But HTC India manager Ajay Sharma says the same prices won’t be feasible here. His remark must be seen in the context of the disappointment centred around the pricing of the iPhone when it was finally launched in India. Sharma did confirm that the Dream would be coming to India by the end of the year. “People in India are familiar with Google services and the company hopes to capitalise on this. Applications on the handset might be customised for the Indian market. We also expect to see new apps being developed after the India launch,” adds Sharma.

Now for the phone. The Dream’s casing looks slightly plasticky. But, apparently, it has a rubberised tactile finish, which is supposed to make it pleasing to the touch and less likely to slip out of your hand. Besides the touchscreen, the QWERTY keypad and bottom panel of buttons, there is also a track-ball hidden in the bottom row for pin-point accuracy.

The Dream comes packed with all of Google’s most popular services. Stuff Magazine says the handset has a full HTML web browser with one-touch access to Google Search. It is powered by a full touchscreen user interface where you can scroll by swiping your finger across the page or zoom in on a specific section with a simple tap. There is also email syncing support —which covers a host of services beyond Gmail, a YouTube viewer and, of course, Google Maps. Google Maps with Street View is perhaps one of the G1/Dream’s most exciting features, as it allows you to search for a location, and then, provided it’s covered by Street View, use your handset as a virtual remote viewer for that location. This means you can pan your device around in the real world and see the Street View on your screen reflect those movements in real time. Though the Dream sports WiFi, 3G and EDGE connectivity, there’s no GPS to speak of—its mapping functions work via a built-in compass.

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