HTC Legend review

The web browser is built on the same WebKit base as most other Android phones, but once again HTC has added its own little touches to the system on the HTC Legend to make it a different experience to other phones of its ilk.

The main interface is simple - web pages are presented as expanded options, allowing you to take a gander over the whole site without needing to zoom out to check things out.

Another thing we're pleased to see is the addition of pinch to zoom functionality, meaning expanding text is as easy as you could hope for.

And HTC has also included its own text reflow software in there too - for those that don't know what that means, you can basically keep zooming into text and the HTC Legend will keep resizing the text to make the words fit onto the screen.

This means you're not governed by the phone's choices of what you're supposed to be able to read - great news for those with slight sight deficiencies or the picky among us.

One slight downside - we've let iPhone users play with the HTC Legend (we know, sacrilege) and they've said the text resizing takes longer than on their phone - if this doesn't apply to you, we doubt you'll notice it.

And the speed of the internet browser on the HTC Legend is also definitely industry leading - we tried websites that are notoriously poor to view on the mobile web, and we were able to sprint through them - this phone is seriously adept at browsing the mobile web.

The screen - which as we mentioned is HVGA resolution - still renders web pages well and in good detail, meaning we never put the phone down to hit the full web browser instead on a PC.

Another high-end treat on the HTC Legend: Flash video is included by default, with both in-browser viewing and a full screen option available by double tapping on the screen.

The bad news - the Flash video on the phone is choppy and pretty unwatchable. It's not likely to be a deal-breaker for long, as Flash 10.1 is coming for mobile phones soon to the HTC Legend and this will likely fix the problem.

But at the moment, the Flash video might as well not be there - all it does is slow down websites we're trying to browse.

Other little web elements we like: the Legend will organise your bookmarks by visual thumbnails, which sit on the home screen - making them much easier to browse through.

It will also remember which sites you visit the most as well as grouping your history together nicely - the former makes it easy to add in your fave sites when you keep forgetting to do so when you're actually in them.

Cut and paste is also included by default, and it's easily the match of anything out there on the market today.

You're able to see the text in a little magnification pane, with little pins to drag to select the text you're after exactly. We're not experts in patent law - but this looks mightily similar to Apple's method unveiled last year.

This is a good thing - that system worked, and this one adds in the option to copy the text to a clipboard, search the web for the phrase, or share the site with others via social networking.

Android has always excelled at mobile web browsing - but HTC has just raised the game with the browser on the Legend.