HTC Legend
The new HTC Legend mobile device has definitely caused quite a stir in the industry, and it has been one of the most keenly-awaited devices to make its while its eventual release a little later this year cannot come soon enough for some. Insiders have speculated that the Legend may well step into the shoes of one of its forebears, the HTC Hero, which many believed to be an excellent phone in its own right. It must be said also that the Legend also compares very favourably indeed to another of HTC’s new releases, the Desire – another big head-turner at Geneva’s mobile phone conference.
In terms of basic aesthetics the Legend does certainly beat the Desire in the fashion and style stakes, with its Apple Mac-like manufacture from one single block of aluminium. On the Macbook this was referred to as a unibody design and it also serves the HTC Legend very well indeed. The Legend’s overall finish is also pleasing to both the eye and the hand as was the Macbook’s, and this elevates it even further ahead of the Desire in terms of fashionable desirability.
According to HTC’s marketing gurus the design concept behind the Legend is ‘hidden power’, which aims to produce a device that can combine both design and function in one handset. Certainly the unibody design goes a long way to fulfilling this vision as it does away with the need for separate frames and covers. This is not only a good thing stylistically but also with regards to the phone’s functions and features as it affords that much more room and space for components is available for the phone itself. For this reason the Legend can pull further away still from the Hero as it is able to incorporate an extremely vibrant 3,2-inch AMOLED capacitive touchscreen that is truly wonderful to behold, although it is still a little smaller that the larger screen seen on the Desire.
The Legend has made further enhancements over its predecessors as well, including a much better and more functionally designed keypad. There is also a navigation button rather than a trackball, which is very much in keeping with the new industry norm as trackballs are really fading from fashion due to their propensity to break. It may well be, however, that users will not even ever need to use the navigation button due to the fact that the touchscreen is so wonderfully responsive.
Two more excellent features of the Legend are its Android 2.1 operating system and the overlaid HTC Sense UI which appears somewhat similar to the Sense first seen on the Hero. It has, however, been significantly enhanced on the Legend with a whole raft of new features. One of the central new features is the Leap view, which allows the user to see every open operating screen and easily navigate between them with just a pinch of the finger.
The Legend also runs the useful Friend Stream which combines such oft-used social networking sites as Facebook, Twitter and Flickr in one single stream. Due to this you now no longer need to follow your contacts over several different platforms, although you can still receive separate feeds-it’s just that you can receive them in one place – very useful for the internet socially inclined.
The back of the Legend houses the almost ubiquitous 5-megapixel camera with its integral LED flash – great for snaps in a wide range of lighting conditions. The connectivity of the Legend is also very good, and wireless connectivity is also afforded through HSDPA, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi. For those interested in getting one of their own the Legend should grace store shelves with is presence this April, so be sure to be the first in line to get your hands on it yourself if you want to latest in HTC’s subtle yet stylish power.
