Android Invasion - Part 1 of 3

By Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla

The T-Mobile G1 or the Android smartphone, was released to the public (in the US and in the UK) last month and ushered in a new era of promise in the smartphone segment. For those users who have soldiered on with Palm, Symbian and Windows Mobile - the Google phone offered an alternative that married open-source goodness (unlimited number of free apps) and usability (GPS, 3G, Touch technology and a full-sized QWERTY keyboard) anchored with Google's slick interface.

Android running on Rogers
Many will pit the Android G1 against the Apple iPhone 3G, its just inevitable. These are two key devices that may be similar in some ways but, as we have found out, are fundamentally different. The iPhone has a year advantage of software, functionality and is a more mature product. It is a known quantity and works primarily because it is a closed system watched and controlled closely by Apple sentinels

Here at the Canadian Reviewer we scoured the web for a chance to nab a unit for a long-term review. It arrived yesterday and we wasted no time in activating, unlocking and testing the T-Mobile G1 on our Rogers network.

More Android Goodness after the jump


Out of the Box

This first part deals with the out-of-the box experience and the steps taken to unlock the T-Mobile G1. The unit we acquired was purchased in full without a contract so it came with a SIM card that was not yet activated. We have a prepaid T-Mobile SIM, which we use when we cross the border and we threw this into the G1. It worked.

We set up an account (you sign into GMail) and it was ready to go. Next was to make the G1 work on our home network. For that we had to saunter off to Unlock G1, which takes the IMEI information and for a fee will send you an unlock code within the day. It worked. Like magic.

Android G1 and Apple iPhone 3G (with case)

Lets just say that the hardest thing about this process was the anticipation. Within 5 hours I had received the code, followed the instructions (read them well people, you only get one shot), and we were off to the races.

Calling and SMS were enabled and we had a functioning Android phone on Rogers. Now we just needed to get EDGE working (Android G1 is 3G but uses an arcane frequency that is pertinent only to T-Mobile, how bloody gracious) and set up Wi-Fi for accessing information on our home network.

Here is where things started to get tricky.



Go to Part 2 of the review
Go to Part 3 of the review