T-Mobile G2 Review

Introduction:

Almost without flinching, two years are already in the books since the original T-Mobile G1 landed on the scene and stirring things up in the mobile landscape. Looking back at its humble beginnings, the handset ushered in a new era in the mobile community with Google's open platform – thus bringing Google into the thick of things alongside up and coming handset maker HTC. Two forces joined together in attempting to break the mold of what was then still the early days of today's modern smartphone wars, but as fate would have it, the long lasting partnership between the two would come around full circle once again. In a race to be the biggest, the fastest, and the best out of the bunch, the T-Mobile G2 follows up to the original's pride and glory as it boasts some high-end specs that are tastefully complemented with an industrial design that only HTC can concoct. Not stopping there just yet, this $199.99 on-contract handset might seem like any flagship device out there, but its one striking uniqueness is found with its branding of being the first HSPA+ enabled smartphone in the market.

The package contains:

• T-Mobile G2
• 8GB microSD card
• microUSB cable
• Wall Charger
• 3.5mm Stereo Headset
• Start Guide

Design:

Although the only thing kept intact from its predecessor's design is the landscape style physical keyboard, everything else about the T-Mobile G2 is completely different; in a good way in fact. HTC is known for crafting some fantastic smartphones that radiate their industrial designs, but thankfully, the G2 is one of their more recent fine looking achievements. Compared to other recently launched handsets, like the Droid Incredible and myTouch 3G Slide, the G2 is classified in an entirely different category thanks to its premium materials and solid construction. The manufacturer didn't skimp out with fine materials as it employs a combination of a brushed aluminum finish and silver colored soft touch coating. The two materials mesh well with one another as it's evident that the device exhibits an industrial design that closely resembles the HTC Nexus One – but with a keyboard. For something packing along a physical QWERTY, which uses an interesting mechanism, the handset doesn't feel overly bulky (0.56” thick) – but there is a noticeable heft (6.35 oz) to it. All in all, we're confident that the handset will withstand the ravages of normal wear and tear, but a quick drop from a decent height, can definitely put a ding into its metallic exterior.



You can compare the T-Mobile G2 with many other phones using our Size Visualization Tool.

Rather than utilizing some fancy display technology, like Super AMOLED or an IPS display, the G2 simply resorts to using a 3.7” TFT display with WVGA (480 x 800) resolution. Considering that everything else on the device has a high-end feel to it, this is one of the few areas that doesn't necessarily catch prying eyes. Sure it's able to produce plenty of detail, which makes even the smallest of text distinguishable, but there is nothing really swell about it – especially when other handsets have already trudged in the same path. It's more than capable of producing some rich looking colors, but nonetheless, it's still nowhere close to the level seen with AMOLED displays. And even though viewing angles are pretty good, it doesn't have that luminosity to make it glow from a good distance. However, it's naturally responsive to the touch as it never faltered in registering our finger hitting the display. Outdoor usage will prove to be an obstacle since it's difficult in making out what's on-screen when you're in the direct line of sight with the sun.


There's actually a small area below the touchscreen that's dedicated to its capacitive buttons – and we mean a thin line compared to other devices. Here you'll find the usual suspects like the home, menu, back, and search keys – all of which are accompanied with a haptic feedback when pressed. Luckily, we didn't experience accidentally hitting any of them since they're spaced far away from the outline of the phone. And instead of sporting the Nexus One's trackball, it simply relies on using a square shaped track-pad as an alternative way to navigate around the platform – or simply moving the cursor to a specific position. It's fairly sensitive to the touch and offers a decent tactile response when pressed down, but it manages to even light up or pulsate for various notifications.


The left portion of the handset houses the microUSB port and thin looking volume rocker which actually has some good feedback when pressed. Meanwhile, you'll find an adequate sized two-level shutter key along with a latch on the right edge that basically pops open the battery cover on the rear of the phone. On the top, you'll simply locate the 3.5mm headset jack and distinguishable dedicated power button – both of which follows the layout of some other phones like the HTC EVO 4G and Apple iPhone 4.


Flipping over the device, you'll be greeted to its “HTC” and “G2” branding which are etched into the brushed aluminum rear cover. Additionally, the 5-megapixel auto-focus camera and LED flash are located directly above the back cover with the speakerphone grill found in the same vicinity. And once you remove its solid metal like cover, you'll be presented access to its SIM card slot, battery, and microSD card slot – the latter of which is inconveniently hidden beneath the battery.


Similar to the unique sliding mechanism found with its predecessor, HTC decided once again to incorporate a unique spin when exposing its QWERTY. Thanks to their “Z-hinge”, the way you open the handset is unique in itself seeing that you merely flip the front portion of the device so that it locks into position. Although it's different from everything else out there, we do question its functionality over time as it looks to be the most prone portion of the entire device. Sure the mechanism felt tight initially, but after some use, we find its responsiveness to lessen, which can cause it to stay in a mid open/close position. However, when you finally get the keyboard exposed, it's almost flush with the display while still providing ample room for your hands to grasp it. HTC delivers once again in producing an extremely usable keyboard that's filled to the brim with well sized buttons that are raised, spaced evenly from one another, and exhibit some great feedback when pressed. We also adore the fact that HTC decided to place the “ALT” and “Shift” keys on both sides of the QWERTY. Plus, there are three buttons that look like dots which can be assigned to launch a specific app or function.

Interface:

For some people, seeing a high-end device like the G2 packing a processor that's not running at a clocked speed of 1GHz might put them in a state of disbelief. Rather, its 800MHz Qualcomm MSM 7230 processor does an admirable job in being the brains behind the entire operation. So don't let that 800MHz mark fool you, because it's able to offer an exceptional experience in navigating around the platform and launching apps. Without much fluff in the way of getting situated with the Android 2.2 experience, it's by far one of the more pleasant and responsive devices to get you down and dirty with the nitty-gritty portion of the platform.

Meanwhile, we're treated to a stock Android 2.2 Froyo experience with no meddling intrusions that some other customizations offer with their baggage. Naturally, you've got a total of 7 homescreens to personalize to your taste with various widgets, icons, and shortcut. For the most part, moving between each panel is swiftly executed with minimal evidence of any slowdown whatsoever – even when a live wallpaper is activated. When you click on the app menu tray, you're presented with the 3D like rolodex which radiates some lightning quick reflexes as we started to scroll through the listing. And since this is the stock experience, you'll find the News and Weather app which provides you some useful information regarding the current and upcoming weather forecasts as well as some notable news items. But if you prefer to see it all from the homescreen, you can setup the accompanying widget to provide you a quick glimpse at any time. As we continue to see Google working hard in evolving Android, the experience with G2 clearly shows how branched out the platform has become since the G1 first arrived on the scene.


While we're on the topic of Android 2.2 on the T-Mobile G2, it offers all of the essentials that the everyday consumer would be concerned about. For starters, business savvy individuals will adore that it offers native Microsoft Exchange Server support to get you synced with work email, calendar, and contacts. In addition, other people will also find it conducive to their social networking lives since it tightly integrates Facebook and Twitter with your stored contacts on the phone. Meaning, you'll see the associated Facebook profile picture with your contact so you can simply click on them to jump into the dedicated app for further details. Finally, since it's connected to the clouds, you really don't have to worry about losing your precious address book and your thousands of contact since it's always synced and backed up.



Organizer & Messaging:

As we mentioned already, the platform does a great job in managing your local contacts with those on Facebook and Twitter, but it's also nice to see all pertinent information with each person in a centralized area. When searching for contacts on the phone, you can either scroll the listing, which is displayed in alphabetical order, or simply press the search button and type it in. Naturally, you can place specific pieces of information for each contact like email addresses, phone numbers, web site, and birthday.


When you run the clock app, it'll place the handset in a mode that's more akin to an alarm clock. Within the app, you can access a host of functions like setting an alarm, seeing the current weather conditions & temperature, play a slide show of your photos, or even play a song. But for those who plan on keeping the phone close at hand when going to bed, you'll be happy to know that there is a dim button which will lower the brightness so it won't strain your eyes in the pitch black darkness.


The calendar is no different from previous Android smartphones seeing you have the option of seeing it in a month, week, day, or agenda view. When you create a new event, it'll automatically sync with your Google calendar so you can even check it out online. Not only that, but you'll even have various details you can set for the specific event – like reminders, exact times, location, and descriptions.


We applaud at how well the QWERTY keyboard feels when typing up a message, but if you just prefer the touch method, you'll have two options at your disposal. The first being Swype, which has a steep learning curve at first, but once you get a handle for it, you'll instantly see at how swift it can be in typing up something. However, if you just prefer the normal way, you can always resort to using the stock keyboard which is responsive when speed typing. Normally, the experience is heightened when using the landscape options since they just offer more flexibility for your fingers and lessens mistakes as you type steadily.




If Gmail is your kind of thing, then you've come to the right place as the dedicated Gmail app plays to the strength of what you experience on the desktop. Keeping track of back and forth emails is a thing of the past seeing that it compiles all of your emails in threaded view – meaning that you'll always be organized. Aside from that, the experience is fairly solid as you won't find the experience any better on other platforms. Moreover, the email app will allow you to set up other accounts by simply providing your email address and password. In the event that it's not one of the generic clients out there, you'll need to provide additional piece of information, like server addresses, in order for it to complete.


Google Talk is on board from the onset to provide you quick access in talking to friends, but thanks to the Android Market, you can always download apps that'll enable you to use other services – like AIM, Windows Live Messenger, or Skype.


Even though we're treated to the stock experience, the G2 boasts a ton of Google branded apps out of the box. These include things like Google Goggles, Google Sky Map, Google Translate, Latitude, Photobucket, and Google Voice. Although some people we learn to appreciate some of them, others might regard them to be none other than bloatware taking up precious space.

Camera:

Holding down the dedicated shutter key will launch the camera app which offers a simple layout that doesn't throw much at you in terms of options. You'll be able to modify things like focus, exposure, white balance, and zoom, but it clearly doesn't offer the bevy of items seen with devices like the Samsung Vibrant. Regardless, taking photos is a simple and quick process as you slightly press down on the shutter key to focus, and press it all the way to take the shot.


Quality from its 5-megapixel camera is definitely up there on T-Mobile's lineup, but slightly behind the Samsung Vibrant for supremacy in this category. Outdoor shots have a soft look which lacks any sharp tones to them while offering some decent and natural looking color reproduction. In situations where lighting is poor, you'll want to keep your hand steady since the slightest of movement will result in having some blurriness occurring – which already agitates its even more softer details. Luckily, we like how well the LED flash illuminates shots in low lighting. However, it's hit or miss when it comes to focus since the handset doesn't turn on the flash while attempting to focus. In all honestly, the pictures it's able to produce are better than most others – which should be good enough to make actual prints.



Without question, the T-Mobile G2 has the ability to shoot 720p videos with a capture rate of 29 frames per second in conditions where good lighting is present. Although it might all sound good on paper, it's execution quickly stumbles as it exhibits a fair amount of artifacting going on – which does wash out some of its details. Package that with the lack of any auto-focus, videos won't radiate any tantalizing visuals to haul in people. Furthermore, the exposure will also jump in order to quickly adapt to the environment – so there are times when you'll see it go from dark to light and vice versa. Now the capture rate will fluctuate depending on the lighting conditions at the time of shooting. In fact, we did witness it jumping down to 24 fps in medium lighting and all the way down to a dismal 19 fps in poor lighting. It's hard to even consider these videos as high definition when it clearly falls short in obtaining even the subtle hints of detail.

T-Mobile G2 Sample Video 1:




T-Mobile G2 Sample Video 2:




T-Mobile G2 Sample Video 3:



Multimedia:

The Gallery app will display all of the photos and videos you've taken with the handset in a 3D like panel where you can pan left or right – plus the ones that are pubic with your Picasa account. Once you make a selection, you'll have the ability to make some minor edits – like cropping or rotating. In addition, you can share photos via MMS, Bluetooth, Picasa, Facebook, Twitter, or an email.


Nothing special is going on with the handset's music player especially when it's none other than the stock player we're all accustomed to by now. Although presentation is no different, but far from the visuals seen with Microsoft's Zune or cover flow with the iPhone, it's more than functional at its core. It'll display noteworthy items such as the album cover, track information, and music controls. For all it's worth, the G2's speaker quickly shows off one of its main weaknesses as it produces some strained tones – while not even sounding powerful at all. When you listen closely, you'll still have some trouble making it out since it's just weak in tone and accompanied with some shrill sounds – definitely not pleasant to the ear to say the least.


Already showing off it processing prowess, the T-Mobile G2 is more than equipped in dealing with the playback of just about any videos you can dish at it. In fact, we're able to load a movie trailer encoded in MPEG-4 1280 x 720 resolution with no problems whatsoever seeing that it presents some fluid playback. And of course, the screen size is more than ideal to watch a lengthy video for an extensive amount of time.



Connectivity and Internet:

The T-Mobile G2 is a quad-band GSM (850/900/1800/1900 MHz) and dual-band UMTS (1700/2100 MHz) handset which makes it an ideal solution for the global trotter. Without question, the most unique thing about it is that is indeed the very first handset to support HSPA+ connectivity in the US – meaning that it'll offer some quick data speeds via T-Mobile's AWS band. If that isn't enough to satisfy your needs, it packs 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi for an alternative internet connection, Bluetooth 2.1 to pair up with various devices for wireless transfers, and aGPS for all your location needs.

So this is the one key area where you'll instantly notice the faster improvement over other current 3G enabled smartphones. Overall, the web browsing experience is definitely great on the G2 because it combines the hasty speeds of HSPA+ and support for Flash 10.1. With the tandem, it undoubtedly presents a surreal experience that rivals that of a true desktop feel. Not only do pages load super fast, but it renders it accordingly just like what you see on a computer. Double tap is available to get text to fit perfectly to the length of the page, while multi-touch gesture support for pinching is offered to customize your zoom level. Scrolling is pretty responsive, even when Flash content is present, which definitely adds to its overall peppy nature.


Although tethering isn't an available option right now, we were able to use PDAnet to share its data speeds with our computer. Generally, with previous handsets like the HTC EVO 4G, we achieved a maximum real world upload speed of 50kbps. Compare that to the maximum 40kbps seen with a Motorola DROID 2 or the 30kbps with an aging HTC Touch for Sprint, it seemingly shows the power of Sprint's WiMax network. However, the T-Mobile G2 was able to aid us in obtaining a real world upload speed of 100kbps – blowing away the competition out of the door! So if there's one thing to like about the G2 and nothing else, it has to be the fact that it has HSPA+ connectivity.

Packaged with an 8GB microSD card, it should prove to be sufficient for most people. But for those who are media centric, you'll be happy to know that it'll accept cards up to 32GB in capacity.

Performance:

Unfortunately, there's a distinct static sound that can be heard on our end of the line – which is clearly prominent when volume is set to its highest. Plus, it doesn't help either when voices from the earpiece sound hollow as well. Thankfully, the experience is completely the opposite on the other end of the line as our callers state that our voice sound natural in tone – making it very easy for them to comprehend us. Finally, you'll want to stay away from using the speakerphone for conversations since voices sound extremely muffled.

Signal strength remained consistent in the same place as we recorded an average of -77 dBm on the G2. For the real world performance, we didn't experience any dropped calls or rapid changes in bars during our testing in the greater Philadelphia area.

Battery life out of the handset is pretty typical of most other smartphones since it'll eat up a good chunk  if you're a heavy user – so you'll want to charge it frequently. Conversely, light users should get by a single day out of the handset before requiring a recharge. In any event, it would probably be wise to charge it everyday to make sure you have a sufficient level. The manufacturer has it rated for 9.83 hours of talk and 430 hours of standby time.

Conclusion: 

Yes, it's a design marvel from every aspect you look at it seeing that the T-Mobile G2 is one of the best designed smartphones in recent memory. For a while there, we were beginning to wonder if US consumers would ever see an HTC handset that rivals the Nexus One in terms of premium quality. Its metallic, tough exterior will undoubtedly radiate a sense of durability, but its Achilles Heel might be found with its hinge mechanism. Aside from that, its keyboard is one of the better ones out there in the market as it employs a smart layout with buttons that provide great feedback. On the software side of things, the stock Android 2.2 Froyo experience is responsive thanks to its quick 800MHz processor. Naturally, you've got all of the wonders that the platform has to offer, but the ultimate true star of the show is none other than the handset's support for HSPA+ connectivity. It manages to set itself apart from any other handset out there on T-Mobile's lineup, and as we've seen, it can even tango with the likes of some of Sprint's 4G enabled Android smartphones. For $199.99, you're truly receiving a device that's worth every penny you pay out of your pocket with its gorgeous design, killer hardware, and fast data speeds. As an alternative for some people, the Samsung Vibrant should still look appealing for those looking for a touch-only solution – especially when it's priced the same.

Software version of the reviewed unit: Android 2.2, build 1.19.531.1 CL255798

T-Mobile G2 Video Review: