First look at the T-Mobile G1 Google Android Phone

So I don't know if you've heard, but apparently there's this company named Google. And apparently they've developed some sort of a mobile phone operating system that features tight integration with online services like Gmail, YouTube, and Google Talk. And you can't get one just yet, so we decided to talk to someone who did.

Kevin Tofel of jkOnTheRun has been testing a T-Mobile G1 for the last few days. When it hits the shelves next week, the G1 will be the first device on the market based on the Google Android platform. Tofel says there's a lot to like about the G1, but there are still a few things that annoy him.

And most importantly, the platform will only succeed if Google can do a good job of attracting third party developers. The built in applications work very well, but there are still too many things missing. For example, while you can watch YouTube movies using the YouTube player, there's no video play for watching downloaded movies or videos from other web sites. Fortunately there's already a third party movie player available in the Android Marketplace. But that's one of only a handful of third party apps currently available.

You can see the phone in action and hear more of Kevin's thoughts by clicking the video above. If you're too busy to sit through a ten minute video, you can read some of the highlights after the jump.

• The web browser works much like Opera Mini or Safari Mobile, in that you get full desktop views of web pages and you can zoom in on particular areas to make the text more readable. But instead of pinching the screen to zoom in and out as you would with an iPhone, you have to hit on-screen zoom icons.
• The phone's home screen is like a cross between the iPhone application launcher and a Windows desktop that you can litter with shortcuts for your favorite apps. You can also flip back and forth between three virtual desktops, giving you the opportunity to create up to three separate sets of shortcuts (for example, one desktop for work, one for personal use).
• Integration with Google applications like Gmail, Google Talk, and Google Calendar is excellent. You can also use a few non-Google services like AOL IM.
  
• You sync your data with the web, not with a desktop. So if you want to synchronize your data with Outlook, you'll need to configure Outlook to sync with your Google Calendar. There's no "to do list" application.
• There's no support for Exchange, which means the T-Mobile G1, and Android in general isn't likely to be adopted by enterprise users anytime soon.
• There's no handwriting recognition software or on-screen keyboard. That means you have to use hardware keyboard to enter anything other than phone numbers.

Tags: android, cellphone, g1, google-android, htc-dream, HtcDream, mobile, mobileminute, opensource, t-mobile-g1