I’ve had my T-Mobile MyTouch 3G for a little while now, and initially I was very excited about. And then the “new factor” wore off, and my opinion has changed quite a bit.
I don’t think that Android is really ready for prime time just yet. Perhaps Android 2.0 will include a lot of bug fixes, and maybe it’s just the MyTouch hardware, but things feel like they were rushed. A few examples:

* The built in email application is just terrible. It makes a complete mess of IMAP folders, is unable to view certain attachments (PNGs come out blurry and Android doesn’t have a native PDF viewer!) and since Android seems unable to accept self-signed or “non-standard” SSL certificates, I am completely unable to send email. You heard that – I cannot send email. There was also a bug where you couldn’t use ‘special characters’ in email passwords. Unacceptable on a smartphone.
* The Music Player is very basic. No EQ at all, which is a bummer, but it works ok.
* No included video player.
* The camera takes nice photos, but the camera application is still extremely slow to use, even with Donut (Android 1.6)
* I frequently have applications complain about running out of memory, or the Market apps simply crash. Google Maps runs out of memory and shuts off.
* Yes, you can have multiple apps at once, but any more than two or three apps going, and Android can’t keep up. if I have my IM app open (another flaky app) and I get an inbound call, I am disconnected without warning. Actually, the IM app frequently disconnects without warning anyway and I lose all open conversations. If I have Pandora going and I get a text message, it takes 15-20 seconds for the Messaging application to come open, and sometimes that will cause Pandora to stutter. If an incoming call comes in, forget it. It’s game over at that point.
* The Google apps usually work just fine – but I don’t use Google services.

Overall, it’s still a cool little platform and I think there’s potential, but it feels like it was rushed to market. T-Mobile also switched around their rate plans, and they are now unsuitable for our family. We’re getting close to our included minutes, but switching to the new “Get More” plans will be a substantial price increase and we’d also lose MyFaves. Sadly, it looks like we’ll be going to AT&T after all. The iPhone 3GS supports the new faster 7.2mbit HSPA, which AT&T is rolling out in several markets by the end of the year. We just happen to live in the market they’re upgrading first.

Such is live with the wireless industry!

Tags: android, Technology, tmobile