HTC Magic in Smartphones

The integration of Street View into Android's Google Maps app is one of the most wondrous gimmicks we've seen in any handset. Turn on the Magic's digital compass and you can browse views simply by spinning in a circle - the view follows you as you go, allowing you to look up and down as well. Google Maps, strangely, still doesn't take advantage of the compass in standard map view, though, so you're stuck with North is up, no matter what you do. In compensation the GPS locks on incredibly quickly to your location.

And, needless to say, HTC has left no stone unturned when it comes to smartphone hardware goodies. You get Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.0, up to 7.2Mbits/sec HSDPA and a 3.2-megapixel stills camera, while storage comes in the form of a reasonable 512MB of ROM, with a microSD slot for expansion.

The critical improvement, however, is the battery life. The first time we saw the G1, we struggled to get the battery life to last past a day, even with the very lightest of workloads. This time, with a larger battery in tow (1,340mAh), the Magic lasted over four days in our real world battery test. During this test we make half an hour of calls, download 50MB of data, and then leave the phone on standby, synchronising email over its HSDPA connection until the battery eventually dies.

Even under more demanding conditions, with lots of web browsing, application downloads and YouTube video watched, the phone lasted well into day two; an impressive performance by any standards, and the equal of its main competitor, the iPhone.

There are, however, some mistakes here, aside from the limited colour scheme. First up is that - crazily - there's no 3.5mm headphone jack. Headphones must be connected via HTC's proprietary ExtUSB connection, which is also used to drag files on and off the phone. Thankfully, you do get an adapter in the box that allows you to use your own headphones; the bundled stereo handsfree set is of predictably low quality.

Second is that Android's onboard Gmail app still has several infuriatingly annoying quirks. Most attachments can't be downloaded, for instance, just previewed. There are workarounds: by downloading the Download Crutch app you can use the web interface to download files directly, but it's hardly an elegant solution. We also found we couldn't zoom out for an overview of PDF attachments.

But with plenty elsewhere to like we're happy to overlook the foibles and give this Android handset the thumbs up - after all it's not as if Windows Mobile phones or the iPhone don't have their irritations too.

The HTC Magic is simple to use, browsing the web on it is a joy, battery life is good and, in the Android Market, there's plenty of potential for expansion and fun. Plus, with Vodafone offering it for free on a £35 per month 18 month contract (including 600 minutes, unlimited texts and data), it's a better deal than the iPhone is too.

Author: Jonathan Bray