HTC T-Mobile G1 Android smartphone?

[Juju]

I have two questions:

-is this a good buy? I have a friend who never had a smart phone and I'd like to start him off on this. Is this duable? He needs to use a few social apps and not much.

-He lives in Europe, so I think the phone needs to be unblocked? How does that work?

Thanks very much!

More info:
Camera: 3.2 MP Carrier: T-Mobile
Cellular Band: GSM/GPRS/EDGE 850/900/1800/1900 (Quadband) HSPA/WCDMA 1700/2100 Storage Capacity: 256 MB

[Putera]

It's actually good, at that time (2008). This year that phone barely does nothing more than phone calls and text messages, its spec is among the first Android phone ever produced, which means lots of today's apps (including Facebook, Twitter and other social-centric apps) might not run on that phone.

I think you may want to buy a carrier-free entry level Android phone from nearby retailers. Samsung has broad collection of entry level phones there, say Galaxy Star or Galaxy Young.

Good luck!