The first Google phone may not be a stunner to look at and it doesn’t come packaged with as much hype and glamour as iPhone. However, reviews say G1’s signficance is that it still represents the first real alternative to Apple’s popular touch-screen phone.

But to call the reviews mixed is putting it mildy.

David Pogue of the New York Times calls the phone’s appearance “ungainly” and says “Nobody looks at G1 and says, “Ooooh, I gotta have that.”

But the same review also proclaims that device’s user interface is “polished enough to give Windows Mobile an inferiority complex the size of Australia.”

He also talks up the phone’s support for any applications, unlike iPhone, which only accepts applications that do not “reject software submissions if they don’t serve the mother ship’s commercial interests.”

Wall Street Journal’s Walt Mossberg says G1 is “a very good first effort.” He sees the device’s “biggest differentiator as its physical keyboard” unlike iPhone, which depends on a touch-screen virtual keypad that some users have found more difficult to type with.

Mossberg also noted the G1’s compass feature changes the street view angle on display in Google maps as you move the phone around. But he griped that the device “skimps on memory” and said the user interface was “inferior to iPhone’s.”

Keep an eye on:

• Barack Obama, flush with cash and ramping up his advertising in the final weeks before the November 4 election, is making U.S. political history by placing the first presidential campaign ads in online video games (Reuters)
• Spending on search engine advertising continues to exhibit nearly relentless growth, according to a slew of new reports conducted by various search-focused businesses (AdWeek)

(Photo: Reuters)