Early Review of the Google Ion (T-Mobile G2)

We've been expecting the follow-up to the popular T-Mobile G1 for a while now, and Europe has had the phone well before it showed up here in the U.S. Now we're starting to see some reviews of the new Android phone, and it sure does look good.



Our friends over at Gizmodo got a chance to play with the Google Ion, which is essentially the T-Mobile G2, and the phone appears to be an improvement on the G1 in almost every way. That is, assuming you can live without a physical keyboard.

Uh-oh, we just lost half the texting fanatics.

The G2 dumped the G1's slide-out keyboard in favor of an onscreen keyboard (kind of like the one you've seen on the iPhone). This was a pretty polarizing move for G1 fans, so we'll have to see how well it's accepted. At least so far it looks like the onscreen keyboard will be functional enough that many people won't care.

The G2 is smaller and lighter than the G1, and it appears that the G2's screen is a little better too, even though it's about the same size. And Android enthusiasts will be happy to know that the G2 comes with the Cupcake 1.5 update preloaded, so you won't have to suffer through the over-the-air update woes that G1 users are experiencing.

While these improvements may not be incredible enough to make G1 owners switch, the G2 certainly has a lot of features to make other people interested in going with an Android phone. And of course, it just makes everything in the world seem right when sequels are better than the original.

For more on the G1, see the smartphone review site. For more tech news, stick with the blog:

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