Google’s new G1 smartphone announced today is the first real competitor to the iPhone, according to Walt Mossberg with the Wall Street Journal. It’s likely to be a major new platform, has features missing in the iPhone, but it also comes with some distinct disadvantages.

Mr. Mossberg had a chance to work with a prototype and offered his first impressions, not a full review.

Google G1

On the plus side, the G1, built by HTC in Taiwan, has a physical keyboard. Mr. Mossberg found typing was "OK, but not great." Also, the phone has a download service for third party programs. That worked fine, with no problems. There is hardware GPS. It sports copy and paste and Multimedia Message Service [MMS] which allows the user to send photos to another phone without e-mail. The camera has a higher resolution than the Apple iPhone, but similarly, doesn’t come with a camcorder app.

On the negative side, the Google G1 was described as not ready to win any beauty contests. Also, depending on the user’s perspective, the G1’s tight integration with Google services could be good or bad. The user must have a Google account to use the phone, can only synchronize to Google’s services, and doesn’t work with MS Exchange.

Other negatives include the fact that the G1 comes with much less memory than the iPhone, just 1 GB standard. One can buy an 8 GB card at extra cost. Finally, at first, the G1 will only work on T-Mobile’s 3G network which is behind AT&T’s in the number of cities served.

"In sum, the G1 is a powerful, versatile device which will offer users a real alternative in the new handheld computing category the iPhone has occupied alone," Mr. Mossberg concluded.

T-Mobile said on Tuesday that the G1 will go on sale October 22 for $179 with a two year contract.