We started this review with a brief comparison of the T-Mobile G1 Android, the Blackberry Curve/Bold and the Palm Treo 755p. We passed the G1 around to more than fifteen users of various mobile phones/PDA and one thing became clear. They were all either keyboard folks or touch-screen folks.

The man-machine interface is most often decided by two factors - what mobile device your company chooses for you, or peergroup preference. We found very few PDA-smartphone business users who liked the touch-screen, although Apple's Iphone is still three steps ahead of the HTC G1 Android.

One of the major problems we have seen over the years is that the man-machine interface is most often designed by someone who is not doing what the end user does with the device or software. Most of the time, engineers live in a Dilbert-like cubicle. Rarely does their company allow the real designer to go on an extended road trip to discover the shortcomings of their prototype. Most often the company will not expend the time and money to toss out their first, let alone their second, prototype and start over again. The first prototype in well over 75 per cent of the time is what the completed hardware or software looks like.

The HTC G1 is being sold by a mobile phone carrier, T-mobile. So one would think usability as a phone would be the prime directive. But the G1 is only partially satisfactory as a phone handset.

The G1 is clearly not designed as a mobile phone for the one-handed user. One blogger summed it up this way: "No keypad without opening it up and dialling with one hand on a touch screen is a bear. Try using a touch screen, driving a stick shift vehicle, and smoking a cigarette." Well, this person is obviously someone who bends the local driving laws a lot.

Another difficulty we found was that the G1's backlit keyboard shuts down quickly and acts oddly when going from a room into sunlight. Both the Blackberry and the Treo allowed the keyboard backlight times to be adjusted.

One of the oddest shortcomings gets you when you dial a corporate phone number and have to input extension digits. We first tried finding the answer in the documentation - nothing there. It took us over an hour of searching on Google to find a brief blog comment about how to do this. Seems that after you make a connection, at the very bottom of the touch-screen dialing, an icon with the number 5 appears. No further explanation. If you touch the icon the dialler allows additional digits.

This may seems like a major fuss about a relatively minor item. However, this has been called an intuitive user interface by many reviewers. The basic requirement of a mobile phone is to connect the user through the phone system to someone. Both the Blackberry and Treo have always allowed the user to input additional digits to reach an extension phone number, and most companies require an extension to reach any department.

Next on our list of shortcomings is the fact that the user cannot plug the G1 into shore power and use the ear buds/microphone for hands free. There is a single micro USB connector which does both. Also the female side in the handset has an odd shape -see our photo in Part Two. Both the Blackberries and the Treos have connectors which allow you to talk and listen using ear buds/mike as well as charge the battery.

Speaking of batteries, in order for the G1 to have a swing-out QWERTY keyboard, the battery was downsized. The result is that you are always looking for a wall socket to charge the G1. Our Treo 755p has an aftermarket battery which comes with a new back cover. That more than doubled our battery's capacity and significantly increased talk time. As of this date, the G1 doesn't have any aftermarket hardware enhancements, nor many accessories.

Blackberries are widely known for their frugal battery use. This blogger said it best: "[My] Blackberry saved the day during Hurricane Gustav. I could talk, check messages, email, etc for three days without charging it up and our landline was dead during that time. It kept us connected to the world."

Since the G1 isn't even six months old, no one has any idea of how it will hold up with heavy usage. We called a Treo/Blackberry repair shop which has been doing repairs since 2001. Ed Jemmings at PerformancePDA in Georgia said he hasn't had a G1 Android come into the shop yet. We asked him what were the major problems with the Blackberry and the Treo. Jemmings said that for the Blackberries, it is their trackball. With the Treos he said it is their keyboards.

We asked Jemmings if he could guess about repairs on the G1. He said that he has heard that the G1 Android incorporates the same Panasonic Track Ball module as the recent Blackberry models. Plus the G1 has a swingout keyboard. He said in the past keyboards that articulate have been a failure point on many mobile phones and PDAs. This combination may not be a winning hardware design for the HTC G1 Android.

A recent Change Wave study found that only five per cent of companies plan on purchasing a Palm device, down from 10 per cent a year ago. The G1 sales figures are a much speculated item in the industry publications. T-Mobile will probably reveal more information in their next quarter’s financial statements.

Right now, in order to meet all our needs we would be carrying at least two smartphones. That would be an Apple Iphone for its intuitive touch screen, with the HTC G1 Android as our second choice. For our business usage, it would be the recently announced Blackberry Bold. Sadly, the Palm Treo 755p is an also-ran for browsing, video, music, games. It just is not an up-to-date, fully featured, smartphone competitor. See feature comparision chart.

However, all the above could change on Thursday at CES in Las Vegas, because Palm is showing its new operating system, with a sneak peek at its new hardware too.

Not to be out done, Google is rumoured to have a new G2 coming out at the end of January. X

Check Out
Testing the G1 Android - Part One
Testing the G1 Android - Part Two