[Nexus One General] Paul22000:
So I went to play with the G2 at the T-Mobile store yesterday...

First off, I'll say, wow, what an amazing device. The animations are much more smooth and fluid, namely the launcher and switching home screens. It's also a very solid device; slightly thicker than the N1 and heavy in the hand.

However, I was surprised that this fluidity didn't carry over to the main reason I was wanting an upgrade: smooth flash in the browser. Playing embedded flash videos was still pretty choppy, despite the better GPU and the flash hardware acceleration. That right there was enough to cut down my enthusiasm for upgrading. Perhaps I have to wait until the next Adreno?

Now, onto the keyboard... First off, flipping open the keyboard seems somewhat difficult. You have to push not only up, but outward in an arc (because of the Z-hinge) to get the keyboard open. That seems more difficult than it should be and could get annoying over time.

Ok, so funny story... :D I had my gf test out the keyboard to see what she thought. After a minute of typing, she was done and flipped the keyboard closed... And as it snapped shut, it pinched her finger, leaving a small bruise. LOL Yes, we and the T-Mobile rep all had a laugh :D Haha

Anyway, using the keyboard for me was very... Anti-climactic. The keys felt very flat to me and too close together. I'm sure I'd get fast over time, but I was struggling with it. Maybe I'm just too used to Swype, but I love being able to tap a text field in portrait mode, type a few things, and keep going with whatever I was doing. Flipping the phone sideways, pushing out the keyboard (awkwardly), and then typing slowly (as opposed to Swype), seems like it would take a lot longer than on-screen keyboards. More trouble than it's worth in my opinion.

I suppose it's good for people who write long emails or text A LOT, and I was trying to convince myself that it would be good for me too. But in reality, I was just feeling new-phone-flashiness envy. Yesterday taught me that I just don't need a physical keyboard. I'm much faster with Swype, don't type that much anyway, and feel that flipping the phone sideways and opening the keyboard is too much of a hassle.

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Now all that being said, the G2 is still an *AMAZING* device. It's by far the absolute best Android device being sold by any carrier in my opnion, and would highly recommend it to anyone.

The soft buttons are definitely fixed and infinitely easier to tap than the N1's; the optical trackpad is very easy to use; the GPU makes Android seem fluid and everything just flies; and I'm sure the screen calibrations problems are gone (didn't experience any in my short time with the G2, but doubt it has the problems).

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For me, the added bulk of the keyboard that I wouldn't use isn't worth it, but it's still an awesome phone. Also, it wouldn't make sense to upgrade since the G2 doesn't have a front-facing camera or HDMI out.

It was funny but towards the end of the visit to the T-Mobile store, the reps agreed with me that the jump from an N1 to a G2 was quite small. They understood, and wished T-Mobile was allowed to carry the N1.

Anyway, I guess the perfect device for me would be a Nexus One with a 4.3" screen. How long will I have to wait?