HTC Magic Google Android Phone G2 Vs Apple iPhone 3G

Recently we featured Samsung Google Android Phone at Mobile World Congress 2009. At the same venue Vodafone and HTC unveils the 2nd Google Android Phone, the HTC Magic. Here are the apple-to-apple comparison base on their official product page.

Look & Feel
Both the iPhone 3G and the HTC Magic have capacitive touchscreens, the former 3.5-inches and the latter 3.2-inches, both running at 480 x 320. They’re similar in size, too, with the iPhone 3G (4.5 x 2.4 x 0.48 inches) a little longer, wider and thinner than the Magic (4.45 x 2.17 x 0.54 inches). Despite the extra girth, though, the Magic is lighter: 4.18oz versus the iPhone 3G’s 4.7oz.

Screen
The HTC Magic features a 3.2-inch (diagonal) colour TFT touchscreen sporting 320 x 480 resolution. Slightly 0.3-inch bigger is iPhone 3G’s screen has 3.5-inch (diagonal) widescreen Multi-Touch display 320×480 resolution.

Camera
One area where we expect the HTC Magic to comprehensively trounce the iPhone 3G is the camera. Apple disappointed many people when they left their second-gen handset’s camera as just 2-megapixels with a fixed-focus lens, and they were right to be so as the picture quality is relatively poor. HTC have given the Magic a 3.2-megapixel camera with autofocus, and while the company might not be as lauded for their optics as, say, Samsung or Nokia, that and the higher resolution should edge it ahead. Autofocus is a necessity for the Magic, really, given that apps such as ShopSavvy rely on being able to clearly recognize
close-up barcodes; we’re disappointed to see no flash, though, not even a basic LED one.

Multimedia
Given that this is a Android device, you’d expect the HTC Magic to handle a wide variety of audio and video out of the box.Audio supported formats AAC, AAC+, AMR-NB, MP3, WMA, WAV, AAC-LC, MIDI, OGG.Video supported formats MP4, 3GP.The iPhone 3G handles MP3, AAC, MPEG4.Video formats supported: H.264 video, up to 1.5 Mbps, 640 by 480 pixels.

Connectivity
Connectivity might be an area where HTC edge out Apple. The iPhone 3G delivers HSDPA, WiFi b/g and Bluetooth, although the only Bluetooth profiles supported are the headset and handsfree. Meanwhile the HTC Magic has 7.2Mbps HSDPA, WiFi b/g and Bluetooth 2.0, and there’s much more flexibility in the Bluetooth stack. Apple score a point for having a standard 3.5mm headphone jack, while HTC insist on you using an adapter dongle with their ExtUSB port, however the Magic score a point themselves by having native miniUSB support versus the iPhone 3G’s proprietary connector.

Web Browsing
The iPhone 3G uses the Safari browser while it’s likely that the HTC Magic will use an Android-optimised Webkit browser

Storage
Both handsets can be had with up to 16GB of storage, but they go about it in very different ways. The iPhone 3G is available in 8GB or 16GB sizes, with no way to expand that capacity; meanwhile the Magic has a mere 512MB ROM but a microSD slot – underneath the battery compartment hatch, but not under the battery itself – happy with up to 16GB cards. We don’t know what size card HTC or Vodafone will bundle in the retail packaging – it’s unlikely to be anything as high as either 8GB or 16GB – but for some the flexibility of adding their own memory cards will be worth the extra initial outlay.

Applications
The HTC Magic includes a variety of email options such as Google Mail™, POP3 and IMAP as well as Google Talk™ for instant messaging.It also features the popular Google™ applications, Google Maps™ and Google Search™ as well as favourites like YouTube™. In addition, Android Market allows for quick and easy downloading of games and applications utilising Vodafone’s fast and reliable network.
The iPhone 3G allows a range of Apple-approved third-party applications to run.

Pricing
The stylish new handset is exclusive to Vodafone in the UK, Spain, Germany and France (SFR) and available on a non-exclusive basis in Italy. Customers can ensure that they are the first to receive information about the HTC Magic’s availability, pricing and pre-ordering by registering their interest via their local Vodafone website from today.

Conclusions
The HTC Magic, with its great Android operating system and super-fast Qualcomm® MSM7201a™, 528 MHz processor, looks to have a lot of potential.The announcement of the HTC Magic is an important step for Android and the Open Handset Alliance. Therefore Vodafone is opening up the mobile web for consumers across Europe and giving more third-party developers a platform on which they can build the next wave of killer applications.

Watch Video of HTC Magic from vodafone Launch