Android Cup Game 7: MyTouch 3G Slide vs. LG Ally

We’re getting near the end of the first round of the 2010 Android Cup, which means you’re all probably itching for the next round to start,  just two days away. But we have two more games until then, so today, it’s the MyTouch 3G Slide versus the LG Ally. The winner of this game has the unenviable task of meeting up with the Evo 4G in the next round. But that’s then, and this is now.

The MyTouch 3G Slide is the physical keyboard follow-up to the MyTouch 3G (which lost out to the Motorola Devour a few games ago). As its name suggests, the QWERTY keyboard slides out from behind the 3.4-inch, (480 x 320-pixel) touchscreen, which is larger physically than the Ally (by 0.2 inches), but a lower resolution (the Ally is 800 x 480 pixels).

The Slide’s keyboard was one of the better we’ve used: keys were nicely arranged and spaced out, packs a dedicated @ sign, dual Shift and Function keys, and alternatives to the standard Android Home, Search, Menu, and Back buttons. In many ways, we found it superior to the Ally’s.

The Slide features HTC’s Sense interface (more home screens, better social networking integration) as well as Friendstream, HTC’s own social-networking aggregator. T-Mobile’s myModes also lets you create custom configurations of apps and appearances for when you’re using the phone for work as opposed to play. Finally, the Slide’s “Genius” button  replaces the standard Android search key, and  launches voice recognition software powered by Dragon Dictation, which was helpful and fun to use, but not perfect.

As we’ve alluded, the LG Ally (Verizon Wireless) also features a slide-out keyboard that was comfortable to type on, but lacked refinements such as the “@” key–although it does have a “.com” button, which makes it the unofficial phone of Tracy Jordan sidekicks. As mentioned, the 3.2-inch screen is bright, and, with a resolution of 800 x 480 pixels, very crisp. The Ally has a 600-MHz Qualcomm MSM 7627 processor, 512MB of ROM, and 256MB of RAM, the same as the Devour.

While it lacks a skin over its Android 2.1 interface, the Ally comes with ThinkFree Office (which lets you create, edit, and read Microsoft Office docs), Amazon MP3 store, Facebook, MySpace, and Socialite, a widget that shows your friends’ latest Facebook and Twitter updates on one screen. Also, the phone has an augmented reality app, which doesn’t do much except launch a virtual Iron Man on screen when you point the camera at a special comic book.

So, which phone do you think is better?

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