I have been due for an upgrade since September, but am still waiting for the release of the phone I really want, I rang up to see if there was any release date set for it but was told there was still no date set, but would I like to charge the T Mobile G1 instead?! I haven't really been interested in this phone because of having read a few reviews, and looking the spec etc up myself, it just wasn't something that appealed to me. I said I'd prefer to just wait but the sales guy said I could try it for 7 days and if it wasn't to my liking, I could send back and there'd be no difference in my account status, so after a bit of persuasion, I agreed.

The phone runs the much anticipated Android operating system; this is the first open source operating system for a mobile phone. A lot of people were saying that this was another in a long line of supposed 'I-Phone Killers' but was this to be the case? Having not ever used an I-Phone, I can't compare it to this but I can tell you of my own opinion for the week that I used the phone.

• The handset itself,
• The phone battery,
• A standard phone charger plug with a mini USB connection,
• A 2 GB Micro SD memory card,
• Headphones (in the same colour as your handset) with mini usb connection,
• A screen protector (plastic film type),
• Some sticky plastic decorations for the phone (nice touch but a bit childish for me),
• A getting started guide that doesn't really include all the information I'd like,
• A USB lead to connect your phone with your pc that also charges the phone too - unlike my Nokia n95 that drains as soon as it's plugged into my pc,
• A rather shoddy/cheap case for the phone (in the same colour as the handset you have) that doesn't even seem to fit the phone very well
• A CD with software to sync your PC and phone.

It has an expandable memory capacity, which makes it easier to store any photos or music etc that you want without running out of internal memory.

You then come to the main front page with a clock on and a few icons, mine being 'dialer', contacts, browser, maps and web and walk. Please note that I did not spell dialler incorrectly; this is the way it is on the phone, a big error in my opinion since this phone is not only marketed for the US, but the UK and Europe also.

The user interface is meant to be a dream to use, and to some extent it is quite good but it's certainly not without some major flaws. It's a bit of a pain to get set up how I'd like it as there seems to be numerous sub menus that need exploring and I tend to lose where I am up to and end up frustrated. You'll probably also find that if you install a lot of games and applications (more about these later) that your menu bar gets very busy and it's not so easy to find the things you want quickly/easily. What would be better is if they had separate games and applications folders so that these third party downloads could be kept together, whilst still being easily accessible.

They had the good sense to include both a touch screen AND a full QWERTY keypad but this is brought down by the fact that when texting or typing for any other reason you find that the ledge with the menu and call buttons at the bottom of the phone get in the way for both the typing experience, and also in the way you need to hold your phone. The buttons are also very small, close together and not raised very much which makes it difficult to type/hit the right keys and also really quite difficult to ascertain if you have pushed them or not.

The backlight on the keyboard doesn't light all the buttons as well as it should, I find the Q, menu, delete, shift and a handful of other buttons don't light up very well at all and thus make it difficult to see them properly; which defeats the object of it being there in my opinion.

The headphones, as mentioned briefly above have a mini USB connection to connect to the phone, I really don't know why they chose to use this kind of connection and they haven't even included an adapter so that if you were to lose the headphones provided, or they were to stop working at least you'd have the ability to use other headphones you have? Would it have been so difficult to have used a normal 3.5mm jack so you can use any headphones with the phone? I think not. Also, having this set up also means that you cannot charge your phone whilst still listening to music, which can be a pain if your battery goes whilst on a train and you still want to be able to listen to music whilst you charge up; a situation I find myself in quite a lot really.

The phone has GPS and Google maps are pre-installed, these are great, the GPS finds you even whilst inside (unlike Nokia maps) and it has the ability to direct you from point A to point B easily and clearly. There are not enough areas with street view on to make this part worthwhile at this moment in time, maybe this will change in future.

Android Market is actually very good and a worthwhile addition to this phone; in fact I'd go as far to say this is the best thing I have found about the phone full stop. It's very easy to look through or install applications and games (apart from the unresponsive screen issue) although I feel it would benefit from a proper search function that you could type in a keyword, and also to order the results not only by popularity (how many times it has been downloaded) and date, but by user rating. I have found that Android Market has a fairly good selection of free games and applications which is a big bonus as to have to pay for each application or game you would like would work out to be very expensive.

I can't understand who this phone is aimed at, as there's not really any direction in it, it wouldn't suit business users in my opinion, it doesn't even seem to aim at general consumers that well, and to me it has a slightly bigger appeal to teenagers but then would they really be spending enough on a contract to be able to get this phone?