Got my chance to play with the G1!

[CyberStorm]

Well, after reading how a few people managed to get their hands on a demo I decided to try my luck at it. I went to the local T-Mobile store by my house, I know the manager pretty well, and asked him if they had a demo of it yet. He told me they had just gotten one yesterday and I could see it if I wanted, but it wasn't activated yet so I couldn't use any of the phone/data services, booo.

My initial impression was a lot like everyone elses, this thing is TINY compared to what it looks like in the pics. My friend has a T-Mobile Wing and the G1 is quite a bit smaller overall. It's a little slimmer, taller and not quite as wide, it looks great!

The screen is beautiful, the wallpaper they had looked great on it and it had pretty good color depth for what the specs say, I would challenge an iPhone with it.

The touchscreen is ultra responsive, in the 45 mins I was able to play with it, the phone didn't register what I tapped exactly twice, but since I've never owned a touchscreen before, I would probably chalk that up to more user error than design flaw lol.

The trackball is awesome, works a lot like my curve, it feels stable and isn't too wobbly.

The phone is FAST, I went through every app and checked them all out and then purposely opened everything at once to see if I could get it to lag...NOPE! Granted, with no service I wasn't exactly pushing the limits of this thing, but still.

The keyboard looks and feels great, I've never used a sidekick or Windows Mobile phone so I wasn't used to a keyboard that big and I missed a few letters here and there, but overall it was a nice fit. I did notice that my right thumb had a bit of a hard time hitting the spacebar squarely with the extra space on that side, but a few days of typing should eliminate that.

Sliding the keyboard out and back works as great as has been reported, it opens with a SNAP into place and closes the same way, feels very solid. The phone is weighted perfectly, it's a little heavy for it's size but it carries it very well and feels amazing in your hand. It WAS possible to type with one hand, but it definitely took practice, we so need a touch keyboard.

Overall this thing is beautiful, I was hoping getting a chance to play with it would make the next week go by a little easier....boy was I wrong, I didn't want to leave that store! lol

[Absolute]

I may just have to test out the store near my job...10 days is too long.

[mixpix405]

I think I'm glad I don't live in a 3G area... None of my stores will have a demo model. If I were to go play with one, and THEN have to wait these last 10 days... I'd go insane... Well... I'm already going insane... I dunno... insanerer?

[CyberStorm]

I don't live in a 3G area lol. I was surprised, but apparently 2 stores around here that I know of for sure have demos now. I imagine every corporate store will have one by this week, 3G area or not.

[DesignDawg]

What T-Mobile said is that they will not have the phones available to buy in the stores outside of 3G areas, but they will have demo units so you can experience the speeds on Edge to ensure you are happy enough with the performance, so you can order it if you are. Thus, Non-3G areas are the ones that are actually guaranteed to have a demo.

Get in there! I did it yesterday. You will be glad you did.

[NetCom]

Thanks DDawg! I got bit scared when I heard the phone is small but currently I own MDA and it should not be smaller then MDA I hope ...

I have calculated ppi on G1 and it seems it does have more ppi then iPhone...

3.2" screen size should give 186 ppi
3.1" should have 180 ppi

where iPhone 3G has 163 ppi (pizels per inch)

Regardless of 65k colors - I expect very good color on G1

[*susan*]

I played with one at our local T-Mobile store the other day, it was awesome. The problem is, it only made me that much more anxious for the 22nd to get here.