Hands-on with the HTC Magic Android smartphone
By Will Park on Thursday, February 19th, 2009 at 5:37 AM PST In Android, Announcements, Devices, HTC, Hottest Hardware, Mobile World Congress 2009, New Hardware, Photos, Videos
Vodafone (NYSE: VOD) might have stolen the world-stage yesterday with the announcement of their Android-powered HTC Magic (G2, if you will), but we couldn’t satisfy our gadget-fix with a measly press conference at Mobile World Congress. So, we set off in search of a real, live HTC Magic to put our greasy fingers on (okay, maybe more sweaty than greasy). Thankfully, HTC’s press suite at Mobile World Congress was just to place to quench our thirst for hands-on action.
The second-coming of the HTC-made Android phone is everything we expected. The HTC Magic is similar in both style and substance to its Android forebear, the T-Mobile (NYSE: DT) G1. With a 528 MHz processor, 3.2-inch 320 x 480 HVGA capacitive touchscreen, GPS and Bluetooth, the HTC Magic 
performs just as well as the G1. But, instead of a physical keyboard adding extra girth and heft to the device, the HTC Magic relies on just an on-screen virtual keyboard to handle all your text input needs.
The now-familiar “chin” on the G1 has been passed down to the Magic, abeit in a less pronounced fashion. The “menu” button has been moved, and has shrunk in size, along with the other navigation buttons, compared to the G1. Unfortunately, the smaller buttons might pose a slight problem to larger-fingered users, but nothing that can’t be overcome with a little patience and button-pressing practice.
As far as in-hand feel, the HTC Magic is perfectly sized. The Magic isn’t unweildy but it could stand to shed a few ounces and a couple millimeters from its waist. The large capacitance touchscreen and precision trackball make for the kind of enjoyable user experience you’d expect from an HTC-made Android smartphone that follows in the G1’s footsteps. There’s not sliding screen to move around or jiggle, giving the Magic the kind of solid feel that only a slate-based touchscreen can offer.
And, as a bit of icing on the Android-cake, the Magic sports video recording using the 3.2-megapixel camera. The older G1 might be feeling a bit left out – like an only child having to deal with the arrival of a newborn sibling. It’s okay, G1, we’ll always love you – now get out of the way, you’re blocking our view of the G2.
[Updated]
Now with 100% more video!
The device is quite attractive but, at minimum, I would expect device vendors (HTC) and mobile operators (Vodafone) to create their own custom “themes” (wallpaper, etc.), to brand their Android-based devices. The default Android theme is OK, but it is not overly attractive/exciting.
Once more widgets are available (e.g. weather, sports, news, etc.), vendors/operators could potentially install them on the desktop as well, to make it even more attractive.
So how is that virtual keypad…?
This phone is SO close to perfect!
A 5+ MP cam w/ a xenon flash would take this phone from good to out of this world!
And, I also agree that the base home screen is a tad boring. However I’m sure there will be theme’s ect as Android becomes more popular
Have been a nokia fan all through and probably will be sticking to my N82 for atleast one more year
. However, by then this beauty to graduate to 5MP xenon so that it can seduce me from Nokia…
Notably, the G1 has gotten the on screen keypad before the Magic hits the shelves in a broad way – as the andriod 1.5 “cupcake” system update is out for while now.
So the “move over G1″ statements from this articel may be less applicable today than when it was written at MWC09.
This seems to underline to break free from a sterotype and pattern from the past, in that offers of handsets are no longer functionally frozen and needs to be replaced by next modelthat frequently to keep up with software and service innovations – Apple and due to its openness of the efdevelopment platform even more the G1 are really a new approach. Another major step towards a true lifecycle model for handsets – and maybe a game changer for Nokia and other “traditional” handset vendors…
hi
i neve see soo bad htc magic dosent peley enyting soo bad