First Look at the Hitachi G1000

[Jason Dunn]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://pdaphonehome.com/phpBB2/articleview.php?t=3093' target='_blank'>http://pdaphonehome.com/phpBB2/arti...view.php?t=3093</a><br /><br /></div>"I walked in last evening and played back my answering machine. Suddenly, I heard 6 words that I’ll never forget: “Comp USA has the Hitachi G1000,” said my friend, who just saw them put on the shelf at the Comp USA in Fountain Valley, California. I took a deep breath, then screamed in excitement. After all, this is the phone I’ve been waiting for since last January, when first reading about it. I skipped feeding my golden retriever, Cody, who sensed the excitement on my face and hopped in the car with me.<br /><br />Fifteen minutes later, there it was! It was staring at me straight in the face from behind the glass case. A Comp USA employee, who looked and acted like he hadn’t been educated past the third grade, told me that I can only get the phone if I activate a new account their and buy a TAP service plan with it. I immediately told him he was wrong and he confirmed his ignorance with the supervisor. Pretty soon, I had the box in my hand, headed into my car, and opened it like a kid opening a box of candy. The very first thing I noticed about the Hitachi G1000 was that it was not the huge, bulky thing everybody was making it out to be. The Hitachi G1000, which uses an Intel XScale PXA255 processor running at 400 MHz, is big for a phone and a little big for a pocket pc. If, like me, you’re someone who likes thumb keyboards, the size of this won’t matter. It can, with a little trouble, fit into your pocket. However, with the included case, it will snap easily on your belt."<br /><br />Now here's someone who's excited about their new Pocket PC! :-) This is the first real look at the Hitachi G1000, and it looks like a promising device. All of you Sprint users are lucky - unlimited data (1XRTT right?) for only $10 extra per month? Wow. 8O PDAPhonehome will have a full review later on, but this first look is great!

[Crystal Eitle]

Wow, that thing is an ugly beast. It does look like a good solution for always being connected Internet-wise, though.

[ghostppc]

So is this your new primary phone Jason? :)

[dh]

Agree, it is too big and too ugly for most people. The features, only 32MB of RAM and no SDIO also leave a lot to be desired. Heck, they should have been able to include a CF slot as well in a brick that size.

Seems to me that the only way to include a keypad in a PPC is going to be a Sony type clamshell design.

The NX PPC version, with proper CF support and SDIO of couse, would be very nice.

OK, back to real life.

[JonnoB]

So is this your new primary phone Jason? :)

He was quoting the reviewer at pdaphonehome.com

[Pat Logsdon]

Hmmm. It's a little too "chunky" and industrial-looking for me. Reminds me of the Matrix Phone (http://myblog.perculaclown.net/images/matrixphone/matrix_phone.jpg).

[ikesler]

Wow, that thing is an ugly beast. It does look like a good solution for always being connected Internet-wise, though.

Ditto! :D

[JoshB]

A little chunky, and disappointing that it's only got 32MB and no SDIO.

I love the thumboard, though. If there was an XDA-sized PPCPE available with a thumboard, I would drop my Color Sidekick in a heartbeat.

As it is, I'll probably switch from the Sidekick to the second-gen XDA when/if it becomes available from T-Mobile. With all the features it promises, it might be just good enough to replace both my Sidekick and my iPAQ 1910.

[swimmer]

Does sprint still offer the $10 unlimited data? I thought they dropped that a couple of months ago. If they still have it, I'll buy this in a heartbeat though.

[Jeff Rutledge]

So is this your new primary phone Jason? :)

He was quoting the reviewer at pdaphonehome.com

Yeah, that always gets me too. I think it's the Contributor "speaking" and it sometimes takes me a minute to realize they're quoting.

In this case, I clued in when I realized Jason's in Calgary and there's no CompUSA's here (yup, the hamster's always goin' here). :)

[Programmer]

From the Article: "Overall, the Hitachi G1000 is a geek’s dream come true."

Sorry but its not this geek's dream come true. 8)

[Howard2k]

Wow! Looks pretty cool.. large and chunky but it'll be nice to see it get refined to something smaller and sleeker.

[ghostppc]

In this case, I clued in when I realized Jason's in Calgary and there's no CompUSA's here (yup, the hamster's always goin' here). :)

Shows how much attention I pay to details. :) I guess my hamster fell off it's wheel and is dazed and confused :alfdance: :D

[Jimmy Dodd]

I swung by CompUSA on my lunch break today just to see this thing. All I can say is it is huge. It looks like one of those walkie-talkies I had when I was a kid that was bigger than my head.

Plus it's really ugly - it's even uglier in person than the picture indicates. There are buttons all over it (the power button is on the back?!?!?) and the color scheme looks like somebody welded a thumboard onto a pocket pc.

[bbarker]

So is this your new primary phone Jason? :)

He was quoting the reviewer at pdaphonehome.com
It got me at first as well. Part of the problem is PPCT's style for quotes that go beyond one paragraph. Each paragraph should begin with a quote symbol and then the final paragraph should end with one. Doing it your way is always confusing because it's gramatically wrong.

I know, you like it the way you're doing it. I had this discussion with Jason a long time ago. Still, doing it right isn't that hard and wouldn't take that much ink.

[bbarker]

Wow! Looks pretty cool.. large and chunky but it'll be nice to see it get refined to something smaller and sleeker.
It looks like a Pocket PC slipped into some sort of keyboard accessory.

I have the pocket keyboard for my Jornada 568. A lot of people say that's the best add-on thumb keyboard for a PDA but I never liked using it. I would rather write on the screen or use my Stowaway folding keyboard, on which I can type fast.

Although I wouldn't want one of these, I'm glad to see some a new PPC design. Every time I walk past a Palm display in a store I'm amazed by all the creative form factors available for that OS.

[mccollin]

Wow... you guys are brutal.

I picked one up to give it a try. I'll post a more indepth review soon. There are some interesting features on the G1000 that would be welcome on other devices.

For one, there is a mode selection switch. So, you switch it to meeting mode or silent mode without fooling around with the stylus. It's also got a button to activate Fonix Voicedial, and one to lock the keyboard.

They have a built in application that lets you upload your pictures to the web, and if you put them in an existing album, they are immediately available to anyone that has a link.

As for the plans, Sprint includes unlimited data for free, and you can add a second line for free on their larger plans. Lower ones, it is $10 for unlimited data I believe. If this works out, I could save a lot of money in monthly fees. It all depends on the coverage.

[ShivShanks]

Does sprint still offer the $10 unlimited data? I thought they dropped that a couple of months ago. If they still have it, I'll buy this in a heartbeat though.

As far as I know yes its still there. After all I use it everyday to read CNN news (with pictures and all) in the loo on my Samsung A500 phone :) I'd kill for a nice MS Smartphone to use on the Sprint Network assuming the bl00dy US launch of Smartphone takes place soon enough and Sprint has plans to take advantage of it

[dh]

Does sprint still offer the $10 unlimited data? I thought they dropped that a couple of months ago. If they still have it, I'll buy this in a heartbeat though.

As far as I know yes its still there. After all I use it everyday to read CNN news (with pictures and all) in the loo on my Samsung A500 phone :) I'd kill for a nice MS Smartphone to use on the Sprint Network assuming the bl00dy US launch of Smartphone takes place soon enough and Sprint has plans to take advantage of it

All the MS Smartphones I've seen have been GSM. Anyone know if there is a CDMA version planned for the US?

Also I wonder what the ratio of CDMA to GSM subscribers is in the US. I would guess a lot more CDMA since most ATTWS and Cingular customers are still on TDMA systems.

[Janak Parekh]

All the MS Smartphones I've seen have been GSM. Anyone know if there is a CDMA version planned for the US?
The SCH-i600 (http://www.phonescoop.com/phones/phone.php?id=186) is rumored to be coming on Verizon any month now.

Also I wonder what the ratio of CDMA to GSM subscribers is in the US. I would guess a lot more CDMA since most ATTWS and Cingular customers are still on TDMA systems.
Correct, although this is going to change in the next 2-3 years. Ultimately, I expect the number of GSM and CDMA users to be nearly equivalent.

--janak

[Pony99CA]

So is this your new primary phone Jason? :)
He was quoting the reviewer at pdaphonehome.com
It got me at first as well. Part of the problem is PPCT's style for quotes that go beyond one paragraph. Each paragraph should begin with a quote symbol and then the final paragraph should end with one. Doing it your way is always confusing because it's gramatically wrong.

I know, you like it the way you're doing it. I had this discussion with Jason a long time ago. Still, doing it right isn't that hard and wouldn't take that much ink.
Actually, I believe that style is for dialogue in fiction. When I took typing or composition, I learned that block quotations (longer than two or three lines) should have both margins indented (and I don't believe those required quotation marks). If you really care about quoting, check out Strunk's Elements of Style (http://www.bartleby.com/141/strunk2.html/#4).

That said, it really isn't too hard to figure out. The first paragraph did start with quotation marks but didn't have an ending set. So, at worst, the second paragraph's lack of opening quotation marks was ambiguous. The ambiguity is easily resolved by scanning ahead for closing quotation marks.

Steve

P.S. If you want to be correct, you shouldn't use "you", "your" and "you're" when referring to Jason (who posted the article) while quoting JonnoB. :-)

[Pony99CA]

All the MS Smartphones I've seen have been GSM. Anyone know if there is a CDMA version planned for the US?
The SCH-i600 (http://www.phonescoop.com/phones/phone.php?id=186) is rumored to be coming on Verizon any month now.
I was at Verizon on Thursday (and got a new LG VX6000 camera phone :-)). I asked about the i600, and the woman there said it should be available in about a month.

Steve

[sweetpete]

I had an opportunity to use the G1000 at TechEd in Dallas for a week. They had a PocketPC test drive where they offerred the G1000, the 5450, and a Toshiba (can't remember which). The others had WiFi, but since I had a TabletPC from work I didn't really want another WiFi device and the phone could be used for free long distance to call the wife :lol:

My impressions on the device were mixed. It was nice to finally see a feature packed PPCPE with a thumb keyboard, but my excitement for the thumb keyboard evaporated quickly. I had a RIM for about a year and I found the layout and usability of the keyboard to be a lot better than on the G1000. Changing from letters to symbols and numbers seemed like a pain to me. I should warn everyone that I didn't look at the Sprint branded manual too much. It covered only the basic operations and didn't go much into tips and tricks so there may have been steps I could have taken to make the keyboard more usable :!:

The camera worked quite nicely. I took quite a few shots around the conference and used the upload feature to store the pictures and free up memory. I found the quality to be good and equal or better to pictures I've taken with my T68 camera. Unfortunately, I misplaced the album site URL and didn't get a chance to save the pictures before Sprint nuked the site :cry:

The phone was OK, but not the greatest. I didn't get a handsfree and my T68's didn't work with it so I had the greasy screen thing going 8O It felt pretty weird holding such a bulky thing to my face while I walked around (especially when my day-to-day phone is the T68). I did find that you had to hold the handset just right to hear well, otherwise the volume would be too low. I really did enjoye the speakerphone feature though. Whenever I used it people could here me well and vice versa ... even in the loud conference hall.

Anyway, I wasn't intending on doing a mini-review but I thought I'd share my experiences with the device. I'm not sure I'd buy this device if it was available to me especially given its size, but those interested in a data centric device with a keyboard now have a decent alternative.

[Newsboy]

I would have been interested in this device a year or two ago. Now, there's no reason to justify it. Limitations are too great: 32 mb ram, no SDIO, no WiFi, HUGE, no Pocket PC PE 2003 available.

Hellooooooooo T-Mobile!