Category: Mobile Tech

My review of the T-Mobile G2 by HTC continues! If you haven’t read the first part then you might want to check that out. This time around I’m going cover the phone’s call quality, screen, and Internet speeds. Remember, this is T-Mo’s first HSPA+ phone and the company is claiming that it offers “4G speeds”. Now let’s get to it!

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Call Quality
Making phone calls on the G2 is mostly an excellent experience. I made around three hours of calls in the last week and was very impressed with the phone’s clarity. Voices sounded fantastic through the earpiece. Speakerphone was another issue; voices (and music) sounded a little tinny and shrilly through the speaker.

Voice transmission was very clear. Talking in a “normal” environment, the people I spoke with said that I sounded great; a few commented that it didn’t sound like I was on a mobile phone. That said, the G2 doesn’t deal as well with heavy background noise as the Motorola Droid X, which has three noise-canceling mics. I conducted a few calls at the intersection of Wilshire and Vermont in Los Angeles, which has loads of bus and car traffic. The people I called could definitely hear the background noise, unlike calls made with the Droid X.

Out of all the Android phones I’ve used this year, I would put the G2 behind the Droid X in terms of call quality. It’s definitely better than the Evo 4G and Samsung Fascinate. While the Droid 2 has better noise cancellation, the earpiece on the G2 is noticeably clearer.

As always, your mileage may very depending on the T-Mobile coverage in your area.

Screen
The G2 sports a 3.7-inch Super-LCD screen. To paraphrase the immortal words of South Park’s Big Gay Al, “It’s super! Thanks for asking.” *snicker* Seriously though, it’s a very nice screen that’s bright and that has accurate color reproduction. Images and text are clearer than standard LCD screens, but colors aren’t nearly as vibrant as AMOLED and Super AMOLED screens.

It’s really a matter of preference. I think that general consumers would prefer the outstanding brightness and super-saturated (but over-pronounced) colors of Super AMOLED. Tech nerds and those with a discerning eye would likely prefer Super-LCD’s more accurate color reproduction and better outdoor usability.

As for the size, I wasn’t a fan at first, but I’ve gotten used to it. Initially I had accuracy problems using Swype and the phone’s virtual keyboard, but those went away after a few days. Overall, I think the G2’s screen is very nice, but I’d still prefer something in the 4-inch range. With that in mind, I was surprised that I was so satisfied with this screen. It’s really tough going back to this size after using the Evo 4G, Droid X, and Fascinate. While there were certainly times I wished the screen were bigger, I was mostly fine with the 3.7-incher on the G2.

Internet Speeds and HSPA+
A lot of tech nerds have their panties in a twist over T-Mobile saying that its HSPA+ network offers 4G speeds. Well, it does. I happen to live in a city where HSPA+ is available and was thoroughly impressed with the speeds. When I was able to get HSPA+, I averaged around 5.5Mbps down and 1.6Mbps up. While this is far from the theoretical max of 14.4Mbps that T-Mobile has listed, it’s as good or better than what many people are getting on Sprint’s WiMax network. HSPA+ signal is also better than WiMax at penetrating buildings.

Although Los Angeles is an HSPA+ city, I was not able to get HSPA+ signal everywhere I went. In those cases, I was getting around 1.3Mbps down and 1.4Mbps up on regular 3G. For example, I was not able to get HSPA+ in my building, but it was available in areas less than two miles from my apartment.

T-Mobile has been very aggressive with its HSPA+ deployment. If it’s available in your area then it’s a big selling point for the G2. As I mentioned with call quality, your mileage may vary depending on T-Mobile’s coverage in your area.

Next Up
To wrap things up, I’m going to cover the G2’s photos and video quality before giving your my final thoughts on the phone. Again, I’m surprised by how much I like this phone — so much so that I’m thinking it’s a keeper. If you have any questions, shoot ‘em off in the comments section and I’ll try to answer them.

T-Mobile kicked off the Android frenzy in America with the HTC G1. Although that phone had its quirks, it was a glimpse of Android’s excellent future. For a while, T-Mobile was the premiere Android carrier in America, but Sprint and Verizon surpassed it with phones like the Droid, Droid Incredible, Evo 4G, and Droid X. The company is striking back with the HTC G2. This Google Android 2.2 phone features a rock-solid build and compatibility with T-Mo’s blazing HSPA+ network.

The first part of my review will cover this excellent phone’s build quality, battery life, software, and performance. If you’re the impatient sort, here’s a spoiler-free summary: I’m shocked that the T-Mobile G2 has become my favorite Google Android phone of 2010.

Build Quality
The G2 is built like a tank, with ample use of metal. It’s relatively small compared to recent Android releases, measuring 4.68” (L) x 2.38” (W) x .58” (H). The phone feels heavy, especially in contrast to super-light Samsung Galaxy S phones like the Verizon Fascinate. It’s definitely a matter of personal preference, but I think that most people would prefer the feel of the G2. Its heft and use of metal give it a luxurious feel. The G2 feels like a $500 piece of consumer electronics, while Galaxy S phones feel like display models.

One of the big hooks of the G2 is its slide-out keyboard. Instead of the customary spring-loaded slider, the phone has an unusual hinging mechanism. It works well. The keyboard slides out smoothly, without the harsh snap found on most sliders. The keyboard itself is very good, with nice spacing and three programmable buttons. That said, I preferred the feel of the Droid 2’s keys. I recommend trying it out in a store for yourself instead of listening to a guy that has sworn off physical keyboards in favor of Swype.

Software and Performance
The pre-release buzz on the G2 was that it would use the stock version of Android 2.2 (FroYo). It does not. The G2’s OS is very, very close to vanilla Android, but features like WiFi tethering have been removed and subtle usability tweaks have been added. Pretty much every Google Android app known to man has been pre-installed and you can’t delete any of them. The good news is that the OS runs smoothly and it will be easier for HTC/T-Mobile to bust out Android updates since it’s almost the stock version.

Android 2.2 is a nice step up from 2.1. The interface is smoother and features clever tweaks (I love how easy it is to switch between Gmail accounts in 2.2). The JIT compiler makes everything much, much faster. Although skins like HTC Sense and Samsung TouchWiz 3.0 add some nice usability features, most of them are not worth having to wait longer for Android updates.

As for performance, the G2 reminds me of WWE NXT season two’s Husky Harris — an army tank with a Ferrari engine. As you can see from the benchmarks I took, the phone flies. Some people were turned off by the phone’s “only” 800MHz processor — don’t believe the hype! It’s a newer version of Snapdragon that’s faster and more efficient. In real-world testing, it’s noticeably faster than the Samsung Fascinate running Android 2.1 (1GHz Hummingbird) and the HTC Nexus One running Android 2.2 (1GHz Snapdragon, first-gen) — apps launch faster, scrolling is smoother, etc.

Battery Life
This was the biggest and most pleasant surprise using the T-Mobile G2: the battery life rocks! The combination of a smaller screen (3.7 inches) and a more efficient processor really lets the phone last throughout the day. Using the G2 for the last week with my typical nerd usage (lots of browsing, tweeting, Foursquare check-ins, email, maps, etc.), I averaged 16.5 hours on the G2’s 1,300 mAh battery. There were even two days where I hit over 17 hours! Out of all the Android phones I’ve reviewed in 2010, the G2 has the best battery life by far.

Next Up….
That’s it for the first part of my T-Mobile G2 review. The next installment will cover the phone’s screen, HSPA+ speeds, voice quality, camera, and more. As always, if you have any questions about the phone, ask away!

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