G1 or iPhone?

December 1, 2008 9:17 PM

Should I keep the G1/Android or get the iPhone? Please help in making my final decision

One way or another, I'm getting a new phone and it's either going to be an unlocked iphone 2g or G1.

I'm demoing the G1 right now. I'm almost sold on it but I wanted to hear arguments pro and con against it.

The reasons I'm leaning towards it is
a.) I have 4-5 chargers that will work with the G1 (although that battery life is terrible)
b.) I already own an ipod touch (so it's essentially the iphone without the phone)
c.) I'm interested in the open source part of the phone
d.) I'll admit, I like shiny and new objects
e.) I like the multi task and the G1 fills this need
f.) I'm a google junkie. I use gCal, gMail and all my contacts are synced. This is great for me.

I'm not going to switch to an iphone 3g because I'm on a good plan with tmobile and I'm not switching to ATT. I hate jailbreaking my touch everytime a new os comes out, it's a pain and it completely wipes my unit when I do that so that sort of makes me shy away from owning an unlocked iphone.

As said, I like the G1 but man, the battery life is a drag and it's kind of an ugly phone (but I can live with ugly...it's the os I'm more concerned with). I noticed it's sluggish compared to an iphone when it comes to panning around a web page or google maps. So this has made me consider sending it back as well.

Anyway, I'd like to hear your thoughts of why I should buy ____ phone before my 14 day trial is up and I'm stuck with this one and an extended contract for two years.

Thanks!

posted by Hands of Manos to technology (35 comments total)

I also failed to mention that
g.) a G1 is 180 bucks whereas an unlocked iphone on ebay is 2-3 times that price...and that's for generally a used phone!
posted by Hands of Manos at 9:19 PM on December 1, 2008

c.) I'm interested in the open source part of the phone

Open source can mean different things to different folks, but the NDA is no longer in place and developers can discuss their code. There are several third parties who are posting iPhone-focused, GPL-, MIT- and BSD-licensed ObjC code on github and Google Code.

f.) I'm a google junkie. I use gCal, gMail and all my contacts are synced. This is great for me.

If you run Mail, you can use Gmail with that. Google Calendar is accessible with the Safari web browser, though a customized page Google has set up for iPhone clients.

I'm not going to switch to an iphone 3g because I'm on a good plan with tmobile and I'm not switching to ATT.

You can jailbreak an iPhone 3G, but that may not be the restriction.

before my 14 day trial is up and I'm stuck with this one and an extended contract for two years.

You'll pretty much be stuck with a two-year contract with Verizon, AT&T etc. wherever you get your new smartphone, if you get one.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 9:55 PM on December 1, 2008

I haven't used the G1, but the iPhone is by far the best cell phone I've ever used, having come from a few years of Windows Mobile/Palm devices. Nothing I've seen compares to it in terms of ease of use and general polish. It's a great device and you wouldn't be disappointed in it if you got one.

Another point is Apple's support--about 3 weeks after I got mine, it inexplicably froze up and stopped working. I called Apple, and they had a replacement overnighted to me. I mailed the old one back with the shipping label they sent, and all was well.
posted by DMan at 10:00 PM on December 1, 2008

G1 has copy and paste.
posted by brownpau at 10:05 PM on December 1, 2008 [2 favorites has favorites]

iPhone dude! Apple do interfaces well.
posted by anadem at 10:07 PM on December 1, 2008

G1 has copy and paste.

This is true. On the other hand, this feature has been in the iPhone framework, just disabled. Perhaps Apple is working out the kinks for a v3.0 firmware release. If you need copy and paste right away, the iPhone is not for you. If you can wait for Apple to issue an update, that feature seems all but likely to be available in the near future.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 10:14 PM on December 1, 2008

All I know is that I've never really liked my phones before but I love my iPhone. It kicks all kinds of ass and I pretty much use it all day every day. Plus, does the G1 have Ocarina? 'Nuff said!
posted by fenriq at 10:19 PM on December 1, 2008

On the plus side for the G1:

1. MMS (yeah - email is better anyway blah blah, but many people still use MMS and I want to see their pictures when they send it to my phone).

2. Using gCal on the iPhone is a little clunky through the web interface, and requires that you have another shortcut icon on your screen (or go to the Google app, then click through to the calendar, which is just a shortcut to the web version anyway). It's a pain to sync between the iPhone's calendar and your Google calendar, as you need to set up a third party service and the synchronization is not timely (could potentially take hours to sync, and you need to sync the phone against your computer to do it). The more individual calendars you have, the more troublesome it is.

3. Camera is slightly better at 3.2MP vs iPhone's 2MP, but really it's just a phone's camera so this shouldn't sway you.

4. GPS (iPhone original doesn't have GPS)

For the iPhone:

1. Screen is bigger at 3.5 in vs G1's 3.2. I think that little bit counts.

2. Slimmer.

3. Excellent integration with iCal, iTunes and all things Mac

4. iTunes built in.
posted by bangitliketmac at 10:33 PM on December 1, 2008

Personally, the lack of a physical keyboard on the iPhone is a non-starter for me. I think if you're big on texting, IMing, emailing, or just writing notes, the G1 is for you. It seems that your main gripes with the G1 are battery life and speed. I predict that both will improve quite a bit, in short order, as Google gets their shit together.
posted by autojack at 10:38 PM on December 1, 2008

Oh, the google phone is delightful. Really, it is. And even if you don't program things yourself, the fact that the G1 was open source from the beginning is just nobler, and I like that there's just...possibilities for all sorts of random terrific stuff.

Oh, I suppose I have some sort of brand loyalty infection. I like google, and it makes me happy that the google phone was so much cheaper right at the start.
posted by redsparkler at 10:39 PM on December 1, 2008

Oh yeah, the iphone doesn't have the physical keyboard thingy? Pssh.
posted by redsparkler at 10:41 PM on December 1, 2008

I have very few iPhone complaints. It's one of the best hardware/software combos ever put together, and I don't just mean phones. Amazing device. Even the onscreen keyboard, which I expected to hate, is quite amazing and I can use it at high speed easily. It's by far the best touchscreen I've ever used.

That said, you already have a Touch and know it, so you already know exactly what using an iPhone will be like, and are still not "sold" on it enough to be certain in your mind. Also, you have these hacking and open source exploration wishes, and it sounds like you really want to explore the G1 and Google's OS.

So I say go for it, and get the Google phone. You can always change your mind back later and sell/buy over again. iPhones and G1s are easy to dispose of on eBay.
posted by rokusan at 11:41 PM on December 1, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

Oh, the google phone is delightful.

Oh please. Compared to the iPhone the google phone is dreadful.

If you love google, or want open source, fine. But read almost any review, or compare them side by side. The gphone isn't even in the same class as the iPhone. It's inferior in almost every aspect.
posted by Dennis Murphy at 11:53 PM on December 1, 2008

Also, just announced: Google Calendar now supports Apple's iCal:

We launched CalDAV support to our developers last July for feedback, and since that time a few of us whipped up a nifty setup program for iCal. This tool makes it a breeze to get iCal working with your Google account. We've released this as open source and the program is available for download at our Google Code site.

posted by slater at 12:12 AM on December 2, 2008 [2 favorites has favorites]

The phone mavens I know who buy everything new phonewise (they're in Europe, where you have actual choice) say 'wait for the next one'. If you're seriously interested in the hacking side of it, rather than 'shiny object!' plus potentially benefitting from others' work, you might want it. And of course, the people who buy this one will probably contribute to the next one being better.

Plus, if you want an unlocked phone because unlocked phones are Good, and repeated two-year contracts are Shit, you ought to go with one that doesn't require repeated jailbreaking.

I'm in a weird position: I have an iPod touch that I like very much, and there are occasions where I would love the iPhone 3G's additional data functions (GPS, access to the internets for the passenger-seat navigator while on the road) but I really wouldn't want it as a day-to-day phone. The G1? Possibly.
posted by holgate at 12:18 AM on December 2, 2008

Regarding battery life on G1: I've found that I get lots more battery life if I leave various functions turned off when I'm not using them. GPS sucks lots of battery, I normally leave it turned off (how often does one actually use it? I don't very often). I only turn on WiFi when I'm at home (work WiFi sucks), or if I'm actually using it away from home. I personally don't have a use for Bluetooth. Those three things extend battery life significantly.

Also, I'm in the habit of turning off the display as soon as I'm finished looking at it, and that seems to help battery life, too. No sense moving electrons around so I can illuminate the inside of my pocket.

While we're on the subject of batteries, I prefer to be able to replace my own, too.
posted by gimonca at 5:49 AM on December 2, 2008 [2 favorites has favorites]

Are you in T-mobile's 3G coverage area? I'd say the G1's 3G speed would make up a lot for only Edge speed from the shiny first gen iPhone. I have a G1, but I am not in T-mobile's 3G coverage, but I've pretty happy with it.
posted by jrishel at 5:51 AM on December 2, 2008

I noticed it's sluggish compared to an iphone when it comes to panning around a web page or google maps.

The one consistent downer I've had with the G1 has nothing to do with the phone itself, the OS, or the apps, it has to do with T-Mobile's comparatively spotty data (and even sometimes voice) coverage. Even in an area with allegedly good coverage (Twin Cities, MN) I'm finding 3G dead spots where it drops back to Edge (or even "G". GPRS?). Google Maps on the Edge network is noticeably slower, on 3G I think it's just fine (or on Wi-Fi it's fine, of course, if Wi-Fi is available).

I've also noticed a lack of data service on rural interstate driving (Wisconsin)--they need to build that out more, too.

This may be different/not a problem in your area, and if you're a longtime T-Mobile customer, you may be used to it anyway.

Lack of a keyboard made the iPhone a non-starter for me. I'm also not fond of the particular 'design fetishism' culture that surrounds Apple, but again, that's just personal preference.
posted by gimonca at 6:12 AM on December 2, 2008

My perspective on the iphone 3g after owning one for 4 months nearly.

I find it frustrating talking to people and explaining that I'm more and more disappointed with the iphone every day. People look at me like I'm mad. I have found a few (business users mainly) that see my point, but I find it increasingly difficult to break down what I can only describe as 'the emperors new clothes' furore around the iphone. I dont understand those that overlook the problems, just because - you know - look! shiny iphone!

There are some really nice things about it - primarily aesthestics. It looks nice. But the GUI is not stunning. Look at the 'multiple page' view of Safari, a dull grey background. Its boring. The 'rotation ' of screens is nice, but arbitrary - not everything rotates, you have no control. I admit theres not much nicer on any other phone, i just find this gui a bit blah.

I've had it for 4 months and used it extensively. I've deleted every single app I loaded from the app store - its 99% garbage. The one I've kept is for my local train times which I check on my walk to the station.

I jailbroke it after a month or so and it has made it a lot more enjoyable, but its sad that to get the things that I want, I have to 'break' it. Apple for me, are increasingly the bad guys in the industry. I think the marketing and the legal departments are running the show.

Cut and paste - the lack of - is annoying, on the rare occasion you need it. Apples excuses for not implementing are bizarre.

Safari - I dont get. Its slow, it reloads pages all the time. It crashes all the time (if you dont reboot the iphone daily) after a while. Yesterday - about 8 times. A reboot stops this for a few days.

The pinch zoom etc is nice. I'd miss that. The multiple page thing is meh, could do better.

The GPS can be annoying. The other day, outside, travelling on a major road, it took 45 minutes to lock. Today - 2 mins. No idea why. I quite often travel faster than the device can load maps. I go to a lot of uniformly grey places with no roads. (I know this is a network issue). The maps appear not to cache. I do similar journeys each day and its always reloading maps.

No profiles. Massive, huge, elephant-in-the-room problem, and for me - a big reason to get rid. I'm not making 5 changes in 8 windows just to set it up when i get in the car. In fact, every other phone manages this almost automatically.

No memory card usage. Annoying.

SMS. Bad. Takes a long time to open the app (18secs on mine with 2 messages) and the O and P on the keyboard are near 'send' - I have accidentally sent half composed messages on a daily basis without trying. Grr.

Itunes. Need I say more? I have windows, and its not designed to run on windows if you have a large music collection. When I connect to itunes (I avoid as much as possible) I take a deep breath, make sure I'm in no hurry to go somewhere, connect, and spend 30 minutes grimacing. Its a horrible experience

Camera. Embarrassing. Really bad. The other day at a gig, i tried to take a photo. The people behind me laughed and actually took the time to ask me what device i was using. They were shocked - they believed that the iphone was a superior device (they'd never used or seen one in real life) and couldnt understand why it was "like a phone from 2001" in quality. I dont normally care about cameras on phones, but on the rare occasion I want to use it, I want to actually take a half decent photo. iphone photos in any thing other than bright daylight are shit.

Camera II. No video. Unbelieveably embarrassing for Apple. I found a jailbreak app called Cycorder which implements video easily. Its astonishing that Apple havent done this themselves. Ironically playback on the iphone is crappy, its better on a computer.

MMS. Not there. All my none iphone friends are bewildered that i cant send them pics. This catches me out regularly. I have a new baby and its nice to keep family up to date and its a painful process to email them all the time.

If i take a picture, i can, from the photos app, email it to someone. I cant start and email, and attach a picture from the camera. Stupid.

The best thing? Email. I use it for Gmail, and its nice. Basic, but fast, and nice.

I'm sorry, I'm not trolling. Just because I'm slagging off the iphone, I get accused of trolling. All of the above is why I'm getting rid. The cons outweigh the pro's for me.

I'm actually considering the Samsung i850 as a replacement. I dont want to have to jailbreak to do what I want.

It could be SOOOOOOOO much better. I hope you dont see this as a total rant. These are the reasons I can best explain why I wouldnt get another. That, and the fact I can sell it on ebay for 2 - 3 times the amount I paid for it. Madness.

The G1, maybe version 2.....
posted by daveyt at 7:00 AM on December 2, 2008 [3 favorites has favorites]

wow all good responses. hrm, what to do
posted by Hands of Manos at 7:04 AM on December 2, 2008

Oh please. Compared to the iPhone the google phone is dreadful.

Nice. Absolutely no specifics other than "it's awful".
posted by electroboy at 7:28 AM on December 2, 2008 [2 favorites has favorites]

Just to add to the confusion, Nokia's 5800 XpressMusic (Nokia's first touchscreen smartphone) is coming out early next year...

Some say it's a iPhone killer, with decent 3.2Mpixel camera and media playback capabilities. It also runs Flash so you can view videos on web pages... Also running Symbian and supporting JavaME means that there are loads of third party apps that will run on it, without needing to be hacked. It is also supposed to be a lot cheaper than the iPhone.

I am putting off my smartphone purchasing decision until it comes out and I can play with it :)
posted by nielm at 8:45 AM on December 2, 2008

I bought the g1, solely because of the keyboard, because I do not like touchscreens. There are only two big problems I've had with it:

1) It can't run Outlook via the internet, which I need to access a company e-mail account. That kinda sucks.

2) No standard headphone jack. You get a pair of USB earbuds with the phone, but you can't mix 'n' match for something that fits your ears better.

Other than those two things, I think it's peachy. I use it for mapping where I am, for internet-surfing, for writing wee e-mails (I have a g-mail account, and am delighted that it chirps when I get a new e-mail). I like that I can set any MP3 as a ringtone, so that I can hear Pierre Henry's "Psyché Rock" whenever a friend calls. Ugly is in the eye of the beholder, of course, by I love the way it looks! Like a chunky grey little sandwich of technology! Yes, I like this phone and its keyboard.
posted by Greg Nog at 8:55 AM on December 2, 2008

I have had the G1 since it came out and honestly I have been liking it more and more since I got mine. The battery life has been getting better consistently, a big part of that is that I turned off the stuff I dont use regularly like GPS, WiFi (I live in a city with pretty strong 3G coverage), and bluetooth, and I am not spending all day playing with it anymore, so I usually still have around 70% of my battery left when I plug it in at night. The cloud functions are all stellar, often time I find my phone gets email before the web email does, and everything is constantly synced instantly which is nice. Also I really like googles position that no apps are sacred and anything can be changed so long as it doesnt step on t-mobiles toes too much or threaten the security of the system. So for example people are writing visual voice mail programs for it, alternative dialers, and email clients that are an alternative to the ones google provided with the phone, and that is cool. Also being an open source device bugs are being fixed very quickly, by your peers and you can see the OS growing and starting to come into its own pretty much in real time which I like.

It is not as pretty as an iphone, but I think it is much better looking in person then in pictures, and to me it has a satisfying heft in the hand. That is really a matter of taste, but it shouldn't be that important either way. Also it is pretty nice not having the same phone as everyone else, again my opinion.

ps. download Shazaam, i know it is also availible for the iPhone, but it is free on the G1 and it is fun to play with, also scanning barcodes is my new passion.
posted by BobbyDigital at 9:10 AM on December 2, 2008

Just my 2 cents about my iPhone.

I've a gadget geek, but I usually lean towards for open products; if the Android had been available when I finally decided to make the iPhone plunge, I probably would have gotten that.

I've had it since Sept. For the most part, I really really like it. My biggest pet peeves are the usual ones:
1) No cut & paste (seriously -- WTF?)
2) Crappy battery life
3) Being tied to iTunes, but i'm beginning to understand why it's necessary; you have iTunes on the phone, you're gonna need iTunes to connect. The 2.2 update, with downloadable podcasts, made this more apparent to me.

However, I never really appreciated how well Apple does the little things until I bought an first-gen Asus eee 701 off a buddy of mine. I've been spoiled. And yes, I know I'm comparing apples to oranges, but there are still similarities. The iPhone just works. It handles the small scree limitations well. Pinching to zoom is brilliant. I actually can type better on the on-screen keyboard than the teeny-tiny eee physical keyboard. The iPhone UI is simply amazing; the little details have been thought about, and handled well. Everything else seems painful in comparison, when 6 months ago I never would have noticed.

But all that being said, i'm royally ticked at Apple for all this app-store inclusion nonsense.
posted by cgg at 9:25 AM on December 2, 2008

Good information by a guy who reviews this stuff for a living:

http://ihnatko.com/index.php/2008/10/16/the-great-google-phone-brain-dump-part-one/
http://ihnatko.com/index.php/2008/10/17/the-great-google-phone-brain-dump-part-two/
posted by CorporateHippy at 10:03 AM on December 2, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

I've had my G1 for a few weeks now. Am unhappy with the Tmobile coverage in my area compared to ATT, for voice calls (NYC, btw), but it has only dropped a call when I was in an isolated interior stairwell or elevator.
The camera is also garbage, but I don't particularly care. As potential future developer, I like the prospect of not being required to have the latest and greatest from Apple in order to use the SDK.

Disclaimer:
I have never purchased an Apple product and probably never will.
posted by bastionofsanity at 10:23 AM on December 2, 2008

Here's a fairly recent development (recent to me, anyway) which is a major G1 dealbreaker since I do extensively travel abroad at least once a year - The G1 is constantly making data connections, by roaming if needed, even when you don't want it to, thus driving up your roaming bill for data.

I'm gonna just wait for the Nokia N97.
posted by brownpau at 12:38 PM on December 2, 2008

yeah I read that brownpau. scary. glad I don't travel much
posted by Hands of Manos at 1:01 PM on December 2, 2008

As potential future developer, I like the prospect of not being required to have the latest and greatest from Apple in order to use the SDK.

The real-world applications I've written test out fine on first-generation phones.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 1:49 PM on December 2, 2008

The G1 is constantly making data connections, by roaming if needed, even when you don't want it to, thus driving up your roaming bill for data.

That's a very unusual claim in that article, given that there's a fairly clear "Connect to Data Services When Roaming" option that can be explicitly turned off in the menus (also mentioned in the comments following the linked article), as well as "Airplane Mode", which claims to disable all wireless connections. And there's the ability to turn off auto-synching in the menus, which appears to stop Gmail, for example, from connecting out automatically.

Either the explicit options in the menus aren't correct/honest, or the person mentioned in the article never really turned off data roaming to begin with. Or maybe they downloaded a 3rd-party app that was connecting out. Something isn't adding up.

I haven't been out of the country, so I don't have direct experience to compare.
posted by gimonca at 2:14 PM on December 2, 2008

Most of daveyt's iPhone complaints sound about right to me, though none were dealbreakers for me (I don't know anyone who uses MMS, for example), but complaining about the UI is bizarre to me. It is a very very very good UI. It has a "boring" plain gray background in one application? Um, okay. That application is also the best web browser I have ever used on a pocket device of any kind. By about 40 miles. I can live with a "non-stunning" background!

The camera sucks. Agreed. But I don't expect to use a camera phone for "real" pictures, anyway... it works well enough for "take a picture of that crazy sign to remember later" or other visual-memo purposes.

18 seconds to launch SMS? And 8 browser crashes per day? Something is very wrong with your phone.

I use my 3G heavily, all day and every day, and while I have had some crappy free store apps crash on launch, I have never had a Safari crash. Not one. My SMS app, even with a dozen "open" conversations with different people, launches in under a second.

My iTunes "server" is a Windows machine with about 55Gb of music. I like it, works fine, I don't get the complaints on that. How much is "a lot" of music, exactly?

I think that either your jailbreaking and unbreaking has really wrecked your phone, or you should be returning it for one that works. Those are crazy problems.
posted by rokusan at 5:56 PM on December 2, 2008

well I'm still unsure as to what to do. I'll make a decision on Friday
posted by Hands of Manos at 7:26 PM on December 2, 2008

If it's at all possible, please get your hands on an iPhone and try using it before committing to any long-term plan. The keyboard is really a deciding factor for some people. I gave it a fair shot, almost an hour of mostly typing -- and I understand that usage will improve over time, and I am impressed by the predictive entry -- but I am now thinking I can't accept giving up a physical keyboard for it. Which was sad because I really wanted an iPhone.
posted by sparrows at 10:18 AM on December 5, 2008

Follow-up on one of the previous issues:

T-Mobile produces official statement regarding international G1 data roaming

Nutshell version: it's 3rd-party apps doing it.

(via Engadget, so you might have seen it already)
posted by gimonca at 7:15 AM on December 11, 2008