HTC Magic: Vodafone’s Google Phone

Google integration

The integration with Google’s online services is the Magic’s most obvious feature. During the first set-up, it lets the user register a Google identity, and then mail, calendar and contacts all come from that online account – it really is that easy, and there is no need to set up any sort of synching.

The mail and calendar applications work instantly and beautifully. This was the quickest set-up I’ve experienced with a phone. And the contacts are well integrated with SMS and telephony. The phone itself works well, with good sound and general reception.

As well as that, Google Maps picks up on the in-built GPS, giving good location and directions. Other Google services such as Picasa are well-presented too.

The Android Market does well in comparison with iPhone’s App Store: my phone left my hands for a few seconds, and my daughter had a free Sudoko app on it, and others quickly joined it – like an excellent unofficial BeebPlayer for the BBC’s online content. At the moment, there are plenty of applications, most are free, and items like Twitter and Facebook are obviously well covered.

Other details

Connectivity is fine: Bluetooth is present and correct, and the Wi-Fi set-up is smooth, giving us plenty of free bandwidth indoors. The WebKit browser works well, giving a good experience – and the Google search box on the home screen quickly becomes a much-used feature.

All notifications (of voicemail, email, text, appointments and probably more) show up on the top bar, and can be dragged down to explore and respond.

The 3.2 Mpixel camera is reasonable, unless you expect good results indoors or in low light (just like the cameras on many of today’s phones) and better than the cameras on existing iPhones.

There is only one socket on the outside: a USB connector (actually an HTC-proprietary ExtUSB connector) which works for charging, connecting and headphones. My device came with a set of HTC headphones, as well as a second connector that allowed a standard headphone – but I do not know if this is standard issue.

Volume control is by a wheel on the headset, and a stylish unmarked bar on the phone, which can also mute the phone easily.

The phone doesn’t ship with a voice recorder – but there are several to download from the Market. More seriously, for people who like to listen to the radio on their phones, there is no FM radio built in. There are streaming radi stations to download, including Last FM and as yet, no streaming player I could find that would play radio stations

The battery life of this phone is excellent for a device in this class. With Wi-Fi connections and browsing, it still lasted a couple of days before needing a charge – and the onscreen power monitor works well.

Conclusion

This phone is a clear success, and HTC has no need to apologise for its “consumer focus”. It should satisfy any Google mail user – including business people – and might inspire anyone trapped into Microsoft Exchange to make a bid for freedom.

Vodafone offers it free on a two-year contract, and it can be bought without a contract, for around £500. It could even win over people thinking about the iPhone, with its longer battery life and lower price.