So here it is:
Short Version: The early G1 is the 'ying' to the Wing's 'yang'. These phones are both strong in the areas where the other is weak. If you need a smartphone with a large userbase, strong call quality, and consider the features of the phone only bonus, then stick with the Wing. If you actually use a cellphone camera semi-frequently, don't have a GPS in your car, have multiple cell phones, and/or need quasi-constant access to the net, then you should consider the G1.
Long Version: Well let me first iterate that this article is not totally about the G1 vs. the Wing. It's more of a discussion of the G1 and how it fares against the range of HTC Windows Mobile phones. I just happen to be using the Wing for the comparison.
As most of you know, the T-Mobile G1 is the first commercial device to run Google's Android platform, an operating-system suited for mobile devices. In theory, the potential for this OS is limitless. Since it's from Google (the good guys), the OS is open-source, meaning anyone (you included) can go download the SDK or source code for the OS free at google.com. This is great because it allows for a very transparent user-developer relationship. Down side to all this is, the G1 is the first, so out the box its gonna the device will seem very '1.0'ish.
So, in my opinion, here are the pros/cons of the G1.
Pros to the G1:
Feature Implementation-In general, any feature in the phone is integrated seamlessly into the UI, you don't have to download or otherwise generally configure settings to get things like the GPS, browser, etc... to work properly.
GPS-GPS (or aGPS to be specific), is great, at least for a noob to GPS systems. Would someone with Garmin or the like care to comment?
Google Maps-With the exception of the ability to tag locations like in the browser version it is zippy and bug free, IMO.
OTA (over the air) 'Gsyncing'- Haha, I call it Gsyncing because the G1 syncs all of your Google Contacts, Calender, and Gmail with your google account. This is one of the huge features in the phone that I feel Google/TMO failed in marketing very well. Android represents a huge step in the direction of cloud computing (wiki it if u don't know), which will be a huge paradigm shift in the way we use computers from day to day. The fact that you don't have to 'check your email' is huge. It is just pushed to your phone when it's received on the server. So now you can finally operate and manage your emails and calendar in the same way you manage your SMS and MS Outlook, all from your phone. Keep in mind that this is all seamlessly integrated into the OS, no need for additional software.
Google Market-Very similar to the iPhone store, it allows you to search, browse, and otherwise manage 3rd-party apps on your device. And right now its all free!
Desktop/UI-Very polished. Negligible lag, Customizable Wallpapers, can put widgets and icons to any apps on it. The home screen is much more like Windows/MacOS than any other phone system, even WinMo.
Browser-With the exception of the iPhone browser, this is the best mobile browser, its not even close.
Hard search key-In the qwerty keyboard there is a search key, where your 'Windows" key would be on a normal keyboard. This key has been integrated seamlessly into all of the Google apps (maps, browser, desktop,market,dialer, etc...), but is not integrated into a lot of the 3rd part apps (the ones you download from the market). This was another feature that I think google (or it might be more HTC's fault since its a hardware thing) failed to advertise to developers. But still, its a great feature.
Cons:
Camera-It is REALLY slow to start up ~10-15 seconds, and even if your patient enough to let it start up, theres no flash?!! Both Google and HTC are to blame here. Whats the point of having phone in your camera if you can't even capture impromptu 'kodak' momemts? Come on.
Battery life-This is the biggest flaw in the phone, and for the most part its HTC, not Google's fault. The battery life on my G1 is so bad, I've had to disable a lot of the features on the phone just to have moderately usable usage. Features mind you, that were the whole reason I bought the phone in the first place.
Keyboard-Another HTC faux pas here. The keys are almost flush with the bezel, and the phone sports this 'jay leno chin' to the right of the keyboard, where the hard call send/end, home and menu keys are. This leads to a pretty crappy experience if your a heavy texter. But again, this isn't Google's fault, HTCs to blame here.
Call quality/reception issues- The good news is, it will probably be fixed via a hotfix from Google OTA in the near future. Bad news is, for the time being all dropped calls are on my end.
No 3.5mm headphone jack-For a phone with so many features, you would think a headphone jack would be standard right? No you have to use a extUSB-3.5mm adapter to use your own headphones with the device.
So there are the pros and cons (again IMO) of the G1 on its own. I've had the phone for about two months now and am also the owner of two other HTC WinMo phones, the Wing and MDA. Given the amount of time i've had with the G1 and my familiarity with WinMo I think I can fairly make a comparison of the two, with the only bias being that towards the features that I use the most.
Here are the areas inwhich the G1 and Wing excel in.
G1 Wins:
Feature Implementation-You can hold the homekey to see the most recent open apps for quick app switching. You can make hotkeys to open your favorite apps. All the native google apps incorporate the HTC's search key. The user experience for most of the phones features is very polished. And this is the first device.
OS Potential for improvement (namely, how will these devices fare against the market in 1 year? 2 years?)- Two words, open source. In two years WinMo as we know it will still only be changing when a large set of the userbase has a complaint, but Android will constantly be evolving. Anyone (albeit with the requisite programming knowledge) can develop software for Android.
Camera- They both suck, but the G1's sucks less. It's 3MP as opposed to the Wing's 2MP. A big wag of the finger to HTC for shafting TMO and Google on their flagship device for 2008/09. As for the software issues, they'll be worked out overtime by Google.
OTA Sync-Seamless is the keyword here. While you can use MS Exchange on your WinMo phone, and there are several other OTA 'providers' out there on the net, it is far from seamless, requiring you to go through so many chutes and ladders just to get yourself setup. With Google's system all you have to do is put in your Google account info.
Wing Wins:
Call Quality/Reception - No brainer here. But keep in mind it might be due to the fact that the G1's radio supports both 3g and 2g signals, meaning that the phone is constantly switching between 3g and 2g, which operate on different frequencies. Whereas the 2G WinMo phones don't have to switch as much and have a more prevalent coverage area.
The software side to this (radio firmware) will be fixed over time, and the coverage side will be fixed over time as TMO adds more towers to the 3g network.
Battery Life-I will more likely than not be buying an extended battery for my G1 very soon.
User/Software base- Right now WinMo wins, but as more providers and cell phone manufacturers jump on the Android bandwagon, this will change. I would like to ask this question again a year from now too see how far Android has come.
Technical Support- This is totally/directly dependent on the user/software base. So right now WinMo wins both with official tech support and forums like xdadevelopers, but i'll be taking the 'waitandsee' approach on this one.
As you can probably guess, I'll be sticking with my G1 for right now, as its the newer device, Google's constantly having updates, it has a better camera, and gives me constant access to my gmail. But I will most definately be looking for a good extended battery in the near future.
BTW, this is my first review/comparison so feedback would be greatly appreciate as I hope to do this in the future with other gadgets I pick up, restaurants I goto, etc...
