HTC Dream G1 Google Android
I had the opportunity to switch to the Rogers HTC Dream cell phone for a few days and overall I have to say that that I enjoyed the experience.
My objective in testing the phone was two fold; first to see if I could easily do all the things that currently do using my iPhone but more importantly I wanted to experience the mobile world through the eyes of Google’s Android platform. I will relate my experience through two posts, this one where I talk about the hardware experience and a follow-up post entitled “To Android or not to Android, such is the question” that will add the platform and application perspectives.
The hardware, the physical phone itself, was consistent with HTC smart phones of this type that I have experienced in the past. They are what they are; sturdy, big and heavy cell phones. Many have referred to them as “bricks”, as a Canadian I am more comfortable using the hockey puck analogy. Having said this, the form factor is comfortable when being used as a phone or while using the applications and I found that the beveled talking piece ads a nice retro touch. It’s not sexy but it does the job.
Those that like a full QWERTY keyboard at their disposal will be happy with what the phone has to offer. The slider form factor has always been a fun, practical and makes the phone stand out. One issue did pop up with the white model that I tested; under certain lighting conditions the white keys are completely unreadable when the back lighting activates forcing the user to physically change position if you want to see the individual characters on each key.
The phone’s screen is clear and crisp under proper lighting conditions; it does however suffer visibility issues when used outside in direct sunlight that make it a little difficult to use when your walking around. The touch action is generally responsive but it sometimes feels a little bit chunky when scrolling and using certain applications.
The device felt as if it has power to spare and is able to push the phone’s applications effortlessly even when multiple apps are running concurrently. The capacity to have applications running in the background was truly a refreshing experience even if it affects negatively the battery life. On that note, like most smart phones the battery life of HTC Dream is horrible. Road warriors will surely enjoy being able to easily replace the battery while on the go.
One important drawback of the phone was the positioning of the speaker; in the back of the device. This makes for poor sound quality when watching videos. Even at full volume and while “cupping” the phone to redirect the sound forward the quality is only average. The phone doesn’t offer a standard 3.5mm headphone socket so if you want to use a different set of ear phones with it you will need to dish out some more money for an adapter. These two items are enough to push the phone down the ladder when it comes to being considered as a multimedia device.
From the hardware perspective, I tried to keep in mind that this was the first phone on the market that used Google Android and that many others are coming to the market. But as such, Google would have been well advised to push HTC to deal with some of the phone’s shortcomings before it was released to the public.
With Nokia, Blackberry, Apple and Palm in the mix… hitting the ball to second base should have been the priority on the hardware side of things.
Stay tuned “To Android or not to Android, such is the question” is coming up next!
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