I just realized that I, basically, have the mobile phone I want. I use a T‑Mobile G1 (HTC Dream), rooted, SIM-unlocked, and running the great CyanogenMOD.
I could not really say this about my previous phone, a Palm OS Treo. Though it had its strengths (read: the organizer features), I bought it pretty much right before the first iPhone was announced, which, for better or worse, redefined what a smartphone would be.1
My affinity for the G1 re-occurred to me as I opened the Terminal app to check something. I slid the screen open with a satisfying click, typed su and checked that something. I wanted to go back a bit through my shell’s command history, and a quick flip of the trackball made easy work of that.
Sure, I have my gripes… it’s a little sluggish sometimes, completely short on app storage space (rooting fixed that) and takes the crappiest videos I’ve ever seen (worse than my circa-2001 Nikon CoolPix). And now that newer Android devices are out, I completely have 1 GHz CPU-envy, high-res screen-envy, and Android 2.1‑envy (Google Earth, want!).
But for the foreseeable future, my G1 and I are cool. Its form factor is perfect. Its physical keyboard is unmatched by newer devices with cramped layouts. It’s clearly no svelte iPhone, but it’s not too chunky either.
My satisfaction is matched only by my anticipation for whatever could materialize in the future and top this. Bring it, future!
- By this, I mostly mean “have a real web browser,” not “have no native app support and a charismatic CEO try to convince you that you don’t really want apps on your smartphone, anyway.”[↩]
And to think, you almost ended up with a Pre. You’re welcome! :P
Well, I probably would have stayed on Sprint until the Pre came out and assessed it at that point. Thanks for making me make the hasty (albeit correct) decision!
(You know, the Pre runs Linux as well, and has been rooted. Seriously tiny keyboard, though.)