T-Mobile Pulse hands-on (with video): Android meets 3.5-inch LCD, loves it

September 04th, 2009 | Category: Gadget Corner

We couldn’t get a handle on what at first seemed so “bloated” about the T-Mobile Pulse until we held it up to the iPhone: that is the first production Android phone to get a “regular” 3.5-inch screen, instead of the rather narrow 3.2-inchers on HTC’s trio of Android devices. certain, it’s the same resolution, but we really feel the breathing room. Overall we’d say the Pulse lacks a little something something up against the polished design of the HTC Hero hardware or the iPhone 3G, but it’s still plenty alluring — particularly considering that that is being positioned as a pay-as-you-go device. The capacitive screen is quite responsive, and so is the Android UI underneath, which has been modded by T-Mobile to include an odd new home screen that you can pan up, down, left and right on, for a total grid of nine screenfuls of widgets and what have you. Interestingly, the phone merges the back button with the

home button, which actually cuts down considerably on the madness of typical Android phone button layouts. Overall, we’d say the phone provides a quite alluring example of what manufacturers that aren’t HTC can pull off with Android: a cheap, sexy, almighty device running a “real” OS and the world’s best mobile Gmail app. Video hands-on is after the break.

Gallery: T-Mobile Pulse hands-on