HTC Magic review

The second Google Android phone finally lands: with new features and an upgraded interface, it's a belter

HTC Magic
The HTC Magic is a vast improvement on the first Android phone - the T-Mobile G1

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The quoted battery life is 660 hours on standby, although that's with everything turned off. However, and especially given the slim chassis, we managed to squeeze well over 24 hours' use out of the phone with heavy usage, and with a little less calling, downloading and streaming we could probably have managed 48 hours without needing to charge again.

The battery monitoring on the phone is especially impressive, as you can head down into the settings to monitor how much battery life you have left in terms of percentage.

While this may be a novelty in most cases, it also is very handy when you're sub 10% and need to know whether downloading an app really is a sensible thing to do so far from a charger.

Organiser

While normal organisers are simply a calendar with basic meeting and memo functionality, the HTC Magic makes use of Google Calendar (shockingly) and automatically synchronises with your online account, meaning there's far less chance of you forgetting to pop an appointment in.

For those of you that use Google Calendar for work, this is a veritable godsend, for the others, you'll have to stay hoping that Exchange support comes on board soon.

Entering a new meeting is a simple as it is on a PC, with options for location, contact and repeat appointments, as well as a handy 'Morse Code' style system when looking at the whole month to work out how many appointments you have in a given week.

Gareth Beavis
Formerly Global Editor in Chief

Gareth has been part of the consumer technology world in a career spanning three decades. He started life as a staff writer on the fledgling TechRadar, and has grown with the site (primarily as phones, tablets and wearables editor) until becoming Global Editor in Chief in 2018. Gareth has written over 4,000 articles for TechRadar, has contributed expert insight to a number of other publications, chaired panels on zeitgeist technologies, presented at the Gadget Show Live as well as representing the brand on TV and radio for multiple channels including Sky, BBC, ITV and Al-Jazeera. Passionate about fitness, he can bore anyone rigid about stress management, sleep tracking, heart rate variance as well as bemoaning something about the latest iPhone, Galaxy or OLED TV.