Does this look like another iPhone clone, another sub-par piece of imitation like so many others (which will remain nameless)? It is a touchscreen phone very reminiscent of the iPhone, yes, but this is, at long last, officially, the first Google phone. Rumors of the Google phone have been around longer than Methuselah ever was, and so the unveiling seems to be, inevitably, a bit anti-climactic. The HTC-designed phone, rumored to be called "the Dream", is much less loftily called the T-Mobile G1.
While the G1 offers many of the same features as the iPhone (3G, touchscreen, customizable home screen, software store called Android Market, music player, maps, wifi), the most notable physical difference is the slide-out hardware qwerty keyboard. The iPhone famously eschews the hardware keyboard for an onscreen keyboard which some people love, and some people hate enough to even consider getting an iPhone.
As so many of the features are similar, without hands-on experience with the T-Mobile G1, it's difficult to judge on performance and usability. The phone has been heavily guarded and while it was on display at today's announcement, review models haven't been made available yet. Walt Mossberg did get close-up with the G1, and his review suggests that the phone is so tightly integrated with Google services like Gmail and Google Calendar, that the phone becomes much less practical for people who use other services. He also points out that the browser supports full-screen and zoom modes, but unlike the easy pinch or tap zoom function supported in the iPhone's Safari browser, the G1 requires moving around a virtual "lens" to the part of the page you want to see. Mossberg also found the keyboard a tad too flat for easy typing, and he points out that the G1 is noticeably heavier and thicker than the iPhone.
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