HTC Legend Review - Decent Android Smartphone

HTC Legend Review - Decent Android Smartphone
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HTC Legend

The HTC Hero was one of the best Android smartphones of its time. It had superb specs, a nice OS and was a favorite of the modding crowd. It was THE Android phone to have. Things have changed a lot since then and all the major manufacturers - Samsung, HTC, Sony Ericsson and Motorola - have been rolling out bigger, badder devices every month.

The new HTC Legend is definitely not the best Android phone out now, but it is a great option for those who want a stylish, feature rich phone which doesn’t cost a bomb.

HTC Legend Specifications

Dimensions: 112 x 56.3 x 11.5 mm

  • Weight: 126 gms
  • Display: 3.2 inch AMOLED display, 320 x 480 pixels, capacitive touchscreen, 16M colors
  • OS: Android OS v2.1 (Eclair)
  • Processor: Qualcomm MSM 7227 600 MHz processor
  • RAM: 384 MB RAM
  • ROM: 512 MB ROM
  • Memory Card: upto 32 GB microSD support
  • Connectivity: GPRS, EDGE, 3G HSDPA, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g, Bluetooth v2.1 with A2DP, MicroUSB v2.0
  • Camera: 5 MP Camera, 2592 x 1944 pixels with Autofocus, LED Flash
  • Radio: Stereo FM radio with RDS
  • GPS: GPS with A-GPS support
  • Battery: Standard Li-Ion 1300 mAh Battery

Design (4 out of 5)

The HTC Legend is a legend in its own right, at least when it comes to design. It has a super sleek aluminium unibody design which ranks right among the top among current smartphones. The body was created out of a single piece of aluminium and could be considered a piece of modern art. It sports a chin just like the HTC Hero and it looks classy. The build quality is excellent and the phone feels sturdy.

The front face is covered by the 3.2 inch AMOLED display and 4 buttons - Home, Menu, Back and Search. There is an optical trackball below the keys which allows you to navigate the interface without using the touchscreen display. The left side has the volume rocker while the top has the power key and the 3.5mm audio jack. The bottom houses the microUSB port. On the back it has a 5 MP camera with an LED flash and a battery compartment.

The HTC Legend sports a 3.2 inch AMOLED capacitive touchscreen display with a resolution of 320 x 480 pixels and an ability to support 16M colors. The AMOLED display has very nice display quality, much better than the TFT display in the HTC Hero. The display size is a bit small compared to the 4 inch displays in the latest smartphones but this isn’t a major issue. The display has excellent contrast but the sunlight visibility is average. It also has wide viewing angles.

OS and Hardware (4 out of 5)

The HTC Legend runs Android 2.1 with the HTC Sense UI. It has a Qualcomm MSM 7227 600 MHz processor and comes with 384 MB RAM. It supports microSD cards up to 32 GB. The OS performance is very fast and zippy. The Sense UI has evolved a lot and is now much easier to use and very responsive. It looks beautiful on the AMOLED display. It has the usual stuff - homescreens, widgets, shortcuts, etc. You can customize the homescreens if you want. The interface is visually appealing and is fun to work with. It also has widgets for email and Twitter etc. It supports almost all of the applications that can be found in the Android Market.

Multimedia (3 out of 5)

The HTC Legend does quite well on the multimedia front. It has a nice gallery app which you can use to browse through your image and video collection. You can also view images posted on your Facebook or Flickr accounts. You can view images in portrait or landscape mode, as a filmstrip or as a grid of thumbnails. You can also upload images onto Facebook, Flickr, Picasa, GMail, etc. The gallery supports multi-touch gestures for zooming.

It has a decent video player which can play 3GP and MP4 videos. There is no DivX or XviD support but you can install third party applications to play them. It also has a nice music player which has a good interface. It supports album art and playlists but doesn’t have any equalizer presets. The audio quality is much better than most other phones, including the HTC Hero. It can easily double up as a PMP. It also has an FM Radio with RDS support.

It has a 5 MP camera with autofocus and LED flash which can take shots at a maximum resolution of 2592 x 1944 pixels. The image capture quality is pretty good and the interface is easy to understand. It offers a lot of customizable settings like white balance, ISO, resolution, quality, etc. The video recording is average; it can do VGA videos at 30 FPS.

Connectivity (4 out of 5)

On the connectivity side, it offers almost all the options - GPRS, EDGE, 3G HSDPA, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g and Bluetooth v2.1 with A2DP. It also has a MicroUSB v2.0 port. It has the standard Android Webkit browser which is one of the best mobile browsers around. It also has Flash support.

It has a GPS transceiver with A-GPS support and Google Maps.

The Verdict (4 out of 5)

After reviewing the HTC Legend, I think it is one of the best mid-range Android devices and it has an awesome design coupled with nice hardware specs. I would definitely recommend it.

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