HTC Magic first eyes-on!

Surprise, surprise! Vodafone and HTC launched a new Android set named the Magic today. We had a brief eyes-on with it, though the version we see above is not final hardware. If you peek at the slides in the gallery you'll notice that there are more buttons and they're laid out quite differently than what you see above. Of course, we plan a more extensive tour of the Magic and all its Cupcake goodness a little later on today. Pics and a shaky vid after the break.

Gallery: HTC Magic first eyes-on!

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[NeoDarkSaver @ Feb 17th 2009 7:19AM]

it looks awesome, that's all i can say at 4am...

[superfresh @ Feb 17th 2009 8:32AM]

This video gave me the douche chills.

[McPOW @ Feb 17th 2009 2:50PM]

"About the 2001 patent: it was the exact same interface design iTunes have been using since version 1.0, years before said patent. That's why they reached a settlement."

Ignacio : you don't understnad patents. if apple paid $100 million, that means they were infringing on their patent. If they were able to show prior art to the patent they would pay $0

"About the 2007 Prada nonsense: Both phones appeared within 1 month of each other"

Ok, then lets finally put to rest any glass brick style phone being compared to the iPhone automatically, its a simple, common, obvious design and really nothing innovative or original.

[Bobby @ Feb 17th 2009 7:20AM]

this is digusting how these lame companies copycat iphone.
Apple go ahead and sue !

[OpenThirdEye @ Feb 17th 2009 7:21AM]

Troll much?

[Bobby @ Feb 17th 2009 7:26AM]

why did not you copy both eyes ?
you wanted be original huh ?

[Zunavio @ Feb 17th 2009 7:29AM]

2001: Apple stole U.S. Patent 6,928,433 which is belong to Creative's ZEN user interface.
Creative took legal actions against Apple in May 2006
Creative and Apple entered into a broad settlement,with Apple paying Creative $100 million for the license to use the Zen patent.

2007: The Apple iPhone, featured several technology patented by Palm inc. And stole the design from the iF Awards Winner LG Prada.


2009: Apple is going to sue Palm because the Palm Pre uses the technology that Apple featured them in iPhone but originally stolen from Palm.


That's what you call ORIGINALITY?

[Aaron @ Feb 17th 2009 7:54AM]

iTard alert!

[Deuche ex Machina @ Feb 17th 2009 8:30AM]

Funny, it seems that Apple's being sued yet again, this time by a company claiming that Apple's zoom and pan functions are infringing on their copyright:

http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/djf500/100902131513DOWJONESDJONLINE000845_FORTUNE5.html

If you want to claim an idea as original, you're gonna need a time machine, my trollish friend. By the way, i'd love to see your completely original idea for how a touchscreen phone should look. I'm sure that the crayon renderings will be breathtaking.

[Ignacio @ Feb 17th 2009 9:50AM]

Booby is a troll, but so is Zunauvio:

About the 2001 patent: it was the exact same interface design iTunes have been using since version 1.0, years before said patent. That's why they reached a settlement.

About the 2007 Prada nonsense: Both phones appeared within 1 month of each other, do you seriously think Apple designed the phone in 1 month? And they don't share any similarities other than having a touch screen screen (or, if you consider that "similar", then dozens of previous touch screen phones are similar to both)

About 2009: Apple hasn't announced they are going to sue anyone in particular but if they did, it would be related to multitouch patents, which they couldn't have "originally stolen from Palm" since Palm didn't have any multitouch product or patent when the iPhone came out.

[Zunavio @ Feb 17th 2009 12:44PM]

Sorry, Ignacio , I'm not Apple fanboys, despite working for them. So I say what I saw, heard or know.

and about the Prada incident, I call it coincident, LG just wanna have fun.

[McPOW @ Feb 17th 2009 2:51PM]

"About the 2001 patent: it was the exact same interface design iTunes have been using since version 1.0, years before said patent. That's why they reached a settlement."

Ignacio : you don't understnad patents. if apple paid $100 million, that means they were infringing on their patent. If they were able to show prior art to the patent they would pay $0

"About the 2007 Prada nonsense: Both phones appeared within 1 month of each other"

Ok, then lets finally put to rest any glass brick style phone being compared to the iPhone automatically, its a simple, common, obvious design and really nothing innovative or original.

[babydill @ Feb 17th 2009 7:21AM]

i want this phone.

[ghost @ Feb 17th 2009 7:28AM]

Is it me or do none of the screenshots show the display actually rotating when the phone rotates?
I realize its a pre-release phone and may still need some work, but that is a pretty large part if you ask me.

Android + HTC = Funness!

Hopefully the phone is done well. From what I've seen of the G1 and the way android works I haven't been very impressed. I'm actually quiet looking forward to WinMo 6.5 but good Lord its going to take forever (4th Q 09!! come on). Granted since MS has a pretty large stake in this area already they have no one to worry about yet... Just about all the new LGs coming out are using WinMo 6.1 :( I hope you can upgrade to 6.5 when it comes out.

[Theli @ Feb 17th 2009 7:39AM]

Looks pretty thick for a phone without a physical keyboard. Bigger battery, perhaps?
At any rate, it's nice to see some actual Android devices. The first day clearly belonged to Windows Mobile.

[Noah Kravitz @ Feb 17th 2009 7:41AM]

Sean - Great meeting you at the HTC pavilion this week ... See you around the bend ...

[Matt @ Feb 17th 2009 7:47AM]

this is the g2 right? so when will it be at tmobile usa?

[Phoenix @ Feb 17th 2009 9:38AM]

No it isn't

[Acidox @ Feb 17th 2009 7:48AM]

It is pretty funny to guess who is who XD
Looks like an awesome phone, I might actually pick it up over a BlackBerry.

[Joo @ Feb 17th 2009 7:52AM]

it kinda is weird... no accelerometer, no tactile keyboard... hm,,, seems slow too...
i think g1 is still bettter

[TareX @ Feb 17th 2009 7:59AM]

Clearly HTC has zero designers working on Android phones.

- It's thick for a phone without a keyboard.
- The design has too much dead space, and is UGLY, as usual.
- Autorotate is extremely slow
- The letters that pop-up away from the pressed key is annoying (you're already looking at the key you want to press, why pop-up the magnified key away?)

And finally, the camera Engadget is using is still the worst among all MWC attendees. Even an n95 would shoot better videos.

[chezzo @ Feb 17th 2009 8:26AM]

if this is the phone that's supposedly better than the pre (http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/12/telstra-exec-new-android-based-htc-phone-better-than-pre?icid=sphere_blogsmith_inpage_engadget) then i'm disappointed

[TareX @ Feb 17th 2009 8:33AM]

Better than the Pre? Yeah I remember Australia's TELSTRA exec say that.... HILLARIOUS.

http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/12/telstra-exec-new-android-based-htc-phone-better-than-pre/

rrrrrrrright.

[MeMongo @ Feb 17th 2009 8:04AM]

Those buttons that are in the presentation, but not the "eyes-on" are actually required by the Android OS spec. I suppose that they might eventually support soft buttons, but for now you have to have a physical menu, start call, end call, home, and back buttons

[KilgoreTrout @ Feb 17th 2009 8:12AM]

I'm not impressed.
Actually this is the only HTC new model that fails to impress me; by the way where the hell are the HTC Whitestone and the Tungsten?
Unltil now Samsung Omnia HD and the other one with inbuilt projector are high on the list of my new phone.
But still I don'r know enough about Toshiba TG01, and the Archos /android 5 incher.

This thing seems to have some nasty rough edges but I don't know if that's imputable to the Android or to HTC's hardware

[DannyBoyUK @ Feb 17th 2009 8:21AM]

The reason I want to try a G1 over an iPhone is because of the PHYSICAL KEYBOARD. This has been taken away. I will not be getting one of these, but I may still get a G1.

[gsmd @ Feb 17th 2009 9:25AM]

Given the variety of Windows Mobile devices they have, from pure hardware standpoint this is less than nothing.

[blurry @ Feb 17th 2009 9:38AM]

Ok, now we have a HTC / Android v. 0,5 Beta compared to iPhone. next please.......

[shakyone @ Feb 17th 2009 9:53AM]

It did not seem very responsive in the video. I hope it isn't so! I guess I listen to too many tech podcasts, as I recognized Sascha's voice instantly. When will he be on the Engadget Podcast?

[thedesolate1 @ Feb 17th 2009 10:04AM]

Wait so only the obscure manufacturers are pushing out decent android phones? lol

[EngadgetFanBoi @ Feb 17th 2009 10:17AM]

You call HTC obscure? You've got be kidding me...

[thedesolate1 @ Feb 17th 2009 4:19PM]

I had a pretty lengthy reply but the stupid comment system wasnt working so im just going to give you a short answer... Im talking about all the other companies making android handsets that dont look like child's play unlike HTC.

[z33 @ Feb 17th 2009 10:47AM]

I like it, looking forward it to be delivered.

[Andrew @ Feb 17th 2009 10:55AM]

YAAAY Android phone...but..

The sexy in this handset. Where is it?
:-(

[iKurt Mark III @ Feb 17th 2009 11:45AM]

I'm going to bash the iPhone because I think it's the right thing to do and I want to be cool

[Look_Around_You @ Feb 17th 2009 12:48PM]

Or you can troll every non-iPhone story and bash those products, because you think you are protecting Apple from other devices, and making Steve happy.

[Hujit @ Feb 17th 2009 12:07PM]

It's better to have a stylus to write complex characters such as Chinese characters.

[Keith Sheehan @ Feb 17th 2009 12:50PM]

Looks like one of those old Palm Pilots they sold at Target for $99. Cheap white plastic is the best HTC could come up with?

[bandigolo @ Feb 17th 2009 2:08PM]

That man's jacket needs a good tailor.

[CellphoneSnob @ Feb 18th 2009 1:35PM]

Can anyone tell me how this is any better than an Iphone? I mean, come on, come out with something that will knock our socks off, not something that looks just like a product that has been out for 2 years now.