One of the main reasons we created the Windows Mobile Connection is to provide a way for you to communicate your experiences and opinions directly to the Windows Mobile product development, customer support, and marketing teams. This thread is your opportunity to provide feedback on new Windows Mobile marketing or competitive devices and operating systems.

This month, the theme is the T-Mobile G1. We'd love to hear your thoughts on what you think of the device, and how it compares to current Windows Mobile phones and other phones in the marketplace right now. Thanks!

Here's a compilation of G1 Android bad news taken from reviews published last week:

http://discuss.pocketnow.com/showthread.php?p=77855

Here are some things we learn from MobileBurn's review:

• Contacts only sync with Gmail. No Exchange syncing, no desktop Outlook syncing, etc. ONLY Gmail.
• No profiles. (Windows Mobile Standard phone support profiles, while most WM Professional phones support automatic vibrate mode during calendar appointments marked busy.)
• No speed dialing.
• No IMAP folder management in email (all folders must be subscribed to)
• Doesn’t show which IMAP folders have new messages
• IM client on the G1 supports AIM, MSN, Yahoo!, and Gtalk - but only one at a time.
• No A2DP stereo audio Bluetooth profile support
• Voice dialing system can't be initiated from a Bluetooth headset
• The phone's ringtone doesn't get routed through the headset
• The camera software has no ability to record videos
• When syncing with Windows Media Player or Winamp, album art is not copied over
• No video playing capabilities included (free download available though)
• No tasks or to-do list application
• No on-screen keyboards
• No handwriting recognition
• No way to select multiple items
• Keyboard’s delete key doesn’t delete selected emails or contacts
• Cannot rename Folders on the home screen
• When applications are removed, their shortcuts on the home screen remain despite being non-functional

Matthew Miller also reviews the G1 and finds even more limitations:

• The device will not allow you to store applications on the microSD card
• You cannot use Bluetooth for a keyboard, voice dialing (with the included application), A2DP stereo headphones, or file transfer to another device or PC. It can only be used for a headset.
• You need a clear sky view to really get a good GPS signal
• There is no automatic light sensor so you have to manage the brightness manually and there doesn’t appear to be any keyboard shortcut to help you control brightness.
• In the Browser, when a page loads you cannot tap and hold or double tap to zoom in or text reflow and you need to pan around with your finger for a second to have the zoom in and out on-screen buttons appear to control zooming.
• On-screen phone dialing keypad does not support smart filtering
• If you are in landscape mode with the dialer pulled up, the keyboard entry mode seems to assign random numbers to the QWERTY keyboard and the device does not smart filter your contacts.
• No option for filtering the call log
• There is no file explorer on the device and I have not found a way to get my own files onto the device for ringtones.
• No Internet Sharing/Tethering capability
• No note-taking application

Engadget's review has a few more:

• Popular attachment types -- PDF, Office, and OpenOffice documents, specifically -- are only supported by virtue of Google's automatic HTML conversion on the server side. Android itself doesn't understand any of these, so it lets Google do the conversion and simply shows the typically mucked-up results in its HTML viewer. What's more, you can't save them to your device; you've got to go back into Gmail and reload the attachment as HTML each and every time.
• In the Browser, even basic navigation buttons like Back, Forward, and Bookmarks are hidden unless you press Menu, which doesn't make much sense. In fact -- get this -- you actually have to press Menu, then More, then Back to navigate back one page without moving your thumb way over to the physical back button to the right of the screen.

Great collection, Adam. Thanks!

Seems that they have been really quick to release an update - this from jkOnTheRun -

 I see the first T-Mobile OS update will go out tomorrow.  What took them so long?  Seriously, according to T-Mobile this is a very minor update, as much to test the over-the-air (OTA) update process as anything.  I'm glad to see that T-Mobile is taking the G1 seriously and I'm sure I will get the update when it's pushed out.  I'm having issues with Google synchronicity on my G1 which is kind of surprising since it's a Google phone but I'll share more about those later.

Full article here.

AdamZ has just posted his extensive review of the G1 at Pocketnow.com, and it's a very nice overview of this competitor from the perspective of a heavy WM user. There are tons of pictures, and a very thorough tour through the entire G1 experience. Some excerpts:

The big thing about the T-Mobile G1 is that it runs a new operating system called Android, which is open-source and free. To the average consumer, that means practically nothing, so the other big thing about the G1 is that it syncs with Google's services such as Gmail, Calendar, and Contacts.  It also supports Google Maps, and for the first time on a mobile device, Google Maps' Street View.  So if you use Gmail and Google for everything, then you should be very excited about this phone.  In fact, it requires you to log in with (or sign up for) a Gmail account when you boot the phone.  You aren't even allowed to use it without a Gmail account!  So don't try to set it up in an area without a data connection, 'cause it won't work and you can't turn on WiFi from there, either. 

The G1 uses the same Qualcomm MSM7201A CPU clocking at 528MHz than does the HTC Touch Diamond and Touch Pro. The capacitive touchscreen is 3.2" and has a resolution of 320x480, making for a pixel density of 180ppi (the Diamond has a 285ppi screen, and the iPhone has a 164ppi screen). Running on quadband GSM (850/900/1800/1900) and dualband UMTS (1700/2100), the G1 packs 256MB ROM and 192MB of RAM. Also included is Bluetooth 2.0+EDR, WiFi (b & g), aGPS and microSD for memory expansion. The camera on back is 3.2MP and includes autofocus but no flash. Powering it all is a 1150mAh battery. 

The Home screen is very basic. If it wasn't for the big clock widget, you'd think this was an old obsolete Macintosh. There are application icons on the desktop and they have labels under them. Nothing special here.  You can however swipe your finger horizontally to get 2 more desktop area panels to the left and right.  A tap-n-hold on the desktop will let you add more application icons, widgets or other shortcuts to the desktop.  This is the only visually user-customizable part of the G1's operating system. You can change the background image here and manually arrange the icons/widgets, but that's it. There are no themes that will change the look and feel of the entire operating system like on Windows Mobile, so that means all of your other applications are not going to look nearly as pretty as your home screen. 

 It's pretty easy to see right away that Android and the T-Mobile G1 are not targeted at all towards any type of power user or business smartphone user. It is squarely targeted to the consumer.  This is obvious by the lack of high-end software capabilities, lack of business related features, lack of security, and the plethora of consumer-oriented applications in the Android Market store.  The T-Mobile G1 and Android in general seem to be designed to get the iPhone-hype crowd on the mobile internet and more-specifically, onto Google's services.