My T-Mobile G2 Android Phone Review

After using a Blackberry Curve 8900 for a couple of years I was entitled to a free phone upgrade  by T-mobile.  I spent many hours researching what was the latest and greatest in smart phone technology. I even considered switching my provider and going with a Verizon iPhone, but i have been with T-mobile for going on 14 years and have had nothing but phrase with their network. So i wound up getting the T-mobile upgrade to the G2 Android.

It will be totally free after i get my $100 rebate from T-mobile. Plus i sold my old Blackberry on eBay for $169. Can’t beat that deal with a stick! T-mobile even gave me the same unlimited data plan price that i had on the Blackberry $24.95 Month. It was a thanks for being a T-mobile customer for so long.. Can’t beat that either!

T-mobile G2 Android Phone Speed Test

OK.. On to the phone itself. I have had it for about a month now and have given it a thorough analysis. For starters i must admit It’s FAST!! I have gotten 4G speeds close to 5mb down and 2mb up. I am able to stream Pandora Internet Music without interruption while driving around town.  And Pandora has an Android app that allows streaming music in the background while surfing the web or checking pop based email without interruption.

Next is the camera. It’s fantastic too! The photos are clear and sharp. And the video camera is OK but has a hard time tracking a moving subject. It’s actually quite good but is not a substitute for a good HD Camcorder. But can instantly upload HD 720p video to YouTube. But the upload is limited on how many MB the file size is if your using the phones network to upload. If you have your wifi network enabled the only limit is You-Tube’s 2GB size limit.

The media player is fantastic too, but the sound is not real loud and has a tinny sound to it. But with a good blue tooth headset it’s plenty loud. I use a Plantronics Back Beat that pairs with this G2 fast and easy. I was even able to convert a couple of DVD Movies i own to MP4 format and upload to the phone using the usb cable and winders explorer. You can create different directories on the micro sd card to categorize your videos and photos.

T-mobile G2 Speak To Search Feature

The web browser and Google search via speech is a very nice feature. It’s works great and easily recognizes spoken words even with quite a bit of noise in the background. Tell it what you are looking for on the www and it brings up the browser with FAST Google search results. I find this feature the most useful since i have BIG Fat Fingers and wind up using the slide out keyboard 99% of the time. The touch keypad is too small for me unless i have the phone flipped on it’s side, and even then if you have FAT fingers it’s best to use the mechanical slide out keyboard. Forget about using a stylus pen, that don’t work with this touch screen keyboard. It’s somewhat difficult to hold on it’s side, and the keyboard will flop out unless you hold it in place.

The email client is real easy to set up and is easy to use. You have to set the time each account checks the mail. I have 5 accounts in mine and check em every 5 minutes. No problems so far. But if your used to Blackberry’s Push Email system you might be somewhat disappointed with this phones email capabilities. Lets face it, Blackberry is KING of mobile Email! But i would never buy another Blackberry because it’s Web Browser was soon outdated after i bought it, and Blackberry requires you to buy a NEW Phone to get an updated web browser. But i did use the Bolt Browser with no problems on the old Curve 8900.

Tmobile G2 Android Browser

This pretty much covers the basic phone operations most people will use. But if there is a Dark Side to the new T-mobile G2 Google Android Phone it’s the privacy concerns some may have after learning about this phones tracking capabilities.

First off to use the greatest majority of the included Google apps, you have to sign into your Google account with the phone. Doing so hard connects your Google account to the phone. There is no way to remove that account from the G2 without doing a hard reset of the phone, which wipes out any desktop customization you might have done, your email accounts you configured in the phone, wifi settings etc! ALL GONE!

I found this out the hard way after creating a specific Google account for use with this phone only. It’s a major PITA! So be warned if you buy one of these phones before having the experience i had. Another thing i lost was all my contacts that the T-mobile store person had transferred to this new phone from my old Sim card to the G2, about 10 years worth of old phone numbers. They were in my T-mobile website account but the send to phone feature does not work with the G2. So i ended up having to manually add them one at a time to my Google account and then syncing them to the phone. Another PITA manually entering all those numbers.

T-mobile G2 Power Control

Privacy does matter to me. I honestly do not believe in the Google privacy policy. But i guess that’s just the price we pay for technological advances.  One of these days every baby born will be outfitted with a transmitter and assigned an ID number! But in the meantime if I’m in the restroom taking a dump and the phone is in my pocket, does Google really need to know that? LOL! They know everywhere you go with the Latitude App. But i must admit it’s pretty cool. I can log into my Google account on the web and see what dates i have been at church, the day i had my hair cut, and a lot of other places i have been, how far i have drove, etc with surprising accuracy.

After having it slightly more than 2 weeks it croaked! After calling support they had me do another hard reset that wiped all my data out again! Even after doing this it wouldn’t get a signal, just said no service. T-mobile said they would send me a new one out, but wanted me to pay the shipping to get it! Jeez i have had this phone for slightly over 2 weeks and it’s past the 14 day return policy, and they want me to pay the shipping! I was really having doubts about it at this time, and was in a really crappy mood. And i didn’t agree to give the support rep my credit card number to pay for the shipping and hung up on the guy after screaming a few colorful metaphors. I have been a T-mobile customer for going on 14 YEARS, and never once been late paying my bill. And they want to stick me with the shipping bill! I didn’t think that was a good way to treat a long time customer. The phone worked perfect the next day so it must have been a tower down close to my home, and it’s been OK ever since. The weird thing was when it went down, I was able to take the Sim card out of it and put it in an old Nokia phone and was able to make and receive calls fine. It must have been something to do with the 4G network having problems.

In all I’m really happy with it. But it will suck the battery dry FAST if you have all the services running. I added the power widget to it’s desktop so i could easily turn on and off the blue tooth, wifi, sync, and gps services. It’s fast enough so i don’t even use my own wifi connection. And there is no use powering the sync if you don’t need to synchronize it’s data with Google’s server.

Need Accessories? Don’t buy anything but the phone itself from T-mobile. I got a neat case on eBay for $3.99 with free shipping. And they have just about everything you could need for your phone. Just one bit of advice. Buy only from US Sellers. Also some of the eBay TRS (Top Rated Sellers) have the best prices since they buy and sell in mass quantity.

UPDATE 04/02/2011: I have found that a G2 NO SERVICE Indication could be a failure of your current towers 4G Network. If you phone is working great then just quits in the same physical location, It’s most likely a 4G Network Failure. The support reps at T-mobile apparently don’t know this, or were instructed not to tell. Try this. Enter your phones settings and select >wireless & network settings > mobile networks > mobile network settings, check, “Use only 2G Networks”. This will force the phone into the older slower 2G mode. Next turn your phone off and back on. If you then get service and are able to use your phone it’s most likely the 4G network is down.

ALSO: These Photos were taken with This T-mobile G2 Android Phone. Check em out.. I’m Really Impressed!

Any questions? Leave me a comment below, and thanks for visiting..

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