Much awaited, Android, the new Google Open Source operating system, has received a large update and allows the HTC Magic to record video and synchronise Gmail contacts (an advantage in comparison to the G1 or Dream). Oriented towards the general consumer, does the Magic speak the language of its users? Does it have fluid navigation and dispense with the pauses that are too often found with the competition? Can it, seeing as everyone has the question on their lips, measure up to Apple’s iPhone, or even outdo it?

A studied look and thoughtful ergonomics



Lets start off with a quick once-over of the device. On the compact side for a smartphone, it is also lighter than the G1. This featherweight has nice handling. White and with a matt silver stripe, the Magic has a different look to that of most phones on the market, that are you have to say, fairly standardised. Importantly, it is nicely finished.

The Magic is nice to touch and puts several buttons (start up/standby, search, return to previous page, answer, menu), slightly too small for some, and a touch sensitive scroll or trackball à la Blackberry at the disposal of users. As the scroll is nice and precise, it proves useful for navigating the device and gets you away from the touch frenzy for a moment.

The 3.2 inch screen has 320 x 480 res. Not as bright as the iPhone or the Blackberry Bold, the display is fine, but less convincing all the same. In full sunlight it does become difficult to read however.

A sober casing	The scroll is very practical for navigation

Note our surprise when we realised that the screen doesn’t switch itself off, as most touch phones do when you move them towards the ear, during a call. And then, the placement of the microSD is behind the casing. We prefer, of course, to have direct access.

Intuitive interface: general consumer objective achieved

"Pratical, "simple", "which doesn’t go wrong", "intuitive", these are the expectations of consumers looking for a multifunction telephone. Although they want to benefit from a whole pile of apps, they certainly don’t want to have to spend the night searching through the manual, and then have to consult it again after several days use.

The task bar	The Magic on the iPhone Edge

The iPhone brought it in, the now famous "easy user". Since, all brands have tried to adopt this simplicity. Few make a success of it. To be even more accurate, although some manage to give the illusion of simplicity, some operating systems used are so convoluted that you need to really dust them out so as to retain only the useful and necessary. Note, here we’re talking about phones that want to play on two playing fields: both general consumer and professional and which, unfortunately for the ordinary user, are better for the second category than the first.

Let's close this digression to return to the Magic. Well, good news dear users: Android offers an intuitive interface and the system behind it does its all to remain discrete! It succeeds and so much the better. In terms of intuitiveness, the Magic is far better than the majority of protagonists in this segment of the market, and sits alongside the iPhone, even if it is still a hair’s breadth behind it. The graphic interface still needs some work.

The sensitive not multitouch screen reacts to the slightest brush. The user can help themselves to the applications on offer to shape their desktop by simple drag and drop. And as there are three virtual desktops, it is easy to separate the different parts of your life: one communication page, one multimedia and another web, for example.




Also accessible from the screen, the task bar appears as you slide your finger from top to bottom. It serves as a dashbord and displays arrival of mails, messages and most recent downloaded apps.

A very good point, the accelerometer (a little more responsive soon?) comes into play in all applications. The access to landscape format to make reading easier is a real plus. When writing mails or texts the virtual keyboard takes up the whole of the device, which gives greater writing facility. Note that the margin of error is close to zero in terms of writing. Moreover the keyboard has a force feedback function (on all devices now in fact) that lets you know if the letter has been entered correctly.

The tactile experience with the Magic is very convincing, light years on from the lazy HTC Diamond and quite a long way in front of Samsung’s Player Addict or even the Blackberry Storm. To better comprehend how the Magic works, there’s nothing better than a little video demo:


Welcome to GoogleLand

If you’re used to Google services (Gmail, Gtalk, Google Search, Google Latitude, Picasa, Youtube, Google Maps and the GPS chip...), you can be sure you won’t be lost with the Magic. Googleland will also be in your pocket. It’s simple to retrieve that piece of your virtual life developped over time on your computer. The Magic will ask you to identify yourself: Gmail address and password and…voila! Your Magic will be synched in the time it takes you to draw a couple of breaths. Your mail will arrive in your phone, nicely accompanied by your contacts list – as long as they are already on your Google account. The diary ergonomics could still be improved.
Of course, another icon allows you to synch other mail accounts (POP or IMAP). The procedure is a little less simple but remains accessible to everyone. For Outlook, you’ll have to download a piece of software from Android Market.

A little bit of multimedia, for appearances sake

Although the internal memory is not up to much, it can be supported by an 8GB memory card, enough to stock quite a few photos, beats and videos.

As a camera, the Magic isn’t bad when the surrounding brightness is high but as there is no flash, it struggles in lower lighting. The colours are not however completely accurate. It is a shame that there is no rapid access touch for the camera function; you have to use the photo icon. The focus is a little slow but as the delay before shooting is fairly short, you can be more or less sure not to miss that moment. In contrast to the Dream, the Magic has the Cupcake update that allows video capture. As with photos, the device does not have a zoom function, which does compromise the result rather, but it can be used as a fallback device.

Watching videos is not yet totally functional, unless you only watch YouTube videos or those taken with the phone itself. And no, for the moment, you can’t watch DivX files. Let’s hope that there will soon be an application to rectify this on Android Market.

Damn! A non-standard audio connection!	Interface for the audio player

In terms of the audio, the sound is not bad and management of files well set up: a nice player interface. There is however a non-standard audio out, as the headphones supplied (of very relative quality) connect to the single mini USB connection – which is also used to link your phone to your computer to transfer files on the memory card.

Internet navigation is easy even if the Safari experience on the iPhone is still top of the tree. Once the default navigator is launched, you are taken to the Google search engine. The screen is still a little too small to benefit from an optimum display. There is no multitouch, so no double click to zoom. The Magic does however have a zoom function. Don’t look for a physical button: you just have to tap twice rapidly in the middle of the screen to make a rotating loop appear (see the video above). As with other well-known smartphones, the Magic does not support Flash format. This is a real pain when you think about the number of sites that now use video!

The Magic as a phone

Reception on the Magic is good. You’ll be able to hear the person you’re speaking to well, a little too well when the volume is turned up!

The Magic also has pretty good autonomy, better than the iPhone. As we only had the Magic for three days, we didn’t carry out an audio autonomy test. With a full battery, we put it though the paces of normal usage for a phone, using different functions as and when we required them: a little mailing, messaging, photos, music, two small videos here and there, just a few calls and a little more Internet. The results were neither better or worse than you’d expect, with the Magic lasting a little over a day and a half. Not at all bad for a phone in this category.