Sciphone's half-baked Dream G2 from China - Land of the useless Android smartphone

Why is it that handsets from little-known Chinese manufacturers always claim to feature ground-breaking technologies but come wrapped in low-end plastics and half-baked ideas. The latest Chinese smartphone to hit the intertubes is the Sciphone Dream G2.

Powered by the same Android OS that made a splash on the T-Mobile G1 (wherever did Sciphone get the idea for “Dream G2?”), the Sciphone Dream G2 promises to bring the world’s second Android smartphone to market on November 28. The Dream G2 promises to sport a 2.8-inch 320×240 touchscreen, 4 megapixel camera, EDGE (keep dreaming about that 3G connection), WiFi, Bluetooth 2.0 A2DP, and FM radio.

Unfortunately for the “engineers” at Sciphone, the Dream G2 doesn’t sport a slide-out QWERTY keyboard. The Android OS doesn’t support any on-screen, virtual keyboards, which should make for some fun times when you’re trying to input text numbers anything on your Dream G2.

Another half-baked smartphone from China? How surprising.

Sciphone

[Via: ModMyGphone]

About The Author

Will Park

Will hails from The City of Angels - Los Angeles, California. He spends his time playing with his numerous gadgets and looking forward to seeing what future holds for mobile technology. An avid promoter of a fully "digital" life, he promotes the widespread adoption of truly mobile, paper-less living. He dreams of the day when he can go completely digital. No more snail mail, paper receipts, bound books, notepads/spiral notebooks, credit cards, hard currency. He's a digital warrior - fighting for the converged life. He is an idealist and a realist - he has a perfect view of what the world should be but knows that the world is not perfect. Can we ever hope to see Will's dream become reality? We'll see...

Moose

If you actually knew anything about the Android OS, you would know that there is a virtual keyboard that is in development and will be release in whats known as the 'cupcake' release
PassingBy

This article is incorrect. The G2 does have a virtual keyboard. I would assume by the picture of the phone that you had one to test with?
carso

g1 is prolly way cooler! touch keyboards suck big-time
Jpohn Howard

The writer talks about "half-baked" Chinese phones, but his review is probably more half-baked. How he can say there's no virtual keyboard is beyond me when I've been using this phone, and the virtual keyboard, for some time. Also, it won't be long before a landscape will make this phone even better.

Don't be put off by this reviewer. This phone is not like the fake iPhones – it is a good emulation of the Google Android software and shits all over many other brand name touchscreen phones. It is a quality touchscreen phone. And where it really is a Google/HTC beater is in the pricing. You won't get something of this quality unlocked, and free of network contracts, for $US150.

Intereestingly, other reviewers claim there is no wi-fi with these phones, but the newest Chinese G2s (they call them G2+) have wi-fi built into them. So these reviewers are telling porkies too.

All power to the Chinese – they are starting to get their act together (at last).
samer

The writer is correct. Its really half cooked. I dont know why these Chinese guys cant even copy rightly. I do like that they offer same functions in cheap price. But they make idiot mistakes in design. This phone is lacking proper input method. Its having on screen keyboard but you need stylus. In this age, the days of stylus are gone. We have thumb based buttons. People hate this stylus. If they could have made big keyboard then the phone was wonderful
Brian

I purchased the G2 just recently, I find it to be a very functional device. It does have WiFi, it connected easily. It also has a touch screen keyboard. The keyboard is functional and easy to use. I have had other brands of touch screen phones and PDA's. I will say that this is a quality device, and the price makes it that much better.
bird

Please do not buy chinees dream g2.its a rubish rubish fone. works only a week…..
wolf

i brought a Dream G2+ phone off ebay 2months back nad so far its been a great bargain for the price!
it has a great screen very clear,the touchscreen’s of the resistive type ie u have
to use a stylus for everthing.
However the WiFi works connects easily!!!! i love this feature. the camera is pretty decent for a chinese phone
the pictures look great mind u however that it is a interpolated 4Mp cam
typing sms comes easily with the Virtual Keyboard .however it lacks a landscape view.
overall a great bargain for the price.
the media player even supports thumbnails. google maps works jus fine
however playbck of video clips is average but way way much better than on the i68′s!
i would rate it 7/10
John

I own this Dream G2+ phone and it does not run Android or anything like android. It vaguely looks like android but functionality is basically 0. I can't even sync my contacts. It's a terrible phone…sound quality is awful for both the listener and receiver. And parts are cheap plastic. Already it's falling apart (1 month of ownership).

yes it has JAVA but only JAVA games seem to work. Most JAVA apps which actually support functionality won't run — give odd errors. You can run only 1 JAVA app at a time. And switching between a JAVA app and say the dialer is a matter of only a few hundred clicks.
Robert Watson

I bought one of these. I took it out of the box and within 5 minets put it back and resold it! The touch screen for numbers and text messaging was not for me! The WIFI was complicated to use. The sound quality for the speakers was poor. The camera took low quality photographs. Two Thumbs Down!! In my opinoin the Blackberry is the best phone ever made in terms of functionality, quality materials etc. This phone is poorley made, cheap.
Keithandstephdifiore

how do you get the wifi to work email me with info keithandstephdifiore@live.com thanks
Keithandstephdifiore

how do you get the wifi to work email me with info keithandstephdifiore@live.com thanks