Let me set the tone for this review. I am a big Google services user. Mail, Calendar, Voice, Docs – I use them all and depend on them for my business. I am coming from Verizon’s Blackberry Storm which I thought was the worst phone I have ever had relative to what the competition was at the time. I was a strong Blackberry supporter but after the horrible Blackberry Storm experience I decided to take advantage of the great trial periods that exist in the mobile phone industry.
The Good:
* Great Google services integration (email, calendar, contacts, etc.)
* Good call quality
* Good form factor (appearance and feel)
* Good web browsing experience
* Many applications keep the phone feeling new
The Bad:
* Bluetooth doesn’t work consistently
* The phone is underpowered for my use
* Network speed is not very fast
* Audio pauses periodically when playing music
Bottom Line:
I highly recommend the MyTouch 3G for people who want a smart-phone with strong Google services support and a good phone, but who are not interested in a lot of applications. I think it is probably the best looking and feeling phone of its type out there and there is definitely something to be said for it fitting in a pocket comfortably. Near-future Android phones will include more memory and the Motorola Sholes will supposedly have a more powerful processor. If you can wait a few months, I would. I really wanted it to be THE PHONE for me but the MyTocuh 3G is underpowered for my use.
MyTouch 3G and Google Services
A big factor in deciding to try the MyTouch 3G phone is its strong support of Google’s services by way of Google’s mobile operating system, Android. This support is not limited to just the MyTouch 3G but there really aren’t any other Android phones out yet (except for the older G1).
Support for Google Services is the most appealing thing about the phone. My email, calendar, contacts, and voicemail are all synced up. The calendar and contacts were instantly updated on the phone when entered on a webpage. I was actually shocked at how quickly that sync happened. Email was pretty quick, but not as quick as on my Blackberry though it was acceptable. The Google Voice application is not very fast but it is really a moot point since I receive notifications through email anyway.
All in all I REALLY like the Google integration and wouldn’t be surprised if I settle on an Android phone for that reason. Blackberry support is weak by comparison and as far as I can tell, so is Apple’s on the iPhone. I would choose an iPhone if its Google support was better.
MyTouch 3G and T-Mobile – The Good
Call quality on the MyTouch 3G was good and I had strong phone reception every where I went. In my testing I had better coverage than with Verizon on my Blackberry, which I was surprised about.
I was also impressed with the web browser. Coming from a Blackbery, I was pleasantly surprised at the richness of the Internet experience and am happy to report that the pages ALWAYS loaded. Out of the multiple Blackberries I owned, it was always a crap shoot whether a web page would load up – including web pages that had worked earlier in the same day.
There are a ton of applications in the application store and they offer rich experiences that make most of the Blackberry programs look like they were designed for the Atari 2600 in an XBox world. Having so many applications really keeps the phone new feeling as there is always something new to look at. I subscribed to the Androlib.com rss feed of new applications and was overwhelmed on a daily basis by the sheer volume of new applications and had to unsubscribe after about a week.
Typing was way WAY better than the Blackberry Storm (most of the time, see The Bad section). I had few errors and could type reasonably quickly. The way the display adjusts during keyboard input keeps things from being too confusing as well. What I mean is, when using onscreen keyboards a lot of the screen real estate is taken up by the keyboard and it becomes easy to get lost in what text field is being used or to move to a different text field. This was an annoyance on the Blackberry Storm but is less so on the MyTouch 3G.
The look and the feel of the MyTouch 3G is sexy! The phone is small, it is sleek, but everything on the screen is clear and readable. I know I am over-using the Storm as a comparison, but I picked it up and it looked like something Fred Flintstone should be using by comparison. I like having the combination of touch screen navigation and the trackball too.
MyTouch 3G and T-Mobile – The Bad
There are two major downsides to the MyTouch 3G, one that is curable and one that is not.
The curable one is its unfinished Bluetooth. I am able to connect (pair) it to my car’s Bluetooth, but it does not maintain the pairing. Basically, every time I get back into my car I have to reconfigure the connection which is not practical in my line of business. This also affects audio over Bluetooth. I spoke with T-Mobile and they said that this is a known problem and that it will be fixed in the next update.
The incurable problem is that as far as I can tell the MyTouch 3G is underpowered which may be due to a weak processor or low memory, which is what I suspect. Once I had been using the phone for a while and I had 3 widgets (desktop programs that provide a constant stream of information, like weather information, Twitter tweets or Facebook info.) the phone became bogged down and typing became too slow to be reasonable and I missed phone calls because the phone would not respond to the answer button when I pressed it. While I fully accept that these phones have limitations, I feel that the limitations are reached way too quickly on the MyTouch 3G.
Other mostly minor problems include:
* Inconsistent audio playback: The audio seems to pause when the network is being accessed, though I am not positive on this point.
* Slow network connectivity: I am not in a 3G area but my WiFi connection seemed about as fast as the standard over-the-phone connection speed, which was disappointing, and when I WAS in a 3G area it didn’t seem any faster either. It is not scientific but I tested my WiFi connection speed using one of the online testers and it came in 2-3 times faster than a dial-up modem which is not impressive.
* Slow picture taking: I missed a lot of really great pictures because of the time it takes to focus and actually take the picture once the button is pressed. This seems to be a common problem with these phones though. Color was off on about 1/4 of the shots and the picture was fairly sharp.
Conclusion
Overall the MyTocuh is underpowered for my use. I do highly recommend it for people who want a phone with strong Google services support and and a good phone, but who are not interested in a lot of applications. I think it is probably the best looking and feeling phone of its type out there and there is definitely something to be said for it fitting in a pocket comfortably.
Near-future Android phones will include more memory and the Motorola Sholes will supposedly have a more powerful processor. If you can wait a few months, I would. I also suspect this phone will be $50 or free by Christmas time to be competitive at that time. This is pure speculation based on the large number of superior Android phones set for release in the coming months.
I am going to return the MyTouch 3G and try the Palm Pre next.
