HTC Legend smartphone running Google Android, sucessor to the HTC Hero

The Google Android platform gets me excited. In the USA the HTC Droid Incredible and Motorola Droid X take the throne, in Canada, we don’t have all the same high-end options, but we do get the exception from time to time. Expanding on the HTC Hero line comes the HTC Legend.

Features and Design
If you’re thinking that the overall form factor looks familiar, well, you’re right. The HTC Legend functions as a spiritual successor to the HTC Hero, throwing the “chin” back in the game. The Legend also comes with a bunch of other improvements too, including operating off the newer HSPA network.

You’ll also notice that the phone has been forged from an aluminum uni-body, making for a very sleek appearance overall. With one solid chunk of metal housing your Legend, there’s no traditional battery cover on the back; instead, there is a small removable plastic cover near the bottom which has a portion for the battery to slide in, as well as the SIM and the microSD slot. The trackball has been replaced with an optical trackpad as well, which is far better in respects to control, accuracy and life-expectancy, although many purists may not be able to live without a bit of tactile feedback.

The speaker is ill placed. A bit higher than what you would normally expect, usually it’s about halfway between the edge and the AMOLED, this time HTC put it right at the top making you have to shuffle the phone a bit lower on your ear to get the best sound.

It’s well-equipped with a blasting loud rear speakerphone, voice conferencing will also sound excellent. The ringer can also be muted by the G-sensor’s ability to detect you flipping the Legend on an incoming call.

Software
For starters, it’s running off of Android 2.1 with the HTC Sense UI. Pretty slick. A wide range of file formats are supported (AAC, AMR, OGG, M4A, MID, MP3, WAV and WMA). HTC also added an FM tuner with FM Radio app that can auto-scan for stations. Your headphones will double as the antenna to get FM signal, Bluetooth headsets are supported but we’re not sure how the quality will be.

Leap is great, it allows you to view seven different homescreens, by pinching and zooming or pressing the Home button from the main screen. This helps greatly with organizing your info and your apps, since the longer main menu can quickly become daunting if you have too many applications. The home screens make use of shortcuts, sure, but you can use widgets and other nifty things too.

Friend Stream is included, as an aggregator app and live widget, it keeps you in the know of all your Facebook friends and Twitter tweets. Similar to Motoblur’s Happenings app, the social apps are hardly being left out of new smartphone shipments these days.

Overall Performance
Even though the HTC Legend doesn’t boast one of those snazzy new 1GHz processors, the Qualcomm MSM7227 (600MHz) seems to be quite snappy in most applications, from gaming to mapping. Bootup time is fast and I experienced minimal lag during regular use. I did find that the browser took a little longer than expected to render pages at times, but this could be due to the network rather than the hardware.

Aside from the great operating system, which I’ll discuss in just a moment, the other major highlight is the brilliant 3.2-inch AMOLED capacitive touchscreen. This makes for some incredibly vibrant colors; it’s not quite Super AMOLED, but it’s a quantum leap ahead of most other mobile phone displays on the market today. From movies to pictures, web browsing to games, this screen is a joy.

Camera
With a 5-megapixel shooter on board, the HTC Legend should be adequate for email attachments and twitpics, so long as it’s a photo snapped during the day. Night shots and low-light scenes are noisy as would be expected with a camera phone. Video at 640×480 is choppy, but again, normal from a camera phone without image stabilization.

Bottom Line
If you’re thinking about getting a new smartphone and Bell Mobility has a few blips on your radar, the HTC Legend is worth some serious consideration. This is one of the best Google Android smartphones I have ever used, even if it has a slower processor.

The AMOLED display is positively fantastic and it’s great that HTC has adopted the more standard microUSB port for charging and syncing purposes. The aluminum unibody gives a great sense of this being a premium product and, while I’m not a huge fan of the optical trackpad, it’ll probably be more reliable and durable than the trackball in the long run.

The HTC Legend isn’t perfect, but it’s very, very slick and will just have to do for now. Find it with Bell Mobility for as low as $79.95 on a three-year contract and Virgin Mobile. No USA release or availability known yet.

The post HTC Legend review appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

HTC Legend arrives in Canada

The whole Android scene in Canada is about to get a heck of a lot more interesting. One of the most highly sought after devices is the HTC Legend and it’s coming to the land of the maple leaf. Today. As in, right now.  It has been officially confirmed that the HTC Legend Android smartphone is available through Virgin Mobile Canada as of today. It’s not on their website yet, so it could be an in-store only thing for the time being.

If the little brother gets the phone, the big daddy should get it too, right? As it turns out, Bell Mobility will also be grabbing the HTC Legend, but it won’t start selling the smartphone until June 17. This has also been confirmed by “inside sources.”

As a quick refresher, the Hero-esque HTC Legend gets its power from Google Android 2.1 and the HTC Sense user interface. IT also features an aluminum unibody construction, 3.2-inch capacitive AMOLED display, optical trackpad, 5MP camera, 3.5mm headset jack, 600MHz Qualcomm processor, 3G, WiFi, microSD slot, and GPS.

Virgin Mobile will sell the HTC Legend for $79.99 with a three-year contract and, presumably, Bell Mobility will offer similar pricing.

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HTC Legend Android Smartphone

Yes, everyone is still clamoring over the pending official announcement of a new iPhone, but that doesn’t mean that other smartphones should be left out in the cold. In fact, you could get a rather legendary phone from Bell, possibly by the end of this month. From what we hear, Bell Mobility is hosting a special launch party in Montreal on May 27 and it is there that they will be hocking the new HTC Legend smartphone. The Canadian carrier has yet to announce an official release date, but a launch party is a pretty good indication.

The expectation is a ship date in early June, but that would still place the Canadian launch of the HTC Legend ahead of American carriers. No formal announcement (that we know of) has been made for the US, but the phone has made its way through the FCC offices. It’s not like Canada is first in line, however, as the HTC Legend is already being sold by Vodafone UK. Even so, it’s nice to see Canada getting the jump on the US from time to time… like in the Olympic men’s hockey and most recently NHL beating out the defending Stanley Cup champs.

The HTC Legend, as a quick refresher, comes with a 3.2-inch AMOLED touchscreen, Google Android OS 2.1, and a 5MP camera to go with its optical trackpad.

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HTC Legend on its way to Bell Mobility?

According to the most recent rumors, the HTC Legend is on its way to Bell Mobility. We originally thought that Telus was getting it, since it already has the HTC Hero, but it seems that Bell is snatching this one up instead.

Bell has been aggressively clearing out the Palm Pre from its stockpile, so the HTC Legend could be a very good replacement as the company’s new flagship smartphone. Right now, Bell’s only Android phone is the Samsung Galaxy, so it’ll be good to see some more options on that front.

From what we hear, the HTC Legend will show up at Bell this month or next. I’m guessing it’ll be in the $150 to $200 range with a qualifying three-year contract.

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This is one of the first clear shots that we see of the HTC Legend. It still carries the characteristic “chin” of the HTC Android phone lineup, but this chin seems a little less Leno-like that previous offerings. There is no slide-out keyboard, so you’ll be using the touchscreen for almost everything.

Speaking of the touchscreen, one of the first major upgrades is that 3.2-inch HVGA AMOLED capacitive touchscreen display. Running through the specs, we also discover a metal chassis, the elimination of the trackball, and the addition of a flash for the 5.0-megapixel camera. For performance, the HTC Legend also gets a faster processor compared to the Hero.

No official announcement has been made, as far as I know, but I have heard some rumblings pointing toward a release in March 2010. Your guess is as good as mine when it comes to which carriers will snatch this up.

Source: BGR

The post HTC Hero Gets Upgraded, Emerges as HTC Legend appeared first on Mobile Magazine.