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Most sliders stick to a pretty tried-and-true format, literally comprised of two halves that slide apart to reveal a QWERTY keyboard. The upcoming T-Mobile G2 accomplishes the same task, though the mechanism in place to divide the handset into its keyboard and screen is slightly different than what we are used to judging by a new round of slightly clearer leaked shots of the phone.
It appears that screen lifts away from the keyboard on a hinge and then slides flat to present the G2’s typing surface. The design decision is no doubt to facilitate a much thinner profile by shifting the component layout so that the larger internals can be stacked up in thicker parts of the casing which interlock like puzzle pieces to create as compact a design as possible.
A pretty neat design, but I get the sinking suspicion we could be hearing some complaints about weak hinges breaking after heavy use or more than one account of the phone’s two halves breaking apart. Maybe that is just the pessimist in me speaking. What do you guys think about the slider that is actually more like a stacker?
[via Engadget]
First. I like tits
I have no doubt it will be constructed well. I’ve had a G1 for nearly 2 years and slammed that screen open and shut thousands of times. HTC makes well constructed phones imho.
This definitely looks like a Nexus 2. Still not my phone. I want the glacier. I want the dual core processing. And I like the keyboard on my G1, but with the bigger screens who needs a hardware keyboard. I’d prefer a thinner phone. I hope the glacier has a front facing camera.
I personally don’t care about the hinge mechanics, as long as they work. It can flip like a Sidekick for all I care. I just want a phone that doesn’t suck like the CLIQ.
i like this i think these pics seal the deal for my next phone unless the mt3g HD is way better but i have been looking for a touch screen with keyboard i like
The G1 had a very similar hinge mechanism and worked just fine. Not sure where the worry is exactly?
I just broke my G1. :( Cant Decide between this and the Epic 4G.
@Keller: Everything I’ve heard says that this should have at least an 800Mhz dual-core… Did I miss something, or are you assuming it has the same CPU specs as the Nexus/Desire?
G1 had 5 row keyboard and was GREAT. Where’s the dedicated number buttons HTC? That is a letdown.
i dont like it, a regular slider would have been better but its not like i am getting this phone anyway because im not on tmobile
g1 replacement for sure…and you guys are such pussies about your keyboard….theres a reason htc did that. they want to have more room for the keys that are there, and enough room for the internals that you guys bitch about. you try to design a phone with a perfect balance. and how often do you need the 5th row? so you press one more button to get the number and shut the fuck up
Oh my god. *That* is the Nexus Two, and I am grieving.
What happened, Google?! I really want to know the full story. My guess is they tried hard for carrier deals and all of them balked.
@bobbert
i actually use the dedicated number row quite often. now to press the extra button per number isn’t devastating…but it would’ve been nice to have that row.
@pieter yeah it would have been nice, but htc had to sacrifice something to take away that row..
If it is unlocked, this may be the replacement for the D1 I have been hoping for. Any word on if they sensed it up or not?
@bobbert
++++++1
Your only going to see a very small incremental increase in performance with dual core. Unless the OS is optimized for dual core which I don’t believe Froyo is your only going to see increased battery consumption.
Nice to see TMobile stocking up on the high end side of devices again.
@Fresh ….I will be leaving T-Mobile in exactly 10 days for the Epic 4G because it is way better than anything T-Mobile or any other carrier has to offer including this underpowered G2….If you like the best hardware keyboards and amazing Super Amoled screens like the Vibrant than the Epic would be the obvious choice….Just read all of the reviews for the Epic and your decision should be quite easy…..Goodbye crappy Moto Cliq and hello Epic 4G!
@bobbert ….Even my Moto Cliq has the ability to just hit the alt button twice to lock the numbers if you have to input a phone number or credit card number etc. ….Yet another reason to buy an Epic though :)
I hope this isn’t going to be running espresso UI. I like the design but I’ll be waiting on the Mytouch HD/Desire HD with a 4.3 inch screen.
I thinking the specs will be close to the Nexus 1, when Google store first open they spoke of a Nexus 1 Pro that would add a keyboard for more of a business use. Snapdragon with all the bells and whistles. Being that this is going to be a With Google device like the original G1 I’m thinking 2.2 with a quick upgrade to 3.0 with no problem.
My Touch HD have Expesso UI like the Slide, Genius button and all!!
Just thinking, no wonder they didn’t pick up the N1!! this is it with a keyboard. The only bad thing is it won’t have a ffc. So the N1 Pro turn G2, works for me if I didn’t have the N1. My next phone will be faster, 1080p and something that doesn’t have the glare on my N1.
The hinge (arms ?) look pretty beefy.. I think it will take some pretty spastic and abusive people to break them. Someone will manage it I’m sure.. but common ? I doubt it.
I was at a local T-Mobile store a couple of months ago and the manager told me that in a couple of months, T-Mobile will be coming up with their version of the Nexus One. Looks like this could be it.
the design on the back is amazing…it looks like it will have a great feel
Looks SICK!
i didnt see an ffc, i for one want to be able to take advantage of everything android has to offer. this was my first choice for replacing my g1 but now im waiting for the glacier and i hope that has all i want. i could be wrong and this might have a ffc. lets hope :-)
4 row keyboard?! Set a course FOUR fail.
I have actually had my hands on this phone, and contrary to the Phandroid article, I have no worries about the mechanism used for the keyboard. It was hands down the most solid “slider” phone on the market. The hinges seemed very strong and should be quite durable.
Specs …. http://www.cellphonesignal.com/t-mobile-g2-aka-htc-blaze-appears-on-walmart-webpage/
– Android OS w/ HTC Sense
– 3.7″ Active Matrix OLED display
– 1 GHz Snapdragon Processor
– Landscape slide-out QWERTY keyboard
– 5MP camera with autofocus.
– 3G HSPA+
– WiFi + Hotspot capabilities
– aGPS
– Bluetooth 2.1 + Enhanced Data Rate
specs are pretty good if thats right….oled!!!
but it better not be sense espresso, which im sure it wont be
The only phone for T-mo that almost got me off my G1 is the Nexus. It was such a pain in the ass to order it, I said forget it. Nothing has made me budge yet. I’m waiting for a Droid X type phone. That is the nicest phone I’ve ever used. It’s sturdy, Feels nice in your hand, The screen is amazing, Quick as hell, It’s pretty much a digital camera built in. Motorola stepped it up. I’m not complaining. I just want a phone to SCREAM my name!
@shawn1224 ….lets just say that link has a couple things right and a couple things wrong.
@DroidDev … Oh I’m sure it does but it’s a starting point at least.
wow, they already have a fan page for this: http://www.facebook.com/pages/T-Mobile-G2/108120399245708?v=wall
will be honest, i have no idea why ppl would doubt the mechanism, look at the N97 and its mini variant? they seem to hold up well :) the only issue i have is with all HTC phones…that chuffing camera!!! 5mp?? ive had one since the nokia n95 days and my htc hero sucks! and even the desire isnt much better, cant stand the fact the iphone 4 now has a better cam quality than most of the android phones out there!! :( and just a 1ghz processor is sooooo last year, but crikey im looking forward to this OLED display!…just please tell me its not made my samsung (think the recent amoled supply issues…)
Them hinges are different and theres room for error. I have the mt3gs and well i got used to that 5th row on the g1 .o well.
Now some neon lighting under the top half of the phone to accent the top row on the keyboard and it well be all good
–john
—mytouch slide
—–rom-felix 1.7.1
——-overclocked @ 806 mhz and flying
Eddie do you even know what your talking about? The Nexus one actually has one of the best Camera’s you can get on an Android device. Certainly on par with the Iphone 4 in the still image category (maybe not on video). To your point that “1ghz processor is soooo last year” is a rather uneducated and an ignorant statement. The software is the bigger issue at this point. The optimizations that Froyo brings to these devices is much more significant then having a faster CPU would bring (at least at this point).
The Nexus One with a Froyo update is a top performer according to the the Quadrant app.
Hell lower spec’d devices like the HTC Legend and the Mytouch 3g Slide are more then capable with 600 megahertz processors they have.
Your statement is also overlooking things like onboard Ram, GPU capabilities, Flash NAND speeds etc.
too bad you have to have t-mobile.
I mean, give us some info! Does this thing have a proximity sensor? What GPU is it running? How much RAM? Seems like this phone will basically be a nexus one with a keyboard. If that’s the case, I think I’m done with T-Mobile.
I’m not sure why everyone is always afraid of different hinges. When I had my juke everyone said the swivel wouldn’t last but it held up fine. This looks like the mechanism on the g1 which to me seemed a lot sturdier than the droid.
I like the smaller form factor of a keyboardless phone but maybe if this is thin enough it wouldn’t be too bad.
I hate 4 row Keyboards!!!!! If it had 5 row I would be all on it.T-Mobile fails again.I’m not that inpressed with the specs either.JMHO
Vibrant still seems better!
disapointing specs to me, gonna wait for emerald
@everyone complaining because it’s a 4 row and not a 5 row keyboard
you do realize with android you tap the alt button twice and it locks the alt, so if you’re putting a shit-ton of numbers in, hit it twice, put the numbers in, hit it once more and it goes back to regular. there’s absolutely no need for the 5th row. “you’re doing it wrong”
@shawn aka the dude that posted the walmart link….its a fake, including the specs…i went to walmart and searched for it, by carrier, brand, even searched by name, both blaze and g1…and nothing is there….clearly photoshopped from info on tmobiles g2 page, and hopefully not what lots of idiots on these pages are assuming are the specs…just to dissapoint people and get people to talk to them…ill wait for the REAL specs from tmobile or a credible site like engadget or gizmodo….thanks for the distraction…..im sure the REAL specs are much better…besides there were mispelled words, and no tech place would list “3G HSPA+” as if its another form of 3G…the blind search was the full proof tho…not even a hint of the g2/blaze or tmobile g2
This is…gorgeous or will be, just in another color. My vibrant is stunning. I miss my g1s keyboard so much but it broke so I went ahead with the Vibrant. I am NOT a master of Swype so you probably know how irritating using this phone could be for me. Even just writing things like these take a lot of effort and is a hasell. I prefer faster download speeds than faster processor and with hspa+ and this phone hardware, I’m pretty sure the download speeds will be faster than the processor. And that’s okay with me. I’m most likely going to return my Vibrant and get this. Anyone care to make me feel better by telling me I’m doing the right thing? Or should I stick with my Vibrant?
@ rob, granted specs are not all thats crucial but when i bought my htc hero i was expecting it to last beyond 2.1 (even misses stuff like live wallpapers) but with hardware limitations it isnt going to see 3.0 unfortunately. i can just see when 3.1, .2 .5 or what ever gets released, even the nexus1 wont be able to run it due to some limitations in hardware, most likely due to a slower processor needed to run some proper HD feature they might come up in the future or not enough RAM or ROM etc etc. and in regards to the cam? the htc desire is basically the n1, and even with 2.2 im not impressed with the cam at all. stills? i’ll give it its dues, its pretty good, but low light shots? shots taken on even slowly moving objects? common, again, the old nokia n95 was far superior to the best the android smartphones can offer at the moment. i wont even mention the video recorder in apparent HD, geez, the SE vivaz shoots better vids than that… im all love for android phones, but with several manufacturers id expect there to be a more fierce hardware race to better one another rather than recycling the same hardware all over again 12-18months on.
Lets see, was the G1 slide mechanism like any other you had seen before (or since for that matter) ?
It worked great and I could open it with one hand.
If you’d ever seen the videos of the testing HTC does to their phones before releasing them, you wouldnt worry about the slide mechanism holding up.
:-)
@Eddie,Rob I have to give Eddie some credit for his cam remark. Thing is N95 and SE phones had better cams three years ago than HTC now. My brother gave up his N95 for a Hero and bought a dedicated photo camera two weeks later. He didn’t regret the Hero on the whole but cam experience was nowhere near what he’d been used to.
Eddie, your ‘1ghz is sooo last year’ remark is really BS and I hope you realize that. Let’s keep some perspective on the actual presence of features, and not only glance at future specs.
I say this phone looks good. I miss the g1 and seeing this I think the design looks like almost like the nexus one only with keyboard. so it outta be durable cuz HTC makes good keyboard. I just gotta say when it comes to update HTC is fucking slow am just waiting to see in person and decide its right for me or just get the evo 4G
@ DroidDev, If you really had your ” hands on this phone ” then tell us more about it! not just ” oh yeah the hinges will hold up ” tell us more dumbass.
It looks like a bad idea to buy this with 3.0 around the corner and rumors of the HTC Glacier.
@Ivan… droiddev is lying like a virgin male on thier dick.he’s never seen or touched this device. If he did he would’ve already posted pics or videos. He doesn’t know specs like the rest of us. He’s a big liar.
@ coolmandingo: ur right!
@ droiddev: lol a facepalm xD
lame
Im a bit diappointed that theres no dedicated number row especially since my mytouch slide also lacks it but at least it still has a keyboard period. as an avid microsoft word user a virtual keyboard just does not cut it. according to the specs on this phone it will be hard to tell the difference between this and 4g speeds which of course is a very good thing. when the hell will tmobile get a gphone with a webcam function though? I was hoping it would be on the g2!
I thought this was the supposed HTC Glacier? I heard this was the phone that was going to have the dual core processor. Are those specs posted earlier from walmart the right ones? If this isn’t it hen I’ll just keep waiting until september 15 when htc has their press release in London. Hopefully then we will see the true Glacier.
it does look a little LAME! with the numbers tmobile posted(their losses for the past quarter was very low and lost a lot of customers thanks to wack ass phones and better phones elsewhere). tmobile needs a 4 or 4.3 inch behemoth to kill the competition. its like they are going backwords. i understand they have a demographic but like sprint and has shown shity service+bad customer+BEST PHONE ON THE MARKET9according to some, the ip4 isnt that great)=SATISFIED phone users.if it wasnt for the EVO sprint would be DEAD right now!! and i want anyone to contest that. where you think sprint was going with that monkey ass Palm Pre? Tmobile needs a EVO-esque phone pronto and stop saying the HD2 (shut up). Im talking a ANDROID device with pretty much the same specs if not better than the EVO. Come one Tmobile were growing tired of your inadequacy. The Vibrant is cool but its a Tmobile only device(samsung markets its own device and i know you guys have seen the samsung commercials.) We need you guys to GIVE us tmobile Loyalist what we deserve. g1+ 1 !!! Come one
lol?! personally i dun like 4+ inch phones :S to big 3.7 inch is best imo =) its not so stylish and how to pocket it?
I had a g1 and now currntly have a mototrola cliq.. love the cliq but no android 2.1 yet.. my g1 was veryy sturdy. i loved it, untill it got crazy. i think htc makes awesome phones that are very well constructed. my contract ends next june so guess whos gonna be getting a G2!
@coolmandingo- as far as I know, no official specs for the phone have been released. which means, you have no clue if this thing is gonna come with a dual core as it was first rumored or the RAM/ROM for that matter. all internal specs are any ones guess right now. this could be some ridiculous power house under the hood and you don’t even know it. remember the old saying, “don’t judge a book by it’s cover.”?
O, and t-mobile does have a 4.3″ evo-like device coming according to previous post on here. Mytouch HD.
Is this the dual core one?
Honestly, the age of the slider is over. It was awesome on the G1. But with technologies like SWYPE and voice texting, there is no need for a keyboard anymore. Plus, laws are getting strict about texting while driving. So having a slider keyboard is pointless if you plan on texting while driving. That’s where voice texting comes in. I was excited about the G2 coming out. But now that I know it’s a slider, it seems obsolete before it even reaches launch day.
Contraus – why can’t u still type on the screen? The phone will have the option, no?
So….will this be using the same screen and sensor as the Nexus One? If so, I’ll pass since there are problems with the Nexus One screen.
Contraus, the screen will never replace a true keyboard never.