I have been a very proud owner of the HTC G1 ever since I got my hands on it. It was my daily driver when it came to making phone calls, sending text messages, posting on social networks and generally getting information from the interwebs. Like all things electronics, new devices come out. Enter the HTC Slide, the successor (in my mind) to the G1.
The HTC Slide or more commonly known as the MyTouch 3G Slide, is a sliding phone with a qwerty keyboard. All if not most smart phones that are coming out into the market no longer offer a physical keyboard but a touch screen one. This offers a few advantages, thinner and lighter phones to name a few but from my experience, touch screen keypads are not entirely accurate and leaves something to be desired.
One of the big selling points of the G1 was it's physical keyboard. One thing that I hated about the keyboard though was the size of the keys. Some times I would suffer from what my g/f would later call "Fat finger syndrome" Pressing the wrong key because of the size of the buttons. This is no longer a problem with the Slide as it incorporates one of the best designed 4 rowed qwerty keyboards in any phone. The keys have he right amount of push and give that makes typing so much easier than on devices like say the Motorola Droid.
The Slide's slider mechanism isn't the smoothest but it seems strong and the screen securely locks into place.
The screen on the unit is not the biggest measuring at 3.4 inches with resolutions of 480x320 although don't take the screen lightly, it's pretty bright and well be more than enough to get you through. The screen also feels glass hard to the touch giving it an air of higher quality. The touch screen is extremely responsive and you also get pinch to zoom support. One of the things that surprised me as well was that the unit has a built in proximity sensor as well as a light sensor to adjust the brightness of the screen and light up the keyboard.
One thing I do miss from the G1 though is the trackball. On the Slide they did away with the trackball and in place put an optical trackpad. It gets the job done, sort of. I noticed I have a harder time moving the cursor with the trackpad than with the trackball. Not that any Android device really needs it but it's nice to have.
The camera on the phone is decent with a 5mp camera but to be honest its not the best nor is it something I really care too much about. Have not fully utilized it and will update this section when I have more time with the camera.
The phone comes loaded with a highly customized version of Android 2.1. T-Mobile really went the extra mile in making sure the phones UI (User Interface) stood out from the rest of the pack and it succeeded... sort of. One of the most bizarre changes that T-Mobile did was encasing the icons in a bubble. Don't know what possessed them to do it but I guess I can see one benefit from this whole thing. When trying to organize your home screen you can see how much space an icon or widget takes up. I was a tad annoyed at first but after a day or two it just grew on me and never gave it second glance. Also another awesome addition was the introduction of something called the Genius Button
The Genius Button is a new way to do jut about anything on your phone. Press the button and you are greeted to a simple search box that waits for you to give it a verbal command. T-Mobile decided to install a version of Dragon Naturally Speaking which is an amazing speech recognition software. It does have a learning curve but once you get the hang of it, it really is amazing.
Overall I am really happy with the phone so far, it's plenty fast for the things that I do and has some interesting features I have yet to fully get into. If you are current G1 owner and looking for an upgrade with a physical keyboard or just want a mid-ranged Android phone, then this is the phone to get.
I give this phone an 8/10
Pros:
Excellent keyboard
Great sound quality
Cons:
Weird UI customizations
Decent camera
