For some of you out there, you’re nearing your eight-year anniversary with the Android operating system. If you’re anything like me, you’ve been using Google’s mobile operating system, in some capacity or another, since around October 2008. Back then, T-Mobile launched the original HTC-manufactured G1, and it showed off its slide-out form factor in all of its glory.
Let’s be real here: Back then, Android was rough. In fact, it took a few years before Android started to feel less like a developer’s pet project and a stable mobile operating system. Not that that’s a bad thing, of course, because let’s just look at the current state of Android today. It’s pretty amazing. We’ve come a long, long way in (almost) eight years.
The T-Mobile G1 will be a handset that I’m probably always going to have fond memories of. I can still remember how I ended up getting one. I dropped by a T-Mobile kiosk where I was living at the time, and we were most definitely not one of T-Mobile’s 3G-covered areas, which meant, at the time, the G1 wasn’t supposed to be available in my area. But the kiosk had four of them — and I was lucky enough to get one sold to me.
I liked the G1 more than Apple’s iPhones in just about every category. I even gave the G1 an edge because of that hardware keyboard! I just loved using that phone.
But we’ve had a lot of different devices in between now and then, haven’t we? As time has marched on, and Android has progressed, so have the devices. The G1 will always go down as one of my favorite handsets, but it isn’t alone. I’m not even shy in admitting that my favorite Android handsets have all been manufactured by HTC, and it’s one of the reasons why I’m so sad to see the company in its current state.
My other favorites are the original HTC Hero with its magnificent chin and the original version of Sense UI for Android, and then HTC’s Droid Incredible. Basically, from 2008 and 2011 (after owning the Incredible for a year), I was probably a huge HTC fanboy, showing off those devices as often as I could.
But I’m curious what your favorite Android device has been over the years. There have been a lot to choose from, some of them pretty fantastic and others boasting more rough edges than smooth experiences. Which one has been your favorite, or which ones, and why? Let me know!