So I've been using an unlocked iPhone on T-Mobile for a couple weeks now.  I figured I would take a moment and compare it with my G1 to show how I feel about switching.

I wrote a little while ago my feelings on using a G1 for a year.  Oddly I kept mentioning how I wanted to find something other than an iPhone, but sadly the Apple fan in me won out.  I wanted to start off by mentioning the Hardware.

Hardware:

The iPhone is thinner than the G1.  For anyone who owns a G1, the iPhone comes to about where the screen slides up to reveal the qwerty keyboard on the G1.  I love how much thinner this phone is.  It doesn't sound like that would be a huge difference, but when it's in your pocket with the rounded edges you'll notice it.

I still feel like the G1 is a brick of a phone.  I originally loved the fact that it had a qwerty keyboard, but recently I found that I can type faster with the soft keyboard on the iPhone as its correction is much better.  As far as comparing the soft keyboard on the iPhone to the G1, iPhone wins hands down.  For those of you wondering my G1 is on 1.6 and I've heard the keyboard is better on 2.0 for Android.

Even though I can expand the storage space on my G1, app storage is resticted to the ROM space on the phone (if I have it wrong I'm sorry and yes I know there is a way to store them on my SD card).  What matters is that I can't store a large amount of apps on the G1.  The iPhone allows me to store 16 gigs of apps of I feel like it.  The one part where the G1 pulls ahead, I can use it as a thumb drive on any computer I feel like.  This is something I've been missing from the iPhone.  I know I can do it, but most solutions I've seen require me paying for something.

I can't compare the cameras because I barely used either phone's camera.

Call quality is about equivalent.  I hear whomever I am talking to just fine.  I've asked people that I was talking with if they noticed a difference with the new phone and the answer universally was no.

Speed goes to the iPhone.  It wasn't till I installed Cyanogen on my G1 that I really felt that it was worth a damn being able to function, but I still had lag and stability issues.

Battery also goes to the iPhone.  The battery was one of the top reasons I decided to make the switch.  With my G1 I needed to charge the phone by roughly noon when at work, maybe another hour on Edge.  The iPhone can go the whole work day.  I know that there are extended batteries for the G1, but I didn't want to make it any thicker than what it was.

Notifications go to the G1.  I sorely miss the little blinking LED that let me know when new mail, txts, twitter @s/DMs, and Facebook messages were there for me to check.  The iPhone gives me a buzz or a single chirp.

Software:

This is a hard comparison.  The reason I say this is that I know that I don't want to make this argument an Android vs. iPhone OS fight.  I've tried my best below to do so.  The other factor playing into this is that I was using Cyanogen on my phone for quite some time before getting the iPhone, which makes a huge difference.

Customization to the home screens, G1 wins hands down.  Yes I can have a bunch of screens on the iPhone, but the G1 lets me do a whole lot with three or five screens being on Cyanogen.  Android has widgets, the iPhone does not.  I used these quite a bit and not having them is a downer.  Also, call me crazy, but when I pick a phone wallpaper I want to see it all the time.  Not only when my phone is locked and I'm unlocking it.

Syncing and music goes to the iPhone.  I use iTunes a lot so this was a loosing battle for my G1.  It also doesn't help that the Music app for Android looks like it was designed in the 90s.  Seriously Google get someone on this because the music app is as Steve Jobs would say, "A bag of hurt."  I've used the alternatives and I didn't see anything better either.  Some will argue that I could use Doubletwist or Songbird for syncing with the G1.  I tried and I did not find it intuitive.  Also it meant converting a bunch of my music, which I wasn't up for.  When it comes to listening to music in both regards I plan on sticking to my iPod classic.  The click wheel is the best thing ever created for going through my playlists.

Apps go to the G1 for one reason alone, it's open.  The iPhone may have some nice apps and more of them, but the only time I have to worry about Google being bitches about apps are when it comes to stuff like tethering.  Honestly if they didn't remove them all of the service providers would throw a fit and I could see Android having a small adoption rate.  I may be able to get less apps from the Android app store, but at least I get quality and freedom of choice.  I don't feel in general that the quality of apps for the iPhone are all that better.  This leads to the next point that I had at least two browsers on my G1.  This would allow me to download something that I can't at work and install it to my computer.  I can no longer do this with the iPhone that I know of.  The iPhone won't let me download anything that may compete with their precious apps and that really annoys me.

Mail and Contacts also go to the G1.  When I first started my G1 and put in my google account it was like some sort of black magic had happened.  All of my mail was there along with all of my phone contacts.  Yes the iPhone now allows you to sync with Google's contacts, but the mail app on the iPhone in comparison to the G1 is no where near as good in my opinion.  Google knows how to do search and mail, they got mail right on Android.

Browsing is slight edge to the iPhone.  I like the multitouch, but I've lived without it for so long it's not like I couldn't continue living without it.  Overall I do feel like the iPhone's browser allows me to look at pages faster than the G1 did.  I like the overall browsing experience for some reason on the iPhone better.  I just wish I had more of a selection of browsers.

Notifications again go to the G1.  Having the notification bar makes it easy to see ALL of my updates.  I have to go through my home screens on the iPhone to check them all out.

Overall:

I'm happier with my iPhone.  It's a better product than my G1 ever was when it comes to hardware and stability of the software.  However if this was a Android vs. iPhone OS fight, Android wins all the way.  Android allows for you to do so much more with the phone and is constantly getting better, in the leaps and bounds way.  In the long run I'm glad I got a iPhone 3G and I'm glad I did it instead of buying another shitty phone from T-Mobile.  I can easily see myself going back to Android when the right hardwarefor it comes out.  If I want to keep all of the games and apps from my iPhone at this point I would either keep mine unlocked or just buy an iPod Touch.

For those of you reading this on Facebook or murmur.com this was originally posted on jonstump.net

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