Disappointed with the G1
A few months back, I realized that I was coming up to the end of my contract with T-mobile. I have been a loyal T-Mobile customer for nearly 10 years. (A good friend of mine and I won cell phones after winning a flag football tournament. At the time, T-mobile was VoiceStream and has since converted to T-mobile. Anyway…)
When I found out that my contract was coming to an end, I was debating whether to switch to At&t so that I could get the iPhone or stay on T-mobile and get Google’s new phone — the G1 (I’ve had the Blackberry Pearl for several years). I decided that it would be worth it to wait for the release of the G1 to see what kind of reviews the phone gets compared to the iPhone.
When the phone was finally released, I was really surprised disappointed. The phone has received mixed reviews (by experts and normal users) and pales in comparison to Apple’s sleek & sexy iPhone. Personally, I haven’t ever heard anyone speak highly or recommend getting a G1 — the release was almost anticlimactic. After looking at both carefully, the bulkiness of the G1 put me over the edge and I’ve decided to pick up an iPhone.
At the end of the day, I guess that I’m disappointed with Google’s first attempt at a phone. Google does so many things well (email, calendaring, search, photos, groups, etc.) and I am an avid user of most of their applications. Because I love their user experiences and their easy-to-use software programs, I had high/unmet expectations for the phone.
That being said, the functionality of the G1 appears to be fairly impressive… maybe Google ought to hire a few creative designers from Apple?!
Comments(5)
It’s hard to beat apple when it comes to look and feel. But, I’d be willing to bet that Google takes a good chunk of market share over time – at least they should with their resources… Give ‘em another version or two.
Oh man the G1 is so awesome. Chunckiness is ok – it surpasses the iPhone in so many ways to me. Plus, the fact that it is open really seals the deal. I dropped my iPhone and picked up the G1 in a second. My fingers are too fat/big for the iphone and I need the multiple input options that the G1 has – makes the experience overall much better.
Ive had my G1 for a couple of months now, and really only the poor battery life is the show stopper for me.
Apart from that, it has really impressed me, and become part of my techie life. The other thing is it seems to be improving all the time!
Must admit I bought it for the tec and not for the design.
Wow, I’m glad to hear a few people defending the G1. I really hadn’t heard great things from other owners, but am glad to hear that there are quite a few fans!
Brock
Brock,
In time you will see Google (along with some others
) change the way we use and adopt technology. I have worked with the Google Apps team since mid 2006 and have spent time with Rich Miner (the guy behind Android – the G1 open source OS). You will see the power of open source and collaboration change the way the world uses technology. Apple knows hardware… Google knows cloudware 
…
BTW: Just made that word up! “Cloudware”!
Thank you for all you do to help Utah grow!
Michael Proper
PS: Great blog and string!