HTC Magic is official, bringing Android to Vodafone sans keyboard
By Paul Miller 
posted Feb 17th 2009 6:20AM
posted Feb 17th 2009 6:20AM
Update: We have confirmation that the device is indeed HVGA like the G1 before it, that's a typo on the original press release. More detailed specifications after the break.
- Processor: Qualcomm MSM7201a, 528MHz.
- Memory: 512MB ROM, 192MB RAM.
- Dimensions: 4.45 x 2.17 x 0.45-inches.
- Weight: 4.18 ounces with battery.
- Network: HSPA/WCDMA 900 / 2100MHz (no love for the States) with 2Mbps up, 7.2Mbps down; quad-band GSM / GPRS / EDGE 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900MHz.
- Display: 3.2-inch TFT-LCD HVGA 480x320
- Connectivity: Bluetooth, WiFi, mini USB, and GPS
- Input: Trackball with Enter button, Capacitive touchscreen with on-screen keyboard (both portrait and landscape)
When' it out in the UK?
April
Register Here:
http://shop.vodafone.co.uk/shop/mobile-phone/htc-magic
It said march on monday. They must have changed it.
I wish HTC brings android on its other handsets like Touch HD and Max 4G in the near future..
I wish HTC would just put a damn standard headphone jack on their devices.
Totally fucking agreed, Peter
Maybe people shouldn't buy the damn thing until it gets the standard jack. It is total bullshit that this company does whatever the hell they want with their technology and people put up with it, i.e. by buying the damn things.
@Peter
They did, on the Sony Ericsson Xperia X1. Manufactured by HTC.
QVGA or HVGA?
I think he means HVGA, as Android does not support QVGA which is why the Kogan Agora never came out.
Incorrect, it works fine on QVGA devices. I run cupcake on my HTC Touch to mess around with and it scales just fine to QVGA now.
It'd be nice to have a keyboard ... perhaps the G3? But HTC really needs to get Android running on its other phones.
Most people outside of the tech blog community don't even know what Android is.
HTC's bread is buttered by WinMo.
Headphone jacks are for teenagers.
Hurrah! I thought I was 32, but I must be 19 at most, and all because I listen to music on the train.
@ ----
Yes, Android gets blank stares. But everyone/dog/lolcat/fish knows Google.
Actually going to miss having a physical keyboard, if this is indeed the G2.
In the limited time I spent with the G1 in a T-Mo store (as opposed to the iPhone 3G, which I live with), the keyboard was one of the things I actually liked about the phone. The only way it could be better is removing that little chin on the right side.
This is not the G2 im sure. The G2 will still be getting release by T-mobile whenever they can be bothered to do it!
Looks like April for the UK:
http://shop.vodafone.co.uk/shop/coming-soon/mobile-phones
You can register for updates too. This might just swing me away from the Touch HD come renewal in May.
Thanks
more Info :
http://www.htc.com/www/product/magic/overview.html
Any news on date of launch?
Offical press release also states QVGA: http://www.vodafone.com/start/media_relations/news/group_press_releases/2009/vodafone_and_htc_unveil.html
the screen looks like it's HVGA with that icon proportion.
What???? QVGA and no 3.5 mm headphone jack?
I have the feeling that for all the cellphone makers like htc and samsung etc. android seems to be the cheap plattform where they allow themselves to get sloppy and create medium quality cellphones.
I mean just compare the the touch diamond 2 with this one here.
everything screams cheap when Iook at the magic (even the name) and everything looks expensive when it comes to the diamond
why do these companies think that only the corporate world would pay for a nice design and build quality????
apple sure doesn't think so and they are very successful with that strategy
So looking at it the only thing this has over the G1 is that it already has a touch screen keyboard included!!! nothing else????
No physical keyboard
No 3.5mm headphone jack still
No Flash still
So what does it give you? why should I wait for this over getting the G1?
Am i missing something?
Cost, preferred network. To be fair, the G1 is getting the software keyboard as well.
svenska it registret
Dammit. Just as I start looking to get a G1, this happens. However, the very reason I want to switch from an iPhone to a G1- to get a physical keyboard- has gone, so I may still get a G1. Who knows...sigh.
svenska it registret ab
it registret
This is beautiful
it registret or svenska it register knows what they are doing!
Display 3.2-inch TFT-LCD flat touch-sensitive screen with 320x480 HVGA resolution
3.5 mm jack is redundant.
Everything needs to be switched over to USB.
Besides a tiny USB converter the size of an eraser can resolve the lack of a 3.5mm jack.
how is it resolved when i want to listen to music and charge my phone at the same time? all headphones use 3.5mm headphone jacks...
to try and get all the headphone companies to switch over to usb, instead of just getting HTC to put in a damn headphone jack on their devices is just stupid...
Simple.
Have you seen HTC's usb adapters?
http://www.pdaextreme.com/images/adapter_htc_3in1-1.jpg
There you go, there's your answer.
I still say we cut out the middle man, the 3.5 mm jack and just keep it as USB all around.
3.5 mm is still redundant, why use all of these different standards when USB can handle it all?
Have you seen the size of your miracle adapter??
besides show me some good quality usb-headphones and then we can talk!
Elkin,
How is that in any way large or obtrusive? That thing is barely 3 inches in length, and besides it also has to accommodate the very 3.5 mm jack we are arguing about. Besides, that's just one example, there are smaller ones. For that matter, if we removed the lengthy 3.5 mm jack, then it would be even smaller.
Also, your question is rather moot and irrelevant.
Think about it, if USB was indeed the standard for headphones, then it stands to reason that there would be excellent USB headphones on the market. In other words, if you build it, they will come. However, such is not the case yet, so naturally there will be very few choices at one's disposal.
I hope, one day soon, we'll be saying: "Remember when it was so difficult to get Android devices?".
All the WinMo hoopla at MWC reminds me of recent days in the US car industry:
- You want cars as big as a living room!
- You want big gas guzzlers!
- Humvee's are the future!
Ah...no. I want a modern car like the EV1: fast, nice looking, reliable, low/no pollution.
Now the mobile industry seems to be saying:
- You want a desktop OS dressed up like a mobile OS!
- You want an OS from a company that doesn't innovate, unless they have competition!
Ah...no. I want a modern, fast, reliable, mobile OS (iPhone, Android, ...) from a company that is known for continuous innovation.
Get laid dude.
Low emissions != low pollution.
it has AD2P yaaaaaaaaay!
Dammet, I was really considering the HTC Magic but it has the same outdated hardware like the Dream ie low res and low ram. This way Google Android isn´t going to have very much market penetration unless people are ready to make some sacrifices.
Just a bone of contention here, the headphone jack isn't proprietary, it's USB. Proprietary implies that the headphone connector is some non-standard connection of HTC's own that cannot be easily worked around. ANY USB mini headphone adapter will work here. This is a STANDARD USB headphone connection, not an incompatible HTC connection. My guess is that USB headphone connection is going to quickly become a more common standard in the next two years.
Incorrect. it's ExtUSB, which is HTC's standard.
I really wanted Android to be successful, and I still really do. But come on, HTC...is this the best you can do for us? You release all of your amazing high-end lust-worthy devices with a piece of shit, ugly, outdated OS and seem to refuse to attract customers who are looking for something (anything) else...*cough* ANDROID. Oh wow, we have a whopping two (!) Android devices to choose from even months and months after its debut--let's not get ahead of ourselves here HTC. Of course, this is also Google's fault, it's clear they aren't working nearly hard enough to get this platform onto more than just a few "beta testing" devices.
Even if this less-than-stellar device does end up in the hands of Americans, it's anyone's guess that it will probably never get 850/1900 just like the G1.
What is so good about Android? It looks boring.
YES! No keyboard...this is more exciting to me that the Pre
By releasing this theyve just added a whole world of ambiguity to the G1 and its future iterations
Is this a G1.5?
I would imagine the G-series will continue with the physical keyboard while other iterations will be soft-only.
Android still has potential to be stripped and reworked a lot more than we've seen already so it's got the potential to be worked onto a variety of handsets, not just the touch-screen-home-button devices we've seen so far. The G1 and this one are fairly early offerings for the platform.
Wow. It's so coool!!
I really hope this will launch in USA.
Shit! It has NO KEYBOARD?!
WTF
its aight, not over here so doesnt matter, that and has no QWERTY, not gonna be able to live with this touch shit for typing, call me old fashion
Since webOS, Android looks absurdly stale.
It looks like a canoe from the side. I’d like to meet the design person who thought of a canoe and said: “Eureka!”
a me too product. How original.
get the real thing instead, get an iPhone
Shut Up please. I am sick of people like you making all iPhone users look like ignorant inconsiderate pricks.
vodaphone, (yea i know it's spelled 'fone', but i'm not giving into these incorrect spellings of words any longer!!) come on verizon can't be too far off now!!!!
No Keybroad, No Thanks
Why do you say that "it's running Cupcake"? Unless it's doing everything in this link then no, it is not.
It just has a soft keyboard
*Edit*
THIS link
http://source.android.com/roadmap/cupcake
Wow, that HTC/Android team sure likes those chins on their devices. I am starting to think Leno is on the design team.
Nice one +1
Wow, most impressive. That is a good looking phone dude!
RT
www.anonymity.eu.tc
Gah!
What are HTC thinking about - they announce two fancy new phones with Windows mobile, then this low res crap with Android.
Is there some technical issue preventing Android running on the Touch Pro HD 2.0 etc?
Just offer a choice of OS on the same phones and let the market decide.
i just want a G1 but with:
-more onboard memory for apps OR apps installed to SD
-faster ARM
-more/faster ram
-normal headphone jack
-cupcake-level firmware, or even beyond that
-flash on the camera OR a better "shutter speed" as ALL OF MY PHOTOS BLUR... even when i prop the phone on something
i wish they owulda released this software with the G1 which i bought or at least integrated or found a wait to integrate it into the G1 supossedly cupcake cant run in the G1 i dont understand why its the exact same thing basically...
For all of us early adopters of T-Mobile's G1, does anyone think there will be a subsidized (cheap) upgrade path to the G2, assuming it hits the US market?
uh hello? Tmobile is in Europe too. and the european Tmobile has a lot more better phones than the US does
This is really a nice phone, Must check whether puremobile.com has got it where i can get it from them
a US release?
This is set to be the biggest selling android phone to hit the UK since the iPhone! You can pre-order this phone from this blog i found... http://blog.crazy4mobiles.co.uk/phones/pre-order-the-new-google-phone-htc-magic/
Was really considering getting a MAgic but just noticed there's no Headphone jack socket.....Rubbish!