The device is scheduled to be launched on October 22 and it is the first smartphone based on Google’s newly released mobile OS, Android. The phone will be available solely through T-Mobile and it will be priced at $179 wit two-year contract. According to the tech site I4U, T-Mobile is already overwhelmed by pre-orders.

The G1 is designed almost from the ground up to run applications - Google's apps and those created by third-party developers. The G1 comes with a keyboard - with traditional key locations - that's larger than just about any other keyboard supplied on a wireless phone today. The slide-out keyboard is hidden under the phone's LCD when not in use. The keyboard will come as a pleasant surprise to those who have never quite grown accustomed to "virtual" keyboards provided on some phone, such as Apple's iPhone.

But because the G1's LCD is a touch-screen that you can use to navigate and use many applications, the keyboard is often entirely optional.

In terms of design, the G1 is comparable in size to Apple's iPhone - although the G1 is a bit taller and thicker. Also, the G1 offers a full array of features that one expects of a cutting-edge wireless phone today: Wi-Fi, a Web browser, music player, integrated digital camera, games, numerous applications, GPS, and e-mail. The G1's digital camera, notably, is 3.2 megapixels, while the iPhone's is only 2 megapixels.

The G1's battery life, unfortunately, is only about 130 hours standby and base memory of the G1 is 1 gigabyte (1 GB). The G1's memory can be expanded to 8 GB.