HTC's second Android phone coming 1 May

HTC’s second Android-based handset, Magic, will be available from exclusive UK carrier Vodafone on 1 May. Several Magic launch dates have already been mentioned online, but Vodafone today told Register Hardware that the phone will “definitely” go on sale in UK stores this Friday. You’ll get the handset for free if you sign up …

[Tony Hoyle]

24 months???

Yeah it's £30 if you sign up for *two years* of committment. In two years this phone will be a dinosaur - do you really want to be stuck with paying for something long after it's been superceded?

Those kinds of contracts are great for the kind of person who's happy with their 'dials a number and sends a couple of texts' type phones (who wouldn't be interested in this anyway) - but for the more demanding users who'll be upgrading every 6 months or so, they're a huge red flag.

I'll wait for it to turn up on ebay.. got my G1 like that for £150 no contract.

[Sam Crawley]

Nice advert..

..for Voda!

"Buy now and save..."!

[Anonymous Coward]

Did I read the spec correctly?

Sync on PC

Contacts and stuff with Outlook = No

Contacts on Mac = No

<Shrugs shoulders and shuffles away>

[pixel]

Android on decent hardware?

I'll buy a new phone when HTC put Android on a phone with a decent keyboard. Like the touch pro 2. All (both?) the Android phones to date are clunky or limited

[Shonko Kid]

It's a bit 'Meh'...

It looks just like the G1, but without the cool slidey-out keyboard. Are HTC's design team on holiday or something?

[Andy]

Had a play with it....

Someone I know had a demo model and it was quite good.

I think the form is better suited for females, but a nice phone all the same.

[James Dunmore]

No Review

It's great advertising that you can buy now, but why would I buy it now without the tried and trusted el-reg review?

I'm quite sold with the phone (google fan), and it's the cheap man's iPhone, but still waiting for the reg review before I decide it is the phone I want.

2 years is a long time for a phone contract, but on the pricing, TCO (I think) is cheaper than a iPhone on 2 year contract (for a similar text+minute package), even if you include the price of a 16gig memory card.

[Phil Cooke]

@AC 21:23

It's a googlephone, so it will only sync with google - you don't need all that outlook stuff when you can trust it all to the mighty googleplex!

[Anonymous Coward]

@AC

Android syncs OTA with your google services. Contacts and Calendars are pulled from Gmail and Gcal, respectively.

[Tom Chiverton]

Android 1.5 ?

No hardware keyboard according to the spec, so this'll be the first v1.5 device too...