A week and a half ago, my Nokia 6133 fritzed out. I suppose it's my own fault for swapping it out last December. The phone I had worked fine except for the fact that I couldn't synchronize my address book to t-mobile online. So they sent me a replacement, and naturally this one broke.

It had caused some trouble back in April, but I was able to do a master reset on it and it was fine again. But this time, the screen is completely black so I can't navigate anywhere to do a master reset. I'll probably mail it off to see if I can get it repaired.

But, in the interim, I opted to go ahead and buy up T-mobile's current flagship model, the G1 (aka, the "googlephone"). Yes, despite my affinity for Apple, I love T-mobile while simultaneously being very suspicious of AT&T, so I'm not about to switch to some other network just for a fancy phone. I have an ipod touch and think it's a fine machine, but the network and the company I'm dealing with have to factor into my phone decisions, and AT&T is lacking.

So I waited and waited and waited in the hopes of getting something slick with T-mobile, and the G1 fits the bill. I would have waited until my contract was up to buy one, but basically figured what the hell, I'll pony up the extra cash to get it now. Besides, I needed a phone.

I've always wanted a small portable computer that I could develop for. The iphone fit the bill, but it was the only thing on the market that did. I wasn't about to buy a windows mobile device, and the high end symbian devices just seemed clunky to me. The G1 runs a linux variant, is very open source, and fairly easy to develop for. Plus, it finally gives me incentive to learn Java, if I want to actually write software for the thing.

And I've had it for a week now. I can always return it by next Monday, if I decide I don't like it, but for now I think I'll keep it. How's it rank?

• The Good:
• It's comparable to the iphone in size. A little bigger; a little thicker. It still fits in my pocket w/o issue, so I can live with it.
• The pop out keyboard works well. The action isn't the best, but I'm still much faster with it than I am on the ipod, and I'm a fairly good ipod typist.
• It has a working SSH client! Neat!
• Some of the software is really slick. ShopSavvy can scan a barcode and immediately get a price comparison of both local and online retailers? That's awesome. Shazam listens to music that's playing, analyzes it, then gives you shortcuts to purchase it.
• The trackball feels nice and works well. It's especially handy to scroll to small or tight together links on a webpage that I tend to fat finger on the ipod.
• The camera is pretty good. Much better than the one on my Nokia. But still a relatively standard cellphone camera. Not going to replace my real one, but it's still nice to have.
• Full access to the hardware. So I can easily write my pipedream biking app that constantly updates my progress online.
• Finally have an excuse to get good at Java.
• The Bad
• The battery is godawful. Like really, really sucks. I leave the thing charging overnight, and I still can't always get a full day's use out of it. Tips online say that I should turn off wifi and the GPS and only turn them on when I need it, but what's the point of a fancy portable computer if I dont' have immediate access to things? A better way to turn those options on and off would probably be enough for me.
• No onscreen keyboard. Constantly having to flip the phone open to type, and then back shut to orient well is a nuisance. I want something onscreen for quick typing - especially so I can do one handed typing again.
• No multi touch screen. I wouldn't miss this if I didn't have the ipod, but it's just so damn intuitive. Some of the interface seems clunky without it.
• Seriously, the battery is really unimpressive.
• The back case feels weak by the camera button. Always seems to bulge out when I click on it. I don't like that. Maybe I had a clip snap off and was unaware.
• So far, t-mobile's net service is a joke. Chicago has 3G, but I'm just outside the range, so I usually get edge. And I also usually get nothing, since it rarely loads anything. SSH still works, slowly. Browser? Not so much.
• The built in gmail client lacks checkboxes to allow me to archive messages en masse.
• I can't develop apps in objective-C or perl. :(
• Software updates are slow to come out. Current OS rev is rc29. I'm still stuck back at rc19. No sign of an update. I want bug fixes, dammit!
• Did I mention the battery? It really sucks.

To sum up, this phone isn't worth switching networks for. The iPhone might be worth changing to AT&T for, but I dunno. T-mobile is worth switching to because I like their service (data notwithstanding), and their customer service is pretty superb. But not because of this phone. It's $180 with a 2 year contract ($400 w/o contract) , with at least $25 a month on data. So it's damned pricey.

If you're not happy with your current contract/provider/service, then sure switch to T-mobile. Then, if you really want a fancy phone, then get the G1. The hardware is pretty nice (other than the battery). The software needs some work, but progress is being made, so I'm hopeful. The network needs work, but T-mobile is still building it out, so I'm hopeful.

Overall, it's a solid phone and Android does have the potential to challenge Apple. I don't think that they'll ever be good enough to overtake the iPhone, but they will be solid enough to keep Apple honest and moving forward. Microsoft and Nokia won't. But this will be the Avis to Apple's Hertz.

I'd say it's a good phone and worth getting (get a spare battery, too. Sigh), but nothing to race out for. A few software revs (hopefully with better power management), and more towers on the network and it'll be really solid. In a few months, I'd hope to be really crowing about this thing. But right now there are early adopter gotchas, same as with anything else.

But I'm still happy with it. Other than the battery.