The Register Review HTC's 'Magician' Pocket PC Phone

[Jonathon Watkins]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/02/08/review_htc_magician/' target='_blank'>http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/0...w_htc_magician/</a><br /><br /></div><i>"It's not hard to see why Taiwanese manufacturer HTC calls its latest PocketPC-based phone 'Magician'. Its new handset does indeed work magic: it looks and feels like a traditional PDA yet it's no bigger than some of the smallest smart phones around. . . . [The XDA IIs] makes a great PDA. But it's a poor handset for exactly the same reason: it's too big. . . . PalmOne's Treo, Sony Ericsson's P910 and, to a lesser extent, RIM's Blackberry 7100 sit between these two extremes, but they still have screen size and/or device size compromises. Magician pulls off the trick of delivering both features at once."</i><br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/magi_5.jpg" /><br /><br />Tony Smith from the Register has reviewed the HTC Magician and seems to be quite impressed with it. He commends the device's ergonomics and screen and says that even without tri-band GSM/GPRS, infrared, Bluetooth, SMS, MMS, email and instant messaging, it would still make a rather good standalone PDA. Balanced against this are a few niggles, such as only having a 416Mhz processor and the difficulty of using WM2003SE one-handed. So how many of you guys are using the Magician at the moment? Is it magical, middling or mediocre?

[MS Mobiles]

how many of you guys are using the Magician at the moment? Is it magical, middling or mediocre?

I switched to HTC Magician - this is my primary cell phone now - although I could switch to any other Pocket PC phone or smartphone.

I am very satisfied by the size of it and with help of nail of my thumb I can easily handle it single-handidly. It works also superbly with SDIO Wi-Fi cards - I tested it with Socket Comm Wi-Fi cards and others with SanDisk Wi-Fi cards.

Complaining that one cannot use Magician single handidly is a bit stupid because even the thumb keyboards are quite hard to use single handidly. So if one really needs single handed usage then I recomend to use Orange SPV C500/Audiovox STM 5600 - I still use it as my seconary cell phone.

On the other hand the Xda IIs, MDA III, Xda IIi, etc are very nice but too big for me - I need a phone that is easily pocketable and Magician is easily pocketable.

[surur]

This is really a device which would benifit from wm2005, with the shortcut softbuttons on the bottom to ease one-handed usage.

I am getting the feeling that many OEM's have made devices with WM2005 in mind, but that MS is having difficulty delivering it. (Shades of Cobalt).

Even the MPx was rumoured to have "the new OS" which was going to use RAM in a different way, and the MDA IV even has clear soft-buttons, but is still confirmed to be shipping with wm2003SE. The new empasis on large ROM vs RAM is also an apparent influence from the new OS.

I've heard excuses that WM2005 is too expensive, but unless its >$50 I dont see it hurting the sale of these very expensive phones in any case.

Has anybody a clear idea whats keeping WM2005?

Surur

[MS Mobiles]

Has anybody a clear idea whats keeping WM2005?



I was discussing this issue with one of Microsoft's managers
here (http://www.msmobiles.com/catalog/i.php/562.html) in an interview during 3GSM 2005.

Shortly speaking: Microsoft doesn't want to spoil sales of existing devices. Just imagine: if Windows Mobile codename Magneto would be released too early then it could harm sales of many devices that clearly will not get upgrades to it... so Microsoft is waiting for proper moment, probably after summer this year...

[surur]

Thats fine and good, but the MDA4 is clearly designed for wm2005, and will be released in or after the summer. Yet all indications so far suggest it will have wm2003SE. Do you believe this will be the case, or will it be released with the new OS?

Surur

[madbart]

I switched to the Mini from an XDA II in the 1st week in January and must say that I am more than impressed. My decission was based purely on size as the XDA II was simply too big to carry around 24/7. The screen is the best that i have encountered on any PDA even though it is only 2.8".

Apart from its memory limitation and lack of a blackberry client it would be the best PDA that I have owned to date. But then again i say that about every PDA/Phone that I purchase! :lol: :lol: :lol:

[adamz]

The Magician is totally magical. I got mine in December last year and I was reluctant at first that the small screen would be too small... but it really is just fine. Had it upgraded to a Super JAM with 128Mb RAM and havn't looked back. How could I have been carrying such big PDA's around for all this time?

[kanzlr]

i have switched from a Treo270 to the MDA compact.
actually, the compact was the reason to switch to Tmobile :)

anyhow, i like the old treo better. its somewhat glued together, but i miss the keyboard and the fliplid.
and agendus. to be honest, the bigger screen and better resolution dont help me much, because the screen real estate on the calendar apps is not that much better. still could easily use the weekview in agendus in 160x160...hm.

i basically bought this ppc phone because it was cheap. 99,-- euro with contract. after half a year with the ipaq2210 i swore to never buy a ppc again :wink:

imho the old treo270 had the better design. not in looks but in usability.
i also miss the hardware switch to mute the device.

a clip on keyboard for the compact would be nice :)

maybe i take a look at the new HP ppc-phone with keyboard.
i really dont mind the lower resolution, as long as i can use the full weekview in any calendar app :)

regarding the camera: it takes good photos. the are equal to those that my Konica Revio C2 takes. it would just need a flash.

battery life for me is ca 2 days. sometimes less. but i am a somewhat heavy user.

also very nice is the springloaded SD slot and the miniUSB connector. but a cradle would still have been nice to have. and the screenprotector that tmobile includes is nice to have, but its not wide enough...

i think the device has no real faults hardware wise. maybe that there is no keyboard (well, at least it keeps my SMS bill down that way...) and the lack of a flash for the camera.
my only gripes are the usual WinMobile ones...

i better start saving the few hundred bucks for a treo650, as it will be released in europe in the upcoming weeks :)

still, for a PPC fan, this is a great device i think.

best regards
Berny

[Paragon]

The Magician broke a very important barrier...size. Until this device came along I think the most common reason I heard people give for not wanting to switch to a Phone Edition device was because of the large size. The Magician is no different in size from many cell phones. I also think that because of its small size it has blurred the lines between Phone Edition, and Smartphone. Again many people chose a Smartphone over a Phone Edition because of size. Now that they are similar in size I think many people are choosing the Magician because of its full PPC, and touchscreen capabilities that Smartphones lack.

Dave

[weisco]

I wish T-Mobile in the U.S. would offer this device.

I would happily ditch my HP6315 in a heartbeat. The HP would go away because it is still buggy, and because while I appreciate its capabilities, size matters. The HP is a brick!

[gratefuled]

I switched to the Magician when it first came available. I had a PDA2K upgrade form MDA II for about 6 weeks prior to getting the JAM.
As others have posted, it is the SIZE of the device that is amazing.
There are some issues with the JAM, MS BT Stack and memory size. I had PPC Techs put 128 RAM on my JAM and now the device is as good as if not better than any other PPC I have ever had.
As great as the upcoming MDA IV looks, I honestly don't think I could ever go back to a large device. I don't believe I would ever be happy or able to carry around a large PPC-PE again.

[TopDog]

I'm sitting here with my brand-new-only-had-it-for-an-hour Magician and are really exited. I had an XDA II before, and are really impressed about the screen.

I'm a little bit worried about the small memory size, but since I recently bought an 1GB SD-card, I think it'll work out fine.

I've also ordered an aluminium case and some screenshields from Proporta, can wait to get them, so I can use this baby without worring about damage.

[lsbeller]

Since it has a touch screen and it is so pocketable, has anyone experienced any issues with accidently calling, starting apps or affecting data with accidental screen touches?

Is there a screen lock? If so, how does it work?

[Paragon]

Since it has a touch screen and it is so pocketable, has anyone experienced any issues with accidently calling, starting apps or affecting data with accidental screen touches?

Is there a screen lock? If so, how does it work?

You can lock it so that only the power button works. When you turn the device off and the phone is on, it stays on even though the PDA side is turned off. This way no accidental calls or the likes can happen.

dave

[saru83]

This Pocket Pc Phone ROCKS...

It's really full of magical touches... at the first place in 2002 i didnt want to buy the first ppc phone imate released due to its size and i got a P800 instead.

Then again their second genaration phone had the same problem, BULKY, so i got a P900, but as soon as they released the JAM, i couldnt wait and got one from Expansys + 1GB SD, although i had the P900 for just 4 months.

In My opinion its really the best ppc phone ever. Actually if the Benq P50 was released at the same time of the JAM i would rather get the Benq due to the built in Keyboard and the WLAN but it wont be untill JUNE most probably.. so anyways the JAM is the best ppc phone untill know...

I just want to mention something, i am a heavy ppc user so for my use it needS 128MB RAM (which can be done at pocketpctech) but may be the 64MB is pretty good for most users..

As a Conclusion, IT IS A REAL MAGICAL POCKET PC PHONE

[mashtim]

Has anyone used their Magician with an automobile bluetooth hands-free kit?

Do BT headset connections stay alive even when the PPC side has been turned off?

Someone mentioned BT stack problems earlier in this thread. Can anyone elaborate for me, please?

[TopDog]

Someone mentioned BT stack problems earlier in this thread. Can anyone elaborate for me, please?
After upgrading to ROM 1.06, my Jabra BT headset works very vell, better than it did on my old Qtek 2020 (XDA II).