PICS : T-Mobile, Google and HTC Unleash Android G1 Smartphone; Free on £40+ contracts

T-Mobile has finally unveiled the G1 (Google One?), the first Google Android smartphone, built by HTC and available exclusively in the UK through T-Mobile from this forthcoming November.

The phone - which will be on sale in the US on the 22nd of October - costs around GBP 96 (USD 179) on a two year contract in the US, a price which should come down as cheaper Android phones come out later this year.

Interestingly, T-Mobile will be bundling a music player that connects directly to Amazon's music website and allow users to download singles and albums straight to their handset, something that mimics Apple's iPhone and iTunes.

More than 6 million DRM free tracks will be available over Wi-Fi but not over 3G unfortunately.

Amazon UK Music store is expected to go live a few weeks before Android goes on sale in UK.

T-Mobile UK has also confirmed that the G1 will be available for free on £40 contracts with free unlimited mobile internet browsing (ed: bad pricing, pits it directly against the iPhone... as fro unlimited browsing).

Other European countries where T-Mobile operates will receive the G1 throughout 2009 as it prepares for its biggest marketing campaign ever to push the G1.

Not surprisingly, Google Shares price is up sharply after the news by nearly 2 percent at USD 438.42.

Amongst other tidbits gathered across the webosphere, here are the confirmed "ex-rumours"...

- There's an accelerometer,

- A flashless 3-megapixel camera and built in GPS.

- The inbuilt browser is not Chrome (dubbed Chrome lite) although it uses the same Webkit framework.

- The G1 has a trackball as well as buttons for instant search.

- The phone will support Bluetooth but not A2DP and will be quad band.

- There's a 2GB microSD card (Gizmodo says 1GB) that comes with the phone and there's no hint as to whether SDHC cards above 16GB will be compatible (although there's no reason why it shouldn't). There's no news at the time of writing as to how much memory is built-in the G1.

- The screen is a 3.17-inch touchscreen capable of displaying 320x480pixels (HVGA)