of the htc magic review

Recently, I was fortunate to be able to get my hands dirty with the HTC Magic, HTC's latest Google phone. It is the second phone (after the HTC G1) that uses the Android operating system.

Thanks HTC and Nuffnang for giving me this opportunity to try the phone.


It’s a kind of magic

Appearance. The HTC Magic boast a sleek and stylish design. The one I tried on has the cool white finish (It also comes in black). It is smaller than the iPhone but slightly thicker. The 3.2 inch HVGA screen gives a sharp display and screen colors are bright. There are buttons on the front and on the side for navigation and volume control. The curvy design at the bottom allows the phone to sit nicely on your palm. The design makes the HTC Magic is easy to carry and hold.


All round snapshots (except the top, it’s empty)

Keyboard: Hello Touchscreen. HTC has removed the slide-out QWERTY keyboard for the Magic which makes the phone slimmer. The touchscreen keyboard is fairly easy to use and very responsive. And with auto-correction, typing messages was swift. The onscreen keyboard even becomes landscape mode when the phone is rotated, providing larger keys.

Controls: What the flick! You've got balls! Navigating the various menu items was easy. The UI was user-friendly, very intuitive. I could call up the menu with a flick of my thumb. Functions can be called up just by tapping on the icons. HTC has also introduced is a trackball for navigation, internet browsing as well as for zooming in/out.

Home Screen Sweet Home! The Home Screen is like a desktop which is customizable. What I like about the Home Screen is that it allows me to dump shortcuts to your favorite application or widgets. This way I can have one-stop, one-click, fast and easy access to my favorite functions. Furthermore the Home Screen extends across 3 screens which gives you plenty of room to add icons. More room to dump!


Extended Home Screen (3 screens)

Smart (Of course no need to say). The Smart Dialer feature allows you to dial by name on top of the usual dialing by numbers. HTC has also introduced a smart phone locking design which requires you to predefine your own pattern to unlock the phone.


Any pattern also can

It's Free. No not the phone. But applications, tools and games can be downloaded from Android Market and some are free. The phone already comes pre-installed with software include Google Talk, Google Maps, Gmail and YouTube.

Shoot! The HTC Magic comes with a decent 3.2 MP camera, however it's without flash. Photos taken in the day with adequate lighting produced good photos when I viewed on the computer.

Others. The phone comes with microSD expansion slot for storage and Bluetooth/Wifi for connectivity to external devices. There is a ExtUSB port for common usage: to plug to the computer, to charge the phone; and to plug in the earphones.

Overall, my days using the HTC Magic was satisfactory. Being my first time using a Google Android phone, there are no negative comments. Me is happy. The phone is fast and easy to use. If you happen to be near any HTC outlet, just try it out. Experiment the various options/buttons and you'll be familiarized with the phone in a matter of minutes.

Click here for more information on the HTC Magic specifications.