T-Mobile G1

User reviews and rating

My T-Mobile & G1 Experience

13 Oct 2009 Will.I.Am82

6 out of 10

It's fantastic. However, unfortunately, I allowed myself to be persuaded by my homeboy of 14 years to switch to T-Mobile shortly after I finished college because doing so would supposedly "1) save me money, 2) give me more plan perks for the money, 3) give me access to a great network that never gave him any problems, & 4) give me access to a 'revolutionary phone with a revolutionary phone operating system.'" Foolishly, after playing with his phone for 30 or so minutes, I knew I had to have something that seemed as amazing as it did. Since, at the time, I had been with Sprint for 5 years, I failed to look up current up-to-date plan offerings as well as some of their newest high-tech devices running on their network, and I somewhat reluctantly jumped ship, paying my ETF and all, to T-Mobile. I hadn't been with them since they were VoiceStream Wireless. Back then, they were consolidating and merging with other regional GSM networks nationwide to create their nationwide network to go up against what would be Cingular, Sprint, & all the companies that eventually formed Verizon, and basically, they were terrible. Dropped calls left and right. Sure, I was in the network map, but I digress...

I bought the G1. From the get-go, things, at first, seemed really awesome. It was my first smartphone, first touchscreen phone, and first slider. It's innovative approach to a mobile operating system actually taught me a lot about its initial concept, and helped me to see what many other smartphones actually lacked. It was easy to use. It had a fairly basic UI. Not too many apps, but enough to get it off the ground. Everything seemed great. Then I couldn't properly sync any other e-mail except GMail. No problem, I'll just ask around, go to T-Mobile for assistance, or contact different on-line support groups. No help. Fine, I won't have Yahoo! or Hotmail. Then I could never get album art no matter what I did. Then it started freezing. Then I started dropping calls in full bars with full 3G. I began to miss phone calls only at home. Then, the last straw was when, during a conversation, the phone would just, well, shut off. Yes. Not just drop a call, but literally shut itself down. I couldn't take it anymore. I began to see more and more that there were 3 major problems: this actual handset was likely defective, that Android just wasn't properly polished enough for primetime and that its bugs hampered and hindered too much as powerful& innovative a concept an OS as it was. I kept saying to my friends and myself all the time when I mentioned my cell phone issues with my G1 "I don't think it's particularly HTC, but Android and T-Mobile; T-Mobile's network is inferior to Sprint and this OS just isn't or wasn't ready to be released yet. However, Android has enormous potential."  Finally, I called TM and they sent me a new phone. All the problems persisted except the phone shutting down on me during calls out of nowhere. No one had answers. My G1 friends (I knew 4 people) all said it was "me." How the hell is it me? I'm just using the phone like it was built to be used: to make calls, send and receive messages, browse the web, listen to music, that's it." I didn't drop it. I didn't expose it to water. It was just a piece of crap. I sold it to a friend's brother's friend's roomate in Houston for $200, switched to AT&T for the iPhone 3G thinking it would solve my mobile problems (only causing more because AT&T is a horrible network only slightly better than T-Mobile but wholly inferior to Sprint & Verizon not to mention that the iPhone truly is an iPod Touch with an afterthough GSM network radio; seriously.). I used the money to pay my $200 ETF at T-Mobile. I spent the next 7 months with the iPhone 3G, then I sold it after it incessantly dropped calls to buy the iPhone 3GS (I only bought it because I liked many aspects of its features, but not realizing it wasn't really a smartphone but a touchscreen iPod with a phone application, really). Eventually, the $145 a month bill from AT&T was ridiculous. Dropped calls persisted, and whenever I spoke to people on the phone, they complained of horrific call quality. One friend actually thought I was always talking them doing something on the other side of a room while the phone was on speakerphone mode. Yeah, it blows.  I'll never buy another iPhone again. I'll never buy another Android phone from a GSM network operator, especially T-Mobile or AT&T. I thought I should wait until a real company with dependability brought a reliable phone to market with Android; one on a network you could depend on. Sure enough, the best Android phone ever comes out and it drops on my former network. I had to jump ship. Due to the overwhelming desire for the iPhone, I was easily able to sell it quickly, and not only has it paid for my ETF to AT&T, it paid my last month's wireless bill, too. I was home finally, with the Sprint HTC Hero. It's truly amazing, and it's reliable on a reliable network, and due to its modifications and updates from Android OS 1.0, it's superior to what was first initially introduced on the G1. I'm happy and entirely too satisfied with Android, but for a proper network experience with the speed and data transmission you need for a phone of its caliber, switch to Sprint. Case closed.

Pros

-innovative OS beats the socks off iPhone due to its level of openness and diversity of apps that have unprecedented access to all core features of the OS
-OTA updates on a regular basis that actually make a real difference
-any manufacturer can adopt and modify the UI making it available in the future from a lot of manufacturers which will increase competition and encourage improvements across the board

Cons

-G1 wasn't ready for release
-Android wasn't initially ready to be released when it debuted on G1
-T-Mobile is woefully behind the times in terms of their network expansion and technology

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16 Sep 2009 Anonymous

8.7 out of 10

This phone is way better with the software update. keeps up with the iphone and touch pro 2!

Pros

screen resolution
apps
colors
unlock pattern
responsive touch screen(just like iphone)
touch screen keyboards
feeling
camera is good durring the day
speakers

Cons

battery life
no flash
android crashes
glass screen
trackball
buttons and keyboard are flat
call quality

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G1

31 Jul 2009 kristen25821

9.3 out of 10

I love my G1. the only thing the battery is really bad so i turn off my wifi and gps (i dont use it anyway) plus it helps if you charge the phone turned off. also the camera is really bad so i would not get this phone if your a big camera person.

Other then that i love my phone.soooo many free apps and games.plus i love how its touchscreen and has a keyboard!

Pros

free apps and games
touch screen and has a keyboard
nice big bright screen
durable

Cons

bad battery and camera!

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