HTC Dream - Optus

This post is a little left of centre but I'd really like to make public how the 'HTC Dream' ( the 'Google phone' ) has been going in Australia.

I purchased this phone through Optus (www.optus.com.au) a few weeks ago on a whim - I have a bit of a love affair with Google, they have produced many very affective products - gmail, GWT, youtube etc., so I didn't think i could go wrong here.

My initial impression of the phone was that it was quite large - it's slightly smaller than the iPhone but much thicker. This is mostly due to the expandable keypad which folds out from underneath.

Coming from the apple world and using a few iPhones, I expected the interface on the google phone to be quite similar - it wasn't. I found the google phone's interface to be less intuitive than the iPhone but after a hours of playing, the interface seems to make more sense and offer much more flexibility.

There have been many complaints since the release of this phone that the keypad is too small and unusable. I'm not sure I've had too many problems with the keypad. It's most certainly not something you'd use both hands for, or even, more than one finger. So, yes it's small, but not unusable!

I love being able to have gmail, calendar and the internet on my phone. This is a new thing for me and, and as a geek I'm using it all the time. Sitting at the train station, I'll crack open my phone, send a few emails, have a quick chat to some mates, check the latest news; then be on my way. Using my phone so much i'm discovering some major problems with Optus' 3G network. The signal seems to be inconsistently available - I'll get it on the train all the way home most days, others I'll get absolutely none. I noticed yesterday on the train that if i forced the phone off the Optus network, then forced it back on, it'd pickup 3g straight away. I'm wondering if the phone drops the 3G signal and is unable to pick it back up.

I've also found a few other bugs that have grown to be a big nuisance :

- On several occasions the time has been out of sync by up to 30 minutes. I first noticed this when i received an SMS from a mate that was send 15 minutes in the future. I looked up at the clock on the wall and at the time on my phone and noticed how wrong it was. Fault of the phone or Optus ?

- Gmail has been inconsistently syncing emails, this has mostly occurred at night. I first noticed this problem on the third day i had this phone. I was, for some reason, no longer being woken up by my nightly flood of automated email notifications.

- Gmail has crashed on three separate instances. I'm wondering whether this has to do with the gmail syncing problems mentioned above.

- There are some strange bugs with the phone 'waking up'. On several occasions when the screen is 'off', I've hit a button to check the time or check any missed calls and I've instantly received an SMS or E-mail notification. I'm definitely not psychic and this has happened way too often to be a coincidence.

- Volume of the speaker is too soft and I often don't hear the phone ring. Lucky the vibrating engine is so good else I'd never receive a call.

I hesitate to mention the battery life of this phone as it's come to light on several reviews - No, it's not great but this is strangely something i can live with. If you rarely touch the phone, the battery is actually quite acceptable but if you're like me and send emails, receive a lot of notifications and use the touch screen a lot, it doesn't last long at all. Lately I've been charging it every day or every second day.

Despite all the negative feedback here, I don't hate this phone and I don't regret buying it. If you're a google buff and like everything integrated, this phone is fantastic. You can take a photo and fire it over MMS/E-mail, chat to your friends on gtalk ( or other protocols with third-party apps ), sync all your gmail contacts, sync your calendar, play games, surf the web etc.

Google have provided yet another fantastic SDK for the Android phone and, as with the iPhone SDK, comes with a helpful emulator to test your applications pre-deplpyment. I've found the SDK for the Android phone a lot easier to use than the iPhone's. Google have put a lot of effort into their SDK to make it fast and easy to create complex applications. If you've ever used GWT or know a small amount of java, you'll have no problems with the kit - the documents are well written with easy to follow examples.

There aren't quite as many applications for the google phone as there are for the iPhone but there are still enough for you to be able to do everything you want to do, plus more!