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The days when the T-Mobile G1 was the big cheese in the Android world are happily gone. Now, the Android OS is being used to create some truly industry leading handsets and HTC is behind some of the best.
But which is the one for you to spend your hard-earned on? The Hero-a-like Legend? The insanely powerful but stupidly monikered Desire? Or do you trust your mobile dollar in Google with the Nexus One?
The HTC Legend
What makes a phone good? Well, the easy answer is one that packs the most into the smallest frame - but Apple came along with the iPhone and changed that perception almost overnight.
No, apparently what's best is the combination of beautiful hardware and a slick user experience - so step forward the HTC Legend.
If you imagine an HTC Hero met an Apple Macbook Air one night in a bar, got along famously and ended up getting so drunk that they woke up shame-facedly together in the morning, this would be the result.
The HTC Legend is hewn from a single block of aluminium, giving it a polished and expensive look, in the Marmite-esque 'lip' chassis. Not only that, but the 3.2-inch screen is actually an OLED, which means colours are gloriously saturated and the blacks are wonderfully dark.
The HTC Sense UI is also in full force here, and while we could witter on about the social networking integration in the contacts menu or the improved camera UI, we just care about the fact we can pinch the home screen in to view all our open widgets in one glance (called Leap view).
We're also digging the ability to see all our friends' feeds in one place through Friend Stream - we know that it's an option on the HTC Desire as well, but it seems to suit the Legend a little more.
It's a smooth, sleek and ultimately satisfying to hold phone - and it's packing a fair whack of grunt under the hood as well.
Who's gonna buy the Legend? If you're the kind of person that values form as much as functionality (and for some reason don't want the iPhone) then you should definitely give the HTC Legend the once over.
Sure, it's not got the processing power of the Desire or the bells and whistles of Google's device, but it looks superb, handles better than most phones out there and what's more - it shouldn't break the bank when it appears.
Read TechRadar's in-depth HTC Legend review
Your comments (10) Click to add a new comment
benman
April 30th 2010
10. Bradavon, theres not really much point in compare these phones to the Xperia x10 yet as the x10 is using Android 1.6. I had the X10 but returned it so I could get the desire and I havent looked back. Everything is just that bit smoother than the X10. When the X10 gets the 2.1 upgrade then i think it will be a whole different story. Thats when I would like to see the 2 compared, on a level playing field.
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calcio
April 2nd 2010
9. @roggit - or half the office is looking for a cheaper option.
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bradavon
March 31st 2010
8. As great as this is, it would be nice to see the Motorola Milestone and Sony Ericsson X10 included too, especially the Sony Ericsson X10.
Still thanks though.
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boardtc
February 22nd 2010
7. @samslater. presumably there be a sense ui upgrade for android 2.1 soon, that will bring voice-to-text.
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papasmurf
February 18th 2010
6. Legend style with Desire specs.
Legire is the answer... or is it Desend - I never can remember?
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nicolasmerritt
February 18th 2010
5. @telecaster
Like this? http://www.techradar.com/news/phone-and-communications/mobile-phones/o2-confirms-htc-desire-for-uk-too-670968
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telecaster
February 17th 2010
4. Am rather keen for O2 to bother announcing one of these!
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roggit
February 17th 2010
3. The TechRadar office is currently divided between those that want the Legend,and those that crave the Desire."
Then half your office is retarded. The Desire is better than the Legend in pretty much all ways. The Desire is just a better and more expensive version of the legend. Compare the specs if you dont believe me.
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samslater
February 17th 2010
2. I don't see anything the Desire does that the N1 doesn't. No, voice-to-text or noise cancellation and it looks like it'll be slightly more expensive (£420 for N1 compared to a rumoured £450 for the Desire). I like the hardware buttons and extra 4gb card but the voice-to-text and noise cancellation puts the N1 top of the pile for me.
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dom.l
February 17th 2010
1. OMG !! i really want the legend it migth be as powerfull the the desire or the nexus but in my opinion(a ex-iPhone owner) this is genius cannot wait for the UK release date really want one and sadly my hero just died and i was really caought up on the nexus before this came out , so thank you HTC and thank you MWC for unveiling these master pieces
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