HTC Magic

The HTC Magic is powered by the Google Android 1.5 operating system, and as such has full access to the burgeoning Android Market, Google’s version of the iTunes Store. The Market is loaded with applications ranging from games through to Twitter clients and although it doesn’t match the Apple version for slickness, there is no denying the quantity. Either way, at this moment in time, it is the only contender ably positioned to challenge the iTunes Store, and to our mind that gives this phone a leg up on the competition at the outset. Time will tell, of course, but for now let us see if the handset itself shapes up.

Available in black or white, the Magic is a good-looking device. It has a shiny plastic shell, six shortcut buttons and a little trackball-style Pearl for navigating when you don’t feel like using the touch screen. A side-mounted rocker style button provides instant access to volume controls. The entire back panel slides easily off to allow access to the battery, SIM card and Micro SD card slots and the lens for the 3.2-mega pixel camera resides here too.

The touch screen itself is very good. Not quite, navigation isn’t as fluid when dragging your fingers around. For hunt and peck style operation, it is, however, perfect. It looks great too, with the screen both crisp and bright – although the default setting is on the low side, so forget your battery life and bump that slide right up.

Speaking of battery life, HTC says the Magic will give you up to 450 minutes of talk time using GSM and up to 420 hours of standby time. In real life, we found a day of regular usage (texting, checking email, playing a few games, watching a few YouTube clips and listening to music) would sufficiently drain the battery to require a recharge at the end of each day.

The internal speaker is surprisingly good, while the bundled stereo headphones and headset (there’s a volume control and simple remote control halfway down the wire) are average at best. Sadly, HTC has opted to make the mini-USB jack (also used to connect to a PC or charger) the only means of connecting your headphones.

Moving onto slightly more technical matters, the Magic features a global roaming-friendly selection of radio transmitters and receivers including quad-band GSM, dual-band UMTS and HSDPA/HSUPA. Bottom line for Kiwis? At home, it will work with the entire Vodafone network, both 3G and Extended 3G, while overseas roaming should prove a doddle. Well, until you get the bill if you dared make a call or two while away, then you’ll regret ever taking your phone at all.

The Magic is wi-fi-enabled, but it is 802.11 b/g only, there is no n. The now obligatory (and increasingly useful thanks to the addition of third-party apps via the Android Market) GPS receiver is present, as is Bluetooth (it’ll accept a stereo headset) and a digital compass. An accelerometer detects movement and, among a host of other useful applications, will automatically rotate the screen should you turn the phone on its side. Storage is handled by a Micro SD slot and it will take a card up to 8GB capacity. The media player is decent, though not a patch on the media functionality of the iPhone and its tight iPod integration. It will, however, play a whole stack of different audio formats, including AAC, MP3, WMA, WAV, OGG and AAC+. Video formats are limited to MP4 and 3GP.

With a Google-made operating system, the HTC Magic is, unsurprisingly, at one with all that is Google, be it Gmail, Calendar, Contacts and of course Google Maps (it’s street view-enabled and when used in conjunction with the accelerometer to look around, is very cool indeed). The video camera can upload clips directly to YouTube – perfect for on-the-spot news reporting. Still photos taken with the 3.2-mega pixel camera were decent and about on par with most camera phones out there.