Sooner (2006–2007)

Google had no way of knowing it at the time, but the roughly $50 million it shelled out to buy Palo Alto–based Android Inc. would turn out to be one of the best deals in its history. Frustrated by the fragmentation of yesteryear's mobile industry, Google directed its new team to develop a smartphone of its own, running open-source software that would ensure Google's web services would have a place in people's pockets. Easier said than done.

In 2006, the team worked closely with HTC (a name that's going to pop up a lot) to build a prototype phone that looked a whole lot like a BlackBerry. Code-named "Sooner," it had a four-way d-pad and a four-row physical keyboard that bubbled up from the phone's lower half. Given the competition back then, it was exactly what people would've expected a smartphone to look like, just with some of the utilitarian edges sanded down. BlackBerrys might have been meant to be all business, but the Sooner? It was more rounded, with a friendlier color palette -- pretty cute, I'd say. The 320x240 display wasn't a touchscreen, but the rest of it seemed pretty solid: it packed 64MB of RAM, a 1.3-megapixel camera and a pokey GPRS radio for data connections.

T-Mobile eventually came on as a partner to help with testing the phone, but Steve Jobs' iPhone unveiling changed everything. Android co-founder Andy Rubin was reportedly in a car when the announcement happened, and the news caused him to (a) have his driver pull over and (b) rethink what the first Android phone would look like.

HTC/T-Mobile G1 (2008)

Flash-forward one year and Google's partnership with HTC and T-Mobile had finally come to fruition. The HTC Dream, known locally as T-Mobile's G1, was the chunky, chinned smartphone that started it all. The Dream shipped with Android 1.0 at launch, and, while totally functional, it mostly served as a foundation for things to come. The notifications shade was a new paradigm for how to handle the inevitable influx of information on smartphones, and niceties like the ability to copy/paste and send MMS messages gave Google's software an edge over iOS. And deep integration with Google's services meant Gmail and YouTube devotees had no better choice than the G1.

Of course, you didn't need to use Google's software for everything. The search giant's push for openness meant it paid a lot of attention to fostering developer support. The Android Market was up and running when the G1 launched (Apple's own App Store had only just gone live by then) and it included 50 apps you could download for free, mostly because Google hadn't cooked up a way to charge for them yet.

Actually interacting with the phone could seem a little strange, though. There was a 3.2-inch touchscreen for general navigation, but multitouch support was noticeably absent. In a nod to classic smartphones, it also had a trackball and a five-row QWERTY keyboard for bashing out texts and emails. Google would eventually bring a virtual keyboard to the Dream, and the update couldn't come soon enough for some: the physical keyboard featured deep-set keys that could be a little hard to use, and your hand had to reach over Dream's trademark chin to access it.

The Dream also featured a quartet of navigation keys -- there was one to launch the phone dialer, one to bring you back to the home screen, one to bring you back one level in whatever app you were using, and a call end key that doubled as a power button. Oh, and don't forget the Menu key -- it lived just below the screen and allowed quick access to your options. Throw in a dedicated button for the Dream's 3.15-megapixel camera and that's, well, a lot of buttons.

While it was conceptually more convoluted than the iPhone's touch-and-go interface, it was easy enough to wrap one's head around. And it seemed far easier to use than other smartphone platforms available at the time -- I'm looking at you, Windows Mobile. More important, the Qualcomm-supplied chipset and 192MB of RAM kept things running at a reasonable pace, though it was pretty clear there was a long way left to go. Still, not everything was perfect: the Dream used a proprietary Mini-USB port for charging and audio rather than a headphone jack, and T-Mobile's 3G network was very limited.

HTC Magic/Google Ion (2009)