I was at the T-Mobile store checking out the G1. As I was experimenting, and comparing my iPhone next to the G1, someone came up and asked me; ‘should I get this or the iPhone?’

Not a simple answer.

So clearly, time to post the list of questions to help people out:

1) How important is the phone ‘as a phone’ to you?  If you use it for business, I would get neither.  Instead, focus on which phone ‘and service’ that is most stable for your area.

2) How often do you text?  The person I was talking with uses text A LOT!  In this case, I would get the G1.  Although I did not like the keyboard as much as the Treo or Blackberry, it is still FAR better then trying to type on the iPhone.

3) Listen to a lot of music on the go?  You may prefer the iPhone in this case.  The iPhone has a dedicated headphone jack and more memory.  With the G1 you need to use an extUSB adapter.  And as my new friend pointed out; then I cannot listen to music and have the phone plugged in at the same time? Weak.

4) Does size matter?  The iphone is a bit smaller.

5) Battery life.  Iphone wins here.  300 hours vs. 130. Side note though, you could by 2 extra batteries to catch up. 🙂

6) Games.  IPhone again.  With superior graphic capabilities, its hands down.

7) Camera.  G1 here.  3MP vs. 2MP. From a few test pics, neither is great for photos, but OK.

There are other things we could compare, like the fact you can change the battery in the G1 and not the iPhone, or that the iphone’s OS is more refined, or that there is FAR more apps put for the iPhone, but I do not want repeat what others have already done.  So below I grabbed a chart from Wired and placed it below.

As for myself, its still to early to make any judgments with Android.  A good way to think about this is Apple vs. Linux.  The iPhone is an Apple device with an Apple OS. Android is an OS ready for any phone.  So I plan to give it a year plus when my contract is up and revisit the question.  Till then, I would advise iPhone.

Here is a good chart from Wired.

Have a look at Wired’s article,

http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2008/09/showdown-htc-t.html

…and the pcworld article is good also,

http://www.pcworld.com/article/151434/tmobiles_g1_vs_the_iphone_game_on.html

One side note here…  The GPS placed me about a mile away from the proper location.  Both phones!  Not sure what to make of that.