The main point about this Android phone seems to be the fact that it will cost $200 originally and not after subsidy. Now that’s one cheap phone. Do not expect too many bells and whistles from this one though.

Huawei has also confirmed that they will be launching this before the year ends, some time around mid-december. If that is true, then this is going to start showing up on its respective carrier very soon. Who that carrier is though, is unsure at this point.

The source, a Spanish site called MovilZona, says that there is a good chance that Teléfonica will pick this one up. They also mention that Movistar may also be a contender. These are of course the main carriers in Spain.

Spec-wise, this looks like a pretty standard phone. 3.2 megapixel camera, HSDPA and HSUPA, WiFi and a 1500mAh battery. Yes, it does sound nice on paper for that low a price. However, whether this phone will land in other countries as well, remains to be seen. If it does, it will be competing against similar models manufactured by HTC, who are probably Huawei’s greatest competitors at the moment. [read Google’s (surreal) translation]

It is with this success and support that T-Mobile announces the details regarding their much anticipated follow up to the HTC G1. In case you’re wondering, this phone has been around for some time (over in the UK where it sells under the name of the HTC Magic). But the device is finally coming statewide. The myTouch operates off of Android v1.5 and promises to fix a lot of the problems people had with the first device.

The phone is thinner and lighter then its predecessor and as we said before carries the same hardware found in the HTC Magic (also known as the Google Ion). The feature list sounds pretty impressive also:

Powered by a Walcomm MSM7200A™ chip, this little bad boy pumps out 528MHz of power. As said before the phone is running on the x1.5 build of Android. ROM is set at 512MB and RAM is 288MB. Dimensions are pretty slim with 133 x 55.56 x 13.65 mm (4.45 x 2.19 x 0.54 inches). The phone weighs only 4.09 ounces with the battery in so you have a device that is a little smaller then the iPhone but bigger then the Pre.

One of the major differences between the myTouch and the G1 is the keyboard. While the G1 has a full QWERTY keyboard, the myTouch lacks that and instead has opted for a virtual one with haptic feedback. From using the iPhone, Instinct, HTC Touch, Storm and many other phones, I can assure you that technology hasn’t advanced to the point where a virtual keyboard will give you everything you would require from a QWERTY keyboard. That said, haptic feedback does lessen the blow a bit so we’ll just have to see how this fits into the whole stage.

Those buying the T-Mobile myTouch will also get a 4GB microSD card, so all your tunes will be available to you. You will also be able to expand the memory though the limits are yet to be made clear by either HTC or T-Mobile at the moment.

The T-Mobile G1 will be available on T-Mobile’s U.S network come late July. Customers of T-Mobile will be able to pre-order the device 4 days after Independence Day though. Price is set at $199 with a two-year contract so this falls right in line with the Blackberry Storm, iPhone 3GS, Palm Pre and others.

While a lot of the applications are unchanged, T-Mobile does have a hand in some of them. An example of this is the Sherpa application which was created by Geodelic. This location based application allows you to find restaurants, theaters, stores, businesses, banks etc nearby. While those features have been available for ages on other apps this one adds to it by collecting data about where the user has been, searched for etc. and incorporating this into the search results. It is also able to make recommendations based on the data collected as well as offer advice to events happening locally. This app will be exclusively available to T-Mobile so other Android users around the world will have to wait says Geodelic.

Other then that there are 5,000 other apps currently available on the Android marketplace so while the device may be new, its coming to an already matured platform as well as app store.
While I am quite excited to see the device I cannot help but notice that out of all the networks T-Mobile is one of the worse to be having such a good operating system locked into. It’s quite understandable though as Sprint has the Pre (at least for the next six months) Verizon is in love with Blackberry (and rumored to be playing around with an LTE version of the iPhone), and Apple seems to have had a lock on AT&T for some time now as to prevent any further competition with its beloved iPhone.

That said, most of the U.S carries have expressed interest in Android, but due to politics Google is stuck with T-Mobile. We’ll just have to wait and see what the myTouch can do for them. Hopefully they will be able to move at least a million of these devices like what they did with the G1.

There is however one fundamental difference between Apple’s marketing strategy and Google’s. Android is an operating system and several companies are developing mobile phones based on the operating system which means more choice for consumers eventually.

The G1 is just the first phone based on Android and receives coverage because of that. Not everything is perfect yet though and the article tries to look at some of the functions and features that are missing or inferior to today’s standards.

It basically comes down to the user and the things that he might want to do with the phone.

A few problematic elements can be identified by simply looking at the announcements that have been made:

• No support for Microsoft Exchange Active Sync.
• Uses proprietary headphone connection.
• Access To Amazon MP3 store only over WLAN.
• Media player seems to be incapable of playing videos, only Youtube supported
• No Multi-touch.
• Only 1 Gigabyte of Flash Memory, maximum of 8 Gigabyte supported
• No video recording.
• No virtual keyboard

Every user has to make the decision on his own if any of the missing features is a criterion to pass and wait for the next Android phone.

The free application aids you by sending you text messages or emails when you reach a defined amount of minutes that are left in a month. All that needs to be done would be to download the Watch My Cell application and configure the application once to add the login details for your cell phone provider, the minutes that are free in your account and when you want to receive a notification.

Watch My Cell supports only a few major cell phone providers at the moment and all seem to be Us-based which makes the application at its current stage useless for users from other countries. Supported companies are Cingular / At&t, Sprint / Nextel, T-Mobile and Verizon. It is also possible to check the remaining minutes in your system tray by simply hovering over the icon of Watch my Cell.