G2’s real name is myTouch 3G
They call this new phone their “highly anticipated follow-up to the G1, the world’s first Android powered device.” After months of rumor, T-Mobile has announced the upcoming availability of their second-generation Google phone.
The popular G1 has been around for months now. It has a hidden, slide-out QWERTY keyboard in addition to a newly-added, on-screen keyboard thanks to a very recent operating system software upgrade (to OS version 1.5).
myTouch drops the G1’s hardware keyboard so that resulting phone a lot thinner and lighter in weight. Designed by HTC, the new handset features a 3.2-inch touch-screen display, a 3.2-megapixel camera, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, a music player (with pre-installed 4GB microSD memory card), and enhanced video capabilities (with easy uploads to your e-mail, MMS, YouTube or Picasa).
There are software improvements too. In addition to the new OS there is something they’re calling Sherpa. Sherpa features GENIE (Geodelic ENgine for Interest Evaluation) which is a learning engine that is supposed to automatically customize itself to user preferences. According to the T-Mobile people, Sherpa, through behavior and user feedback, learns your likes and dislikes, prioritizing recommended retailers, restaurants and attractions. I thought that what parents, spouses and good friends are for!
And I can’t resist letting you read just a small portion of how T-Mobile describes this new phone in today’s press release:
“myTouch empowers users to simply create a unique, individualized wireless phone and experience. With the ability to richly customize menus, wallpapers, icons and more, thousands of Android Market applications to choose from, plus themes and skins that let customers express their style on the inside and outside, myTouch can evolve to become a virtual extension of oneself. Adding to its refined aesthetics and customization options, myTouch will come in three colors — black, white and a distinctive merlot. ”
Virtual extension of oneself? Extension? Phone? I get it!
Now the important stuff: myTouch will be available for pre-ordering by current T-Mobile customers starting July 8th for $199.99 (with a two-year service agreement). Retail store availability is planned for early August. Expect a full review as soon as I get my hands on one.
One note: I’m surprised at how little storage T-Mobile is bundling with this phone. I know you can always go out and buy a larger memory card, but 4GB of storage seems kinda stingy for a $200 smartphone these days. The new Palm Pre comes with 8GB of built-in storage (as well as having a microSD expansion slot). Apple’s new iPhone 3G-S gives you 16GB. For more expensive models, there’s now a 32GB iPhone as well as 32GB Nokia’s N97. There’s still time for T-Mobile to fix this.
At the Consumer Electronics Show, back in January, we got a sneak peek of the European version of the G2/myTouch phone: