Hands-on with the T-Mobile myTouch 3G

US consumers are on the verge of getting their second go around with an Android powered device from Taiwan manufacturer HTC. We got ourselves acquainted with the T-Mobile myTouch 3G during a special event that promoted the second US Android incarnation today in New York City. Most people probably have the HTC Hero in mind, but it was nowhere to be found or mentioned with only the myTouch 3G taking center stage. We like how it's extremely light weight in the hand with its plastic exterior - radiating a sense of fashionable appeal with interchangeable back covers. Build quality seems top notch from the veteran smart phone maker; there's nothing cheap about this. Still missing, just like the G1, is the much wanted dedicated 3.5mm headset port for all music fans.

We're not going to go into depth with the latest software on the myTouch 3G, but we will point out some specific software included with it that the T-Mobile representatives were demoing off. One app that stood among the rest was Sherpa; a location based app that “remembers” your preferences. It's a nice gesture at what it can do, but we'd assume its just something slapped on there to beautify the phone more. At one point, we were given a demonstration as to how it can recall the restaurant that you visited during a trip when you're around the same area again. Undoubtedly users will still be greeted to the multi-touch less web browser – not a big complaint for right now. The slimmer profile throws out the G1's hardware QWERTY and relies solely on the 1.5 Cupcake OS on screen keyboard. We made a few mistakes when trying to speed type in portrait – while landscape offered more room for the fingers to flow freely.



Although it's nothing innovative and may have lost some of its luster after the HTC Hero showed up, this is still going to be the latest Android device to come out for US consumers. You never know, maybe this might be the only other Android device that'll be offered domestically for quite some time – so we're just going to have to settle for it until something else rolls along.