G1, I Hardly Knew Ye

After 2 weeks of endless frustration, I finally returned my G1 today to the T-Mobile store in Rosedale.  Several tech review blogs, T-Mobile's G1 forums and even the Android community are all reporting various problems with over half of the G1s out there, and mine was definitely one of the bad ones.

Starting with the most common problem: POP3 and IMAP email relay.  As in, it doesn't work.  I stopped getting my business emails over a week ago and, while doing a soft reset by pulling and replacing the battery would fix the problem for a few hours, I still wasn't able to manage my email accounts from my phone.  Not receiving work emails on my mobile presents a huge problem for me, as I'm sure it would for most people.

Randomly, the sound and/or vibrate on my alarm wouldn't work.  No major disasters occurred, since I don't start my workday too terribly early, but for someone else that could mean a job reprimand or a missed flight. 

This is more of a gripe, but the G1's camera wasn't impressive.  There's a fairly long delay (maybe 4 seconds, which is kind of a long time when you want to snap something quick) and the picture quality wasn't anything to write home about.

My Gmail didn't work on the G1, which I found just perplexing.  I had a pretty much constant connection error message for the last 6 days.  The help forums I read and the tech rep I spoke to offered a couple of suggestions--again with the quick fix battery reset--but nothing remedied the problem.

The browser stopped working a few days ago, and I would just get another form of connection error message there.  The application I downloaded that required daily information retrieval from the internet also stopped working and, again, gave me another type of connection error message.

The last two problems were most likely related to the fact that the 3G network just plain isn't there.  I could pick it up sporadically but, more often than not, there was just no signal to be had anywhere in Minneapolis.  This is the number one problem I've heard in talking to my friends who have also bought the G1; where's this 3G everyone keeps talking about?  Again, kind of pointless to have a phone with so much capability, yet can't deliver on what it promises to do.

I understand that when a piece of technology is mass-produced, there are going to be some bad bananas in the bunch.  But each of the 4 people I know who have this phone are having one or all of the above issues with it.  I'm just lucky mine started acting up within the first 2 weeks and I was still able to return it.  My friends were not so fortunate.

Fully functional, the G1 would be a cool-ass phone.  I'm bummed out that I can't use it and pretty disappointed that it was released with so many widespread problems.  When the next generation comes out, I'll definitely consider trying the technology again, but for now, it's back to my beloved BlackBerry.  I picked out a red Curve today and, though the EDGE network seems a bit slower than the 3G when it was working, at least I have an immediate and reliable line to my email accounts.  Also, the camera and video camera take damn good pictures.

Comments

[Alexis]

So this is the first, and maybe the last, time I've ever used the "Web/Tech" blog category.

[Geordae]

Sucks that you were having problems with your phone. I've heard nothing but great things about the Blackberry Curve...hopefully i have enough money to get one in the near future.

nice blog you have here.

[Jerry]

I tried your G1 that you brought back - it was your phone. It would not pick up the 3G network like it was suppose to. Minneapolis/St.Paul is in the 3G network and all over the area - for some reason your phone was a dud!
I think you will be really happy with your curve - any problems with it you let me know!

[Chet Kuhn]

The G1 is pretty much a proof-of-concept phone for the Android operating system anyway, and I was shocked that T-Mobile decided to release it as a consumer product. It is a highly prized phone for developers and tech-geeks who like to tinker with new technology, and the Android operating system will be ubiquitous within a couple years, but for now your experience is unfortunately the rule rather than the exception.

Good choice on the Curve. I'm a total phone geek, and I've never found a product I like better. When/if you start getting the "java exception" errors, give me a shout. I think I've discovered the work around, although no amount of web searching seems to be able to confirm what I did...

[Rich G.]

Weird. I preordered a G1 and haven't had any trouble that hasn't been solved by just rebooting it. And that's only once every other day.

[Hamlet, Prince Of Q'onos]

Star Trek: The Undiscovered Country Blu-Ray set will include two scenes from Hamlet
...done by Klingons, in Klingon, complete with Klingon skull.

[supertoyz]

Thanks for the review Alexis. I've been looking at the G1, but your report has convinced me that maybe I should wait for V2.0. Not that I need 80% of the features, but who can pass up new gadgets?

[Tara]

Ever since biting the bullet and buying an iPhone, I've become every bit the insufferable ass that every other iPhone owner is. I love this little gizmo!

[Matthew]

In everyone's (Providers) haste to compete with the iPhone, there is a lot of crap hardware out there. I want an iPhone, but do not want AT&T...soooo, much waiting until the AT&T dealeo with Apple expires. Good luck with T-Mobile (Terrible-Mobile)

[James]

I was one those people who pre-ordered a T-Mobile G1 (Google Android) phone last year. I ended up returning it with T-Mobile's 14-day full-refund return period for a bunch of reasons. But, the main reason had nothing to do with the G1.