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Five Things To Dislike About The HTC G1 Google Phone

Android and the HTC G1 aren't perfect. In fact, there are some glaring flaws. Here are five of them.

1. The hardware. Sorry, HTC, but the G1 feels cheap. I understand that what we saw today were preproduction units, but the phones felt thrown together. The plastics weren't high quality and the trackball didn't work all the time.

2. The camera. The G1 may have a 3-megapixel camera with autofocus, but it doesn't have a flash, nor a vanity mirror. It also is a bit slow, and the images I took with it were not of the highest caliber.

3. The keyboard. QWERTY keyboards on smartphones are a funny thing. Some are great, and some stink. The G1's keyboard falls in the middle. The buttons are small, flat, and don't have a lot of travel and feedback to let you know that you've pressed them. The keyboard will take some getting used to for most people.

4. No headphone jack. This is something HTC needs to deal with on more phones than just the G1. The G1 does not have a 2.5-mm or 3.5-mm headset jack. That means you have to use a USB adapter if you want listen to music. I have to ask, why bother including a media player at all if you're going to make it a hassle to use headphones. What's worse, the G1 doesn't support stereo Bluetooth (yet), so the adapter is your only choice. Get with the program, HTC, and figure out how to put 3.5-mm headset jacks onto your devices.

5. No PC syncing. I get it. Google believes in the cloud, and nowhere is that more evident than with the G1. There is no desktop syncing client available for the G1. That means if you want to sync your contacts, calendars, etc., you have to do it all through the Internet. While this functionality is a large part of the G1's premise, there are those who are going to want to have more control and sync directly from their computer.

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