I’ve got a Sidekick 3 right now that works OK for me, lets me check some basic email, get texts, etc., but it’s not a great phone. It could be, but the issues I have with IMAP as well as the flaky connections make it one that I don’t want to keep.

My wife has a Blackberry Curve she loves, but I’ve never been a Blackberry person. They just don’t resonate with me. She was going to get me an iPhone for Christmas, but I don’t need two phones and I have 5 months left on my contract. We debated the iPhone v Blackberry a bit and she really likes her “real” keyboard as opposed to the virtual one. I have an iTouch and the keyboard works OK for me. I’ve used to enter data on screen, and can’t complain. It’s slower than the Sidekick, but not by a lot and I think I’d be quicker if I used it more.

So I was resigned to wait until this summer to switch to ATT and get an iPhone when I saw an Android-based for T-Mobile. It’s about $175 with a contract extension and that’s not a bad price. I looked at some reviews and it seemed to work as well as an iPhone for a number of reviews and it’s an interesting device.

The G1, as the phone is known, has a screen that flips up, but it slides sideways and up to reveal the keyboard. I picked up a non-working version, so I couldn’t try the touch screen, but I did get to play with the keyboard.

One of the complaints was that the right side (shown here with the 5 buttons) is higher than the keyboard. I tried typing a bit and that didn’t bother me, but what did bother me is that they lower edge, below the ALT key, space bar, etc. is raised and that bugged my thumbs as I was typing. Granted I spent just a couple minutes, but it did bother me.

So I’m not sure. Right now I think the iPhone is still a superior phone for me, for what I need. Email, phone service, browsing when I’m traveling, etc. So I’m still thinking to switch in the summer, but I would like to get to a T-Mobile store and try a real G1 to see how it works.