[Update: So I just confirmed with with T-Mobile: One thing that seems to be a dealbreaker that it has no in-built video recording capability, which seems to be an astounding omission. Had the “gPhone” added this, it would have looked pretty good against the iPhone. It can play video through a dedicated YouTube app but, it appears, not inside the browser. Update II: I just confirmed that the browser on the handset does not support Flash or Flash Lite].
I met with T-Mobile’s head of Internet and Entertainment Richard Warmsley, who took me through the key features of the new T-Mobile G1 Google Android phone, made by HTC. I have to say it’s a pretty chunky beast compared to your average mobile, and quite a bit bigger than other smartphones like the Nokia E71 or the iPhone. The interface is quite iPhone-like although you can’t “pinch” to zoom in and out of web pages. One of the killer features demo’d in the US was the acclaimed Compass Street View of Google Maps which won’t work in the UK yet. Applications-wise, the Android App store needs a few more apps to fill it out but I daresay these will come on stream soon enough for the October US launch and the November UK launch.
And here’s video of the Compass app: