINUED
There is more, much more to his review but its to long so you’ll just have to go to the forums to check out. **SHAMELESS PLUG FOR THE FORUM HAPPENING.**
More importantly, many, many thanks go out to him for taking his time to not only write up the review but also to stick around and answer the many, many questions readers have been posting. Please direct your questions toward him via that thread. Blog questions will not be answered.
Read the rest of his review here.
Read another detailed review here.