Camera Phones Plaza

The mobile phone market is divided in three, well for, ranges. You get the classic range, with normal mobile phones, average spec list and a price tag of under $230. You have the business range, with all sort of mobile launched recently or not on the market, which offer the ultimate business experience, but only in direct relation with the price you pay (Nokia E series, with all sort of business phone models, but their specs list vary just like their price tags).

The most marketed range, the high multimedia mobile phone range which brings so many phone models from all the manufacturers (also the price tags vary from one manufacturer to another manufacturer, because you can pay for the same spec list phone different prices depending on the brand logo). And last, but far from the least, is the style mobile phone range. Over the last five years we all have seen, fashion phones with only the manufacturers logo, or with both manufacturer logo and a fashion industry brand. From D&G Motorola, to Armani Samsung, Prada with LG, and now Aura luxury phone ($2000), it seems that this range is far for being closed. Another LG style phone, this time without a fashion industry brand attached, is the LG GD 900 Crystal.

This phone is until now, unique with its see through sliding keyboard. LG brought to the market not just another good looking phone, but also a full features high end gadget. It's not exactly LG flagship model but it does sports enough features to be considered a high end multimedia device. The only feature lacking is the GPS. However, the GD 900 includes some main disadvantages, such as the bad screen legibility in day broad light, only average camera photo quality, no 3.5 mm audio jack, bad video recording, lacks full support for DivX and XviD video. The main attraction of the GD 900 design is the see through (or transparent if you like) sliding keyboard. If you keep the phone closed, you are not going to find something special about it. The GD 900 body is made entirely out of plastic.

No metal finish anywhere on the case. The only thing it makes this design somewhat stylish is the white glow look of the unique keypad. In terms of dimension, the phone is stands in the average line. With a height of 105 mm, wide of 52.5 mm, deep of 13.5 mm, the GD 900 weights about 127 g, making the LG model not the lightest phone on the market. on the front side above the display and surrounded by a grey frame, you get the earpiece, proximity sensor and the second camera for video calling. Below the display you get the call key, end call key and the shortcut to the cube menu (or interface, which is basically another way to present the menu, something similar with what Samsung Omnia II has to offer). Once you slide the phone, you get the transparent key pad. This keypad doesn't actually sports real keys. It is just a single touch screen layer with numeric letters attached to the "keys".

As you can imagine no flex or bad usability is a matter here. Everything works nice and there is nothing bad you can say about the keypad. Once the phone illuminates the keypad you will understand why LG named GD 900 "Crystal". All keys offer good feedback, helping GD 900 improve its usability. On the left side you can find a micro USB port (covered), while on the right side GD 900 sports the dedicated camera key and the volume control keys. Just like the LG arena, LG GD 900 Crystal has on the top side the Power On and Off button, also used as a switch for the touch screen. When closed the GD900 doesn't sport anything on the back side; however, once opened you will find on the upper left corner the 8 megapixel camera lens with the LED flash. On the opened slider you will also find on the back (almost in the left side of the phone) the micro SD card slot. Overall, the GD 900 provides a solid build. It lacks, however, of nice to touch and look materials, but overall LG provides GD 900 Crystal a nice, somewhat stylish look. Also the phone is stable enough; you are not going to get any flex or squeaks when pressing the case a little too much.

LG GD 900 Crystal comes with the S Class user interface, which is one of the best interfaces found on mobile phones nowadays. Beside the excellent iPhone's user interface and the new Touch Wiz 2.0, S Class provides a great user interface experience. The GD 900 sports the same user interface with the new BL 40 Chocolate. Also this is the refreshed version found on the LG Arena. The best feature onboard this interface is the 3D cube menu, providing instant access to four home screens fully customizable (just customize a screen for work, one for home, one for camera, and if you are a music fan, one for audio experience). It is very similar to what you get from the Touch Wiz 2.0 and doesn't bring actual features. The new version improves some issues found on the previous S Class interface. Also you get to customize your GD 900 with any widgets you might want, calendar, world time, weather, memo, calculator and so many other you already get with the phone, or others that could be downloaded. The interface also brings an excellent organizer, and provides good short message function, beside the good call function. The LG's music player, Dolby Mobile, is pretty good. Not the best found on the market, but enough to be included in a high end mobile phone. You get all sort of settings and options, and the sound offered is good to excellent, because of the preset EQ.

If you were planning to use GD 900 as a movie player, you should revise your plans. LG GD 900 Crystal is not the best choice for watching video. Music videos are watchable but that about it, because of the lack of video support. LG GD 900 runs in 2G network (GSM 850 / 900 / 1900 / 1800) and in 3G network (HSDPA 900 / 2100, and HSDPA 850 / 2100). Also the phone features an excellent 3 inches TFT capacitive touch screen with a 480 x 800 pixels resolution, capable of rendering up to 16 million colors. Special features complete the multimedia package, gesture shortcut, handwriting recognition, multi touch input method, accelerometer sensor for auto rotate feature. LG ships the GD 900 with 1.5 GB internal memory, value that is expandable by using a micro SD memory card (Trans Flash memory card), up to 32 GB supported. The connectivity is ensured by the Class 10 GPRS (with the common by now 4+1 / 3+2 slots) with 32 Kb per seconds to 48 Kb per second, HSCSD, Wi-Fi with 802.11 g/g profile, EDGE Class 10 with 236.8 Kb per second, HSDPA with 7.2 MB per second, 2.0 micro USB, and Bluetooth version 2.1 with A2DP. Another excellent feature packed in the LG GD 900 Crystal is the 8 megapixel digital camera, with a resolution of 3264 x 2448 pixels, auto focus, and LED flash. Also the built in camera can record videos at 720 x 480 pixels with 30 frames per second, in VGA mode with 30 frames per second, and in QVGA and slow motion video recording. LG included in the GD 900 a 1000 mAh standard Lithium Ion battery with a reported standby time of 300 hours and a talk time in 2G networks of 6 hours and in 3G networks of 4 hours.

Overall, the LG GD 900 Crystal brings good features (2009 spec list indeed) into a somewhat stylish package. The best feature of this phone that includes it in the fashion phone line is the transparent sliding keypad. If you are looking for a special stylish mobile phone, then rest assured that GD 900 Crystal can be an excellent choice.

By now you probably already know that Samsung's response to iPhone was the Omnia. Samsung Omnia is a remarkable phone, with excellent features and a great specs list. Unfortunately for Omnia, it was created by Samsung, which is known for having products with a short life time. If you are wondering what else can Samsung do to improve the Omnia, then you are going to be happy to know that the upgraded Omnia is on its way. Samsung is re marketing the Omnia 2.0 to leave behind the competition with the Apple devices (iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS), and to step in another level of competition. Omnia was branded as a nice multimedia phone, with an excellent digital camera, good touch screen, and large internal memory.

The next Omnia, simply named Omnia II (or if you enjoy value names Omnia 2.0), is grabbing a bite out of the business range. This shouldn't surprise you if you are watching the ongoing evolution of Samsung mobile phones lines. Samsung provides for the 2009 line up, PIXON for the camera phones, Jet for the middle to high end touch screen multimedia phones, Corby for the entry level touch screen mobile phones, and Omnia for the multimedia meets business touch screen phones. The first competitor for the Omnia II is HTC Touch Diamond 2.

Unfortunately for the HTC model, Omnia II will win in a direct competition because of all the excellent features it packs. Don't hurry, I will present step by step this excellent features, but before we get going with all the praises let's see the main disadvantages found onboard the Samsung Omni II. Not many at number, but enough to make you think if you want to buy the Omnia II. First of all the camera lacks xenon flash (this was expected since the Omnia II is not a camera phone orientated); the digital camera found on Omnia II also lacks lens cover.

The display sports only 65000 colors (small value for its 3.7 inches diagonal), relatively bad browser which lacks flash support, and the micro SD card slot embedded under the battery cover. The Omnia II is in matter of size close to iPhone, and a lot smaller than Omnia HD. Omnia II is still a Samsung product. Therefore, expect excellent quality build and design. Ssmsung included the Omnia II in the stylish phone lines, thanks to the design bored from Samsung S8000 Jet.

Actually the only difference between this two models (with a similarity even in their names, S8000 Jet and i8000 Omnia), is the value of the dimensions. On the front cover, you get a nice black glass (with the purpose of framing the display). Under the display you get the call key, and the end call key, and in the middle of those two keys you can find the "diamond" key (or "cube" key, as some prefer to call it). All these buttons are framed within a metallic look like material, in order to improve the overall quality design. The front cover is dominated by the 3.7 inches touch screen, with the same features like the touch screen found on the S8000.

Above the giant screen you het the second camera for video calls, the earpiece, and both ambient light and proximity sensors. On the bottom of the i8000 Omnia II you can only find the microphone. On the left side of the phone you will get the volume controls, while on the right side you can find the back key, shutter button, and the switch off key for the display. On the top of the Omnia II you het the two important ports on a multimedia & business phone, the 3.5 mm audio jack for the multimedia part of the Omnia II, and the micro USB port for the business part of the Omnia II. Because the Samsung model charges using the micro USB port, there is no need for a special charger port. The back cover of the Omnia II sports a matte plastic look, on the upper left corner on the Omnia II back you can find the 5 megapixel camera lens with a LED flash, while the loudspeaker is found on the bottom left corner.

By placing the loudspeaker on the back cover, Samsung accepts the possibility of you missing some phone calls (especially if the phone stands with the back on your desk or a table). Then again if you place your Omnia II with the display down, you might just get some annoying scratches on that great touch screen provided. A bad feature is the memory card slot, included not only under the back cover, but also under the battery itself. Therefore, you need to switch off your phone every time you need access to the memory card.

The Samsung phone has a height of 118 mm, wide of 59.6 mm, deep of 11.9 mm, Omnia II weight about 129 g. therefore, Omnia II is not the lightest phone out there, and is not going to fit any pocket, but then again you have to compromise somewhere if you want a large touch screen. Overall, Omnia II sports an excellent design, very Samsung of it, and the built quality is remarkable. Omnia II not only feels solid, but it is as solid as a touch screen phone can get. Samsung included in the Omnia II an AMOLED resistive touch screen, with a 3.7 inches diagonal, and a WVGA resolution - 480 x 800 pixels. The display sports only 65000 colors, which do not offer the best user experience. However, thanks to the light sensor, the screen performs quite well in broad daylight, making the overall touch screen experience good enough.

The 3.7 inches Omnia II display also sports an accelerometer sensor for auto rotate (this is a must feature not only for the touch screen devices but also for the modern phones, in order to provide the ultimate user experience in maneuverability)., and the handwriting recognition which is really nice to use on such a large display. If you are an amateur Samsung fan, then the Omnia II operating system might just fool you. The Omnia II is shipped with the latest version of the Windows Mobile operating system (the latest one is 6.5; however on the market you can find some Omnia II phones running the Windows Mobile 6.1 operating system).

Even with the Windows Mobile 6.5 on your Omnia II, the user interface looks exactly like the Touch Wiz 2.0 Samsung branded operating system. This is by far a bad feature. Basically you get an extraordinary mobile operating system with the excellent design of the Touch Wiz operating system. By know, you already guessed that the menu (and overall function of the Omnia II) is fully customizable, to make itself liked by all the users. And yes, you still get all the widgets you would like to have on your mobile phone. Since Apple changed the perspective of how a multimedia phone menu should look like, Samsung tried to create its own multimedia menu. Partially, it succeeded by introducing the new 3D media gate with its own keys. This sub menu if it can be called so, is quite good looking, and works well on the Omnia II (because of the high end hardware specifications Samsung included). Beside the Touch Wiz menu, and the multimedia menu, you also get the improved Windows Mobile menu (which is rather dull compared with the other two).

Omnia II provides with solid business features, such as excellent organizer, good email client, customizable phone book, and other. Samsung Omnia II runs in the 2G network (GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900) and in the 3G network (HSDPA 900 / 1900 / 2100).  Omnia II runs the latest Microsoft mobile operating system with the help of the Samsung S3 C6410 800 MHz processor, and a dedicated graphic accelerator. Also the phone comes with 256 MB random access memory. The internal storage divides the Omnia II in three categories: the 2 GB Omnia II, 8 GB Omnia II, and the 16 GB Omnia II. As mentioned before, the Omnia II internal memory can be expanded using the micro SD cards with 32 GB.

Samsung ensures the connectivity in the Omnia II by embedding GPRS Class 10 (with the common by now 4+1 / 3+2 slots) 32 - 48 Kb per second, HSCSD, HSDPA with 7.2 MB per second, HSUPA with 5.76 MB per second, EDGE with Class 20 at 236.8 Kb per second, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g with DLNA, micro USB version 2.0, and Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP. Another excellent feature found onboard the Omnia II is the 5 megapixel digital camera with 2592 x 1944 pixels, auto focus, and a dual power LED flash. Some of the extra features provided in the camera sub menu are the geo tagging, mobile blogging, smile and face detection. Also, the 5 megapixel digital camera is able to video record in 720 x 480 pixels with 30 frames per second (really good video recording for a 5 megapixel camera). Samsung ships the Omnia II with a standard 1440 mAh Lithium Ion battery (on some models you might even find 1500 mAh), with a standby value in 2G network up to 430 hours, while in 3G network the standby value remains the same (430 hours).

The talk time in both 2G network and 3G networks is about 10 hours. Samsung ships in the containing box, beside the Omnia II and battery, a micro USB cable, a charger (which is quite strange, since it could have just included an extra adaptor for the USB cable), and a two piece wired headset with remote, instruction manual, CD software, and a case to keep the Omnia II safe. Overall, the Samsung Omnia II is an excellent phone, combining both multimedia features and business features with no problem whatsoever. If you are looking for a solid phone with a large touch screen then Samsung Omnia II is just what you are looking for.

Nowadays phones are great looking and extremely gifted, with touch screens, 5 megapixel, 8 megapixel, 12 megapixel cameras, all sorts of ports, the pick of mobile phones technological evolution could just be considered now (sure, we get everyday new phones with new features, but then again "now" will be tomorrow, or the week after, depending when you are reading the article). Putting aside, small disadvantages like a phone with 5 megapixel camera and not with 8 megapixel camera, or the lack of 3.5 mm audio jack and all these small problems, what could be considered the main disadvantage of today's middle end and high end phones (beside the price tag)?

The main disadvantage of mobile phones is the vulnerability. If you are an active person, you like outdoors and all the activity that goes with the outdoor environment, then your phone is a sure victim. However, Nokia developed in early stages a phone (which run even Symbian), but it was discontinued because of the bad sales (Nokia fault because first of all did not branded the phone, and second of all it was not correctly marketed). After a serious rebranding (that still goes on, and from serious reports will mostly go one until 2011) of its N series, E series, classic series Xpress Music series, and the new X series, Nokia (with divine intervention) re-launched its activity series (if we can call it that) with the new 3720 classic. Yes, you read correctly "classic" branding for an activity phone.

This means only one thing, the 3720 classic will go down in history as a new Nokia's management victim. Turning our attention to the 3720 classic, the first thing to notice is a nice looking design for a tough phone. Curve lines, nice materials, and an overall design that matches the 6700 classic. As you already imagined, this phone is not about how many features can include under the case, but more about toughness. Therefore you get a few main disadvantages, such as lack of 3G, no multi tasking, no office document viewer, memory card slot under the battery and other.

The 3720 classic provides rubber as the main material used on the back cover and all around the sides. The overall feeling provided by the 3720 classic is good. You don't get any flex or noises from the build. Above the display, the 3720 classic sports the earpiece, while bellow the display you can find the four way directional keys with the centered OK button. Just on the right of the pad you get a customizable soft key and the end call button, while on the other side you get another customizable soft key and the call button. Below the navigational keys, you get the actual keyboard. The keys are made out of plastic with the bridges between them filled with isolating rubber. Both navigational keys and keyboard are good built and offer a solid feeling while using them.

The 3720 classic sports keys and ports only on the right side and on the bottom side of the phone. The top and left side the phone lacks any input features. On the right side, you get the volume controls (not physical keys, more rather covered with rubber intuitive controls). On the bottom side, you get under a plastic cap the micro USB port, the charger port, and the 2.5 mm audio jack. Overall, Nokia 3720 classic seems quite waterproof. On the back cover, in the upper center you get the 2 megapixel camera lens (on the right of the camera you have a LED flash and on the left the loudspeaker). The battery cover is secured with a metal screw.

The dimensions and weight include the 3720 classic in the average range. With a height of 115 mm, wide of 47 mm, deep of 15.3 mm, the 3720 classic weights about 94 g. therefore, it is easy to slide in every pocket and heavy enough to feel if you have it on you or if you lost it somewhere on the mountain. The phone runs in the 2G network (GSM 900 / 1800 / 1900) and that's about it. It lacks 3G connection. The phone comes with a 2.2 inches TFT display with up to 16 million colors, and a resolution of 240 x 320 pixels.

The QVGA display performs surprisingly well in broad daylight, keeping the screen readable. The Nokia 3720 classic runs with, the common by now, S40 user interface 6^th edition because of the small processor included. Nokia equipped the 3720 classic with a small processor and random access memory, in order to diminish the internal hardware dimensions and create good isolation to cover it. As you already know, the S40 is somewhat customizable, easy to use (you might call it user friendly) and the most important, it is intuitive (in comparison with the S60 user interface). One of the most used features (beside the basic ones) is the music player.

The 3720 classic music player is standard like in any other S40 phones. However, it will allow you to jog or hike while listening to your playlists. The connectivity department is ensured by the Class 11 GPRS, HSCSD, EDGE Class 11, micro USB 2.0 connectivity, and the 2.1 Bluetooth with A2DP. Nokia ships the 3720 classic with a 2 megapixel digital camera, with a resolution up to 1600 x 1200 pixels, and a LED flash. Also the 3720 classic can record videos at a horrible resolution of QCIF with only 15 frames per second (welcome back 2004).

Nokia included in the shipping box, beside the 3720 classic headset, the battery, 1 GB micro SD card, NO USB cable, a mandatory charger and a 2.5 mm one piece hands free. The battery included, is a standard Lithium Ion battery with 1050 mAh, BL 5CT model. The standby time offered by this battery goes up to 408 hours, while the talk time is at most 7 hours. For an average consumer, all these values mean at most three days battery life. Overall, the Nokia 3720 classic provides good features for a tough phone. When you need this kind of a phone you can't expect great features. However, the 3720 classic delivers exactly what it is suppose to, a tough phone for outdoor activities.

Nokia E series emerged as a solution to business orientated clients. Nowadays our lives are more hectic than four years ago, when Nokia released E series. I guess Nokia knew that the business orientated phones will be mandatory in order to survive. The day seems much shorter, than before, but with the help of our small gadgets, we just might be able to actually sleep. I am sure that over half of Nokia E series customers are not business executives, but they need a fast and solid way to receive and send emails, check accounts, edit documents and so many other activities that would involve sitting in front of a computer.

But this is not the case anymore. Since 2006 you can actually do your job and works on your E series phone on the go in order to save time and improve the quality of your work. Nokia E55 is the improved version of the old E52. One of the best features found on the E55 is the half - QWERTY keyboard. Even so, the keyboard is easy to use, and the keys are excellent in term of feedback providing. Once you will get the whole typing process, the actual use of the half - QWERTY keyboard found on the E55 will be a great experience. An even greater experience you might get when you will discover the full connectivity package offered by the E55, and the excellent to almost flawless business features. The main advantages list can fill up this whole article, so I am only going to point out some disadvantages before presenting the feature keys.

The E55 includes a not so great digital camera (however remember that the E55 is business oriented), bad video recording, no TV out function, and no DivX or XviD support (take in notice, that the E55 runs Symbian S60, this means you can find 3^rd party software that will enable DivX and XviD support). The overall design of E55 makes a great first impression (and not only). The E55 sports a metal accents body, which not only provides great looks but also improves the E55 case durability. You can choose from three different colors (red, black aluminum, and white aluminum), but you should probably stick to the black aluminum design. On the front of the E55 you get a semi glossy plastic surrounded by a silver frame. On the other side you get a metallic (aluminum) black cover that fits excellent in the design (no moves, no nothing).

Above the display, the E55 sports beside the obvious earpiece, the second camera for video calls and a light sensor. Below the display you get the four navigational keys with the ok / function key. In the right and left of the navigational keys you can find a total of eight keys. Yes you read correctly, eight keys. On the left side, you get from top to bottom, a customizable soft key, home screen button, one touch short key, and the call button. On the other side, you get, from top to bottom, one customizable soft key, an edit button, another one touch shortcut key, and end call button. Under all these keys you get the actual half QWERTY keyboard. If you still don't understand how a half QWERTY keyboard looks like, imagine that two letters sit on the same key, and on the same key sits a number two. Therefore, almost every key form the E55 keyboard has a triangle on it (the leading angle is the number, and the rest of the angles are two letters). Even so, once you will learn the E55 typing process, you are going to be pleased of how it works and how good is the keyboard in terms of build. On the top of the E55 you get the power on and off button, and the 3.5 mm audio jack. On the left of the E55 you get the micro USB port, while on the right side you will find the volume controls and the dedicated camera key. the bottom of the E55 lack any kind of port, while on the back the E55 sports the non auto focus 3 megapixel camera with a LED flash. Don't worry, you get the micro SD card slot, but under the back cover. Overall the build quality is flawless. You are not going to find anything to object on, from the materials used to the last "triangle" function key. Nokia E55 runs in both 2G network (GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900) and 3G networks (HSDPA 900 / 1900 / 2100, and HSDPA 850 / 1900 / 2100).

Nokia included in the E55 a 2.4 inches TFT LCD display, with a resolution of 240 x 320 pixels. The display sports up to 16 million colors, and offers great contrast, vibrant colors, and excellent photo rendition. Because of the light sensor, the E55's display works quite impressive even in the broad daylight. Nokia also included an accelerometer sensor for auto rotate. Nokia E55 comes with Symbian operating system, S60 version 3.2. This means the E55 has Feature Pack 2 on board. The operating system is not the greatest software out there, but on E55 it runs smoothly, mostly because the E55 sports the ARM 11 600 MHz processor with 128 MB of random access memory. This software is fully customizable. It also brings an excellent organizer and great Document editor, for every important file, such as Word documents, Excel documents, PDF, and Power Point presentations. You even get (as a free update) the Microsoft Office 2007 support. Basically from the business features perspective, it can't get any better than this. If you also enjoy fun, and not only work, than you will be happy to know that the E55 includes a great music player (MP3 / WMA / M4A / AAC / WAV / RA) and a pretty decent video player (3GP / RV / MP4 / WMV). You also get a stereo FM radio with RDS, for more fun. Back to the business features.

The connectivity is ensured by the Class 32 GPRS, Class 32 EDGE (from 178.8 Kbits to 296 Kbits), HSCSD, HSDPA up to 10.2 MB per second and HSUPA up to 2 MB per second, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g featuring UPnP technology, micro USB version 2.0 connection, second generation Bluetooth with A2DP. The E55 features only 60MB internal memory, expandable using the micro SD memory card (Trans Flash memory card) up to 16 GB. However, if you go for a known memory card manufacturer you can buy even a 32 GB memory card. Nokia included in the E55 a 3.2 megapixel digital camera with a resolution up to 2048 x 1536 pixels, fixed focus and a LED flash. The camera can also record videos in VGA resolutions with 15 frames per second. Nokia E55 is shipped with a 2 GB memory card, lifetime Nokia Maps City Explorer, micro USB cable, charger, user manual, software CD, and a one piece hands free. Basically, with a height of 116 mm, wide of 46 mm, deep of 9.9 mm, and a weight of 98 g, the Nokia E55 is a great business performer with solid performances, which will fit in any pocket.

From its debut on the mobile phone market, HTC was always considered a business solution manufacturer. Basically HTC produced only smart phones in a period when people didn't really understood what high feature phones were about. However, since Nokia developed its E series and RIM gain more popularity (especially in the States); potential customers diverted their attention to HTC products, with hopes that they will find the perfected balanced device. Even more, HTC is now considered to be one of the greatest high end phones manufacturers. Nowadays, it offers not only business solution phones but also great headsets for average users. The HTC G1 or HTC Dream was the first phone to bring the new Android software platform. However, as a prototype phone, its life cycle came to an end pretty fast due to some drawbacks. Its successor in line is the new HTC Magic.

This device provides beside the great Android platform, an excellent touch screen and an overall decent feature package. All of this offered under compact dimensions and a good looking design. As any other device, HTC Magic has a few drawbacks, it lacks the second camera for video calling, no flash support in the web browser (iPhone, anyone?), no built in FM radio support, and a bad Bluetooth profile. The HTC Magic comes with a good design, nice shapes and a glossy white finish. Fortunately, the white glossy case doesn't show the how much of a fingerprint magnet it really is.

However, if you choose for the black HTC Magic, you are probably going to hate the glossy finish. Even so, the black finish is more resistant to scratches than the white glossy finish. Beside plastic you will not get any other finishes on your HTC Magic. On the front panel, under the display you get six keys (pretty much for a touch screen phone). However, because they're so many keys onboard, HTC reduced the keys dimensions to the minimum, making the usability of the keys from this phone under average.

The menu button will bring up a set of options. You also get the home button and back button, the search key (pretty useful), and the end call key on the right, and the call key on the left. HTC doesn't provide the Magic with a touch screen switch, you will have to use the end call key to lock and turn off the touch screen. HTC replaced the five keys pad (left, right, up, down and select / ok) with a trackball (not many manufacturers use this feature anymore, because is unreliable on long term usage).

Even so, the trackball worked pretty well (because the phone is new), and it has multi functional purpose (not only navigating through the menu, but also provides as a camera control key). The overall built is pretty simple, you don't get ports or buttons neither on the left side nor the right side. The only keys you will get on the right side of your HTC Magic are the volume control keys. However, on the bottom of the phone, you get beside the microphone pit, the mini USB port (you will have to use this mini USB port in order to connect any headset to your HTC Magic).

On the back panel, you can find in the upper center the 3 megapixel digital camera lens and right above the camera the loudspeaker. Don't look for an external memory card slot, because you are not getting one. The memory card slot is under the back cover, but not under the battery. Therefore, you don't have to shut down the phone when you will replace the memory card. HTC Magic is equipped with a 3.2 inches TFT capacitive touch screen with a resolution of 320 x 480 pixels (HVGA), offers up to 65000 colors. For a better use of this screen, HTC included an accelerometer sensor for auto rotate. You don't get many colors in the HTC Magic, even more because the touch screen has a big diagonal, you will see that it lacks vibrant colors. In direct sunlight the result is undesirable. The ambient light sensor above the display doesn't do any justice in broad daylight.

HTC Magic runs in 2G networks (GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900) but also in 3G networks (HSDPA 900 / 2100 and HSDPA 1700 / 2100). The dimensions include the Magic in the average department. It has a height of 113 mm, wide of 55 mm, deep of 13.7 mm, Magic weights about 118.5 g. HTC Magic is shipped with the latest Android version, 1.5. One of the best features of this version is the landscape and portrait on board virtual keyboard. It is easy to use when writing with both hands (landscape mode), but also when writing with one hand (portrait mode). Even if the keyboard is on screen it can still provide a good feedback. Even if the Android competes with the iPhone platform, the home screen of Android is just dull. You don't feel anything. It doesn't provide nice icons, and a good overall feeling.

A good feature (also found in the Symbian platform) is the widget application. The HTC Magic comes with a few widgets pre-installed, like the music player or calendar. This feature comes to improve the dull home screen. You get two types of widgets, the first type, is the widget that extracts a result and displays it (like the title of the current song played), and the second type of widget involves a back door application. HTC offers for the Magic a Lithium Ion battery of 1340 mAh. This battery is pretty powerful and will provide about three days usage (average usage).

HTC official press release provided a number of 420 hours in standby mode for the Magic, and about 7 hours and 30 minutes in talk time. All the day by day functions (phonebook, messaging, calendar, notes and other), work great, smoothly even, because of the Qualcomm MSM 7200A 528 MHz processor and the 288 MB of random access memory. The internal memory is limited at 512 MB but is expandable using micro SD memory cards, or Trans Flash memory cards (up to 16 GB). The connectivity in ensured by the Class 10 GPRS (4+1 / 3+2 slots) with a speed from 32 to 48 kbps, HSCSD, Class 10 EDGE with a speed of 236.8 kbps, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g profile, Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP (limited access), HSDPA with 7.2 MB per second, HSUPA with 2 MB per second, and mini USB connectivity. This phone is not camera orientated. However, it sports a 3.15 megapixel digital camera with a maximum resolution of 2048 x 1536 pixels (with autofocus).

This camera will deliver average performances. It can also record video in QVGA resolution at about 15 frames per second (also known as bad video quality). HTC ships the Magic in a iPhone look alike box. Beside the actual Magic you also get a charger, mini USB cable, wired one piece stereo hands free, and a 2 GB micro SD memory card. A nice touch is the leather carrying case that matches your Magic at color. Overall the HTC Magic is an average touch screen phone. However, if you are looking for an Android touch screen phone, then the HTC Magic might just be what you are looking for.