HTC Magic phone

[Subject Delta]

Advantages over the iPhone

• Lighter (116G vs 133g for the iPhone 3G)
  
• Trackball, and other buttons meaning you have the choice of using them if you wish.
  
• 3.2MP Camera vs 2 on the iPhone
  
• Unlike the iPhone, Can already do MMS out of the box
  
• Drag and drop sync, meaning you don't need any bloatware like iTunes. Also, no messy activation procedures.
  
• Support for recording video and uploading to Youtube, which the iPhone doesn't yet have
  
• You don't have to be on Wifi to use the Youtube app
  
• Unlike the iPhone, the Magic can take Micro SD cards, meaning expandable memory
  
• The android market is far more open than the iPhone market, meaning a better variety of applications
  
• Unlike the iPhone, there is no limit on the amount of apps you can have installed. Android also has a better management system,
  giving you a pull out list rather than spanning the app icons across multiple virtual screens.
  
• Full copy + Paste support
  
• Best of all... Android is open, meaning a great modding community
  

Only downer at the moment is that apps cannot be installed to the SD card, but the HTC Magic has a 512MB rom (twice that of the G1). On the G1 about 50MB is usually free for apps, which means the magic should have in the region of 280-300, which would easily accommodate 150 apps or so, far more than most people use.

[Robbie Khan Reviews]

I use AppManager to backup applications to SD card :)

[Subject Delta]

I personally use Astro for that, but what I meant is that it doesn't actually let you install apps on the SD card, you have to use the onboard memory. Although on my G1, I use lucidrem's JFmod with Apps2SD Support, I have a 768MB EXT2 app partition on my card, and it works very well

[ultimate99]

Advantages over the iPhone

• Lighter (116G vs 133g for the iPhone 3G)
  
• Trackball, and other buttons meaning you have the choice of using them if you wish.
  
• 3.2MP Camera vs 2 on the iPhone
  
• Unlike the iPhone, Can already do MMS out of the box
  
• Drag and drop sync, meaning you don't need any bloatware like iTunes. Also, no messy activation procedures.
  
• Support for recording video and uploading to Youtube, which the iPhone doesn't yet have
  
• You don't have to be on Wifi to use the Youtube app
  
• Unlike the iPhone, the Magic can take Micro SD cards, meaning expandable memory
  
• The android market is far more open than the iPhone market, meaning a better variety of applications
  
• Unlike the iPhone, there is no limit on the amount of apps you can have installed. Android also has a better management system,
  giving you a pull out list rather than spanning the app icons across multiple virtual screens.
  
• Full copy + Paste support
  
• Best of all... Android is open, meaning a great modding community
  

Only downer at the moment is that apps cannot be installed to the SD card, but the HTC Magic has a 512MB rom (twice that of the G1). On the G1 about 50MB is usually free for apps, which means the magic should have in the region of 280-300, which would easily accommodate 150 apps or so, far more than most people use.

WOW, just WOW!! :blink:

I was so dead on the iPhone, now I'm reconsidering....but one concern, there are certain apps that I'll be using that I know they are iPhone compatible, don't know if they would work with the Android.

[Subject Delta]

Give me a list and I will tell you if there are any Android equivalents, and if so, how much they cost

[zeroday]

I was so dead on the iPhone, now I'm reconsidering....but one concern, there are certain apps that I'll be using that I know they are iPhone compatible, don't know if they would work with the Android.

You can browse the Android market here: http://www.cyrket.com/. Try searching for stuff you use on the iphone.

[MrA]

Advantages over the iPhone

• Lighter (116G vs 133g for the iPhone 3G)
  
• Trackball, and other buttons meaning you have the choice of using them if you wish.
  
• 3.2MP Camera vs 2 on the iPhone
  
• Unlike the iPhone, Can already do MMS out of the box
  
• Drag and drop sync, meaning you don't need any bloatware like iTunes. Also, no messy activation procedures.
  
• Support for recording video and uploading to Youtube, which the iPhone doesn't yet have
  
• You don't have to be on Wifi to use the Youtube app
  

Same with the iPhone, you can use youtube over WiFi or cell.

• Unlike the iPhone, the Magic can take Micro SD cards, meaning expandable memory
  
• The android market is far more open than the iPhone market, meaning a better variety of applications
  
• Unlike the iPhone, there is no limit on the amount of apps you can have installed. Android also has a better management system,
  giving you a pull out list rather than spanning the app icons across multiple virtual screens.
  
• Full copy + Paste support
  
• Best of all... Android is open, meaning a great modding community
  

Only downer at the moment is that apps cannot be installed to the SD card, but the HTC Magic has a 512MB rom (twice that of the G1). On the G1 about 50MB is usually free for apps, which means the magic should have in the region of 280-300, which would easily accommodate 150 apps or so, far more than most people use.

On the flip side, advantages of the iPhone over the G2:

• Bigger screen
  
• Much more memory for apps (try putting a 500MB app on the Magic)
  
• Headphone jack (one of my biggest complaints about the G1/G2)
  
• Better quality apps. I should explain this one. The apps on the iPhone are visually nicer, but they're also more responsive and better performing and have a lower load on the CPU and battery. This is largely because of Android's interpreted Dalvik VM which runs application code about 50-100x slower than native code.
  
• More apps and better app acquisition experience (App store). The android market is a bit fiddly and has terrible search. I can't even find a world clock app using search.
  

And as a developer, I think the iPhone environment is much nicer to code in, partially because I hate Java and that you can use C/C++ which promotes more portability and code re-use across platforms.

Coming soon (some of which negate the disadvantages above):

• MMS
  
• Copy-paste
  
• Tethering
  
• Desktop-search-like search
  
• Bluetooth & dock accessories
  

P.S. I don't own an iPhone, I have a G1 dev phone.

[Subject Delta]

Headphone jack is a bit annoying, but nothing a very cheap adaptor can't solve. As for the apps, I disagree on that one, I haven't found anything that runs more slowly on Android, as for the app market that is a matter of opinion, my experience with it has been reasonably good.

And seriously, how many 300MB apps have you seen in any of the phone's app markets? about 70% of the apps I have installed are under 500K so that is largely irrelevant, but like I said it is pretty easy to root the phone and use an SD card with a larger app partition. But seriously, I am just trying to give the poster facts, "better quality apps" is your opinion not a fact.

[Wannes]

How is the exchange support? I'm thinking calendar syncing, PUSH mail, ... . Will it be able to replace my BB Bold without losing functionality?

[Subject Delta]

I am not sure if the Exchange support was added to the G1's firmware, so I cannot vouch for that

[MiG-]

Had this phone a while now and really happy about it, but confused by HTC's own site on specifications:

From the Europe page:

Processor Qualcomm? MSM7201a?, 528 MHz

Platform Android?

Memory ROM: 512 MB

RAM: 192 MB

And the Global Page:

Processor Qualcomm? MSM7200A?, 528 MHz

Operating System Android

Memory ROM: 512 MB

RAM: 288 MB

:blink: :blink:

I knew there were software differences but what the hell?

[Subject Delta]

Only guesses are, either the phone in Europe will be slightly different (unlikely) or that one of the 2 where draft specifications that haven't been updated

[vincent]

Woo hoo looks like it passed FCC approval and is coming to T-Mobile. :D

[MiG-]

Its also been rooted now :)

Personally i'm waiting for the standard HTC Rom, the Vodafone one is oh so crippled :(

[Subject Delta]

That's great news, didn't think rooting would take long. Also, I hope it does come to T-Mobile, I will of course be looking for a successor to upgrade to when my G1 contract is over and I am hoping to stay with Android if possible.

[Lewism]

How is the exchange support? I'm thinking calendar syncing, PUSH mail, ... . Will it be able to replace my BB Bold without losing functionality?

I have read that if you have a Google branded phone (G1 or G2), Exchange won't work. If you have a HTC Magic (non-branded) it will.

[Subject Delta]

There is no difference between the 2, the only device that is different is the dev version of the phone with root access enabled, and a slightly different bootloader and firmware (ADP Firmware). However the mods to enable root access on the G1 are pretty easy to perform.

[DanManIt]

Wow, nice phone. Hopefully it'll be here in the US before September so I can possibly switch to it

[Wannes]

I have read that if you have a Google branded phone (G1 or G2), Exchange won't work. If you have a HTC Magic (non-branded) it will.

Thanks for the heads up.

[MiG-]

There is no difference between the 2, the only device that is different is the dev version of the phone with root access enabled, and a slightly different bootloader and firmware (ADP Firmware). However the mods to enable root access on the G1 are pretty easy to perform.

Its due to HTC adding Exchange support themselves alongside a few other goodies.

[xXTOKERXx]

gutted i just got my 8900 curve... but then again i love the qwerty keyboard as i type by feel rather than by look.

[Andre]

So want this. My Xperia X1 sort of died after being submerged in water. So now I am back to W950, still a good solid phone. And to be honestly, I was kind of getting sick of Windows Mobile anyway. Slow and bloated. So.. bring on G2! :D

[The Plague]

Owned it for awhile and hated it.

[Chasethebase Veteran]

Owned it for awhile and hated it.

I'm going to have to say that doesn't really explain a lot. Why did you hate it so much? I'd love to own one of these as it's the most affordable Android phone available new in the UK at the moment.

[aussiefloyd_fan]

/\ lack of tmobile 3g coverage??