HTC Magic Review
It’s been about four weeks since I’ve had my HTC Magic so I thought I’d write a review.
Appearance – 4/5
The phone looks sexy. It’s got a little chin at the bottom and it feels comfortable in the pocket. The trackball and the status light at the top illuminate when you have notifications. The status light on the top can be a different colour depending on what app you’re using (ie Twidroid makes it blue).
Keyboard – 4/5
The keyboard works fairly well. It has autocorrect, you can type landscape or portrait, you can add words to a custom dictionary, you can enable tactile and/or audible feedback, and there’s a calibration tool so you can teach the phone exactly how you want to type.
My only complaint about the keyboard is that you can’t type very fast. The phone just cannot keep up (ie there is lag if you type fast). I’m not sure if this is a hardware or software issue. Perhaps it will be corrected in a future update.
Text Messaging – 5/5
Text messaging is pretty neat. When you open the Messaging app, you see a list of conversations with your contacts. Each contact has exactly one conversation. If a text messaging contact is online in GTalk, there will be a green icon beside their name indicating so.
Battery – 5/5
The battery life is good. I charge it nightly and during the day (9am-midnight) I talk, text, browse, tweet, use GPS, and some other apps like Shazam. The phone charges fairly quickly through a wall charger or USB charger. It uses a standard miniUSB charger so you might already have a few USB cables (if you have PS3 controllers, digital cameras) and even a car charger (if you have a car GPS).
Contacts – 5/5
The contact management is pretty sweet. Contacts can come from your phone (ie on your SIM card), from Exchange, or from Google. I store all my contacts with Google. You have the option to specify which contact groups you want to sync and the sync works in both directions (ie phone to Google and Google to phone). On my PC, I opened Gmail Contacts and uploaded some contact photos for my best friends, and now they show up when they call.
Search – 5/5
The search button will always search in context. So if you’re on your Home screen or in the browser, it will search Google. If you’re in YouTube, it will search YouTube. If you’re in the Market, it will search the Market. There are search suggestions as you type, of course.
Apps and Android Market – 4/5
The Android Market doesn’t have as many apps as the iPhone, obviously, but decent amount of quality apps are available. Here are the ones I use:
- Advanced Task Killer: Multiple Android apps can be running in the background simultaneously. To switch through your running apps, just hold the Home button. Advanced Task Killer shows you a list of running apps so you can kill whatever you’re not using to keep your phone running fast.
- AK Notepad: A simple notepad app to takes notes.
- Alarming!: The default Alarm Clock app that ships with Android is terrible because it doesn’t allow you to specify the alarm volume; it just uses your ringer volume. Since most people use a silent ringer while they sleep, this renders the default Alarm Clock app useless. Alarming! is a great alternative with all the bells and whistles you need.
- Flashlight: Simply makes the screen white and sets brightness to 100% to provide maximum light.
- Layar: The augmented reality app everyone is talking about.
- Shazam: Hear a song on the radio that you love? Place your phone’s microphone near your speakers and Shazam will tell you what song it is.
- Twidroid: My favourite Twitter client for Android.
I try to use as little apps as possible in effort to keep the phone uncluttered. For example, instead of using a to-do list app (there are many), I just have a bookmark to gmail.com/tasks on my Home screen. Instead of using a RSS reader app, I just have a bookmark to google.com/reader/i. Both of these Google services have pages that are custom built for Android. Keeping things in the cloud and in the browser is safer, saves battery, and keeps your phone running faster.
Maps – 5/5
Maps are powered by Google Maps of course. It’s easy to quickly find the nearest coffee shop or grocery store and get directions from a specified address or your current location. You can use the map mode to navigate yourself to your destination or you can view the directions in a list/text view. When in map mode, your Google profile picture is indicates your present location and it moves as you move; pretty neat! The phone uses wireless networks and/or GPS satellites to calculate your location.
Browsing – 4/5
Browsing is pleasant, although there is no multi-touch. There are buttons at the bottom of the screen you have to tap if you want to zoom in or out. If there is a phone number on the web page, you can just tap the number and it will start ringing. You can swipe your fingers to scroll up/down/across the page. If links are very close together, sometimes it’s difficult to tap the link you want. Browsing speeds are excellent.
Dialer and In-call Experience – 5/5
The in-call experience is fairly important to me because I regularly put people on speaker, switch between calls, and manage conference calls. You can open the dialer through your Home screen or by pressing the green call button. It shows you your last few calls with icons indicating whether they were incoming, outgoing, or missed. The bottom half of the screen has the number buttons where you can either type the number you want to call, or use T9 to quickly find the name of the person you want (ie type 328 (DAV) for “Dave.” While you’re in the call, you hit the green call button to put the person on hold or answer the other line. You can press menu to put them on speaker, swap calls, merge calls, add calls, or manage your conference call. The screen turns off when you put the phone to your ear (either by proximity or time, not sure).
Email and Calendar – 4/5
It’s easy to set up your Gmail account, IMAP account, and/or Exchange accounts. Gmail is pushed to your phone, but IMAP is pull and you can specify the frequency of pulls. The calendar works well, my only complaint is that the calendar widget that you place on the Home screen only shows one upcoming appointment, although there is room for more.
Miscellaneous
- No standard 3.5mm audio jack. Instead, there’s one miniUSB port is used to charge your phone, connect it to your computer, or plug in HTC’s proprietary headphones. If you want to use your standard 3.5mm headphones, you’ll have to buy a miniUSB to 3.5mm adapter. I would also suggest buying a multi-adapter that will allow you to charge your phone and listen to music at the same time.
- Specify your own pattern to unlock the phone. This really catches people’s attentions. When you want to unlock the phone, you just press Menu and then swipe your fingers in a specific motion (ie L shape, E shape, U shape, any motion).
- There’s no LED flash. As an alternative, there’s a Flashlight app that makes the screen go white and 100% bright.
Conclusion
The HTC Magic is an excellent phone and I’m very happy with my purchase. There’s a lot of value in the phone considering you can get it for $29.99 on a Rogers data contract. I’d say if you’re on the market for a new smartphone, strongly consider this phone. For the price, it can do a lot of the things you expect to see in a smartphone, and it won’t be long before you fall in love too.