The G1: A Better Smart Phone

The G1 Android phone with Google answers the age old question: What can you do if you want a touch screen AND a full keyboard? Now you don't have to choose. The G1 has a full QWERTY keyboard, a touch screen, and one of those pesky rollar balls that everyone hates, to boot. All can be used interchangeably.

The main problem with on screen keyboards is that you often end up pressing other keys when you don't intend to. This makes it a lot more aggravating to send a text or an email. The great thing about the G1 is that if you get exasperated with your on screen keyboard, you can just slide open your full spacious keyboard. Unlike the Blackberry's cramped keyboard, the G1 has a comfortable sized keyboard under the screen which allows you to type away freely and quickly.

The G1 uses the Android system, which is fast, efficient and works on Google. Pages load quickly and perfectly, including images and animations. And if you want to speed up your surfing, you can turn on the wireless capability. Equipped with Gmail, Google Maps, Youtube and Google search, including voice search, you can do just about anything with your phone. It all works together seamlessly to give you a great smart phone experience.

You can search for your favorite restaurant, get GPS directions with voice command and send an invite to all your friends with just a few taps. This is a far superior system, because not only does it come standard with the phone or require an extra monthly fee, but because it has voice command, it is safer to use on the roads. In order to conserve battery, you can turn the GPS on and off only when you want to use it.

The Android market has all the apps you'll ever need, including social networking clients like Facebook and Twitter. If games are your thing, there are tons of them, free and paid, to choose from. If you download a document app, your phone could even replace your PC. Though I'm sure you would be hard pressed to find someone who would recommend replacing your computer with a phone. But if you're strapped for cash, you could in theory.

The worst part of the phone is the camera, which can take pictures or video. Pictures come out blurry unless you are perfectly still and it usually takes some time to actually take the picture, so more often than not, your pictures are a blurry mess. And videos are lagged and choppy. But for everything else the phone can do, I can live with that.