HTC waves wand, pulls second Android phone out of hat

HTC has shown off its second Android-based smartphone. The Magic will be offered over here by Vodafone on an exclusive basis. HTC Magic HTC's Magic: coming soon to Vodafone Unlike the T-Mobile G1 - which HTC sells under its own brand as the Dream - the Magic hasn't got a slide-out Qwerty keyboard, just a 3.2in, 320 x 480 …

[Anonymous Coward]

Fugly

Reminds me of the old XDA-II/iMate Pocket PC type phones.

What is it about Android-based handsets that makes them look like they've been beaten with the Ugly Stick?

[Anonymous Coward]

Eh?

Still no 3,5mm headphone jack. Still no flash. Still a mediocre HTC camera.

Yet no keyboard, which is one of the best things about the G1.

Fail.

[Tom Chiverton]

not even when the Magic will go on sale

Well, of course not, all they have is, apparently, a copy of Photoshop :-)

[Nick Palmer]

Personally...

...I'm more interested in the revamped Touch Pro 2 and Diamond 2 that are on show on the HTC website; they look, frankly, awesome.

[Anonymous Coward]

Better effort

Now THAT'S not a bad looking phone! I could see myself wanting one of those under the right circumstances (though as a techy I inevitably gravitate towards QWERTY keyboards..:-\ ).

The G1 is an awful looking slab, and just makes you want to put it down and use something else asap!

[James Dunmore]

iPhone killer

That phrased wasn't used, I'm impressed !

Due an upgrade on my phone end of march - do I wait for this !? :-S

[Tom Richardson]

So...

I assume they've implemented a touch screen keyboard then? Since the G1 doesn't actually have one.

[Anonymous Coward]

@Tom Richardson

It will run the Cupcake branch firmware, so yes it will have an on screen keyboard.

[David Hicks]

Very pretty

Much nicer than the G1 brick.

@Tom Richardson

there are a couple of on-screen keyboards for android that have been written by third party/FOSS developers. There are also rumours that google have one in the works. My guess is that the HTC phone will use the google keyboard.

[Danny]

hmm

Sounds identical to the G1 sans keyboard. So it will have the same flaws such as you can only install programs to the pitiful 192Mb? Bad camera with no flash? I'll pass until a proper phone arrives.

WM6.1 may be clunky but at least it works, I would have loved to keep my G1 but it was simply not very useful.

[Tony Hoyle]

This will have to be something special

The G1 had terrible battery life, no headphone jack, crappy camera w/o flash, etc.

This new one? From that description, quite possibly the same thing. It's almost like they're *trying* to kill Android.

I really want to get an android phone at some point but the current crop just aren't candidates for a day to day phone. Remember this is going to have to compete with the likes of the N97 in the high end phone market (and even the 5800 in the mid-low end looks better than this right now).

[Stef]

Touchscreen keyboard

... is coming / semi-available already with Android Cupcake.

[Anonymous Coward]

No keyboard!

Best thing about G1 when you actually need to do something - fitting a proper 5500mAh battery means a new back anyway, so the width saving from lack of keys is irrelevant.

[Matt]

crap!

and people complain about the design of windows mobile phones??!!

this is the second android phone that ive seen... and frankly, its the second android phone that I wouldnt have, even if it was free!!! it looks like a cheap and nasty WM phone from a few years back!!!

the fanboyism is probably stronger with android than apple!!!

is there something im missing here??!! fugly design, meideocre components devote worship?? does this phone come with complimentary blow jobs or something??!!

paris - well... atleast you know what your getting there!!!

[Amanda]

Vodafone.de

Featured on their main website - link only goes to brief blurb about the "Die ganze Google-Welt in Ihrer Hand!" and a sign up form to be emailed when you, too, can get the entire Google World in your hand from Vodafone.

[Anonymous Coward]

Actual held it?

I've just had a hands on with one of these and it actual feels very solid. I agree the looks aren't all that but I was impressed with how it felt in hand compared to my expectations, I thought it would be a piece of plastic crap.

It's very nippy, easy to use and except the lack of hard keyboard I was quite frankly blown away. Fingers crossed we get some nicer HTC devices like the Touch / Diamond revamp's with Android on and I think they'll have my contract renewal.

@Danny "WM6.1 may be clunky but at least it works, I would have loved to keep my G1 but it was simply not very useful."

Err . . . what. This is the exact opposite to WM, its smooth and sleek. Not to mention it does this out of the box without having to have TouchFlo or similar to bolt on anything that resembles a modern UI. WM 7 now there's something that might tip the tables . . .