Looking for G1 replacement, but...

[morgan_bair2000]

... the G2 not having a 5-row qwerty keyboard is a dealbreaker for me, otherwise I mostly think I like it, at least on paper.
Does anyone know of a phone that can run Android on a GSM network with a 5-row QWERTY keyboard? I would prefer a landscape (not portrait, unless it has a dual hinge design) flip so I could close it while it's in my pocket, but a slider would be ok too. Of course a touchscreen (preferably multitouch) is a must, as well. Also I don't want to skimp on memory, CPU, etc, and I definitely want at least Android 2.2, or if 3.0 is released by then, I would want that. My G1 is stuck at 1.6, and it slows to a crawl when I have more than a couple things open. Also I don't want to have to turn off the phone to remove or replace the MicroSDH/XC memory card - my G1 allows this.
As for a plan... I'm currently on T-Mobile's lowest tier Even More Plus plan, and normally use maybe 10-30 minutes of talk a month, or less. Is there any plan in the USA on a national GSM network that would have pricing more in line with my use? I use the internet / data a lot, so an unlimited data plan, like I have now, is a must, but I'd also like to save money on the voice, as I rarely use it at this time. Any ideas of a handset I should look for, either the end of this year, or maybe sometime early / mid next year?

I'm thinking it'll be a while before I can get one, though (not very likely at all before Christmas as I have more pressing needs for now), as I'll have to wait for the price to come down, or get one used. If I was to switch plans, I don't want a contract. In the meantime, though, I need another battery door for my G1, as the one I have now is cracked, and I have the extended battery which came with a deeper battery cover. Upon going to the store on the website, I can only find the battery and cover together, but not the cover by itself. I just need to replace my cracked cover, but the battery is fine. Any ideas?

 

[nature walker]

i personally don't think the 5th row makes a huge difference... i haven't tested a 4 row keyboard before (and i loved my g1's keyboard), but i've heard a lot of people say that after a little bit of adjustment, the 4 row is fine. plus, the keyboard on the g2 looks very nicely spaced--i'm a big fan. htc did a great job with the keyboard (although i'm still gonna say that they could've done a better job just taking the g1's keyboard).

as for specs, you definitely aren't skimping on anything with the g2.

why do you take out the sd card without the phone off? i feel like that would corrupt a lot of the files on the card.. but i can't prove that. i find it just safer to turn the phone off, but maybe that's just me.

anyways, i think the g2 would be a great fit. i don't see many sliders coming out soon, unless motorola decides to send some nice droids to tmo. but the future of smartphones is touch-only, so a nice hardware keyboard is tough to find. oh, and just a side note, you can root your g1 and get up to froyo. maybe you should tinker with that for the time being until you get a new phone

 

[tallywa]

My wife and I ran the G1 for last two years nonrooted. We both just upgraded to the G2. At first I did not like the keypad, but I found after 2 or 3 days I was using swype on the touch screen for everything. I have large hands and have found no issues with the key pad either, it just takes a bit to get used to. One thing I have noted though is wife the volume of emails I receive and phone usage I have to look for my charger after 5 to 6 hours.

Bottom line, I am glad I waited to up grade to the G2 over some of the other options out there, I most likely though will not last to end of contract though seeing the difference 2 years had made in the platform and phone

 

[rjbehrman]

A couple reasons for me wanting a 5-row keypad is so the numbers aren't sharing keys with the top row of letters, and so the space is in the center on the bottom row where it belongs, not pushed off to one side or splitting the bottom row of letters.
I've thought about rooting my G1, but I doubt it would help with performance issues. I don't think it'd be wise to try to run flash on my current hardware considering how sluggish it gets with only 2 or maybe 3 apps (plus 8 browser windows) running simultaneously.
Besides... have you ever tried touch typing a message on a touchscreen without looking? I haven't mastered that yet, and I don't expect I ever will. I can usually feel my way around a physical keyboard, though, and can do fairly well typing by feel that way.
On the G1, you can go into the settings and software eject the card, then it's safe to remove. It takes so long for the phone to boot up after power off that it's actually MUCH faster to properly eject the one card, then insert another one and have it recognize it. If it had dual card slots, that would be nice so I could copy things from one card to another without having to use a computer, but I figure an acceptable workaround would be having a fair amount of built-in memory, like at least 4 to 8 GB or more, between which I could swap files.
Also, if I was to go with the G2, about what price point would I expect to pay for one? I got my G1 maybe 18 months to 2 years ago, can't remember now, off Craigslist locally for somewhere a little south of $200 or so, and it has generally served me very well. The camera no longer works now, as I've dropped the phone a few too many times, but other than that (and the cracked battery cover) and it being a bit sluggish, it's still mostly working ok. Also, it has outlasted (probably combined, too) all the previous phones I've had, which had various catastrophic failures rendering them unusable, for example a cracked screen in one, a failed battery charger port in another, another wouldn't even turn on, etc... (but I don't remember them all.)