from our Gearhead: Android G1 phone outclasses Apple iPhone

T-Mobile has a hit in its new Android-based G1 smartphone, says our Gearhead blogger, Mark Gibbs. In fact, the G1 has proven so strong, he’s decided to stick with T-Mobile and surrender his former iPhone yearning. Gibbs has an assessment of the G1 today on his blog. The G1 is the first commercial implementation of the Linux-based Android mobile phone operating system, from the Open Handset Alliance. For Gibbs, the G1’s strenghts are: well-organized and -executed user interface, including a physical keyboard; the Android Market Website for applications and the inability for T-Mobile or Google or anyone else to remotely remove applications; tight integration with a bunch of Google online applications, including search, Gmail, and Maps; and it’s got good battery life. There are weaknesses, according to Gibbs: the phone’s camera; the browser doesn’t support Flash and relies on Google Documents to translate attachments into HTML; and the G1’s hands-free sound quality is “surprisingly poor,” Gibbs writes. Google’s goal is not competing with Apple or other vendors to sell hardware, but to create a platform that extends its online search capability, and the advertising revenues it creates, to the millions of mobile phone users.