Review: T Mobile G1

With business aficionados Blackberry having just released their new Storm model, and Apple's iPhone a firmly established competitor, T Mobile's G1 may seem the weaker option in the crowded field of touchscreen smart phones. Or at least it would do, that is, if it wasn't for tech giants Google, who are supporting the new HTC handset with both integrated search and their new 'Android' operating system.

A further advantage comes by way of the phone's slide-out keyboard, an especial boon for those users who have found the iPhone's virtual keyboard too fiddly to use reliably for emailing. As well as email, surfing the internet on the G1 promises faster connections than its rivals. Whereas the iPhone and G1 are constantly switching between 3G mobile internet and local wifi hotspots to ensure the fastest internet connection possible, the Blackberry Storm will be limited to 3G. On the G1, internet access is generally reliable and fast, with the phone's inbuilt browser as clear and easy to use as you would expect from a piece of software based on Google's Chrome. Tests have further shown that the G1 loads web pages faster than the iPhone.

In practice, Google's involvement in the phone's development is responsible for many of its major strengths. The Google-developed Android operating system which is debuted on the G1 is new and open for developers worldwide to help with the evolution of, a break from the systems operating on Blackberry and Apple's rivals. In the short term, as Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has suggested recently, this puts them a distance behind their competitors. But in the long term this should translate to a stronger and robust operating system. It is the first rule of the internet that a problem shared is a problem halved.

The same philosophy seems set to reap rewards when it comes to the Android Market, the G1's equivalent of the iPhone app store. Because the phone has just launched, the range of applications is very limited compared to that of the iPhone. But Google's open-source policy may once again prove a strength, as applications for the G1 are being produced and distributed thick and fast, in part because they don't have to undergo the same laborious vetting and pricing procedure necessary for developers working on programs for the iPhone app store. Moreover, Apple's draconian pricing policy charges such a premium for an application's distribution that it is bound to dissuade some developers from using the platform when a viable alternative is available.

While the phone's looks have been criticised as clunky when compared to the iPhone, in reality the scroll ball and buttons on the handset's face combine with the touch screen to form a logical interface. The three megapixel camera is adequate for taking pictures on the fly, if no real competition for the cameras in other manufacturers' models, and the sound quality when making or receiving calls is high. Features such as the inbuilt compass, GPS and the integration with Google Maps are slick and quick to load.

With what is already an impressive selection of applications available and plenty more on the horizon, the G1's functional and high-powered handset seems set to make an interesting three way battle between the most desirable phones this Christmas.