Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Phones
  3. Mobile
  4. Legacy Archives

T-Mobile Launches Android-based G1

By
Add as a preferred source on Google

T-Mobile has formally launched the T-Mobile G1, the first mobile phone available to consumers based on Google’s Android platform. Android is designed to be an open source mobile platform that encourages third-party application development, and as the first phone out of the gate the G1 doesn’t sport a plethora of applications. But the handset does tap into Google Maps Street View, Gmail, YouTube, and other services—and an Android Market promises future apps for sale.

"During the past month, we’ve seen unbridled excitement for the T-Mobile G1 and the positive impact it will have on the mobile lives of our customers," said T-Mobile USA’s chief marketing officer Denny Marie Post. "In fact, among those T-Mobile customers who have pre-ordered the phone, roughly half have traded up from a basic handset, illustrating the leap many consumers are taking to a rich, accessible mobile Web experience."

Recommended Videos

Made for T-Mobile by HTC, the G1 offers a touchscreen, 3G connectivity, a 3.2 megapixel camera, and an integrated music player along with 1 GB of microSD storage (expandable to 8 GB), a QWERTY keyboard for messaging, "real" Web browsing, support for Google applications like Google Calendar, Google Talk, YouTube, Gmail, and others, and integrated Wi-Fi wireless networking for surfing the Web from hotspots while you’re out and about. The G1 also features one-click access to Google Search, and an integrated accelerometer so the phone can switch between portrait and landscape screen orientations just by tipping. The phone operates on T-Mobile’s 3G network—which isn’t available in all areas—but also works on the operator’s 2G and EDGE networks.

So far, reviews on the Android are mixed: some are hailing it—and Android—as an iPhone-killer, freeing mobile users from the tyranny of having to deal with a single provider for hardware and applications (e.g., Apple). But, when compared to the iPhone, many reviewers find the G1 coming up short: no multitouch capability on the screen, and applications that don’t take advantage of the G1’s features: for instance, reviewers haven’t found any apps that are actually aware of the G1’s capability to switch between portrait and landscape modes.

The G1 costs $180 with a new two-year service contract; without a contract, the G1 is priced at $400. T-Mobile plans to offer the G1 in Europe later this year.

Time will tell whether the Android platform will give Apple’s closed iPhone ecosystem—and competing mobile operating systems like BlackBerry, Windows Mobile, Symbian, LiMo, and even Palm OS—a run for their money. But, coinciding with the G1 launch, the Open Handset Alliance released the source code for Android…now, it’s up to developers.

Read Digital Trends T-Mobile G1 review.

Geoff Duncan
Geoff Duncan
Former Contributor
Geoff Duncan writes, programs, edits, plays music, and delights in making software misbehave. He's probably the only member…
Topics
Enter the wrong PIN 13 times and your Galaxy phone is locked for good
New Galaxy phones will require a factory reset after 13 failed unlock attempts
Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra smartphone in blue color.

Samsung is making the lock screen much harder to break on Galaxy devices launching with Android 17-based One UI 9. Enter the wrong PIN, pattern, or password 13 times, and the phone will stop accepting attempts. A full factory reset will then be the only way to use it again.

The change is designed to stop brute-force attacks, where someone repeatedly guesses different passwords until one works. It is a major shift from older One UI versions, which mainly relied on temporary waiting periods rather than a mandatory final lockout.

Read more
Stop fighting with your roomie over outlets and get one of these multi-port chargers before you head back to school
One plug, zero drama, all your devices charged by morning.
Satechi ChargeView

Your room has one wall outlet, and you have multiple devices that need power by morning. Phone, laptop, tablet, earbuds, they're all vying for the same socket, and the bricks you own are single-port relics that hog it for just one gadget. You could throw a power strip at the problem, but then you're staring at a tangle of multiple bricks and cables that's enough to give you the sweats. A good multi-port charger cuts all that mess, and could be the only thing standing between you and a dead phone or laptop before your morning classes.

Back-to-school season is a smart time to buy one. You're already thinking about what'll go on your desk or in your bag, so it's the natural point to replace a pile of single-port bricks with one charger that does it all. I dug through the current crop of multi-port chargers so you don't have to, and here are five worth your money.

Read more
Back-to-school phone shopping on a tight budget? Here’s the one phone I’d recommend without hesitation
The budget phone market got messy this year, but one phone still makes sense.
Galaxy A17 in all colors on gradient background

Somewhere between the last day of school and the first day back, your phone conked out. Perhaps the screen shattered after a particularly nasty fall, or its battery regularly gives up by noon, or apps take so long to launch that by the time they do, you've forgotten why you opened them in the first place. You don't think it'll last another school year, but between all the school supplies and everything else, a budget phone is all your wallet can handle right now.

Fortunately for you, cheap phones have come a long way, offering better screens, bigger batteries, and more capable cameras than devices launched just a couple of years ago. Since you're already prepping to head back to school, this is as good a time as any to lay your old phone to rest and lock in an upgrade. But unfortunately, the timing isn't great for the smartphone industry in general, and that has had a real impact on entry-level phones.

Read more