HTC Legend
Hit or myth?
Review HTC’s Legend is to all intents and purposes the follow up to the very popular Hero. Like its predecessor it is an Android handset, and GPS, Wi-Fi and 3G are here as Android staples but, as you would expect, the Legend has a lot that is new, updated, enhanced and tweaked too.
Nice touch? HTC's Legend
For a start, the Legend’s bold chassis design, revamped Sense User Interface sitting on top of Android 2.1, and an AMOLED capacitive touchscreen are the headline features that could combine to make HTC’s latest as popular as the Hero. Currently, the Legend is slated to be available on contract exclusively from Vodafone. You can also get it SIM free.
The chassis design is stunning. Much of the shell is made from a single sheet of aluminium. This looks superb, though over time we imagine it might lose some of its sheen to scratches.
There is no backplate in the conventional sense. Instead, to get to the battery, SIM and micro SD card you remove a small black plastic rubberised section on the back bottom of the casing and lift a plastic flap. It is unconventional but not awkward. The annoyance is that swapping micro SD cards requires that you power down the handset.
The HTC Hero has a pronounced lip at its bottom edge. The Legend also has a lip but its angle is far less acute, and it can pass almost unnoticed. It seems hardly worth building into the design, though it does keep the screen off any potential scratchiness on a desk when you lay it face down.
A rubberised panel replaces the typical handset removable backplate
The screen measures 3.2in across diagonal corners and while its 320 x 480 pixels break no new ground, the OLED means it looks stunning. Bright, sharp colours and fantastic viewing angles give the Legend a real wow factor. However, the screen does attract fingerprints which rather ruins the Legend’s sleek look after a short time.
COMMENTS
Absolutely Right
Something has to give. These devices are more powerful than many laptops from 3 years ago yet you wouldn't have expected them to last all day.
If you have a normal usage pattern for the phones, they're fine with 1 charge a day. You go home, plug it in overnight and you will get a whole day tomorrow.
I use powermanager and get about 3 days from my Dream (G1) with normal use.
Battery Life
Lets be honest here though, bad battery life isn't restricted to HTC products is it? Its a symptom on pretty much all smartphones. HTC, the iPhone, Sony Ericsson's new high end handsets all suffer from it. Is it mroe of a case that processor and functionality has lept forward far faster then battery technology has?
Now we have phones with 1Ghtz processors, graphics chips, 3G, wifi, GPS, AMOLED screens, touchscreens, and all sorts of games and applications all fighting for a piece of that juice. I think we need to either be a bit more savvy about how we use our devices to preserve battery life, or we need a replacement for Li-ion.
Rethink.
A phone that lasts only half a day.
Instead of 80%, you should be giving this a much lower score and sending it back to the maker with a stern lecture.
Its high time you and those like you set a high line on consumer equipment. Equipment this flawed continues to get high ratings on internet reviews and its simply wrong
AC @ 18:07
Because mayhaps we don't want the locked down system of an iPhone and I certainly wouldn't let that malware iTunes anywhere near my pc (but thats ok as there isn't a linux version), that said the legend should be right up your alley a flash phone for the fanbois, specs are ok for now but it's gonna get a pummeling from the Desire / Nexus ones in the next month or so
