Phone home

The G1's phone features are basic, but they're adequate for everyday usage. You can make calls, store contacts, and view your call log from the Dialer application. As on the iPhone, you can add contacts to a list of favorites, but you can't favorite a specific phone number, just a person. That means it still takes an extra tap to call people on your favorites list.

Android allows you to sync your contacts, but only with your Google account. It's a handy feature for anybody who uses Google, since it works pretty well. With a little work on the OS X side, you can get your Google account to sync with your Mac's Address Book, though when I got it working, I ended up with some syncing cruft (duplicates, unsynced contacts, etc.). As with the iPhone and MobileMe, changes made on the G1 will be reflected in your Google contacts online. 

The lack of proximity and ambient light sensors, as on the iPhone, can also make phone conversations somewhat frustrating. The screen will turn off after whatever amount of time you specify in the preferences and, in order to activate it again, you have to hit the hardware Menu button--you can't just tap the screen. This is especially bothersome in situations where you need to use the keypad to enter information (navigating a phone tree, for example, or on a conference call).

The G1 also lacks the iPhone's Visual Voicemail features, instead relying on conventional voicemail, so you'll be using the keypad quite a bit.