Steven Frank Tries a T-Mobile G1

Steven Frank, testing out a T-Mobile G1, on the physical keyboard:

It’s a blessing and a curse. The keyboard is very good quality, and reminds me fondly of the Sidekick. The problem is you have to use it for absolutely any input, because there is no on-screen keyboard. I can’t help but think this might change in a future update.

I played with a G1 in a T-Mobile store for about 15 minutes, and this was my biggest irritation by far. You cannot input any text whatsoever in the vertical (hardware keyboard closed) orientation, but you can put input focus on text fields. It simply begs for an iPhone-style on-screen keyboard.

★ Saturday, 1 November 2008