The images seem to be over-accentuating the bend. You can see from http://www.htc.com/uploadedImages/Common/Shared_Image/Galler... , if you tilt your head a bit, most of the "bend" is just making the phone thinner. The front only sticks out ~4mm from the rest of the phone.

That's a way to protect the trackball if you lay the phone face down on a flat surface. On the G1, it is not that pocket unfriendly.

On my G1 it also protects the menu button (which also unlocks the phone from locked mode) from being pressed accidentally.

While you can configure an unlock touch gesture, I haven't bothered yet because I don't find that the menu button is being pressed accidentally in my pocket.

Maybe the concavity reduces accidental keypresses when the phone's in one's pocket/bag.

I've got the G1 and I don't like the 'bend'. HTC should have made the scroll ball flush with the case if that's the reason behind it.

I would assume for face contour. Does seem a bit odd, but overall it's pretty thin so should still be pocketable.

Amusing - because I love my phone so much that I want to feel it all over my skin? ;-)

Well, it also helps with hand contour. And it makes it easy to identify the phone's orientation by touch.

And it encourages you to put the phone in your pocket the right way around... If you read the G1 user manual (yeah, yeah, I know), there is a curious passage advising you to keep the back of the phone 1.5 cm from the body.

I had that problem with the Ipod touch, it gets really hot, so with the right orientation you can avoid that (the G1 gets hot too).

That's in case the battery goes boom. The bend at the bottom is an absolute dealbreaker for me.

The pictures make it look a lot worse than it actually is.

I have a G1 and the bend isn't noticable unless you lay it flat on the table and look at it in profile.

+1 I don't mind it at all.