HTC Legend Review (software and conclusion)

Supplied by Clove

Price: £370.13

Main features-

Android 2.1 operating system with HTC Sense interface
600MHz processor
3.2 inch AMOLED Display that offering very crisp and rich images
3G/HSDPA
Optical trackball
7 customisable home screens
HTC Friend Stream
GPS
Proximity and ambient light sensors

First impressions of the Legend were very good indeed and the second impressions were even better. Today I will turn my attention to the operating system and how well it performs for day to day use. I must apologise because after a few hours of tinkering I am still unable to take direct screenshots even though the SDK has worked fine on previous devices, so my poor quality photos will have to suffice.

I would love to go into every little detail about the OS and the included applications, but that won’t tell you much about what the actual experience is like. I will start by saying that everything is blazingly fast on this phone, and I mean everything. No matter what I throw at it things just trundle along at a pace few other smartphones can live with. I can’t imagine a 1Ghz processor in the Legend because there are simply no delays at all in daily use. It is so smooth in operation and this alongside the Android 2.1 platform makes you feel right at home from the start.

Most will not notice the subtle differences in Android 2.1, but they do enhance the experience a lot. The Android Market is vastly improved and now feels like a proper attached app store rather than a mere add-on. The live wallpapers are useful and help you bring more personalisation to the experience and there are countless other changes designed to make the OS play more efficiently with the hardware it is running on. What I can say is that the Legend feels more complete than the previous Android devices I have tested including the Milestone. The Milestone was quite clean and did not include Sense and the other treats HTC bundles into its Android and Windows Mobile smartphones. As the revisions to the OS continue it feels like it is all falling into place and I can now use Android without thinking of it as ‘new’.

Little touches like the ability to pinch in on the home screen and bring up the main panels are more useful than you may expect at first. It looks like a gimmick, but is genuinely useful and a worthy inclusion. In fact the finger friendly nature of Android in 2.1 makes the optical trackpad almost redundant for most uses. On the subject of hardware navigation, the buttons below the screen are not too difficult to use, but remain an annoyance for some. Such a finger friendly system should not require four buttons to get around and it is a minor flaw in the current setup.

I didn’t expect to like the Legend as much as I do, but time tells and after 4 days I am struggling to find any significant defects with the phone. Apart from the lack of screen clarity outdoors everything else is close to spot on. The battery surprises me more each day and in my experience is more than capable of 1.5 days and likely 2 days for most people. The camera has grown on me and feels natural to use- this is an area that is often forgotten, but ease of use in a camera is very important when you consider how a smartphone camera will tend to be used.

The Legend is a superb smartphone which is capable of ‘everything’ the rest are and is right there at the top of the pile. The Desire may turn more heads in technical circles, but the Legend is capable of almost everything you will need it for. Without doubt this handset is not just a pretty face- it is a powerhouse of a smartphone wrapped up in a gorgeous exterior and as such I have to give it a top recommendation. Simply superb!

Go to part one / go to part two