Review of HTC Magic Android Phone
OCWorkbench 14 May 2009

HTC launched it's second Android Power phone, the HTC Magic yesterday at the Raffles Hotel Singapore. We were at the show to witness the power of this new mobile device.
 

The first thing that caught our eyes is the design of the phone. Compared to the HTC Dream which features a slide out keyboard, the HTC Magic is generally slimmer and looks more trendy. Featuring a 3.2" Touch screen display and a track ball, scrolling through the main menu and phone book is amazingly smooth. Set up your own Home page by dragging the application icons to the desktop and the short cut is created instantly for you.

Internet browsing is also made easy with the easy to access web browser. You can zoom in and mimic a right click action on a PC to save a link or save a picture that is embedded within a webpage.

Since it is a Google powered phone, familiar applications are all preloaded. They include Google Search, Gmail, Google Calendar and Google Talk. If you thought that this device is an non MS friendly phone, you are dead wrong as it offers not only Gmail, POP3, IMAP, it also offer Microsoft® Exchange Active Synch for email, calendar and contacts synchronization.

The phone also comes with other applications including the Quickoffice. You can now view your PDF, excel, word documents on the same screen. If these are not enough, you can download thousand of free applications from the Android market. You can access them and see them rank in popularity. Download and install them. Some of them common applications include MP3, calendaring, skype, games. One particular one is the Weather Channel which really comes handy when you go overseas. Get up to date with the weather of up to the next 7 days. If you are bored, how about getting a streamed video of youtube with no lagging in between.

As mentioned before, the old style HTC Dream keyboard is removed from the HTC Magic to make it slimmer and fashionable. Whenever you need to send emails or SMS, the virtual keyboard pops up. You can use your finger to input not only alphanumeric characters, you can also write Chinese characters and it uses predictive input to scan for the best match character.

With HSDPA, access to internet and uploading isn't an issue anymore. In fact, I wouldn't' fault such a feature pack phone other than it's high price and lack of FM Radio. The bright side is that you can still listen to foreign broadcasts online using internet streaming via HSDPA.

So would you prefer the Google generic interface or the TouchFlo3D interface on the HTC Touch Diamond2? Tell us how you feel in the forum discussion.

Different from the HTC Dream which was only available from a single telco. The HTC Magic will be available on all 3 telecom operators in Singapore. The new HTC Magic will be available from early June 2009 at all authorized resellers at a suggested retail price of S$1,048. Standard retail HTC Magic package will come with a 2GB microSD™ card.

*All prices are subject to pricing policies of individual operators.

On the next few pages, you will see pictures of the phone and videos of the HTC Magic in action.

Specifications


Processor Qualcomm® MSM7200A™, 528 MHz
Operating system Android
Memory ROM: 512 MB RAM: 288 MB
Dimensions 113mm (L) x 55.56 (W) x 13.65 mm (T) Weight 116g (with battery)
Display 3.2-inch TFT-LCD flat touch-sensitive screen with 320x480 HVGA resolution
Network HSDPA/WCDMA: •900/2100 MHz •
Up to 2 Mbps up-link and 7.2 Mbps down-link speeds
Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE: •850/900/1800/1900 MHz
Device Control Trackball with Enter button
GPS Internal GPS antenna
Connectivity Bluetooth® 2.0 with EDR and A2DP
Wi-Fi®: IEEE 802.11 b/g
HTC ExtUSB™ (11-pin mini-USB 2.0 and audio jack in one)
Camera 3.2 megapixel color camera with auto focus
Audio supportedformats AAC, AAC+, AMR-NB, MP3, WMA, WAV, AAC-LC, MIDI, OGG Video supportedformats MP4, 3GP
Battery Rechargeable Lithium-ion battery
Capacity: 1340 mAhTalk time:
•Up to 400 minutes for WCDMA
•Up to 450 minutes for GSM Standby time:
•Up to 660 hours for WCDMA
•Up to 420 hours for GSM (The above are subject to network and phone usage.)
Expansion Slot microSD™ memory card (SD 2.0 compatible)
AC Adapter Voltage range/frequency: 100 240V AC, 47/63 Hz DC output: 5V and 1ASpecial features G-sensor Digital Compass(3rdparty software is needed)
Value Added Applications Microsoft® Exchange synchronization for email, calendar and contacts, PDF Viewer, Quick Office, Smart Dialer, and Teeter game