T-Mobile G2 user reviews

5.0 stars

"T-Mobile's New King of the Hill" on October 6, 2010 by ComeToTerms

Pros: Beautiful design, sturdy and heavy, beautiful super lcd screen, great feeling keyboard, as fast as any phone i've used via HSPA+, big plus for its bluetooth connectivity.

Cons: Using this Z Hinge takes a little getting use to. Prefer better placement of the microSD Card. External or something similar to the MyTouch Slide.

Summary: I've had the G2 for 3 days now and after tweaking and adding apps, making calls...this is just thee phone to have if your on the Tmo network to date. It feels great in the hand. Call quality has been the best i've had in recent date. The bluetooth connectivity has to be mentioned here. I've had the MyTouch Slide and when using that phone paired with a bluetooth headset, about 3 feet would cause static, while 10 feet will completely disconnect it from the phone. This G2 connects strongly with my Plantronics and theres no static whatsoever. This is a big point for me. The keyboard feels great. Love Swype. Stock Android should be the prefered OS. The metal battery cover is a very nice add on (Love the HTC G2 incraving in the metal) plus instead of struggling to get the battery cover off, they added a slidding button on the side that easily pops that cover off (wallla!!). This is the design i've been looking for! Almost a Nexus One looking with a QWERTY keyboard. Like i said my only desin flaw may be the placement of the microSD card. I really prefer an external entry for these instead of it being hidden under the battery. The hinge, i have no issue with. Love this phone! HTC did it again!

5.0 stars

"Overall this phone is one of the best out there" on October 22, 2010 by indiantechie

Pros: Beatiful Screen, Fast Processor, Amazing Keyboard,Great Camera, Really Fast, Testing easy,PHONE FEELS SO PREMIUM!!!!!!!!!!

Cons: Screen not as good as galaxy s but then again no other phone is, Come with some extra software but if you can afford this phone you can afford an SD card and with one the extra software doesnt take up that much memory, no tethering or hotspot

Summary: The complaints that people have are minor screens not as good as the galaxy s but then again galaxy s is gold standard for screens beating out iphone 4 so no other phone has a screen that good, another is that its comes wit too many google apps but if you can afford this phone then you cand afford a SD card and some of the apps were fun and useful a few times, then another complaint is that no tethering or hotspot feature only time when tethering or hotspot would come in handy is if u NEED internet and ur latop has no wifi, but those feature are built in so it will be activated eventually, and the final complaint is the hinge and so fa while i wouldnt say i prefer it to the sliders its just as good and a viable option, and have no prolem using the hinge, its strong and won't break easily, plus if your complaining that i closes whe you hold it upside down then get real when the crap are you going to hold it upside down ,while it may not beat out vibrant hands down(even though it should since it has already beat out the Samsung Epic and the Epic is better than the VibranT), either way its a win win for tobile customers they et two great phones

Updated on Nov 29, 2010

I have had this phone for 40 days and I must say, I am content, there's is anything this phone cannot do, and I mean anything, it pulls down my email flawlessly, I've customized to an extent I never could with my iPhone 3GS, I use multiple IM services and all of them pull down the chat just as fast as my PC, Same thing with my Email, my social networking sites are easy to get to, no matter what site I have Flash and HTML5 if it has a video I can see it, I think the "800 MHz" is vastly under clocked I actually think it around the speed of the hummingbird processors found in the GalaxyS which is around 1.05 to a 1.1 GHz processor, the hinge could take it if I drooped the phone when it was open(I have butterfingers) Also as to the tethering and hotspot stuff, they recently released an update that allows you to do that but you have to pay T-Mobile 5 more dollars a month, if you don't roll that way, there is an app that does that for free, If you have any questions don't hesitate to ask.

Updated on Mar 3, 2011

Alright so this is going to be the last update to my review of this phone, because recently my baby cousin accidentally killed this phone, when I went it (I had a warranty) they wouldn't give me another G2, because they recently added more money to the price, Instead of paying more for the same phone I instead opted for the cheaper Galaxy S 4G. However I had it for 3 months and 13 days. Over those 3 month's I couldn't have been happier with my phone. In those 3 month's we went through CES & MWC, and both were full of newer "more" capable phones and I am sure if I had bought any other phone I would have had buyers regret. However no matter what they showed whether it was dual core, or had the best screen in the world. I wasn't even slightly threatened the only two phones that even SLIGHTLY piqued my interest were the Moto Atrix because of the raw specs, and the Xperia Pro, because it looked to be a really good slider. (continue reading till the second update for full update.

Updated on Mar 3, 2011

Now for my experience over those 3 months, I have already stated my views on the speed through email's text's and everything. The screen on this phone is beautiful, Even when I see stuff on the Galaxy S devices or the iPhone 4 I didn't see that much of a difference, the build quality of this phone is underrated people say it is heavy and the hinge is stupid. Think nothing of it, the weight and bulk is only noticeable if you wear extremely skinny jeans or compare it to the ridiculously thin phones, and simply the bulk and weight are reassuring. (Read on to the next update for the rest of it)

Updated on Mar 3, 2011

The connectivity is also underrated it IS not the 4G T-Mobile is advertising it as but it is fast enough to be considered as it. I can only tell you my real life experiences, recently my 2 best friend's and I got into an argument over which of our 4G capable phone is faster. They had an Evo and an Inspire; we all downloaded a random app, and went to Cnet.tv.com. I won both, it wasn't by some outrageous amount, but I did win, my now dead G2 was the fasted out of all three, now that is only the cellular signal the phone in speed of use was so fast I wasn't sure whether or not it was normal at times, only time I actually experienced LAG of any type was when I visited a site literally drenched in flash, otherwise everything was fast smooth and zippy. The Keyboard is AH-MAZ-ZING, I won't get into flame war's over which keyboard is better, but once I got used to the layout it took me 8 minutes and 35 second to pound out a 2 paragraph email. (Read on to the next update for the rest of it)

Updated on Mar 3, 2011

Android market was so big that I found an App for EVERYTHING. What do "Fandroid's" say that iPhone lame because the only functionality it offer's is that "there's an app for that." Well I say that argument isn't valid because not only are there an app for everything you need, most of them are free. Now HTC has a bad history with camera sensors usually they being the weakest part of the phone this camera is great, because it does what it is supposed to take pictures like a CAMERA PHONE, not like a point and shoot the pictures are clear clean and still the same quality if you blow it up it won't replace your point and shoot, but it was never meant to. Overall the G2 was a spectacular phone it did everything I wanted it to, and I will sorely miss it. (Read on to the next update for the rest of it)

Updated on Mar 3, 2011

The very last "(Read on to the next update for the rest of it)" was a typo sorry.

4.5 stars

"The Hinge is Really a Non-Issue" on October 7, 2010 by roleesun

Pros: Fast, configurable, solid, classy design...beginning to love swype. It's the German car of cell phones...

Cons: It's a little on the heavy side, charger port location, battery life, speakerphone is a bit raspy.

Summary: This phone is beautiful, solid and well designed. The hinge is really a non-issue unless you hold your phone upside down, clenched between your fingernails or hold it upside down gripping just the bottom edge of the keyboard. The complaints are like saying the lid of a pot falls off when you put it on the stove upside down.

So far the phone has been great! Most of the things that I didnt like had an app that was able to make the phone the way I want it. All the phone functions work well. Google Voice works well as a way to avoid using plan minutes. The phone seems fast. Its really beautiful to look at...and fun to use. I love Swype for times i dont feel like really typing. It's surprisingly accurate. As far as the HSPA+...its fast when its available, but it seems to cut in and out a lot.

Then there are the things that I wish the phone had...not because i would necessarily use them, but because they would be cool to have. Tethering, mobile hotspot, front facing camera.

The phone is a bit heavy, but you get used to it. The battery life could be better...but I am used to a Blackberry lasting a few days. i am not sure how it compares to other smart phones in the same class. The battery lasts me from about 7am to 9pm with moderate use. The location of the charging port makes it awkward to use when its charging.

Updated on Dec 29, 2010

TMobile has since pushed an update with wifi calling and wifi hotspot capabilities to the G2. Both features work well and as far as I can tell are free. I know the tech articles say that the wifi calling feature does not switch the phone from wifi to network when out of wifi range, but I have not had any phone calls drop when i move out of wifi range. The battery life is much better now that i am not constantly playing with the phone...also it depends a lot on the wallpaper. I have begun to use the keyboard more and swype less (now that the novelty of swype has worn off). I must say...i LOVE having a physical keyboard.

5.0 stars

"Tethering is coming soon . . . or now" on October 6, 2010 by pjcamp

Pros: Outstanding user interface, call quality, value for the money

Cons: Smudgy screen, obnoxious notification sounds

Summary: I bought this outright, contract free, to replace a Blackberry Curve that was becoming increasingly annoying. I am over the moon with the choice. The only drawback I can mention, and it isn't much, is that the screen is shiny and shows smudges easily. But then so does the iPhone and at least my screen isn't made of glass. I've lost count of the number of broken iPhones I've seen.

cNet is partially wrong. You can tether the G2. It is not yet officially supported but will be soon. And there are third party apps (EasyTether, for example) that will work quite nicely.

I've had no problems with the Z-hinge (other than it not being obvious which side it is on when you want to open it) and have a hard time imagining why you would want to use your phone upside down. But if you're in the habit of doing that, you always have the Android keyboard with Swype as a backup.

I imported some less obnoxious notification sounds from the default Windows noises. The ones built in are far too loud and jangly to use in an environment where you have lots of meetings or classes.

There's also a nice calendar extension, Quick Calendar, which makes the calendar searchable and also puts your next few meetings on the notification bar on the home screen. That's useful. Now if only Google will let me delete past appointments, I'll be set.

Updated on Oct 8, 2010

Update: I have to modify my original impressions. It was announced yesterday that the G2 stores key components of the OS in read only memory. The purpose is to set itself back to a factory state if any modifications are made to the OS. Since ROM can generally not be changed without hardware surgery, I don't see how the phone can generally be upgraded to a new OS. If the upgrade needs to change the stored components, well, it can't. They're read only.

If it is true that the ability to upgrade the phone to new Android versions in the future is limited, it seems to me this is a significant issue that T-mobile should have mentioned up front.. I wouldn't have purchased the phone and I regard this sale as fraudulent. I've asked T-mobile for a response and will post an update if they reply.