Mobile Computing News

Photo: HTC

The HTC Desire is considered by many to be the flagship product for HTC, but the ever highly anticipated release of the HTC Legend, may see the less powerful but more elegant Legend overshadow the rest of the vendor’s range. The HTC Legend already drew considerable support from the Mobile World Congress this year, where many called it the most anticipated mobile phone of the year.

The HTC Legend is an evolution of the HTC Hero. Looking inside the Legend, one will find that only minor, but necessary, adjustments have been made.

Inside the machine

The processor has been upgraded to a 600MHz Qualcomm processor, which is sufficient for the flawless and smooth functioning of the phone, while admittedly still not as powerful as the Google Nexus One and HTC’s Desire 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor. The mobile device also comes with a 5-megapixel autofocus camera with LED-flash and a 3.2-inch AMOLED display with the same amount of pixels as the Hero. The HTC Legend is an Android 2.1 device, the first from HTC and runs the company’s proprietary Sense UI interface. All in all the Legend is a tougher and improved Hero, which is quite the compliment considering how well liked the HTC Hero is.

Sharp looks

Photo: HTC

In terms of design, the Legend looks sharp and sleek, yet feels very sturdy in hand. A humerous aside is HTC’s very technical testing of the phone’s exoskeleton – throwing the phone against a wall. The cool aluminum shell of the phone’s Mac-Like unibody adds to sleekness further.

Layout

Regarding the key layout of the Legend compared to the Hero, not much has changed except that the phone’s exterior now has eight buttons with the front of the phone having four and the Legend losing the pick-up call key and shifting the power key to the top of the phone. An optical trackpad has also been added to the phone allow for seamless function of the device when one doesn’t feel like using the ultra-responsive touchscreen. However, only time will tell if the flat trackpad button will be missed.

Smart software

Photo: HTC

Looking at the software available on the device, the HTC Legend can have seven still homescreens viewed at once, thanks to the Leap feature. HTC has also taken huge strides in social networking with the development of the Friend Stream application which aggregates all updates from social networking sites such as Twitter, Facebook and the like. The G Sensor also senses when the phone is picked up and accordingly adjusts ringing volume and when the phone is placed upside down, turns to silent.

Not so good – the camera

The 5-megapixel camera on the Legend operates well during the day, taking perfect stills and clear flowing videos, however the camera’s performance falls at night or in areas of poor light, producing grainy images and pictures of grainy quality.

The phone will be shipped out on April 12 and carried by Vodafone, who also carried the HTC Hero. The device will retail at £369.99.