Android phone is a good iPhone alternative

Includes slide-out keyboard, trackball
HTC is also the manufacturer of the G1, which, at 5.6 ounces, is heavier than either the iPhone (4.7 ounces) or Touch Diamond (3.8 ounces). The G1 — 4.6 inches high, 2.1 inches wide and .62 of an inch thick — is a little kludgier than either of those phones. But it also includes a slide-out QWERTY keyboard, as well as a trackball, for those who don’t like a touchscreen-only device.

And while having three ways of accessing the phone offers more options, it also means more fiddling around, remembering which tool to use and when, going back and forth between the screen only and screen and keyboard. (I know, I know — complain when there aren’t choices, then complain when there are.)

It’s probably something that gets easier with practice, but does not have the uniform ease of the iPhone’s finger swipe/touch approach, with all roads leading back to one button on the phone.

While the G1’s QWERTY keyboard is good, the keys are small, even for little fingers, and in some ways, it elicits the same frustrations as using the iPhone’s on-screen keyboard.

Less chance of slab-and-slide
One of the G1’s physical attributes I like the best is its slight curve at the bottom. Slab-phone users know the sinking feeling of having the phone wedged at their ear, chin and shoulder, only to have it slip, regularly testing one’s reflexes for grabbing it before it drops.

T-Mobile This side view of the phone shows how the curve at the bottom helps protect the screen and the trackball when the phone is flipped over, T-Mobile says.

The G1’s “flip curve,” as I’ve dubbed it, decreases the chances of that happening.

“We like it because it telegraphs to the world very clearly this is a phone, and it protects the screen and trackball from unintentional damage when you turn it over and rest it on a surface,” said Meyerson.

Among the features the G1 has that the iPhone does not is being able to copy-and-paste text, as well as including a voice-dialing program. (There are iPhone add-on programs for voice dialing, available through the App Store.)

The G1 has a 3.2-megapixel camera; the iPhone a 2-megapixel camera. Neither phone can capture video, but both include YouTube clips for viewing.

Watching those clips hasn’t been a great experience for me on the iPhone, and I found it to be even less so on the G1, with clips coming across more slowly and choppier than on the iPhone using the 2G network.

The Android factor
What does set the G1 apart from all other phones is Android, its open-source operating system. That means that anyone who wants to can write programs for the phone, and those programs will be made available.

That’s in contrast to Apple’s stance with the iPhone. The company must approve software programs written by developers before those programs can be a part of the App Store.

Depending on your viewpoint, a lack of restrictions could mean a flourish of innovation and creativity, or result in programs and software conflicts that cause a phone to go bonkers or crash. Even with Apple’s oversight, some programs among the thousands approved so far for the iPhone have led to problems or crashes.

There won’t be thousands of programs available when the G1 goes on sale. There may be only 50 or so. But many, many more are expected in the months ahead.

For the immediate future, programs will be free to download. Those in Apple’s App Store are a combination of free and paid.

If you’re a die-hard BlackBerry, iPhone or Treo fan, the G1 — and Android — may not move you. But if you’re looking for a phone that is fun, spunky and relatively easy to use, it’s definitely worth considering.

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