HTC Magic: First Impressions

[dirtyj]

Well I decided to give a quick little review of my Magic I just received today (and because someone requested I give a few thoughts on it). Been playing around with it for a couple hours and I have to say, I LOVE THIS PHONE! You'll see a lot of iPhone and BlackBerry comparisons in here because those were my two most recently owned devices. Let me give you some thoughts on it so far:

Build Quality
Never owned an HTC before so I can't really comment. I will say, the phone's exterior is very put together, buttons are easy to press and relevant and I definitely like the trackball in the middle. Makes it very easy for BlackBerry users to gradually ease into the touch screen.

Screen
It's actually very responsive. I was definitely surprised. Well lit, very crisp. Size is decent, maybe could have been a little bigger but the current size suits the device I guess.

Camera
Unbelievable. What a difference between the 3.2MP on my Bold and this 3.2MP. Reminds me of the iPhone's camera, except a lot sharper and crisper.

Android UI
Absolutely LOVE it. Rogers coined this right on: this is the revolution, the future of mobile technology as we know it. A very powerful, strong OS, that can do anything the other OS's can, and, in most cases, better at it.

Exchange Support
Configured and ready to roll in literally 10 seconds with my work e-mail. Didn't sync contacts or calendars so I can't comment on the effectiveness/accuracy of that.

Android Market
A large variety of great applications at your disposal. Some buggy, some picture perfect. Trial and error I guess. StreamFurious is 10/10 for me. Will discuss later in post.

Web Browsing
Equal to or greater than the Safari browsing experience. I found that pages loaded faster and more accurately. Scrolling is smooth. My only beef with this is if you press a link by mistake, the STOP button doesn't really stop the next web page call.

Multimedia
Haven't had a change to tinker with the media player yet, but it looks promising and very smooth. I'm big on streaming radio while I'm driving (the FM radio in my car doesn't work), and StreamFurious is a DYNAMITE application for it. Works fantastic, buffers very quickly and holds connections better than the iPhone and Bold did for me.

One thing that ticked me off
When I ordered the handset, I was promised a $50 mail-in rebate (as many others were). I didn't receive any paperwork or acknowledgment of this in the box so I will be calling Rogers for more info to see how this program works.

[SA5195]

haha i requested the review, thanks man!

[lovemymobile]

"Camera
Unbelievable. What a difference between the 3.2MP on my Bold and this 3.2MP. Reminds me of the iPhone's camera, except a lot sharper and crisper."


Can you post a couple pics to see the difference. Is it the lens that make it better?

[greek]

thanks for the review! you think it will last you a few years?

[dirtyj]

"Camera
Unbelievable. What a difference between the 3.2MP on my Bold and this 3.2MP. Reminds me of the iPhone's camera, except a lot sharper and crisper."


Can you post a couple pics to see the difference. Is it the lens that make it better?

Will snap a few tomorrow and post em up. Don''t have any of the Bold but I do have some from my iPhone. Camera work best in well with natural lighting, and lots of it.

[greek]

any updates on the AppMarket?

[Freka]

Also please tell us about the battery life. Is it better or worse compared to the iPhone?

[mytime]

^^^ plus what about the music, is the Rogers UR music on there? I heard it's not. Is there a music player

[arcsvibe]

Thanks for the review! Now judging it against your iPhone and Bold on a scale to 10 how would you rate it?

I am curious thanks!

[cracked]

I also heard that when you first load your e-mail up it asked you to sync your contacts but it grans all your contacts from all your e-mails, google, personal etc... is there a way not to sync your some of your contacts in?

[nimic]

I got this phone the day it came out, and been playing with it for about 2 weeks. And i thought since there still isn't a lot out their in terms of info on this phone (especially the rogers version) i though i'd add my 2 cents.

My previous phone is a blackberry 8900. And of course the other obvious comparison is the iphone.

+ means i like
- means i hate

What's on the Rogers Version?
- 5 shortcuts to useless junk that you can't delete
+ exchange support
+ "quick office" which will let you see docs but not edit them
+ a pdf viewer (which is good for ebooks by the way)
+ mostly good additions that don't ruin the andriod experience

Hardware
+ Built really well, feels good in the hand.
- No 3.5 headphone jack
+ Standard USB
+ Removeable Micro SD card (comes with 2GB but can go to 16GB maybe 32)
+ vibrate is strong, easily felt in the pocket
+ trackball lights up and makes it super obvious you have a message
+ ringer is nice and loud
+ Mounts as a drive through USB to pc (drag and drop all your files)
+ removable battery ... all phones should have this.
+ call quality is excellent and clear
- included headset and inline mic are proprietary (needs an adapter if you want to use your own
+- camera is good for a phone but not great (out of the box the saturation was way high but easily fixed in settings) My 8900 autofocus was faster than this (also 3.2 MP)
-+ trackball isn't very useful...but in some places like positioning the cursor in text it's the most useful thing in the world
- no multi-touch
+ has 6 dedicated keys. kinda like a blackberry
+ rocker switch is easy to hit...it's skinny but long.
+ back plate snaps on and off and is solid

Software
+ Android OS is great, very customizable to how you work.
+ Widgets (available in the market) basically a make your own today screen.
+ apps (like dirtyj said some are good some aren't)
- Currently you cannot get paid apps (i think it's a canada thing)
+ gmail account / exchange / pop3 /imap all easy to setup
- had hotmail setup as a pop account and while it worked it never showed the full email... other email types worked as expected maybe it was just hotmail
+ once i re-calibrated the keyboard it works amazingly well (out of the box it was a bit frustrating... it has to do with where it looks like you're touching vs where you're actually touching... defiantly worth calibrating once you get it)
Typing on my 8900 is still faster.
- every now and again the search will pop over the keyboard preventing my from typing in the browser the only way to correct it is the flip from landscape to portrait or portrait to landscape... very annoying
- the stop action in the browser doesn't do anything...it's actually better to hit back instead of stop
+ the webkit browser is great
+ if you hit a youtube link it will automatically give you a choice to watch it in the youtube app or goto the link which you can then use "pwnyoutube" to download to your phone if you want.
+ youtube app is such a time waster
- youtube is the quickest way to kill the battery
+ wifi is must and it works perfectly
+ bluetooth works well too
+ notifications tray is awesome all sms/email/downloads/calendar events will show there..it's great having them in one place
+ google maps app is fast
+- the app tray at the bottom... can't organise it... but it does its job
+ when you download an app, it will tell you exactly what that app has access to on your phone (so if an app has access to sms, which costs you money, you'll know and can choose not to download it)
+- multitasking is handled in the background, so apps never really quit...so every now and again you're going to have to reboot it, or go into the settings and clear up some memory manually...not a big deal, but worth mentioning
+- music works great, but not having a proper 3.5 jack makes it not worth it for me, the supplied headphones aren't good
+ camera software is limited but covers the basics... saturation, contrast, white balance ect
+- camcorder software works well enough, lots of motion blur when moving, slow to react to light changes, still i like it overall for what it is.
+ gallery shows all pictures, videos downloaded or from the camera, organized into logical folders and accessible over usb
+ messaging works well
+ dailer gets the job done (i think this is a rogers dialer but im not sure why)
+ settings allow for a lot of control over how the phone connects
+ whats this in the market? free starwars and flavaflav ringtones... the included ringtones are good too
+ There's lots of stuff in this phone to love

Apps i like so far
+ CamPainter lite ... lets you finger paint
+Text Edit... lets you take notes and then saves them as txt files
+Teeter... comes preinstalled and is a fun ball maze game with really good haptic feed back
+ Tetris of course
- had an NES emulator but without keys it was a no go
+ Messenger App of course (AOL,MSN,Yahoo basically all the big ones are covered)
- honestly there are more bad then good apps
- most are geared toward the G1 and require a keyboard for full benefits

answers
1) Battery life under casual use 2-3 days. Very light use probably 7 days.
under heavy use it'll be dead in about 6hours...now if it's better of worse than the iphone is really hard to tell since so much relies on user habits, it seems better.
2)how is it versus the bold... I dont' know, I don't have one. I do have an 8900 and i think the magic blows it away. I get all my emails and calendar stuff and a slick UI plus so much more. I miss the qwerty on the 8900 but not that much.
3) Syncing contacts... it's not automatic in exchange and pop/imap (can be turned off)... gmail seems to not have the option but i can't remember if it did or not in initial setup.
4) Market has a hand full of new apps every time i look...but i can only see free apps, not paid apps.


Overall
Love android. It's rough around the edges but certainly a solid os.
I have no problem making this my everyday phone.

I would recommend it to people who like to hack things together and experiement....or just like to customize everything.
Is it better than the iphone? Blackberry 8900? For me yes, your opinion may differ, and that's ok :)

[Neon]

wow!
Thanks for the time in putting these reviews up dirtyj and nimic!

love the feedback, especially since it's the first android devices. Overall sounds like you both are really happy with em

[nimic]

One big thing i forgot to mention in the negatives column...

The rogers version of cupcake comes with 3 keyboard types 1) qwerty 2) compact qwert (think blackberry pearl) and 3) T9.

Qwerty works fine... but compact qwert is broken and locks up for me every time. Fortunately i like qwerty better; but if you like compact qwerty, it will most defiantly be an issue. (Unless somehow this problem is limited to me, i haven't heard anything about it anywhere else)

Maybe dirtyj can confirm this.

The Only other thing i can think to mention is hold "send + end + menu", to quickly reboot the phone.

All that being said... I still really like this phone it's a lot of fun.

[underwhere]

how many apps are available to us Canadians? Free and Paid?

[dougfriessen]

I hope with the new iPhone coming a price drop will come!!

lol

[nimic]

How many apps are available to canadians? Hard to tell because it doesn't say...but there are no paid apps that i can see.
This site at least has a list... http://androidcommunity.com/forums/androidmarket.php

[Herb Tarlek]

^ that is probably due to Rogers wanting to get it out to the Canadian market first, and be known as "the innovators" or "revolutionaries" - all along screwing us out of things that should be there in the first place.

[nimic]

Google just updated the maps application, via the market... downloaded/installed/updated maps over wifi... map app just got better and it was already good to begin with.

[dirtyj]

Thanks for the review! Now judging it against your iPhone and Bold on a scale to 10 how would you rate it?

I am curious thanks!

That's a tough one...

Android has the potential to be a perfect 10/10 OS. Some cosmetic, usability and fine tuning changes would make it a perfect 10 for me. Its still in its infancy so I mean, I'm not really expecting a perfect experience.

I'd say it definitely outclasses the BlackBerry (with the exception of the overhyped BBM) and is about equal to the iPhone I had. Will go into a little more (bolded model is the one which is superior in the category):

Sync:
iPhone
Magic (equal, iTunes is great with iPhone, along with syncing with my address book, Google account is great for sync of EVERYTHING)

Music Player:
iPhone (Magic's is easy, but iPhones has the edge)
Magic

Browsing:
iPhone
Magic (Definitely faster, smoother and more reliable web experience in Android)

3rd Party Apps:
iPhone (Market is coming along, but come on, can any mobile store compare to the depth and quality of Apple's app store?! Plus there's no paid apps Canada yet)
Magic

E-mail:
iPhone
Magic (Very even, if you consider iPhone OS 3.0 into the equation)

Contacts:
iPhone (Prefer Apple's address book setup, a little more user friendly)
Magic

YouTube
iPhone
Magic (HQ mode - that's all I'm gonna say about this.)

Camera
iPhone
Magic (Great all around, the but the iPhone's camera is better in lowlight believe it or not, 3GS 3.0MP will surely crush the Magic)

[CreamyGoodness]

hmm, this really changes my mind. I am not sure weather to pick up the Magic or iPhone 3Gs. I think I will go with the iPhone for now and go with an Android device later down the line when they are a little more sexy

[arcsvibe]

That's a tough one...

Android has the potential to be a perfect 10/10 OS. Some cosmetic, usability and fine tuning changes would make it a perfect 10 for me. Its still in its infancy so I mean, I'm not really expecting a perfect experience.

I'd say it definitely outclasses the BlackBerry (with the exception of the overhyped BBM) and is about equal to the iPhone I had.

Thank you so much! I think that I will be trying out the Android OS when I get a chance too.

Once again I appreciate your time!

[Kronk86]

I agree, dirty. I think that Android offers a lot more than the iPhone OS. You can also do anything you want to it, without fear that Google is going to come after you or 'brick' your phone. That is the beauty of open source OS.

Creamy is also right. It isn't as.....attractive as the iPhone. Better then the G1/Dream, but still a long way off the clean, refined look of any Apple product.

[kmusky]

Well, there are supposed to be about 18 different android products released this year. The Samsung i7500 and the "bigfoot" are supposedly waiting in wings, as well as several Motorola products. It's only a matter of time before these appear in Canada, especially with the new competition coming.

[Kronk86]

Samsung...Does anyone else hate their phones as much as i? They are poorly built and downright ugly. The fit and finish isn't even close to some other manufacturers. I think they need to step up.

The omnia and omnia HD were a let down. The screen on the HD was cool, but if your outside, you can't see anything. Damn OLEDs!

But back on topic; The android phones coming out should be pretty awesome.

HTC, i am waiting for an HTC Touch HD2 with Android!