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I have now had the new G2 google phone or HTC Magic for about 6 weeks so here are a few observations for anyone interested.

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I chose this phone for two reasons - i didn't want to follow the herd and get an iphone. Not that the iphone is not a great phone, but I did not want to be tied in to Apple and itunes.ﾠ I like Google, I have had a gmail account since gmail was first available and also use docs and calendar, so something that integrates tightly with these is good from my point of view.

Second reason was that I had seen the G1 phone of a colleague and when compared to a iphone 3G - it was noticably faster browsing the web. The G1 was however a bit ugly (sorry PB!).ﾠ If you want a physical keyboard then the G1 is great but it is fairly fat because of that.

The G2 is better looking and a nice size - not as wide as an iphone but still with a good size screen measuring 45mm * 67mm. It has a slight raised profile top and bottom which while spoiling the looks a bit means that the screen does not get scratched so easily if it gets put down face first.

There are 6 buttons and a track ball at the base of the screen and a volume control on the side - everything else is on screen - in fact most things can be done without the physical keys if you prefer e.g. scrolling and clicking works with the track ball, but also with 'swipes' of your finger up or down or by touching links to click.

The track ball is translucent and glows white when texts arrive or when a call is incomming - rather cute!

The virtual screen is actually three times as big as the physical screen, so you start on the middle section and have space left and right (accessed by a finger swipe) for storing more icons or widgets.

Widgets are 'active icons'. The widgets I have currently are the google search panel giving direct access to google searchs, the clock, a calendar widget showing your next few appointments and a weather widget showing todays forcast.

All is cutomisable and the UI is very slick and responsive. I really like the notification bar at the top of the screen that lets you know if you have texts, new emails, reminders, updates to applications etc. When I see a notification I swipe down from the top bar and 'pull' down the notifaction screen - this gives me one click access to whatever it is , email, text etc.

At the base of the screen is a tab that can be 'pulled up' to show all the applications you have built in and added.

Almost every application can be viewed landscape by holding the phone that way round and the trackball adjusts so that what was right is now up etc.

Camera is good but not exceptional by todays demanding standards - 3.2mp and no zoom. Nice gallery to view pictures and easy share options via SMS, email or uploading to picasa or via other applications to facebook, twitter etc. You can also take video and upload direct to youtube if you are so inclined.

The G2 already has the fast HSDPA access that the lastest iphone 3Gs has just caught up with (snigger) and also has the 'amazing new feature' ..... 'cut and paste' (more sniggering) that the new iphone boasts.

Instead of iphones 'app store' there is the 'android market'.ﾠ Anything I have thought 'I wonder if there is app for that' - there has been and so far all have been free.ﾠ They download fast, install automatically and mainly work well.

The G2 already has a built in compase and GPS satalite navigation using google maps or other 3rd party apps.

Wireless connection is very good connecting easily to hotspots. There are some good apps that help to find and connect to free hotspots for you.

So any downsides? If GPS is running as well as other stuff the battery life is much reduced so I tend to only turn this on when really needed. Bluetooth is limited to connecting to headsets no file transfer which is very annoying, but hopefully will come in later upgrades.

I have already had a couple of software upgrades which get pushed out and fix bugs and improve things.

My 14 year old son prefers the iphone for its Mac integration its even slicker UI and he says it is more cool and delivers more 'street cred'.ﾠ I would rather not follow the crowd.

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