Tuesday, July 7, 2009

HTC Magic - Android

With the arrival of the first Android mobile at Portugal, a friend of mine Marta, has kindly shared her first opinions going from her actual HTC Touch Pro (Windows Mobile) to her new HTC Magic (Android). Here's her first impressions about the Android "Magic":


Design: Great, slim and light. As my husband puts it: "looks like a girly phone".

Flow: Works every time, with no missed gestures. It has 3 screens, left-center-right.

The central page comes with an analog clock. I prefer a digital one (got it at the android market.) Most stuff there is for free.

The page on the right comes with Google search, the page on the left comes empty.
(You can add stuff into either one)


Wallpaper: Comes with just a few, but the neat thing is that it occupies the 3 screens, giving it a beautiful effect.

Explorer:There is none, which leaves me a bit "lost" when searching for files. If you want to look for photos you need to use "Gallery", to find musics you need to use "Music", etc. I find it a bit lacking.


Pattern to unlock: Never had it before, and I loved it. You can create your own uniques gesture to unlock the phone instead of a password.



Menu: The menu is always kept at the bottom of the screem, you just drag it up. Here you can find every app installed in the phone. Its quick to open and easy to navigate either using the touchscreen or the small trackball.




Contact list: I can't say its gorgeous, but it's certainly fast. Favorites look a lot nicer (wish the regular contacts showed like that.) One problem: the birthday field is missing, which is kind of odd as Gmail has it in its contact list.


Calendar: Loved it, as my entire life is there :) As soon as I add or edit something online or on the phone with syncs automatically. I'll never forget anything again. (Editor note: I wouldn't count on that! ;) I love the fact that it also keeps the same color I've chosen in Gcalendar.



Keyboard: Loved it, it works as expected, withou wrong key presses. Minor issue: it takes some time switching from portrait to landscape mode and back.



Browser: Its quite fast and easy to navigate. I don't usually access the web on the phone, but I must confess I'm impressed.

Voice Recorder: Doesn't have one. Don't know if it's really missing or if I just couldn't find it. Got one from the android market, but it should come with one as standard. I also think the sound isn't that great, and the volume is rather low.

Notepad: Also missing. Also required a "trip" to the market.

Video: Not bad, but it only allow us to see a small range of formats, If you record a video it will be stored as MPG4. I think it also plays wmv (heard it, but didn't test it).

Generally, I'm quite impressed with it :)

Now, all we need is another analysis once the "novelty factor" wears off, and we learn how it really handles in day-to-day operation. (Not that I expect it to "fail" in any way... but there those things that we can only learn when using it for real on a daily basis. :)

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