HTC's Legend is Born: Blows IPhone Away

HTC Fans in the UK have waited patiently for the Legend to appear. Now that it is here, their patience has been rewarded by a victory. HTC has scored big with the Legend. Coming on the heels of the Hero smartphone there was considerable anticipation as the release date approached. What was born was sleek, strong and a joy to use, in short, a Legend. Unfortunately, this is another fine example of a smartphone the US may never see.

The popular website, TechRadar (based out of the UK) rated the HTC Legend five out of five stars. That is as high as it gets. The beauty of this smartphone is obvious; even from pictures there is a feeling of style and art that makes any product attractive. In this case however, the beauty is more than just skin deep. The announcement that the HTC Legend would be running Google's Android 2.1 only made the wait worse. The combination of the Android OS and HTC's revolutionary Sense UI has made this one of the fastest, coolest smartphones on the market, bar none. Yes, that means you, Apple. Even the iPhone is no match for the Legend.

Sense UI Back Again

The Sense UI is a huge step forward for smartphones. This is the first example of a User Interface running on top of an open source operating system. This is a tradition in the Linux world with the main examples being Gnome and KDE. The power of this concept is it gives users choices regarding their own experience and allows the underlying operating system to focus on the core functions of the phone while the user gets to have the experience they wish. This opens the door to other add-on UX's (User eXperience) such as the Sense UI up for development. More significantly, this brings smartphones up to the level of the PC with regard to its functionality.

It should be mentioned that the HTC Legend chassis is solid aluminum. There are no seams, which is a unique feature to the Legend and it means that the unit feels cool in the hand, solid and lightweight. The battery cover is a cap that is removed from the bottom of the phone's back to slide the battery out. This should be a welcomed feature for anyone that is familiar with the frustration of trying to pry off the backs of cell phones to add a card or swap a battery.

Do Its Insides Match the Outside?

As to the hardware, the Legend sports a 3.2 inch AMOLED multi-touch screen running at 320 pixel by 480 pixel resolution. There is a reduction in the width of the bezel, which makes the experience more "widescreen" like. This is a nice addition for a smartphone that is already so very display and user oriented. As far as the power plant under all that style, HTC has built in a 600 MHz processor; not as fast as others but then again, with Android and the Sense UI that is more than enough. There is a 384 MB RAM memory for applications and the OS with up to 32 GB of additional storage via an SD 2.0 compatible MicroSD card slot.

The Legend is 3G, GPRS and EDGE enabled, has Bluetooth and Wi-Fi and a slew of features that make it very nearly a fully functional internet device. Its fun to use with its Geotagging and a fantastic 5.0 megapixel wide-angle camera, with LED flash no less. There is little that you cannot do with an HTC Legend, well except maybe experience boredom.

Built-In Fun & Productivity

As far as the software goes, the Legend comes with fully integrated social networking applications including Facebook and Twitter (via the HTC Peep app). There are tons of photo sharing through Flickr, Facebook and Twitter, along with video sharing through YouTube. HTC has already included a number of HTC Widgets installed and ready to go. Of course, it is an Android smartphone so you've got Apps galore waiting for you. Maybe not as many as the iPhone has, but the Android apps can be more fiun and useful at times.

There are plenty of productivity apps available and the phone comes with calendaring, messaging, email and much more. Anything that you find that you cannot do out of the box will be waiting for you in Android's app land. These apps plus the Sense UI means that this phone could set the bar for business users in the future.

HTC Legend Blows Apple's iPhone Away

HTC is one of the older companies in the smartphone game, even though they did not make a name for themselves until 2007. However, they have been making smartphones under other names for decades. There is apparently an understanding that what the user feels while using the phone on a daily basis is more important than other considerations. This is a refreshing feeling and has resulted in a very promising platform and so far, with the HTC Legend and the HTC Desire, we are seeing this come to fruition. The HTC Legend has already become a legend in its own right. Apple take note: Style may be a very important element but style alone is not enough. HTC has the substance and style to make their smartphone work , not to mention it is user oriented.

References & Resources
HTC: HTC Legend Overview
HTC: HTC Legend Tech Specifications
TechRadar: HTC Legend Review, Apple Should be Scared