T-Mobile G1 Cell Phone Review - Organizer
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Marianne Schultz Published on November 05, 2008 Comment on this |
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| The G1 has the easiest synchronization set-up and execution we've ever seen - you don't have to do anything to get it to work once you've set up the phone beyond entering your Gmail account information, and it's over-the-air syncing as well. However, this only works with data in the Google web applications - there's no desktop syncing with common PIM applications at all. Combine that with no Tasks or Notes application out of the box, and you have a smartphone that's not quite fit for business users but should suit casual users who are fine with just the Google web apps. | |
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Synchronization (4.33)
The G1 syncs automatically with the contacts and calendar PIM data associated with the Gmail email account entered or created during the device's initial set-up. The syncing is 2-way so that any edits or additions made online through a Google web application or on the G1 itself are automatically synced over the air with the other after a short period of time provided you have a cellular data signal or are connected to a Wi-Fi network - nothing needs to be done to initiate a sync. No software or special settings are needed to set up synchronization - it's all done by default once the G1 is set up. Given this, the G1 earns points for one of the simplest synchronization set-ups we've ever seen, and we saw no problems with how the syncing operated during our time with the G1 at all.
The G1's synchronization settings
The only issue is that you're out of luck if you don't use the Google web applications to store your data. There are relatively easy ways to transfer your existing contacts and calendars to the Google web apps to get you started, but if you want to keep them in sync on an ongoing basis, you'll have to do a little more work. It would be great if the G1 offered more synchronization options to desktop PIM applications often used on PCs and Macs.
Alerts (4.5)
The G1 does not have a tasks application out of the box, but it does have a calendar in which alerts can be set. By default, alerts for new events are on and set to go off 10 minutes before the start of an event. There are many different alert timing options to choose from, all the way from 5 minutes to 1 week before the start of an event, though there is no way to create a custom timing option. The settings option in the Calendar application allows the choice between a pop-up alert, with audio and/or vibrate, or a status bar notification. It would be nice to be able to choose both, but you can only select one or the other.
The Calendar's settings menu also allow you to choose an alert sound from the available ringtones, and whether or not alerts should vibrate as well. When an alert goes off, you are presented with snooze or dismiss options on the screen. Snoozing causes the alert to go off again in 5 minutes, and dismissing it does exactly what you expect it to. The snooze timing cannot be customized. When the alert does go off, you'll hear the alert sound as long as the phone is not in silent mode.
Oddly enough, alerts don't turn the screen on or flash the LED when the G1 is in standby mode - you'll only hear the selected alert sound and/or feel it vibrate if this setting is selected. If you don't have vibrate selected, it's highly likely you'll miss a calendar alert unless you're in close proximity to the phone to hear the alert. If you miss an alert entirely and the G1 is in standby mode, it won't beep again or do anything to get your attention - you'll simply see a reminder of it once you wake the phone from standby mode. We don't like how easy it would be to miss an appointment with the G1 if you miss the alert.
Over-the-Air PIM Sync (2.0)
The only kind of PIM syncing the G1 can do is over-the-air. Using the included USB cable allows the G1 to be seen as a removable storage device on your computer for dragging and dropping media files, not PIM data. We have no complaints about over-the-air syncing in general, since it's exceptionally convenient, but it's still disappointing that it's only possible with Google's web applications.
Adding Contacts (8.08)
To see how easy it is to add contacts, we time how long it takes to enter a new contact's name and phone number, starting with the phone in the closed, unlocked state at the home screen. With the physical keyboard as the only way to enter text on the G1, this includes the time it takes to turn the device sideways and slide open the keyboard, though this didn't really seem to slow the process down much since the G1 posted the second-fastest times for this test among our comparison phones.
A new contact dialogue
It took an average of 12.37 seconds to add a contact on the G1, compared to 16.40 seconds on the iPhone 3G and 19.58 seconds on the Sidekick LX. For more information on how we conduct this test see this article.
Looking/Sorting/Search (4.0)
Contacts are automatically shown in alphabetical order by first name, and there's no way to change this. In both portrait and landscape view, scrolling up or down in the contacts list will show a tab on the right, and tapping and holding this tab will show the first letter of the alphabet corresponding to your current location in the list, and sliding this tab up or down will get you more quickly to the desired letter to find a contact faster.
Contacts view Scrolling search
Searching through contacts can only be done by using the keyboard to enter text by which to search, so you'll have to slide the G1 open first. Typing the first few letters of a contact's first or last name starts to narrow down the results, though you can't search by any other field, such as company name. The letters you enter are shown on the screen so you can check for errors in your search, which is a nice touch.
Contacts QWERTY search
You can choose to display your contacts by Groups, and your Group choices are all contacts, contacts with phone numbers, My Contacts, or Starred in Android. You cannot create a custom group beyond these presets to lump together all contacts at a particular company, for example, and without this flexibility, the Android earns no points for this grouping feature.
Fields (10.20)
Only a few fields are offered when a new contact is created: name, mobile number, and home email. The designations for the phone number and email can easily be changed between Home, Work, or Other, and additional fields can also be added. Additional fields include additional phone and fax numbers, additional email fields, Instant Messaging handles for a variety of IM clients, addresses, company name and job title, and a notes field. Customized fields are also possible for each category. The address field is a single field - there are no separate fields for city, state, zip code, etc.
New contact dialogue
For a new contact, there are 24 fields, counting the additional fields that can be added, of which 3 are customizable. Plus, each additional field can be added more than once, making it possible to add more than one Mobile phone number for a contact, for example. The custom fields can be created under the phone, email, and address categories. This is a pretty good amount of information that can be stored for a contact, and the customized fields that can be created offer nice flexibility.
For each contact, there is an option to send calls from that contact directly to voicemail. This is a interesting feature that isn't seen often, and could be handy if you have contacts you don't need to speak to live and would rather call back in response to a voicemail at your leisure.
Speed Dial/Voice tags/Voice command (4.5)
The G1 has 2 ways to quickly dial contacts: through T-Mobile's myFaves shortcuts, to which a link is placed on the home screen, or by adding contacts to a Favorites list, much like on the iPhone 3G. Though the G1 has a physical keyboard, the only number that can be set to dial a number by pressing and holding it is the number 1 key, which dials the voicemail box by default. This voicemail box speed dial also works on the on-screen dial pad in portrait orientation.
My Faves application Individual myFaves entry
The G1's voice dial feature can be activated by holding down the Send key for a few seconds, or by selecting the Voice Dialer application from the main menu. It does not require training, nor do voice tags need to be added to contacts, and it had no problems identifying all of our test contacts on the first try. You can also dial a number not associated with a contact with the voice command feature simply by speaking the phone number.
The Voice Dialer application
After you speak a command, the G1 shows a dialogue box confirming the action, such as "Call Joe Smith on mobile" where you must press OK to proceed, or Cancel. If you ignore the dialogue box, nothing happens. While we're used to seeing or hearing confirmations of voice commands given, we don't usually see a confirmation that *requires* further interaction in the form of pressing a button before the command is carried out. This seems to somewhat negate the purpose of a voice command feature where the idea is to limit the need to look at the screen and press buttons in situations where it may not be safe or practical to do so.
The voice dial confirmation that cannot be ignored
Adding Calendar Items (6.89)
To see how easy it is to add an event to the calendar, we time how long it takes to go from the home screen in the unlocked state to the moment a new event is saved. As with the test we did in the Adding Contacts section, we start with the G1 closed position and open it to access the keyboard and enter text, so the time it takes to do this is included.
A new event dialogue
Adding a test event to the G1's calendar took us an average of 14.51 seconds, which makes it slower only than the LG Dare among our comparison phones. For more information on how we conduct this test see this article.
Calendar Views (7.08)
The G1 offers 4 views in its Calendar application: agenda, day, week, and month. You can't set a default view to which the calendar will open every time the application is accessed - it will open in the last view used when the Calendar was last open.
The calendar's day view The calendar's agenda view
The agenda and day views show the most information about individual appointments, showing the event title, time, and location if one was entered. The agenda view shows a list of all upcoming appointments separated by date. As you'd expect, the day view shows a single day with events showing in the appropriate time slot. The week view will show the busy time slots where events are scheduled, and moving the trackball to highlight a busy time slot prompts a pop-up to hover at the bottom of the screen showing the event's title and time which disappears after a few moments. The week view is set to 7 days with a Sunday start by default, and this cannot be changed.
Week view Month view
The month view shows the least amount of useful information, showing only a green bar on days with events that is placed to approximate the time of the day of the event within the date box, and no more information beyond that is shown, not even when the trackball is moved to highlight a day with an event, unlike in the week view.
It's possible to create and delete calendars on the G1 directly, or on your Google Calendar online. Events assigned to different calendars will show up with differently colored tags. It's possible to choose which calendars are shown in the settings menu, and this is the only way to view different event groups.
Fields (9.0)
When creating a new calendar item, fields for the event name, start and end date and times, location, and description are available. It can also be designated to a specific calendar if you have more than one calendar set up in the Google account the G1 uses. There is a flag that can be selected to make the event as an all-day one, and there is a single event reminder that is set by default to go off 10 minutes before the start of the event, and up to 4 additional event reminders can be added to an event. An event can be set to recur daily, every weekday, weekly, monthly, or yearly.
New event dialogue
The G1 does not have the capability to invite others to events created in the calendar, nor does it have a notes field where other miscellaneous information can be added about the event. Despite this, it offers a good level of detail to track the appointments and events of the average non-business user.
Adding To Do/Task (0.0)
The G1 does not have a To Do application out of the box. We're sure 3rd-party developers are addressing this, but one does not come with the Android OS out of the box at this time.
To Do/Task Sorting and Prioritizing (0.0)
Without a To Do application, task sorting and prioritizing cannot be assessed on the G1.
Adding Notes (0.0)
The G1 does not have a Notes application out of the box. Again, we wouldn't be surprised if a 3rd-party developer made one available shortly, but one does not come natively with the Android OS at this time.
Note Interface (0.0)
Without a Notes application, its interface cannot be evaluated.
Note Formatting (0.0)
Not applicable.
Voice Memo (0.0)
The G1 does not come with a voice memo application.
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