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T-Mobile G1: 11 Things I Hate About You

I’ve had my G1 for a week now. (You can see me walking through the setup here

Whilst I was quick to document the little things I liked about the G1, finding the stupidly annoying things has taken a bit longer.

Here we go.

1. Build quality. It’s a bit plastic. Don’t get me wrong, the actual internal hardware appears to work — but it’s very, very much like a plasticy sidekick. This does render it a bit of a cheap looker compared to the likes of a Blackberry Bold or a Sony Ericsson Xperia.

2. The Pop-Out Screen. I don’t like the way that when the screen pops out, it’s ever so slightly lopsided. It flocks me right off at times.

3. The battery is rubbish if you actually use the device as it’s intended. It’s near-iPhone 3G levels of uselessness. I suspect this because it is a ‘connected device’ – i.e. I am continually connected to Google Talk for example. All the connected goodness does inevitably take a toll on the battery. This won’t last your average mobile user a full business day. You’ll be hitting ‘red’ on the indicator by about 4pm if you give it any decent level of use. I am thinking of buying another battery. Not sure where you can get these yet.

4. The marketplace sucks. T-Mobile or Google (I don’t know who’s in ultimate control of it) need to sort it out. I want a lot more choice. Perhaps it’s because it’s only using ‘free’ apps. I’m also wondering if we’ve been given the shit version here in the UK. Whoever’s in control, take note: You’re doing a rubbish, rubbish job. Case in point: I can’t see any fooking decent feedback because half the application comments are filled with folk having racist arguments about Barak Obama. Total bullshit. Fix it.

5. Here in the UK, there’s no Amazon MP3 shop. For whatever stupid bureaucratic reason. Again. FIX it, someone.

6. A USB headset is a bit annoying because it has a habit of coming out or becoming loose.

7. The touchscreen doesn’t match the Apple iPhone. This is HTC we’re talking about, they’re normally pretty good at these things having had bloody years to get touchscreens working with goodness knows how many Windows Mobile devices. Or maybe it’s an Android OS screw up? Try dragging your finger as you would on the iPhone and the handset won’t respond. You need to be heavier and a lot more deliberate with the touching. Arse.

8. Zooming is a bit crap. Pinching as you do the iPhone… that’s the way ahead. Zooming on pictures and maps is limited to pressing a plus or a minus button. Not that ‘intuitive’. I know it’s Apple IPR … well it’s not that graceful.

9. You can only add one Google Talk account. Class-A bollocks. I’ve got three that I use and I expected to be able to have them all ‘online’ at once. Rooobaaaaash.

10. Google Mail isn’t calibrated for folk with a lot of mail. Whilst it does sync beautifully, if you get a lot of mail, you’re going to have trouble viewing it swiftly. You typically get about 5 emails on a screen, depending on how you use the screen (landscape/portrait). This necessitates a lot of scrolling all the time. I’d like to see the option to display one email per line. Perhaps that option exists. I couldn’t find it.

11. Contacts. The black sheep of Gmail is contact management. The syncing does work nicely. Add a contact in Gmail and woosh, it’ll be accessible on the device momentarily — but expect all sorts of annoyances trying to get your Outlook to synch over-the-air. I eventually imported everything into Plaxo and used the Google Mail Contact Sync function for the Apple (ONLY works when using the iPhone to sync) to sync these contacts with Gmail’s contacts. PHEW. Now it’s working.

Have you got any more additions?

25 COMMENTS

  1. How does it compare to the iPhone on O2? This is my first time on O2 and I'm finding their network speed and response times somewhat lacking.

  2. t mobiles 3G (in general) kicks O2 into next week.
    O2 3g rarely kicks into 3.5G and mostly drops back to edge on iPhone and N95
    and this is in central london

    tmobile rocks it on 3.5G almost permantly

  3. Hi Ewan

    I’ve had a bit more time to play around with my G1 and I wanted to add some things which are annoying me to your list (although it may just be that I’ve not found a way to solve these issues, so if anyone else has I’d be grateful if you’d let me know):

    1 – The camera. It’s okay, but not great. The time between pressing the button and it actually taking a shot is long enough for the subject to get up, make a cup of tea and come back and appear in the shot. However, what annoys me in particular is the fact that there is no zoom on it.

    2 – The email function doesn’t have a select tick box (like the ‘full’ Gmail). It means you can’t manage a lot of emails in one go.

    3 – The lack of hotkey. There should be one key that can be used to be a hotkey – one button and you’re in. I know everything is easy and accessible on the home screen, but maybe I’m not on the home screen, maybe I don’t want to go back to the homescreen first … For me it’s for email and I want to be able to go there in one press.

    One thing I did want to pick you up on though is the plasticky feel of it – that’s the white one. The black one is much, much better.

    Anyway, it’s only version 1. I’m sure it’ll get better. Though wouldn’t it be great if this Foxtrot cartoon predicted it right … http://images.ucomics.com/comics/ft/2008/ft0811

  4. I like 4 ppl 2 send me they pics so that I can have them in my phone and there is not a way 4 me so save a pic to my phone from a text message…well at least I can't findout how 2 do it…

  5. Thats odd, I have a G1 and the US versions of the phone are a lot different than the UK.

    On my phone, the Market has HUNDREDS of those free apps… And I've got 500+ messages in my inbox and Gmail loads in 3-5 seconds.

    But you're right, the battery sucks, i have to lock the screen and turn it off all the time to preserve.

  6. I also have the G1 and played with it for about a week. i found some things that I really hate.
    First.. the battery! enough said…
    Second.. incoming and outgoing calls goes directly under the favorite tab.. you can't delete it
    and third.. it's freaking heavy.

  7. T mobile won't let me return it. I hate this phone. Why else would I have googled I hate my g1 google phone on it.,

  8. Does the the “U.K” not make cell phones..I mean are u guys actually. Centuries behind us? [U.S.A] here in the goods ol U.S. of A we have a great veriety. Of cell phones to choose from ,weather its a touch screen or a music friendly phone u name it we got it.find a phone that doesn't fit your need,not a problem,again our big veriety will make it simple for u to find what suits u best.
    So please take you're 11 so called hate points you have about the g 1 and stick it where the sun don't shine.invest money in schools and maybe one day you. Guys will have the technology to actually build a smartphone.I woldnt keep my mouth shut insted of talking all that shit when ur country sucks so much that u people find you're selfs buying foreign cell phones so fuck you're dislikes. We don't care just keep the money comeing….holla back..

  9. I hate this phome, I had a k800I whitch I think is the best phone in the world its got itys probs but u can live with them and then I had a k850I which wasent 2 bad but now I got this s**t and I can't beleve I give money on top ov my xontract 4 4 it x I hate it x let's start 2 tell u x rite u can't c the keys wen it is light u got 2 have 1 2 now wot I going on about and the bigest prob is the internet it is s**t I can't even get on line even wen I got full signel and full 3g wot ever u do stay away from this phone please thay rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr coning people and I think its time we done somthing about itxxxxx

  10. I hate this phome, I had a k800I whitch I think is the best phone in the world its got itys probs but u can live with them and then I had a k850I which wasent 2 bad but now I got this s**t and I can't beleve I give money on top ov my xontract 4 4 it x I hate it x let's start 2 tell u x rite u can't c the keys wen it is light u got 2 have 1 2 now wot I going on about and the bigest prob is the internet it is s**t I can't even get on line even wen I got full signel and full 3g wot ever u do stay away from this phone please thay rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr coning people and I think its time we done somthing about itxxxxx

  11. i hate this phone!! the battery life suxs! it drops all my calls! it wont let me send texts! and the stupid ppl at T-mobile wont let me return it!!! im going back to the phone i had last year!!

  12. I completly agree I hate this stupid crack clown phone
    Its not sleek
    It holds no battery
    I can't type things in some of the text boxes
    It get akk hot

  13. hi u have to foward the pic to ur gmail not anyting excpt gmail. and open it up and save it as an attachment perhaps u know how to put movies on the g1?

  14. This list is so true, I've had my G1 since november08'…but for some reason I am just now noticing how much “I HATE MY G1″…I need a blackberry bold!

  15. you cant type a text without opening the keyboard

    facebook application isnt displayed properly

    quite often the internet is unbelievably slow

    it looks like an old mans phone

    the nipple that moves apparentely like a mouse is already wearing out even though mine is only 3 months old

    its looks much uglier than its competitors

    im stuck in an 18 month contract and the charge for getting out is to pay the remaining months

    but swindle !!!

  16. you cant type a text without opening the keyboard

    facebook application isnt displayed properly

    quite often the internet is unbelievably slow

    it looks like an old mans phone

    the nipple that moves apparentely like a mouse is already wearing out even though mine is only 3 months old

    its looks much uglier than its competitors

    im stuck in an 18 month contract and the charge for getting out is to pay the remaining months

    but swindle !!!

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