The snappy HTC Magic now reaches our desks for review. Let’s peep into it to know if the Magic has successfully churned out a spell in the phone arena. The company had cast a spell on the Indian market last year with its Android based HTC Magic handset. Well, it’s more to do with the Android platform that was once denounced but now enabled on a bucket-load of devices with passing time. The Magic was supposedly to clear the mess created by the G1 or HTC Dream.
The HTC Magic popped up with a refreshed look unlike some of the previous HTC handsets. Not that we are head-over-heels on its looks but the device looks fairly sophisticated and stylish. Sporting in angelic White or demonic Black colors, we received the black one with a rim shaded with a hue from the Maroon color family. The sleek design apart from its satin texture enabled the Magic to happily slip into our pockets. It has maintained a glossy look while we could feel a rugged and strong device on clutching it. Gladly, the Magic has one of the non-annoying backflaps offered by devices these days.
More than three quarters of the front side of the phone reveals the screen. Below the screen are the almost submerged and minuscule silver buttons which include Home, to take one to the homescreen, Menu for the main menu, Call end, call receive, back or previous button and Search. The symmetric center of the device houses a trackball, no it isn’t a pearl or anything even close to that. A mini USB connector affixes on the lower edge while the volume controls are housed on the left edge. Yes, we haven’t mentioned a dedicated camera key or 3.5mm jack so far (a huge disappointment). The microSD card slot is below the battery on removing the back-flap. One does not have to take out the battery to access the card.
The Cupcake 1.5 update of Android helped emerge this touchscreen device minus a physical keypad. The 3.2-inch 320 x 480 pixel capacitive touchscreen display is quite impressive. The screen is very well responsive and we could effortlessly navigate through the functions. The usage was comfortable, be it indoors or outdoors while the picture quality is decent. It has also shed some weight compared to the earlier HTC device, probably as it comes minus a QWERTY.
The homescreen is made up of three pages, allowing easy access to several functions. The pages carry widgets that can be easily added or deleted. By holding the finger over the widget it turns into a movable icon that can be dragged onto the trash bin placed at the center on the lower side. The trash icon is disguised as a drag-on menu icon otherwise. Apart from the Menu button integrated below the screen, we could also access it by double taping on the on-screen Menu icon or simply swiping our finger on it upwards. The Menu includes alphabetically arranged nine functions, Call Log, Camcorder, Camera, Contacts, Dialer, Gallery, Mail, Messaging, Music, Nimbuzz, PDF Viewer, QuickOffice, Settings, SIM Toolkit and Teeter. We could also secure the phone by setting a touch enabled patterned password. A set of nine dots enabled us to draw a pattern to be set as a password whist using at least four dots.
Typing using the QWERTY keypad in the portrait mode was a task due to our flabby fingers while the usage was often limited in the landscape mode. Not all the applications support the QWERTY in landscape mode. However, the accelerometer based Tweeter game pre-installed in the device worked effectively. Apart from this, there aren’t any games loaded onto the phone. We found the much expected Google’s presence in the phone. The various Google services included are Google’s Mail, Maps, and more. Calling options are simplified with a broad range of icons like dialer, contacts, call log and starred favorites while the call reception was fairly good.
The device offers a decent Internet experience. Apart from a few confusion hiccups, the phone let us open multiple pages in a go while accessing them was quite smooth. However, we did face a few issues with the website page alignment and huge sites took considerable amount of time to load. On the camera front, we were quite disappointed. With the likes of the new camera phones featuring 5 megapixel sensors, the HTC Magic amidst several innovative features could rise up to 3.2 megapixels. The camera was decent but the photos went for a toss with varying light conditions. The absence of flash further adds to the disaster. We weren’t quite impressed with its video recording capabilities either.
The HTC unit that we received came minus the headphone. Evidently, it does not support 3.5mm headphone jack or those planning to trade in their favorite earphones would be disappointed. The music through the speakers was moderate while we also watched a few videos offering a decent experience. The device supports MP3, AAC, WMA, WAV and OGG file formats alongside third party software will enable more audio files. One can connect external stereo headset via Bluetooth but the device does not support transfer of data files via Bluetooth. Overall, HTC couldn’t completely mesmerize us on the media front with its magical wand.
Another impressive factor is the Magic’s battery life which let us squeeze in the device for more than a day with average usage. The simplified user interface enabled a smooth experience, apart from the a few accelerometer related QWERTY landscape issues, we really didn’t miss the physical keyboard. By installing a few applications made available at the Android Market, users could possibly get more out of the dainty device. In addition, users can directly peep into the current notifications of the device as the drag menu from the top of the screen reveals them irrespective of the phone’s function being used.
Pros: The device is attractive with a solid built and responsive onscreen QWERTY keypad. The UI is good and HTC has simplified it for an effortless usage of the device. The battery life is quite impressive.
Cons: The media experience is mediocre. The Magic comes minus a video-call camera function and does not integrate a 3.5mm headphone jack either. Well, you can’t get glued to your favorite FM channel as the Magic does not support FM and also lacks Flash support.
Overall, the handset packs in bucket-loads of improvement compared to its predecessor, be it looks or functionalities. Those looking for a decent touch enabled phone could opt for this device. We don’t say, it’s a great innovation but the overall performance and functioning has been good, putting aside a few flaws. It has managed to grab an 8 on 10 rating from us. The HTC Magic is available in India at a price of Rs. 29,990.