Android G2 Hands On: Close to Perfection | Hacker News Reader

Android G2 Hands On: Close to Perfection

i.gizmodo.com

26 pointsreleasedatez13 comments

Open articleView on HN

Here's a summary:

- The screen is still smaller than the iPhone

- It has a software keyboard, but due to the smaller screen size, it is somewhat cramped

- Each key press creates a popup on the other side of the keyboard showing what you typed, which is somewhat annoying

- It is much smaller than the G1, but still not as small as the iPhone

Way to summarize their only complaint.

It's lighter than iPhone... :)

That might not necessarily be a good thing.

Not the article I needed to see the moment I finished ordering my G1 but the bad keyboard review makes me feel slightly better. Nevertheless, go Android!

Considering that, IIRC, the G2 will only be available over seas in Europe, I don't see how you should be feeling bad at all. Not to mention that the G1's sliding keyboard is really nice to use, far better than any on-screen keyboard you could possibly get, and will never take up your screen space to boot. And to top it off, the G1 should be receiving the updates from the Cupcake branch anyways, meaning that with the G1, not only will you have the bigger screen and better keyboard, but you'll have all the saftware benefits of the G2.

What is overseas for you might not be overseas for me :) I am glad to hear the other points though. I did not know that it had a smaller screen.

Indeed, the full qwerty hardware keyboard was really a dealmaker for me with the G1. I like tactile feedback on pressing a key, and having all the screen while using the keyboard is nice. I was a little worried about the G1's "chin" at first, but it turns out to be easy to two-thumb type with it anyway. I'm almost certainly not going to trade in my G1 for a device that has only a software keyboard.

I'll wait to see the Ars review - Gizmodo is a bit lightweight when it comes to tech reviews - but good news and glad to see Google's bringing some competition from a different perspective than Apple. Those buttons look awfully skimpy to me, though.

s/Perfection/iPhone/

You seem to have forgotten to provide supporting arguments.

Compared to my wife's G1, my iPhone lacks:

* Turn by turn navigation

* One tap calling, thanks to the ability to put contacts as links on the home screen

* Friend location alerts due to background apps.

* The ability to put photoas as widgets on the home screen. Not a big one for me, but my wife likes to use it for our wedding pics.

"Having a smaller screen allows us to have a narrower device"

Well, that's one way to look at it.

Not everyone wants a phone just like an iPhone. That's one of the things I hope drives Android's success - the fact that it's possible to retarget it for different sectors/niches/whatever...

Reply on news.ycombinator.com