Post by: Sameer Parker

One of the newest smartphone operating systems (OS) to hit the Cellphone market, Android, is now available in South Africa. This much anticipated OS, made by Google (yes, the search engine) appears on various brands, but was first implemented by HTC, popular hardware manufacturers for Windows Mobile (WM) phones.

Android made its very first appearance to the world on the G1 (HTC Dream) and recently launched the G2 (HTC Magic). These two phones have now been exclusively adopted by MTN and VODACOM respectively on the South African market.

What would be the difference between these two phones?

On review of the specifications, it basically boils down to personal preference (due to slight differences which we will cover below) as well as the contract package it comes on. Of course, some of us will choose based on MTN or VODACOM as a network as a factor?

Features:

Both the G1 and G2 have the following features:

TFT capacitive touchscreen (which means no stylus, only heat sensitive finger touches will register on the screen)

320 x 480 pixels, 3.2 inches

Accelerometer sensor for auto-rotate – basically meaning when you turn the phone from upright to sideways, then the screen itself also rotates.

Handwriting recognition – you can write on the screen and the phone will interpret into text

microSD (TransFlash) – the smallest available SD card at the moment to store all your music and photos etc

3.15 MP, 2048×1536 pixels, autofocus

Trackball with Enter button (similar to the Blackberry 9000)

For the very technically inclined, both phones feature a Qualcomm MSM 7201A 528 MHz processor, which is the very same processor found in the Sony Ericsson Xperia as well as the HTC Touch and Touch Pro amongst others.

Differences:

The differences picked up between specifications of the models:

The G2 has better memory (288 MB RAM, 512 MB ROM) as opposed to the G1 (192 MB RAM, 256 MB ROM). The G2 also has video calling (which means you can see the person you have called provided they have a video call enabled phone) while the G1 has a slide out QWERTY keypad. Other than these differences, there is no real “stand out” feature between the two. The real difference would be whether you prefer a QWERTY keypad as opposed to a “touch screen only” or whether video calling and more memory excites you.

Let’s now look at the packages on offer:

The MTN deal comes on an MTN Anytime R350 at R529 per month, with 100MB data bundle included free. These deals are available through both MTNSP and Nashua Mobile. Please check their respective websites and the press as these links were available at the time of writing and may or may have changed when reading this article.

Currently there is no specific information with regards to the VODACOM deals but according to their website, the G2 is available on the Smart 120S (at R450.00 per month with 100 sms and 250mb data) and Smart 500S (at R925.00 per month with 100 sms and 250mb data) packages.

The above sumarises the G1 and G2 phones based on hardware specifications and assuming you already know the Android operating system, thereby helping to make an informed decision when considering between the two Android based phones.Hasanain says...