There are areas in which the G1 simply does not provide as much as the iPhone, however. The G1’s battery life, unfortunately, is only about 130 hours standby, while the iPhone’s is 300 hours, and base memory of the G1 is 1GB, while the iPhone’s is 8GB. The G1’s memory can be expanded to 8GB, while the iPhone’s can be expanded to 16GB. The G1 also does not have streaming video capabilities, unlike the iPhone, although you can get YouTube on the G1.
The G1 also has no PC synching capability. Instead, Google expects you to synchronize your contacts and calendars through the Web. This will be a major shortcoming to those who are tied to Microsoft Exchange servers — that is, the Outlook e-mail and contact management program — at work. Apple’s iPhone, by contrast, is capable of synchronizing with Outlook, with the addition of a free software update. G1 users can synchronize with Google’s own e-mail service, GMail, but frankly there are not many offices that rely upon GMail as a primary e-mail carrier.
Oddly, the G1 also lacks a headphone jack. Instead, you’ll need to use the single USB jack on the phone to plug in either a special USB headset or enlist the help of a USB to 3.5mm adapter in order to use conventional headphones. To make matters worse, the G1’s only USB port is also used for power, audio, and USB synching. Needless to say, the G1 won’t be a plug-and-play replacement for your iPod or other mobile media player.
CONCLUSION
The G1’s seamless tie-ins with Google’s growing number of applications and its open source operating system will endear the phone to those already tied to Google applications. It will also be appealing to technophiles who enjoy trying out multiple add-ons and want to have at their disposal a potentially wider array of applications. On the other hand, opening up the G1 to coders around the world means that quality control may be an issue — and that the user ultimately experience could suffer. The G1, in short, will appeal to gadget freaks and technology warriors. Those who want a product that just works might want to place their bets on Apple’s tightly-controlled iPhone.
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