The T-Mobile G2 Preview
by Vivek Gowri on October 7, 2010 12:29 PM EST
So, the son of G1 is now out and open for retail consumption, and it’s certainly an interesting device. This is one of the first high end GSM HTC Android devices in a while, so it’s been understandably hyped. The keyboard is another unique factor - this is HTC’s first Android device with a physical keyboard since the original G1, and the G2, along with the Samsung Epic 4G and Droid 2, is currently the one of the few high end Android devices with a physical keyboard.
| Physical Comparison | |||||||||
| Apple iPhone 4 | HTC EVO 4G | Samsung Epic 4G | Motorola Droid 2 | T-Mobile G2 | |||||
| Height | 115.2 mm (4.5") | 121.9 mm (4.8") | 124 mm (4.9") | 116.3 mm (4.6") | 119 mm (4.69") | ||||
| Width | 58.6 mm (2.31") | 66.0 mm (2.6") | 63.5 mm (2.5") | 60.5 mm (2.4") | 60.4 mm (2.38") | ||||
| Depth | 9.3 mm ( 0.37") | 12.7 mm (0.5") | 15.2 mm (0.6") | 13.7 mm (0.54") | 14.16 mm (0.56") | ||||
| Weight | 137 g (4.8 oz) | 170 g (6.0 oz) | 155 g (5.47 oz) | 169 g (5.9 oz) | 180 grams (6.35 oz) | ||||
| CPU | Apple A4 @ ~800 MHz | Qualcomm Snapdragon QSD8650 @ 1 GHz | Samsung Hummingbird @ 1 GHz | Texas Instruments OMAP 3630 @ 1 GHz | Qualcomm Snapdragon MSM7230 @ 800 MHz | ||||
| GPU | PowerVR SGX 535 | Adreno 200 | PowerVR SGX 540 | PowerVR SGX 530 | Adreno 205 | ||||
| RAM | 512MB LPDDR1 (?) | 512MB LPDDR1 | 512MB LPDDR1 | 512 MB LPDDR1 | 512 MB LPDDR1 | ||||
| NAND | 16GB or 32GB integrated | 8GB micro SD | 1 GB integrated, 16 GB microSD preinstalled | 8 GB integrated, preinstalled 8 GB microSD | 4 GB integrated, preinstalled 8 GB microSD | ||||
| Camera | 5MP with LED Flash + Front Facing Camera | 8MP with dual LED Flash + Front Facing Camera | 5 MP with LED Flash and autofocus | 5 MP with dual LED flash and autofocus | 5 MP with auto focus and LED flash | ||||
| Screen | 3.5" 640 x 960 IPS | 4.3" 480 x 800 | 4.0" 480 x 800 Super AMOLED | 3.7" 480 x 854 | 3.7" 480 x 800 Super LCD | ||||
| Battery | Integrated 5.254Whr | Removable 5.5Whr | Removable 5.55 Whr | Removable 5.2 Whr | Removable 4.81 Whr | ||||
The G2 comes with a Qualcomm MSM7230 SoC, an 800 MHz part based on the 2nd generation Snapdragon core. It’s now on a 45-nm manufacturing process (the original Snapdragon QSD8x50 parts are 65nm) and has an updated Adreno 205 GPU. Beyond the die-shrink, the CPU seems to be relatively unchanged compared to the first gen-Snapdragon, just running at an 800 MHz frequency. The lower clock speed is probably to keep power consumption and yield in check for Qualcomm's first 45nm SoC. The Adreno 205, on the other hand, seems to be a pretty big improvement over the previous generation Adreno 200. The 205 adds hardware acceleration for Flash, SVG vector graphics hardware acceleration, and significantly improves shader performance over the Adreno 200. Performance is expected to be far more competitive to the PowerVR SGX 530 and 540 than the Adreno 200 ever was. So even though it doesn’t break the magical 1GHz mark, the MSM7230 is still a very potent SoC, especially in a device that forgoes the burden of a custom UI layer on top of Android.
The MSM7230 in the G2 has support for 3GPP Release 7, which includes HSPA+ and Evolved EDGE support. The G2 supports HSDPA class 10 for a maximum theoretical downstream rate of 14.4 megabits/s, and HSUPA class 6 for a maximum theoretical upstream rate of 5.76 megabits/s. Qualcomm's MSM7x30 series SoC comes in another flavor - the MSM7630 - which packs HSPA+ support alongside CDMA voice and data.
Rounding out the other specs, we’ve got 512MB RAM (also part of the SoC), 4GB internal NAND with an 8GB microSD card preinstalled (more on this later), a 3.7” Super-LCD TFT display with an 800x480 resolution, a 5 megapixel camera with autofocus and an LED flash, 720p video recording at 30fps, and a removeable 4.81 Wh (1300 mAh) battery. Oh, and one of the weirdest hinges out there right now.
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alephxero - Thursday, October 7, 2010 - link
Which port of Quake 3 is it that you used in the test?vol7ron - Thursday, October 7, 2010 - link
Could you also include the G1 "Physical Comparsion" statistisics for comparison?crazzeto - Thursday, October 7, 2010 - link
The last time I was dissapointed by an HTC device. The Verizon Wireless VX6800 wasn't very good, honestly it felt cheap from the get go. I did eventually have a partial fail of the slider hardware (half of it came off, for no apparent reason).More recent HTC devices seem better perhaps, but the VX6800 convinced me to go Motorola for my droid and honestly, I'm incredibly glad I did!
Dark Legion - Thursday, October 7, 2010 - link
Why isn't the droid incredible running 2.2? The benchmarks make it look a lot worse when it should be on par with the evo and n1.fausto412 - Thursday, October 7, 2010 - link
i guess i can blame the iphone reviews for opening the gate,.is pc hardware that dead these days?
can we get an update on HTPC building and cable card compatibility? would like to learn more about that.
what about new monitor technology and how it compares to the old TN technology?
what about a high end gaming mouse review and round up that takes into accounts software support included and new features? g9x, cyborg, g500.
there is stuff to cover in pc realm. can get get back it?
metafor - Thursday, October 7, 2010 - link
The phone market is exploding while the PC market isn't seeing much growth. There also really haven't been much in the way of innovation on the PC side for quite a while now.Myrandex - Thursday, October 7, 2010 - link
The keyboard is surprisingly familiar to the Touch Pro 2's (superior to every other keybaord I've tried) keyboard, I do feel the need that with the space of such a large screen, another row of keys would have been nice to get a dedicated row of number keys across the top.The hinging mechanism is definitely interesting though!
Jason
NguyenAdam - Thursday, October 7, 2010 - link
Is this phone SIM free? I would love to use it on AT&T.Roland00 - Thursday, October 7, 2010 - link
if you do so the phone will just reload the OS from an included rom chip. Is this true?phoenix79 - Thursday, October 7, 2010 - link
Am I the only one that's noticing some pretty blatant errors in this article? First is the virtual keyboard, mine came with Swype installed alongside the stock one and enabled by default. As for the 2GB of memory, 5 minutes of googling and you would find out that the phones physically have a 4GB chip in them, this has been known for days.It seems that the fact-checking here has gotten considerably worse as of late...