HTC Magic mobile phone - First Look review

First Look

Often referred to on the Internet as the G2, HTC has teamed up with Vodafone in the UK to announce the HTC Magic, an Android-based handset that ditches the slide-out QWERTY keyboard. But has this move worked? Is this the must-have handset to look forward to? Pocket-lint was at the global launch in Barcelona to have a First Look.

The crux of the Magic is the large 3.2-inch QVGA touchscreen that dominates the design. I say dominates as it does a good job of being the main focus of the phone, however there are still shortcut buttons beneath it before you get to the "chin", supposedly a design statement and nothing more.

Those buttons, which are being re-worked and improved as HTC aren't happy with the performance, will offer shortcuts to things like home, menu, back, hang-up and call and search, all centred around a scroll ball interface similar to that found on the BlackBerry Bold, Curve and Pearl. We saw two variants of the device at the launch with different button configurations: it's clear there is still work to be done.

Elsewhere on the outside there is a 3.2-megapixel camera on the back, without flash, and you'll have to remove the casing to reveal the microSD card slot inside. For music fans there is no 3.5mm headphone jack, with HTC instead opting, as with previous devices, for connection via a dedicated plug.

Inside and the tech specs continue with HSDPA and Wi-Fi, GPS so you can use Google Maps, and an accelerometer. On the storage front it will have 512MB of ROM, 192MB of RAM and a microSD card slot. It will be powered by a Qualcomm MSM7210a, 528MHz processor.

With a considerably thinner design (about half the thickness of the T-Mobile G1) the phone has to rely on the onscreen keyboard. Users will be able to view the QWERTY keyboard either landscape or portrait, however you won't be able to opt for a 20-key keypad like the BlackBerry Storm. Pressing a key pops-up the character so you can see what you are pressing, very much like the iPhone. In our brief go with the keyboard we found that the smaller screen made for cramped conditions: this isn't going to be the device to use if you are hoping to do a lot of typing.

Aside from the onscreen keyboard, there is little change to the Android interface over the G1: it is still clean, fast and easy to use. It certainly has potential, but compared to the iPhone, Windows 6.5, WebOS, Symbian S60, BlackBerry (damn there are so many) it still looks very young in its development.