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Analysis: Blackberry Curve vs. G1 Android

January 18th, 2009

As part of a new project, our team was donated some G1 Android phones to play with. Already being a T-Mobile customer, it was a no-brainer to play with it for a couple of days and I got to put the phone through its paces. Here’s what I discovered when comparing it to my Blackberry Curve (readers of this blog are no strangers to my endless attempts to optimize my mobile experience)…

SETUP
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Moving over to the G1 was very simple given I’ve been using a lot of Google services. I have Google Sync on my BB, so my contacts and calendar are already online and I use Remember The Milk for task (mis)management, so that was also easy. I was up and running in less than 5 mins, including IMAP setup

THE PRO’S
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- the G1 is intuitive and easy to use with an excellent interface
- the keyboard is surprisingly good and not having to hit ’shift’ for periods or numbers is huge – I could actually use this for medium-heavy typing efforts
- I downloaded a few apps and they worked really well. The big draw for me was Skype (worked well) and tethering (which I didn’t finish configuring)
- screen is awesome – very bright
- browser is awesome – very thorough and easy to use
- GPS! Fabulous (easy to update FireEagle)
- youtube on the phone – excellent

CONS
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- profile – bigger and heavier than my Curve
- battery life (SUCKS!) – big problem – lasts a half day with heavy use
- sliding open and turning sideways everytime I have to type – slight hassle and requires two hands
- calling someone requires way more clicks (and often, both hands)

SUMMARY
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The Curve is totally optimized to be a great, great phone/email tool and other stuff (music, video) is secondary. The G1 is great for rich media but clunkier as a phone/email tool.

Overall, I’m sticking with the Blackberry for now as I make a lot of calls and emails and doing that really well with a whole day of battery life makes a big difference for me. But I will continue to play with the G1, and if I can get tethering working, then will carry it along on trips.

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