Engadget landed themselves another exclusive on Friday, with some slightly-fuzzy-yet-revealing photos of the successor to the recently retired T-Mobile G1, the T-Mobile G2. No details to go along with the photos other than what can be gathered from the photos.
AndroidandMe thinks the "T-Mobile G2 will feature the same specs as the HTC Desire Z", which we saw last week, and may in fact be the same phone.
Phandroid observes that the phone's keyboard mechanism appears to be a very unique design:
It appears that screen lifts away from the keyboard on a hinge and then slides flat to present the G2’s typing surface. The design decision is no doubt to facilitate a much thinner profile by shifting the component layout so that the larger internals can be stacked up in thicker parts of the casing which interlock like puzzle pieces to create as compact a design as possible.
Myself and Phandroid both feel that the mechanism may not be strong enough for everyone's use, and that "we could be hearing some complaints about weak hinges breaking after heavy use or more than one account of the phone’s two halves breaking apart."
Interestingly, while I can't be sure from the photos posted, it may be that when the keyboard is exposed, the display and keyboard will be flush with each other heigth-wise, which would look very nice. We'll just have to wait and see.
The phone's back was also pictured, and judging from the photo, we will be in for at least one nice surprise. It can be safely assumed that the phone has a camera flash, which I originally thought might be a Xenon flash, but after making a comparison with other phones' Xenon flash, it seems to be LED based. Flash is better than no flash, though, so I guess we should be thankful.
Engadget notes that the G2's "backside reveals that HTC looks ready to really get into this asymmetrical design concept -- something we've definitely seen on the Schubert / Mozart -- and realistically, it's probably going to polarize some buyers."
Head on over to Engadget to look at the other photos they have.
Other Sources: AndroidandMe, Phandroid
Images from Engadget
Jeremiah
I agree, looks like it will be easy to break your screen off.