The world's first Android phone, the HTC Dream, known in the US as the T-Mobile G1, is 10 years old. Compared with the giant phones of today, the G1 looks like it came from another planet. And even a decade ago, its design was, well, a bit weird.
Now in version 9, Android Pie, Google's mobile OS is sophisticated and mature. Part of what makes the Android of the G1 so special is exactly how new it was. This baby Android lacked the identity we know so well today.
The landscape keyboard meant you had to turn the phone sideways every time you wanted to type -- the original G1 didn't launch with a virtual keyboard.
Android phones have always had app trays, a separate place to index all your programs. This differed from the first-generation iPhone launched a year before the G1, which, like today, lays all the icons on the home screen.
The phone's chin was a major characteristic. It's supposed to ergonomically curve to meet your chin, but some of us found it unsightly, and thought it got in the way of typing.
