Yeah, I'll try to get some pictures in by tomorrow or later tonite. I picked it up from a guy I know at the swap meet. He's in to high tech items. I had just bought a NIB 8525 the previous day and I saw the phone. He had been using it for a little bit of time. When I picked the phone up, I liked the feel and lightness (plus it was slim, not like the 8525). So when I asked him how much, he said $150. He didn't know what the hell it was. I couldn't get him to give me a name but he said it was some HTC phone (in production, mind you) that was going for a lot more. The phone was dead but I know the guy pretty well so I bought it on the spot. Of course, when I got some power (mini usb) to it, the first thing I noticed was - this ain't windows mobile. I played around and it was so interesting that I posted the 8525 on craigslist that night. So instead of spending $350 on a phone, I had a phone for $150 (killer!!!!). I knew it was a keeper, no scratches on body or screen. I've had several 8525s so I knew everything about them, this was different. Thought it was a linux platform (still might be) but then I thought it might be java. Anyway, it said exca300 underneath the battery and I saw a reference on this site so I posted trying to find out what the hell it was and searched for production models. Stumbled across google phone when I looked for htc java platform and the more I read, the more I knew thats what this was. Google is all over the place with the phone and there seemed to be some kind of server link with the phone. Had a map function that I struggled with (keep in mind that I couldnt RTFM since there wasn't a manual) but yesterday, i was able to type in an address and get driving directions to another address and thought (cool). Try to do that with the 8525 free!!!! Gmail built in and email as well so that you can access email account on the main screen and your inbox appears on the main screen instead of crawling around for apps. Color is just beautiful!!! vibrant!!

And the phone is LOUD!! It's not perfect (keyboard is on the phone instead of slide out) but the sacrifices are worth it for the size. Don't see a wifi on it and don't know if it runs 3g but it's definitely a great phone. And I'll definitely be talking to my friend and seeing if I can get more of these at that price (although I doubt it). Since google is down the street, it most likely came from a developer or phone person who was looking at prototype. But this is the BEST $150 I've ever spent on a phone.