Google Phone Features
You can divide the features of the HTC G1 (the first phone to run on the Android platform) into two categories: hardware features and Android features. Remember, not every phone running on Android will have the same capabilities as other Android phones. Some of those features are built directly into the hardware and can vary from one manufacturer to the next.
For that very reason, several smartphone reviewers chose to evaluate the Android platform and the HTC G1 hardware separately. For the most part, the reviewers felt the Android platform shows a lot of promise and could become a major player in the smartphone industry. Reviews of the hardware weren't as positive. While most reviewers that the hardware wasn't bad, many said the handset doesn't compare to the sleek form factor of the iPhone.
The HTC G1 sports a 3.2-inch (8.1-centimeter) LCD touchscreen, a GPS transceiver, an accelerometer, an electronic compass, a 3.2 megapixel camera and WiFi and 3G connectivity capability. The screen slides to the side to reveal a full QWERTY keyboard. The handset also has a storage card expansion slot. One thing it doesn't have is a standard headphone jack -- you have to use a USB adapter if you want to use your headphones. Since the phone has a media player, many reviewers felt the lack of a standard jack was strike against the device.
The HTC G1 runs on a 528-megahertz Qualcomm 7201 processor. It also has 192 megabytes of RAM. That makes the HTC G1 a powerful smartphone, though it's not at the top of the heap. Future phones running the Android platform could have completely different specifications.
It's important to note that the Android operating system supports all of these hardware configurations. If Android didn't support a touchscreen interface, the touchscreen wouldn't work even if all the hardware elements were in place. But that doesn't mean every Android phone will have a touchscreen -- it just means Android supports that particular feature.
That being said, some things will remain the same among all Android phones. For example, anyone wanting to buy an Android phone will have to create a Google account first. Google accounts are free and you can sign up at any time whether you own an Android phone or not. If you have a Google account, you can access services like Gmail, Google Calendar and Google Docs. Android's designers built the platform so that it interfaces with these functions smoothly.
As hardware becomes more advanced, Google will tweak the Android OS to support new features and functions. And if Google doesn't do it, someone else will. That's the beauty of an open-source system.
What makes Android tick? Read on to find out.
