I love my new phone. I love that it's only slightly bigger than the G1, but the screen is huge. I didn't realize the impact the bigger screen would have on how much more I enjoy using it. And it is fast. It's off-the-charts faster than the G1. I find myself skipping past links in emails, thinking it'll be easier to just check it on the computer. Then I remember, "Wait, I can look at that now!" and it doesn't take forever to load. Downloading my apps was incredibly fast, making a tedious job almost fun.
I really like the touch buttons for home, menu, back, and search. I don't know if I would consider them better or worse than regular buttons, but they're very easy to use and there's no problem with accidentally hitting them while doing other things. I also really like the track pad, as opposed to the track ball. I don't know if it was just age, but I was definitely having problems with the responsiveness of the track ball on the G1. The track pad has been surprisingly easy to use and get the hang of, even though I don't use it a ton.
I like the hinge, too. It's not as fluid of a motion for me to open and close it as the G1 is, but I think that probably is due to the fact that I unconsciously try to use the same motion as I used to, which of course doesn't do anything. But it opens very easily, and seems very sturdy, despite the whole hinge controversy. I think if the hinge was made to be so stiff that it didn't hang open when upside down, it would be too difficult to open and close normally. But right now it's smooth and fluid.
The keyboard is taking a little getting used to, but I have no complaints about it. I'm figuring out where things are located, but I really like it so far. And I like that it's much smaller when open than the G1 was. Oh, and the camera is fantastic.
Now, I do have some complaints. My biggest one is the location of the power button. I know it's the popular thing these days to have the power button way up at the top, but I'm a girl and have slightly smaller hands than most of the guys I know. The guys don't have a problem reaching up to hit the power button, but I do. Couple that with the fact that you have to slide to unlock, and it means if I'm holding my phone in only one hand, I have to shimmy the phone back and forth to be able to reach the power button and then down to a normal holding position to unlock and use the screen, and then back again to black out the screen. I'm getting more used to it, but it's still annoying that I don't (yet) have the option of choosing whether I want slide to unlock, or if I want to use the track pad to wake the phone up.
My second complaint is the choice of HTC to make it not easily root-able. It's really just kind of annoying, because I'm finding that all my favorite features and customizations were really a result of being able to install custom ROMs. So, it'll get rooted eventually, but it's unnecessarily difficult, and in the meantime, I'm waiting around, twiddling my thumbs until those really smart people figure it out and can give me the options I really want (like a solution to my first complaint).
So overall, it's an overwhelming improvement from the G1, and I love it. And the things I'm not quite so fond of will get solutions eventually through rooting, which is only possible thanks to Android being open source and a lot of people with a lot of time on their hands, to whom I am thankful. :-)
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