Meet the first Android phone, the T-Mobile G1

Mumbai: Meet the HTC Dream, aka T-mobile G1. It is the first Android based smartphone which was marketed by T-Mobile and manufactured by HTC. The product is known as HTC Dream when referring, but highly known as the T-Mobile G1 in the US and Era G1 in Poland.

Developed by HTC in October 2008, this was the first commercially available Linux-based Android smartphone. The Operating system was later purchased by Google, which further developed it (along with Open Handset Alliance) into what you see today. The operating system, Android, was developed to give rivals a tough competition, namely Symbian, Blackberry and iOS. The Android operating system was customized with a graphical user interface; an email application (Gmail) and a market to (Android Market) download additional apps and games.

The Dream was praised for its robust build and hardware design. Though the open operating system received criticism in the start, it has finally taken on the rival operating systems to become a leader in smartphones operating systems. Android Inc was acquired by Google in July 2005.

Here are the HTD Dream’s specifications.

• Processor: 528 MHz ARM 11 Qualcomm MSM7201A chipset
• Graphics: Adreno 130
• RAM: 192MB RAM
• Storage: 256MB internal, 16GB expandable (MicroSD card slot)
• Display: 3.2-inch capacitive display, 320x480 pixels, Corning Gorilla Glass, Trackball.
• Connectivity: Wi-Fi b/g, Bluetooth 2.0, mini USB, GPRS, EDGE, HSDPA
• Camera: 3.15MP (rear)
• Others: physical QWERTY keyboard, revealed after flipping the display panel.
• Operating system: Android Donut v1.6 (started with Android 1.0, went to v1.5 (Cupcake) and then v1.6)
• Battery: 1150 mAh
• Thickness, weight: 17.1mm, 158g

HTC Dream was officially discontinued by T-Mobile with the G2 as a successor which was the first one to have a sliding keyboard and 4G connectivity. We managed to get the user manual of the G1, and if you want it too, click here. Below are some images we could gather.