G2 Time :)
This summer, my T-Mobile G1 was stolen by a trio of five-year-old gypsies in Athens. So naturally, when the G2 came out this fall, I picked one up (or rather had Ian mail it to me from the US).
First, here are some pics! Because I'm a fanboi:
In addition to just being grateful to finally have a smartphone again, I am most stunned by the speed, voice actions and swype. Really, the voice transcription had me thinking for a second that it might even be faster than me typing on a full size keyboard (!) Since then I've decided that's not true, but really, it's very impressive, and undoubtedly much faster than typing on the phone keyboard when you are typing simple speech (not strange words or abbreviations).
That said, so far I've seen two glaring defects. As the fanboi I am, I forgive them despite the first one being so severe, but I will list them here:
- Valid unlock code from T-Mobile breaks all network connectivity. Yes, even with a perfectly legitimate unlock code from T-Mobile, I could not connect to networks. It turned out to be a bug in a "security feature" meant to keep you from rooting the phone which came along with a horrible glitch. T-Mobile Android support told me I'd have to exchange the phone the next time I came to the US. Instead, ironically I ended up rooting the phone according to some fix my friend found on the internet. See my previous post on that for details. Seriously, I just got the phone mailed to Greece, and it can't connect to networks and so I have to get it exchanged? #FAIL.
- It charges via a micro-USB port, not mini-USB. This annoys me, obviously, because I don't tend to own or carry around micro-USB cables (the G1 was mini-USB). However, under the naive assumption that Google is promoting micro-USB as the new standard, I will respect that and try to keep micro-USB cables with me as well.
Besides those issues, I am so far extremely happy with the phone, and so I am overlooking the two issues I have had so far and my future expectations are high.
