T-Mobile's biggest Google Android release of the year is upon us, but can this new tablet phone top the keyboard-equipped G1? Find out in our T-Mobile myTouch 3G review.
Review summary of the T-Mobile myTouch 3G:
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 T-Mobile's big Android launch will draw mixed emotions. If you've been waiting for an Android phone whose outer design is as cool as the user interface, the T-Mobile myTouch 3G is certainly a more polished and appealing looking phone than its predecessor, the T-Mobile G1. However, cool looks don't necessarily mean improvement, and if the exterior could use some tweaking, the onscreen keyboard needs a real overhaul. Ultimately, the T-Mobile myTouch 3G might let down multimedia fans with its poor media software and lack of necessary hardware, like a headphone jack or camera shutter button. Messaging fans will certainly lament the lack of a hardware keyboard. Though Android is still a smart competitor to other touchscreen operating systems, the T-Mobile myTouch 3G lacks the wealth of apps and advanced capabilities of the Apple iPhone 3GS, and it isn't quite as intelligent or business savvy as the Palm Pre's WebOS. Digging through the Google Market will reveal some hidden treasures that go a long way to improve the interface and basic features on the phone, but we wish some of these apps were simply bundled on the device, and a few features, like corporate contacts sync or video playback, still have no first-class options for the Android platform. The T-Mobile myTouch 3G is a stylish sign of things to come, but we're already waiting for what's next. Release: August 2009. Price: $200.
Pros: Slick design improves upon the square T-Mobile G1. Great Android OS and interface design. Top-notch Web browser. Loads of messaging options, including Exchange for e-mail.
Cons: Lacks calendar and contacts sync options beyond Google (not even Exchange). Hardware design is prettier, but not more usable than G1. Onscreen keyboard needs improvement.
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Full T-Mobile myTouch 3G Review:
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Design – Very Good
The original T-Mobile G1 was an ugly phone, a boxy clunker with a jutting chin, so we were happy to find the sleek, colorful and gently curving T-Mobile myTouch 3G. It's a much nicer looking device, with a larger, improved trackball. Even the screen seems more vivid, and the T-Mobile G1's display seems a bit cooler in color temperature by comparison. Still, these aesthetic improvements hardly run skin deep. First, the screen on the myTouch 3G wasn't as responsive as the display on our G1, which is a serious problem considering the T-Mobile myTouch 3G relies on the screen for everything, including the keyboard. We prefer the button layout on the G1, with it's centered menu button. Also, the buttons in Android were inconsistent. Sometimes you'll press Back to retreat to the last screen, but sometimes Back will hop you out to the home screen.
The Android interface still holds up, but the T-Mobile myTouch 3G is essentially the exact same phone as the G1 in terms of software. The phone has far more customization options than the Apple iPhone 3GS, which is probably why this is T-Mobile's main focus with the myTouch 3G. You can easily change and rearrange the homescreen, adding new apps, live Widgets and even smart folders to one of the three homescreen panels. Best of all, Google allows developers deep access to the basic interface elements, so if you don't like the dialer and favorites menu, there's a replacement waiting in the Google Market (Phonebook). Or if you want a more convenient settings menu, there's a better one available (Toggle Settings). We haven't seen developers take such an active role improving basic functions on any other smartphone.
Calling – Very Good
The T-Mobile myTouch 3G sounded better during calls than its predecessor, the G1, and we found call quality to be very pleasing. There was a bit of static on our end of calls, and even more on our callers end, but for the most part voices were clear and tonally accurate. Reception was usually good, a full 4 bars of service (the highest level on this phone), though we often lost 3G signal as we traveled around the Dallas metro area. Still, even without 3G, calls went through and sounded consistently good. Battery life was also improved on this phone, and we managed more than 6.5 hours of talking in a single call, an impressive feat for a 3G, touchscreen phone. We wish that T-Mobile would bring their Android phones into their @Home calling lineup, which would allow Wi-Fi calling using UMA technology. We're fans of UMA calling and T-Mobile's @Home calls present an interesting bargain option for long talkers.
The T-Mobile myTouch 3G can synchronize with an online Gmail address book, so if you don't have a complete contact list on Google, you'll have to do some legwork. Though the myTouch 3G ships with a unique Work E-mail app that can access a Microsoft Exchange server, the phone can't synchronize with an Exchange ActiveSync address book. This is a real failure on T-Mobile's part, since many Exchange users (ourselves included) might expect to find their corporate contacts on the myTouch 3G, as long as T-Mobile is advertising Exchange support. We'd also like to see Google do more to integrate social network contacts, like the Palm Pre does with Facebook accounts.
For other calling features, the T-Mobile myTouch 3G does well, and it's going to get even better. T-Mobile has already announced an official Visual Voicemail app for their Android devices (to go along with the third-party apps already available in the Google Market). They haven't talked pricing yet, and the app wasn't available at press time for us to try out, but we're happy to see that the T-Mobile myTouch 3G and the G1 will soon benefit, since visual voicemail is one of our favorite calling features. Otherwise, conference calling on the myTouch 3G was easy enough, though it could have been a bit more intuitive. The speakerphone sounded clear, but it didn't quite have the volume you'll need to hear it over loud car noises.
Messaging – Good
The T-Mobile myTouch 3G has a nice raft of messaging apps, but we wish they were more unified. There's an app for text messaging, and the myTouch uses threaded messaging, so you'll see all your text messages as a conversation, which is more pleasant than viewing messages one by one. There's an app for Google Talk, and another IM app for AOL, MSN and Yahoo. These both looked pretty good and were reliable and quick in our IM tests. There's a Gmail app, a regular old e-mail app for POP and IMAP accounts, and also a new Work E-mail app for Exchange e-mail accounts. So, the T-Mobile myTouch 3G has an impressive set of messaging features, but they're divided among 6 apps. On a BlackBerry phone like the BlackBerry Tour you'll find a simpler, unified Messaging inbox to store all your incoming and outgoing messages, including Facebook e-mail. We think the myTouch 3G (and the G1) would benefit from this sort of unified approach.
Now for the bad news. The onscreen keyboard on the T-Mobile myTouch 3G is lousy. It's the same keyboard that was added to the T-Mobile G1 with the last Android OS update, except on the myTouch 3G hardware we had trouble getting some of the keys to respond. Letters and keys on the edge of the keyboard required a more deliberate stroke, but sometimes they still wouldn't respond the first time. Besides that issue, the keyboard is too small in portrait to be comfortable. HTC, the manufacturer behind the T-Mobile myTouch 3G, uses a much better onscreen keyboard on other touchscreen phones, like the HTC Touch Diamond 2 or even the Android powered HTC Hero. We wish the myTouch 3G used one of those more convenient, responsive keyboard designs.
Multimedia – Good
For some reason, Google stopped short of creating a full multimedia application suite. The T-Mobile myTouch 3G comes with a music player, but no video playing software. The music player looks pretty good, and was easy to use by touch. It lacks some advanced playback options, like an equalizer, and we think it could be easier to make a new playlist on the myTouch 3G. But the device makes up for these issues with a cool feature that lets you press on an artist or song name to search YouTube for matching videos. This was a very cool feature that was fun to experiment with.
We've tried plenty of third-party options for music and multimedia playback, but none satisfy our music needs like the iPhone's iPod app, and the myTouch 3G lacks any sort of transfer software, so you'll have to drag and drop your tracks onto the phone's microSD card in mass storage mode. We like TuneWiki for music, which has some cool features like a synchronized lyrics display, but we haven't found a reliable video player, and this is a silly omission on Google's part. Google shouldn't be relying on third-party developers to create multimedia features that are pretty much essential apps on competitor phones.
T-Mobile has packed the myTouch 3G with a 4GB memory card, more generous than the 1GB card packaged with the T-Mobile G1. If you need more storage, you can expand up to 16GB, but we'd still like to see some internal storage to compete with the Apple iPhone 3GS and Palm Pre. Even worse, though, is the lack of a 3.5mm headphone jack. HTC will be abandoning its USB-only design for headphones in coming generations of devices, but T-Mobile myTouch 3G buyers are forced to use the included adapter, which adds a microphone and a 3.5mm port on a short leash.
Web browsing – Very Good
The T-Mobile myTouch 3G uses a very nice Web browser, based on the popular Webkit rendering engine found on competing phones, like Nokia's Nseries devices and the Apple iPhone platform. Webkit did a great job rendering pages to look like their full desktop versions, with images and text that looked sharp and smooth at any zoom level. Zooming could have been easier with multitouch, but instead of two-finger zooming you have to press the + and – signs at the bottom of the page, which caused some lag. Still, the browser uses a cool, accelerating sort of mini map window that reminded us of the mini map on the Nokia S60 browser, but with a magnifying effect that made browsing large pages even more convenient.
In terms of raw speed, we tested the T-Mobile myTouch 3G browser against other Webkit browsers on hand, including the T-Mobile G1, iPhone 3G and Palm Pre. We tried loading a variety of pages on each device running on the same Wi-Fi connection, to keep them on equal footing. The myTouch couldn't quite keep up with the non-Android devices, but it did manage to edge out the T-Mobile G1.
Camera - Good
We were very impressed with the camera on the T-Mobile G1, so it was disappointing to see that the T-Mobile myTouch 3G couldn't take pictures that were as compelling as its predecessor. Some brightly-lit images looked foggy and washed out, as if the camera lens was dirty, even though it was polished clean. Other outdoor shots looked far too dark for the bright afternoon conditions under which they were taken, and appeared to have a reddish tint to them. Indoor pictures looked fuzzy and bluish up close, and the myTouch 3G doesn't have a flash to help in severe low-light conditions. Unlike the G1, the myTouch 3G also lacks a dedicated shutter button. The T-Mobile G1 uses a 2-stage shutter, so you can focus and then shoot, and this is our preferred design for cameraphones. On the myTouch 3G, the button is on the screen, and it focuses and shoots in one long process. This makes self-portrait shots especially difficult, since you'll have to line up your finger before you turn the screen away from yourself. Check out our sample images below.
Orchids close up
Hazy Camaro
Indoor self portrait
Outdoor self portrait
The Gatehouse
Dock on the lake
GPS – Very Good
Though the T-Mobile myTouch 3G doesn't come with a turn-by-turn navigation app installed, there are navigation options available from the Google Market with the requisite monthly fee, including a nice version of TeleNav's navigation software. The phone does ship with Google Maps, and it's a great version of the mapping software. Google Maps on Android uses the built-in compass and accelerometer to create a sort of virtual scene with the app's Street View. You move the phone up and down and around the compass points, and the Street View scene moves with you to give you a global perspective. It's a great effect that we haven't yet seen on any other smartphone.
T-Mobile is also heavily promoting an app called Sherpa, which will be available from the Google Market as a standalone, and also as part of the carrier's new recommended App Pack. Sherpa is a location-based search engine that remembers your choices and preferences and tries to improve its search results based on your previous decisions. It uses a slick-looking interface and was loaded with points of interest, mostly local businesses.
Price and availability
The T-Mobile myTouch 3G will be available in stores on August 5 for $200 with a contract agreement.
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