Review: HTC Magic

The first smartphone to run Google’s Android platform was an exclusive handset for T-Mobile. The G1 toted a miniature qwerty keyboard and gained mixed reactions. This second model is different in many ways.

Specs & info
Price (as reviewed): £contract
Operating system: Android
Processor: Qualcomm MSM7200A 528Mhz
Memory: 512MB ROM, 192MB RAM
Dimensions: 113mm x 55.56mm x 13.65mm
Weight: 116g
Display size: 3.2 diagonal inches
Display resolution: 320 x 480
Expansion slot: 1 x microSD

First off, Vodafone has it exclusively, with T-Mobile having to settle for an over the air update to their G1 delivering the new version of the Android operating system to that handset.

Second, that keyboard is gone, to be replaced by on-screen tappable keyboard. This takes advantage of the Magic’s gravity sensor to present either in tall or wide format depending on how you twist the phone in your hand. We found the tall mode keyboard a bit of a fiddle, but the wide one fine to use.

Third, the Magic sports a new version of the Google Android platform, often referred to as Cupcake. There are plenty of tweaks and alterations and they make the HTC Magic a superb little device – if you are a fan of Google’s apps.

We found the Magic grabbed our Google Mail contacts within a few minutes of us switching it on. It can do the same with your Google calendar, and the tie-in to other Google apps is equally tight. YouTube, Picasa, Google Talk, Google Maps – with support for Latitude which can show you where your friends are if they allow you to know – are all here and completely integrated.

And here we come to a significant downside of the HTC Magic. If you keep you diary, contacts and to do lists in Microsoft Outlook then synchronising them is a no-no.

And office-based bods will be upset to learn there is no support for Microsoft Exchange either. This is the main negative point with the HTC Magic, and Google really does need to provide more widespread compatibility next time round, especially if it wants the platform to gain any real traction in the workplace.

Physically this is a lovely device. It is small and neat measuring 113mm x 55.56mm x 13.65mm and weighing 116g. Compare that to the G1’s 117.7 x 55.7 x 17.1 and 158g and you can see that the removal of the physical keyboard has had a significant impact.

The beautiful creamy white shell is a delight to look at, and it has that characteristic uplift on the bottom edge that the G1 had, though this time round it is a little more subtle.

The screen is a clear and bright 3.2 inches across diagonal corners and it delivers 320 x 480 pixels. More would have been nice, but what is here is enough for most uses.

Beneath the screen on the front fascia are a few buttons – Call, End, Home, Menu, back and search. The Menu button brings up context sensitive options to the screen, while the handset’s main menu is popped out by dragging a small tab on the bottom of the touch screen upwards and then downwards when you want to put the menu away again.

This is a 3G device with HSDPA to 7.2Mbps. It has quad band GSM too. There is 192MB of on board RAM and Vodafone supplies a 2GB microSD card to augment this. We downloaded a few applications via the Android Market (the on-board application store) and doing so was as easy as pie.

Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and GPS are built in. There are some nifty extras such as the ability to use Street View in Google Maps simply by tilting the Magic in your hands, and the ability to use the 3.2 megapixel camera as a bar code scanner.

That’s handy when used in conjunction with third party applications to identify goods, cheap prices for those goods and even nearby locations where you can buy them.

Music playback is here, obviously enough, but the headset connector on the Magic is mini USB. At least you get a converter to 3.5mm.

Overall the Magic represents a significant improvement over the first Android phone fixing most of the issues users complained about with that handset and having significantly better build quality.

The Magic lacks sufficient features to be a true success at work as well as home, but Android is now really starting to fulfill its potential.

Essential Verdict
Performance: 8/10
Very responsive to the finger, capable processor

Design: 9/10
Lovely to look at, an improvement over the G1

Features: 7/10
The lack of Outlook synch is a real problem

Value for Money: 7/10
Only available on contract as we write

Overall score: 8/10

Written by Sandra Vogel.

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