14 DAY TRIAL // HTC Magic's invasion on Vodafone seems to have started already. After hearing that the handset went on sale a few days ago in Spain, we also learned that a lot of the European countries, including Austria, France and Italy, would get the phone in early May, and now more on its launch surfaces to the web. For starters, mobile users in Germany can already purchase the device from Vodafone, while those in the UK will be able to do so starting tomorrow.
According to Vodafone UK, the Magic will become available tomorrow on the company's site, as well as through its retail stores and from telesales. In addition, the phone is offered for free on a two-year contract at GBP35 per month, a plan that provides subscribers with unlimited mobile Internet use, 600 minutes and unlimited texts. In addition, those who pre-order the handset before May 1 will receive the GBP35 price plan for GBP30.
What the HTC Magic will bring to users includes six hard buttons for navigation, volume control, a call/hang up key, home button, menu button, and quick 'Search' key, along with a 3.2-inch QVGA touchscreen display that delivers a QWERTY keypad for fast typing. Other features include a built-in accelerometer, allowing users to change the view from portrait mode to landscape, a 3.2-megapixel photo snapper with video recording capabilities, GPS receiver, Wi-Fi connectivity, stereo Bluetooth for audio, quad-band GSM, dual-band UMTS, HSDPA/HSUPA connectivity and 500MB of internal memory, coupled with a memory card slot for additional storage space (a 2GB memory card included in the package).
Among the features that it should provide users with, we can count direct access to the application-rich Android Market, a fully functional web browser, support for Google search and Vodafone live!, as well as the ability to load photos on Picasa Web Albums or to upload clips to YouTube. There are also a wide range of email options, including Google Mail, POP3 and IMAP, as well as instant messaging with Google Talk, not to mention Google Calendar and contacts synchronization or support for Google Maps with Street View and Google Latitude.
In Germany, the HTC Magic became available about a day after Vodafone Spain put the device on sale, and users can acquire it for as little as one Euro for a data plan of €44.95 (about $59) per month, yet it is also available on a €24.95 plan with a price tag of €59.90.