Introduction
Today we get to take a look at the HTC legend that originally was released in Europe back in march of this year and is finally making its way to North America being released in Canada first on Virgin mobile and Bell Canada.
Looks
Let me first start out by saying that this is one nice looking phone and it may be a biased review because I really think this is a sharp looking phone. Phone’s size is 112X56.3X11.5mm and weighs in at a total of 126 grams. On the front it also has your standard search button, back button, menu button and a home button. As well it has a nice chrome optical track pad that allows you to navigate around the phone very easily and is super convenient. It has a nice chrome volume rocker on the side and on top and has 3.5 MM jack and power and power button. The back of the phone has a very nice hard a rubber surface at the top and the bottom so the phone does not slide around on surfaces. Most of the phone has a very nice brushed aluminum uni-body casing and battery access because of this is located at the bottom of the phone. The size of this phone is a bit smaller than some of the bigger designs that seemed to be popular these days, this phone sits in the palm of your hand quite nicely. You can phone put it in your shirt pocket or your jeans pockets and not be worried about it being too bulky. I really like the looks of this phone this has to be one of the sharpest looking designs that HTC has put out, looking at this phone it just plain looks classy.
Hardware
This phone is powered by Qualcomm MSM 7227 600 MHZ processor, I would like to have seen this phone come with a larger processor may be the snapdragon processor but after using this phone it seems to handle all of the needs for most consumers and does not have much lag. It comes with 512 MB rom and also has 2.0 GB micro SD card that is expandable up to 32 GB. It also comes with 3G, wifi 802.11 BG, Bluetooth 2.1, 2.0 micro USB. It also is equipped with an 384 MB internal ram. This phone comes with FM stereo radio with RDS. Overall phone has very fluid movement to no lag and will handle all of your needs for a smart phone.
Screen
The display on this phone happens to be a AMOLED capacitive touch screen with 16,000,000 colors. The size of the screen is 320 X 480 pixels, 3.2 inches. It comes with sense UI, multi-touch support, Accelerometer sensor for auto-rotate. The optical track pad allows seamless movement around the display. The screen has excellent picture quality, it shows the colors off so beautifully, the AMOLED display is one of the finest features on this phone. For some people they may wish to have a bigger screen and that’s a personal choice. You’ll be hard pressed to find a nicer display on any phone.
Battery
Phone comes with a standard batter RE LI-ION 1300 mAh and is rated a standby time of up to 560 Hours in 3G mode end up to 6 hours of talk time. I must admit I am impressed with the battery, it is probably one of the better ones that I’ve seen on phones as of a recent. I used applications, surf the Internet and talked on the phone and it gave me a excellent battery life. I also let it sit with moderate use and the battery lasted a long time, I could only wish that other phone’s batteries would last as long.
Operating System
The operating system on this phone is android 2.1 which is the latest available operating system at this present time. Android 2.2 is not available to the masses as of yet and probably will not be on most phones till later this fall. This is certainly not a drawback as a android 2.1 allows you to do everything you possibly could want out of an android phone. Considering that the processor is a little smaller than some of the new higher end phones, this phone uses the operating system very well no lag and smooth scrolling.
Software
In terms of software for UI you’ll be hard pressed to find a phone that has better, HTC Sense UI is probably the best android operating System Software available today. It runs smooth and seamlessly and is integrated into the phone very nicely. It comes with all the bells and whistles that you could want and more. It also is highly customizable so you can change the software based on your needs at the time whether it be work, play or social. When you start to play with the software you will realize that they did not leave anything out, there are so many well thought applications integrated into the software that you will be impressed. One of the nicest things about this software is the design! It is simple to use but looks so sharp, anyone who looks at this phone will be in awww.
Applications
The phone comes with so many built-in applications that it will save you from having to download a lot of applications. It Comes with all the standard android applications that you’ll find on most android phones. Plus HTC has loaded these phones with tons of features and thought of everything. Programs on this phone that stand out of the desk clock, FM radio, footprints of where you been, friends stream that allows you connected to your social networks, twitter integration, stocks application and so much more. The highlight of this phone is that the HTC Sense UI has built-in widgets for everything and they look incredible. Starting off with the clock on the front that that is one of the nicest clocks you will see on an android phone. It can tap the widget and pull up the local forecast for the next five days and can configure for up to 9 different cities. It also has a very nice calendar that sinks with Google and your favourite call list that displays a picture and contact options. The Legend is also social media friendly which you can configure two friends stream to get all your latest updates and has twitter at widget on the home screen so you can get your latest tweets. There’s also a very nice and useful bookmarks widget, facebook, footprints, latitude, mail, music, photo album, photo frame and you tube of course. This phone has so many applications built in you not ask for more! It would take you hours to try and find applications that run as well as the ones HTC has included with this phone. I must say that the HTC Sense UI and it’s bundle of applications is one of the biggest selling points on any HTC phone.
Keyboard
Comes with the standard HTC Sense UI touch screen keyboard that is highly accurate and a pleasure to use. I have used many keyboards and the latest version from HTC is one of the best.
Web Browsing Camera and Video
Comes with a standard HTC web browser from android that works very well and is fairly fast and simple to use. A camera on this phone is 5mp,2592×1944 pixels and has auto focus LED flash and also features a Geo tagging. As well it also does take video.
Call Quality
Like all HTC phones it has excellent call quality but can vary appending of course on your carrier.
Pros:
- · UNI-Body design is simply incredible
- · One of the nicest looking android phones you’ll find
- · HTC’s Sense software
- · 2.1 Android operating system
- · Keyboard
- · Tons of useful and well integrated applications
- · The AMOLED screen
Cons:
- · Little underpowered processor
- · No Side camera button
Conclusions and Final thoughts:
The HTC legend is a HIT in my books, it is a nice sized phone and is one of the best looking designs I have ever seen in a smart phone. The HTC sense software makes using this phone a pleasure and is easy enough for new users but full of options to keep enthusiasts amused. This may not be HTC’s most powerful phone it in their android lineup but what it lacks in power it makes up for in finesse. Only hardcore android lovers may notice the slower processor but 9 out of 10 users will never notice. The phone is blazing fast otherwise and has every option you could use an need. The HTC Legend is a recommended buy from Androidheadlines .com. It is available from Virgin Mobile and Bell Canada at the low price of only $79.99 on a three year agreement with a data plan.
