The G1m, produced by HTC, and which will shipped on October 22 to T-Mobile customers, has been under public scrutiny, as the first phone to feature Google’s Android mobile operating system. With its unveiling on Tuesday, the industry has had a chance to examine it in greater detail, and separate fact from rumor.

The opinions are mixed, but they seem to show a general pattern: that the Android OS itself is very promising. The G1 device however, while nice, could have been better. This may, however, stem from the almost unavoidable tendency to compare the new smartphone to Apple’s iPhone.

Rich Miner, Google group manager for mobile products has expressed his displeasure at the forced comparison. "In an ideal world, frankly, we would have simultaneously launched two or three devices and people would have said, 'Oh, I get it, it's not about iPhone versus the quote "Google" device,' " Miner said in an interview.

But what does the G1 bring to the table? Well first of all aside from touch screen, it also has a slide-out QWERTY keyboard, which the iPhone does not have (oops, I’m comparing them too, it’s like a bug going around); a 3.1 megapixel camera which can only take still shots, not movies unfortunately; integrated Wi-Fi; GPS support; 3G and EDGE capability; a push e-mail service for G-Mail; POP3 and IMAP e-mail protocol support; Bluetooth; integration with the Amazon.com MP3 store (I know I said I’d stop comparing but this is clearly meant as a rival for iTunes, especially since the Amazon store has no DRM protection whatsoever…) and last but not least, a nifty, dedicated search button, which, of course launches Google search.

Speaking of Google integration, it doesn’t stop with the search button, as most of Google’s tools are built in with the G1. Its HTML browser is a “Chrome Lite” of sorts, which shares much of the code and the WebKit engine with the desktop version of Google’s browser. Google Maps are also built in, featuring a GPS-based compass that accurately keeps pointing north as the phone changes position (that one also goes in the “nifty” category); not only that but it has a function called StreetView, which displays actual pictures of the street you’re in, if available.

The Android OS itself is based on Linux, and the applications are written in Java code. Developers wishing to make apps for the G1 and later other Android phones will develop them using the already published Android SDK and will be able to submit them to the Android Market, a content distribution system that will be completely free to post software in, without any censorship from the company, unlike the App Store (oh bother, I did it again!).

People seem to be complaining about the lack of Video support, Flash support for the browser, and no integration with Exchange so far (although Google has hinted at this being an opportunity for developers to fill that niche). The lack of stereo capability for Bluetooth is also causing some displeasure.

It seems to me that the gripes are more like nitpicks, and are especially coming from the crowd that insists on making this a Google vs. Apple dogfight. The G1 is a solid phone, even innovative and in some areas. It may not be a revolution in the smartphone industry, but it’s a very good platform for the Android OS, and is an excellent proof of a well-thought-out concept. Can’t wait to see what comes next.