It’s been five months in the making, but HTC has finally revealed its second Android phone. Nope, not the T-Mobile G2 – the Vodafone Magic.Fans on the G1 will find it looks quite familiar. In fact, the Magic is essentially its predecessor sans the slide-out keyboard and with the ‘Cupcake’ extension to Android’s OS.This should soften the blow to QWERTY fans, as one of ‘Cupcake’s’ extra abilities is better support for onscreen keyboards, such as those from HTC.The lack of a keyboard also means it’s been able to shed to some weight – it’s down from 17mm thick to a trim 13.65mm.Features-wise, there’s still built-in GPS, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, and the screen is the same 3.2in, 320x480 affair as before. Disappointingly, the 3.2MP camera still lacks flash.
We’ll have some more pics and a hands-on from the launch soon, so stay tuned for more live from Mobile World Congress 2009.
Joe M February 17, 2009 18:22
Personally, I love it. Had a play today and think it's a real leap forward from the ugly old G1. Vids and stuff in the blogs channel.
Joe
Steven Huffer February 18, 2009 14:23
What exactly is the deal with Android. I'm an iPhone and Mac owner, but have been getting into Linux over the last couple of years and was quite excited whet Android came on the horizon, as I believe an Open-Sourced alternative to the iPhone will keep innovation moving. But so far, all we are seeing are network-branded, clunky, sub-WinMo devices with appalling battery life.
Can I install the Android OS on my old XDA 2, even though it is powerful enough? It doesn't look like it. Can I put an O2 Sim-card in the G1 or this Voda (which, let's not forget, was a bugbear many shared against the iPhone)? Nope.
Android is still exciting and I don't think of myself as an Apple fanboy, but this is anything but Open-Source at the moment.