Google G1: Nice Try, But No iPhone

Gadget impresses but won't keep Apple up nights
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Oct 16, 2008 10:27 AM CDT
Google G1: Nice Try, But No iPhone
In this Sept. 23, 2008 file photo, the T-Mobile G1 Android-powered phone, the first cell phone with the operating system designed by Google Inc., is shown in New York.   (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan, file)

Google's upcoming G1 is the first real rival to the iPhone, but the different gadgets "are likely to attract different types of users," Walt Mossberg writes in the Wall Street Journal. Making phone calls was a lot easier on the G1, which worked great with Google services, Mossberg found in extensive testing. But the long-awaited new toy was a distant runner-up as a multimedia device.

The G1's powerful Google-built Android operating system got a thumbs-up, as did its keyboard. Minuses: the device "skimps on memory" and is so integrated with Google's services it may be "not so good for folks who rely on competing calendar and contacts services." Overall, though, the G1 is a great first effort and bodes well for future models, Mossberg concludes.
(More Google Android stories.)

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