By Scott Moritz

NEW YORK – A brief hands-on experience with the Google (GOOG) G1 phone gives the impression that after a slew of touchscreen duds from other telcos, Apple’s (AAPL) iPhone finally has a worthy rival.

The highly-anticipated HTC phone for T-Mobile (DT) was unveiled in New York Tuesday, and kiosks with technical experts were set up so media people could run the first Android-powered phone through some tricks. T-Mobile will start selling the phone Oct. 22 for $179 with a two-year contract.

The G1 has a large touchscreen, nearly the same size as the iPhone. But unlike the iPhone, there is a physical keyboard under the slide-open screen. People familiar with the iPhone will find the G1 a little lighter and thicker. The G1, for you ultra-thin fans, is about 3/4 of an inch thick, downright portly compared to the svelte half-inch iPhone.

Navigating the screen is fairly easy and there are several ways to move around. The touchscreen has a swipe capability that allows you to flick up and down or side to side. There is also a small trackball-type button at the bottom of the phone for scrolling.

The 3G network coverage at the show – only 16 cities currently have T-Mobile’s 3G networks – was fast. Google’s homepage loaded in five seconds and Google search results also popped up in five seconds. Sites like CNNMoney and Fortune took about 17 seconds to load. That is a fairly standard 3G speed.

Calls worked, and the sound was clear, for those considering the device as a phone primarily.

It is clear, however, that with Google’s support, Android and HTC have made a solid Internet device that combines web access with technology like GPS and software like Google Maps. Applications like Compass Mode, as Fortune’s Philip Elmer-Dewitt explains, gives you a 360-degree street view, a trick that has been limited to PCs until now.

The phone has so-called push e-mail through its Gmail service. As Fortune reported Monday, T-Mobile was considering a low-tier price plan that would give G1 users free e-mail without a data plan. T-Mobile technology chief Cole Brodman says the company looked at a few different pricing plans, but decided that the e-mail only data plan “doesn’t do the device justice.”

The G1 will have two monthly price options, $25 for data plan limited to 400 text messages or $35 for unlimited data. That’s compares with AT&T’s $30 and $45 data plans for the iPhone.

HTC’s touchscreen has some familiar features, like a shifting orientation if the user tips the phone on its side. It also has a zoom-in function that is done with plus and minus buttons on the screen rather than the two finger pinch or separate approach on the iPhone.

The G1 allows dragging and dropping of pictures and text, a feature the iPhone still lacks. The music player was easy to use and there is a direct link to Amazon’s music store.

Overall, and first impressions being what they are,  the G1 stands well above disappointing touchscreens like Verizon’s (VZ) LG Voyager or Sprint’s (S) Samsung Instinct. And until Research in Motion (RIMM) delivers its touchscreen Storm BlackBerry, T-Mobile’s G1 is the toughest competition yet to the iconic iPhone.

By Scott Moritz

Android lands at T-Mobile Tuesday, and as part of the effort to deliver the Google phone to the mobile market, T-Mobile is considering including free e-mail access.

The new Android-powered phone will have Google’s (GOOG) Gmail service built in, and T-Mobile executives are considering offering access to Gmail free, without the need for a data plan, says one person close to the discussions.

The HTC-manufactured T-Mobile phone will be the first of the hotly-anticipated Android-operated handsets, and one of several new challengers to Apple’s (AAPL) iPhone. The Android project was created by Google to cultivate an open application platform to operate next-generation mobile phones.  T-Mobile  – a unit of Deutshe Telekom (DT) - is expected to unveil the phone during a press conference at 10:30 ET Tuesday, and offer it for sale later this fall.

Analysts see the Google phone as the beginning of an important lead in mobile Internet advertising through ads appearing on Android powered phones. Sandeep Aggarwal, an analyst with Collins Stewart, estimates that the phone will generate $5 billion in incremental revenue for Google by 2011.

Should T-Mobile decide to offer free Gmail access, it would be seen as a big counter move to Research in Motion’s (RIMM) BlackBerry e-mail service, which costs $15 a month extra. And if telcos embrace Google’s ad-supported free e-mail, it could help drive Google’s ultimate aim to spread its successful desktop advertising business to mobile phones.

The move to provide free Gmail has risks, however.

T-Mobile could undercut its own data revenue stream from BlackBerry subscribers if users trade in their Curves and Pearls for the Android phone. But T-Mobile, the No.4 wireless shop, needs an attention-getting strategy like free e-mail to help set itself apart from bigger players like AT&T (T), Verizon (VZ) and Sprint (S).  

Google referred calls for comment to T-Mobile and a T-Mobile representative could not provide an immediate comment.

As for the HTC Android phone itself, one user who got an early trial described the slide out keyboard as a little awkward for some typing tasks. The browsing quality however was “better than BlackBerry and close to the iPhone.”

By Michal Lev-Ram

As cameras, MP3 players and text messaging become must-haves on cell phones, one startup is bucking the trend by going back to the basics.

Peek, a New York-based company, will soon launch a mobile device that has only one function – e-mail. In other words, the bare-bones gadget doesn’t take pictures, come with flashy graphics or even make calls. Given that you’ll still have to carry a cell phone, who would want to buy it? The so-called “soccer mom” demographic, says Amol Sarva, Peek’s founder and a former Virgin Mobile (VM) executive.

Sarva believe that middle-aged women with kids want to be able to access their e-mail while out and about, but don’t necessarily want all of the other fancy features packed into most smartphones. That’s why the device his company developed doesn’t do anything but e-mail. That’s also why it has soft, rubber keys specially designed for women’s fingernails. (Whether potential buyers will be attracted or turned off by such gender targeting is another matter.)

“The overwhelming temptation is always to add value by adding more features and functions into a device,” says Michael Gartenberg, VP of mobile strategy at research firm Jupiter Media. “But this philosophy of ‘less is more’ could be the correct approach for a more mainstream demographic.”

An estimated 14% of cell phone users access e-mail on their mobile device, according to research firm ComScore M:Metrics. But most of them are corporate employees who already have BlackBerries or other smartphones. Peek is hoping to attract a less tech-savvy crowd – the kind of people who don’t know their IMAP (a way of transferring e-mail from a server to a device) from their POP (another way to do the same thing).

Of course, to reach a more mainstream demographic, the price has to be right. The Peek (which comes in cherry, aqua and grey) will cost $100, with a flat monthly fee of $20. Sarva says the device runs on T-Mobile’s nationwide network, though customers won’t need to deal with the carrier. Even better, they won’t need to sign a contract. Peek will be sold in Target stores nationwide starting in mid-September, and customers will pay for the monthly service by credit card, either online or via the device, directly to Peek.

To start sending and receiving messages on the device, all they’ll need to do is enter their e-mail address and password (you can get up to three accounts on one device, including Gmail, Yahoo mail and AOL).

But will the Peek be a hit? Maybe, though it could be a hard sell for several reasons. Besides the challenge of finding an effective way to get the word out to its non-techie target demographic, Peek could face competition from ever-cheaper smartphones.

Devices like a Motorola’s (MOT) Q or Palm’s (PALM) Centro are now available for under $150, and they do a lot more than send e-mail. But Peek believes its target market doesn’t care about smartphones’ bells and whistles and don’t want to be tied to service contracts.