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  1. 17 Sep 2009

    HTC Magic and Android, my review

    written by Sergio Fernández at 08h33

    android
    Some weeks ago my old k800i died. The best choice could be the new N900 with Maemo5. But time and prize restrictions make difficult this option, so I decided to try other options.

    Last week I finally got the portability of my number to Vodafone, and with that also my new mobile phone, a HTC Magic with Android. So after a week I think I’m in the right position to express my opinion about this device.

    HTC Magic black

    Although it sounds weird, I’d like to start enumerating its bad points:

    • The battery is really bullshit, less than one day. If you take care of shutdown some things (3G and WiFi mainly), I got two days. II’ve read that with other unofficial ROMs this time can be enlarged, but no time yet to check it.
    • I don’t really like the idea to lose the physical keyboard in a mobile phone. Although I’m starting to write faster with the on-screen keyboard, I’m quite faster writing on my N810.
    • Very few free software on the official Market. I still prefer the repository approach than a central market.
    • Although it’s a linux-based operative system, actually you don’t have a Linux device (as Maemo is). Therefore you can not access to the huge catalog of software that currently works on GNU/Linux.
    • And the camera is really bad :-/

    A now the things that I like:

    • HTC is making a good work, the device moves well, it’s light and quite nice.
    • It’s an open source platform, at least mostly.
    • I’ve software for a big part of my needs. And I can developer whatever I want, not like in other platforms.
    • Integration with Google services is superb. It’s a pity not to have support for voice/video in GTalk (as we have in Maemo two years ago), but that looks more a commercial problem (phone operators won’t allow it) than technical.
    • 24/7 connectivity is amazing. For the first time I can enjoy my own connection since I moved to my new flat.

    I’ve to say that the platform is still in a very early stage of development. Without going further, this week Android 1.6 SDK was released. Let’s see how far it goes…

    1. # Quim Berenguer on Sep 17, 11:41

      I also have the magic, i love it, but please a flash player will be the great thing, it does work on symbian, why not on android?

    2. # thihaz on Sep 22, 10:27

      Hi,

      I agree with you about the battery life. I think you need a task manager to kill some unnecessary apps running behind.
      virtual KB is a bit awkward for me too but now getting used to it.

      Compare to the apps for iPhone with Android, well…:D
      I think camera is OK.

      For multi touch and flash, why not check out HERO ROM customised for HTC Magic at xda-developers.com. (they called Magic as Sapphire though.)

      I have flashed HTC HERO HERO Lite ROM">ROM on my HTC Magic (singapore).

      I got flash, multi touch, nice sense UI. :D

      It is worthy to try because frankly speaking HTC Magic’s original UI is boring.

      It would be so great we can port apps from REAL linux. :D

      Cheers,
      thihaz

    3. # syed on Sep 26, 12:08

      hi..can you teach me how to flash htc magic with hero rom.im a new user