Can you imagine your life without your mobile phone? Probably the answer is no. We live in an increasingly connected world where these devices are becoming an everyday necessity. And we have loads of examples: we use it to get information, listen to music, podcasts or videos, play games, create all kinds of content, and of course we use it to search.

This time we invite you to travel to October 2008, a little over a year after the original iPhone went on sale in the United States. launch of the first Android phone. We’re talking about HTC Dream, a starting point for Google’s operating system, currently the most used device in the world, followed by Apple’s iOS.

HTC Dream, the first Android

Rumors that Google was preparing a bid to compete with Symbian and Windows Mobile were gaining momentum in 2007, until the Mountain View giant introduced Android in November of that year. It is a Linux-based operating system designed to run on hardware from various manufacturers and will provide the ability to run third-party applications.

He gave little information at the time and did not reveal who would be the first partner to implement the mobile operating system. However, in 2008 everything pointed. HTC will be the first manufacturer to adopt Android In a terminal called “Dream”, it was perfect for “a terminal that ultimately brings the internet in the palm of your hand in a reliable and affordable way,” as we had at the time at Xataka.

Finally, on September 23, 2008, the doubts were cleared when HTC announced the phone. The first Android went on sale in the US in October 2008, in the UK in November under the name T-Mobile G1 for $179, and continued to roll out in Europe and the rest of the world over the next year. It arrived in Spain in February 2009 in the hands of Movistar, and a few days later Vodafone presented an improved model, the HTC Magic.

We had gone from eagerly awaiting the first Android phone on the market to having two models from the same manufacturer. This HTC Dream with physical keyboard, and the HTC Magic, which bets everything on the touchscreen and brings with it some hardware improvements. If you wanted to enter the world of Android, the biggest question at the time was which one to choose. In response to this, and after testing both models, we have prepared a comparison to help anyone interested in choosing the best option.

Let’s come to the features of this historical phone. One of its most unique features is that it has a physical keyboard that slides out. This may come as a shocker today, but HTC Dream was born at a time when Nokia and BlackBerry were the absolute kings of the market (although we know that reign won’t last much longer).

But the QWERTY keyboard wasn’t the device’s only input method. Also a 3.2 inch touch screen this allowed us to make better use of Android’s potential. Also on the bottom of the equipment there are 5 buttons (search, home, menu, back, last call) and a pallet ball scrolling and selection.

On the internal hardware level, we found ourselves with 528 MHz Qualcomm MSM7201A processor, HSDPA compatibility, WiFi, bluetooth, miniUSB port, 192 MB RAM, 256 MB internal storage and microSD card slot. On the camera side, the HTC Dream had a single 3.2 megapixel sensor on the back and the front cameras were not absent, in fact the Kyocera VP-210 was the first phone to have this feature. 1999.

Hello Android 1.0

Like almost all early versions of the software, Android 1.0 came out with many features that were not yet complete, but opened the door to many valuable Google-related features. This system has integrated applications Gmail, Maps, Search, Talk, YouTube, Contacts and Calendarthese last two are capable of syncing with a Google account.

It’s okay if you don’t have a Gmail email. Android 1.0 also allowed you to configure other services based on POP3 and IMAP. The operating system also featured a browser that allowed browsing full HTML and XHTML web pages, support for calls, SMS and other features. And to explore the new world of apps (in beta at the time), there was Android Market to download apps and manage updates.

Shortly after its release, Google’s new operating system caught the attention of the modding community, who found a way to “root” devices, which is the equivalent of “jailbreaking” the iPhone. reach superuser level and make advanced settings and not allowed by the manufacturer. Next would come the possibility of installing ROMs or modified versions of Android.

In retrospect, the HTC Dream was a unique device in every way. It didn’t go down in history as an “iPhone Killer” and didn’t take HTC to the top of the smartphone sales podium, but it left an important legacy: the foundations of an open operating system strongly integrated with Google. will spread to most manufacturers over the years. And here we are. 14 years have passed, HTC continues to produce smartphones like the Desire 21 Pro 5G and we are already using 12 versions of Android.

Pictures | HTC | Blog Entrepreneur (Flickr)