First Look at the G1

Until today I've only been able to experience the G1 through the emulator on my computer.  I just happened to come across a T-Mobile store during a visit to Chicago so I had to stop in and check it out.

I would love to give the G1 a raving review because I've been following the news, and dabbling with writing code, and I'm really excited about the possibilties for Android.  But the truth is that my first experience was pretty much a flop.  The sales lady couldn't get it to connect to the internet.  She called her manager over to reset it and he couldn't get it to work either.  Eventually they found another demo in the store and that did actually connect.

I was really impressed with the design and interface.  The phone was much smaller than I had expected and I noticed that it was really easy to hit even the smallest links on the screen.  The tracking ball was great as well.

Unfortunately, the next mishap came shortly after I got on line when the sales lady tried to demo the 'street view'.  I was really impressed when she showed me a map of downtown Chicago and when I first saw the images of the building tops when we went to street view.  But the she couldn't figure out how to to lower the view.  So I'll we could see were the tops of the buildings.

The final blow came when I asked her about the availability of the network.  Although I can get service in my hometown in Wisconsin, it's provided by third-party carriers that don't support G3 speeds.

I guess I'll have to wait for a few things to get sorted out before I get my first Android phone.