Vodafone UK have put the HTC Magic up for pre-order, with the touchscreen Android smartphone available from free depending on contract. Launched back at Mobile World Congress in February, the Magic is HTC’s second Android device after the T-Mobile G1 (aka the HTC Dream).

According to Vodafone, the first deliveries of the Android handset should arrive on May 5th. The Magic had been expected to launch on May 1st, itself a delay from the originally slated April release. Monthly contracts costing £35 ($51) upward (over 18 months) get a free Magic; the cheapest contract is £15 ($22), with the phone then priced at £293.62 ($428).
The HTC Magic has a 3.2-inch capacitive touchscreen, 3.2-megapixel camera, GPS, HSDPA and WiFi. Our hands-on video is below, and for the full gallery check out our MWC coverage.







vodafone doesn't have free mobile2mobile minutes (calling people within the carrier)***. so if u are the kind of person who likes talking with people on your own network, vodafone isn't for you. they do have unlimited texting so you can text as much as you want.
***not sure if it's true. according to this, http://shop.vodafone.co.uk/shop/mobi...flt_paymonthly there's no such thing as free mobile2mobile but i could be wrong
vodafone doesn't have free mobile2mobile minutes (calling people within the carrier)***. so if u are the kind of person who likes talking with people on your own network, vodafone isn't for you. they do have unlimited texting so you can text as much as you want.
***not sure if it's true. according to this, http://shop.vodafone.co.uk/shop/mobi...flt_paymonthly there's no such thing as free mobile2mobile but i could be wrong
I had the G1 on T-mobile for a week but then sadly had to return it. I loved the phone so much I didn't want to return it. But bottom line is that I didn't get a single bar of signal with T-mobile where I lived even though I live pretty much in the heart of Gloucester town.
Now the reason why I'm so excited about the Magic is because it means I can finally have an Android phone and have a service provider that I know will allow me to have signal where I live.
This phone isn't really meant to compete with the G1 strongly it's meant to provide customers with an alternative choice to their Android needs. The majority of people that wanted an Android phone badly and their situation allowed them to be with T-mobile will have already done that. So therefore they will not be able to get the Magic even if it was 100x better as they will already be locked into an 18 month contract. (setting aside people that decide to terminate contract early by paying off the remaining contract length. But that is a very big expenditure.)
I feel the purpose of this phone is to allow consumers that weren't able to get the G1 for whatever reason to have an alternative solution. Which is the exact situation I'm in. I think the Android software is amazing and I have been waiting since the second that I returned my G1 for a new phone on a different network provider to come out.
I don't mind too much about the loss of a physical keyboard. But at least the people at HTC where smart enough to keep all of the features from the G1 that make it the must have Android phone.
I can't wait for in the future when nearly all major manufacturers have an Android phone at different classes (i.e. high-end and budget phones) and every major network provider has a few Android phones that they can offer.
Sorry for the long reply but I wanted to explain my thought process and see how you all feel.
On top of that, I'd love to know how things like connectbot will work on this. Without multitouch entering special characters and capital letters is going to be a huge pain in the ass. The main reason I got the G1 is because it has much easier entry of non alphanumeric characters.
Boring phone, but at least we'll have cupcake on our G1s within the first couple weeks of May, hopefully.