G1 News

Courtesy of Android Authority, a hands-on impression of the new Sapphire 2.0 / T-Mobile G2, compared to the original G1.

As well as confirming the T-Mobile G2 pictures doing the rounds as real, here are the salient points picked out from the G2 feedback:

• The OS looks pretty much like that on the G1 (at the mo)
• The phone body itself looks nice, and has a smaller ‘chin’ than the G1 (yay!)
• It is solidly built, and quite a bit lighter than the G1
• The paint is a smooth and shiny pearly white color
• The button to the left of the trackball is the Home key, not a MyFaves key

• Auto-focus camera, but still no flash (told you!)
• Still no video (though again, this is pre-production software)
• It uses the same screen as the G1
• Auto-rotation works only for certain apps, like the browser.  No auto-rotate support for the home screen or main menu at this point
• Still no 3.5mm headphone jack (d’oh!)
• All the “iPhone lovers” seem to love the virtual keyboard
• The virtual keyboard works in both landscape and portrait modes

So…all pretty interesting. Is definitely an evolutionary rather than revolutionary leap, but that’s what a 2.0 is though, right? The good/bad conclusion that she reached after playing with the G2:

“…basically a G1 without the keyboard.”

Still awfully exciting to see the Android interface being beefed up with nice hardware!

Bad news for HTC. Their entire ‘09 lineup of phones ended up on the interwebs for technology fans to pore over and speculate about. No specifications, but plenty of photographic evidence proving their design doctrine of ‘if it ain’t broke’ continues unabated. What happened to using the graphics studio One & Co they’ve bought up to make exciting new devices? Everything shown looks decidedly HTC, channeling either the Touch Diamond or the curved edges of the original HTC Touch.

Good news? It looks like the potential successor to the T-Mobile G1 could have been prematurely unveiled amongst this chaos, as the Sapphire 2.o looks strangely familiar…

The ‘TMo’ subscript under the name is a dead giveaway as to which network the Sapphire is headed to, and there seems to be a striking similarity to the stylings of the G1. A trackball is still present, and the ‘MyFaves’ button which T-Mobile handsets are often equipped with seems to be to the left of it.

Could it be that the G2 is coming sooner than we thought, complete with a Cupcake-filled virtual keyboard? Maybe…

Source: IntoMobile