By Melvin Seah, a freelance writer

I AM writing this review from the banks of the River Seine, while soaking in the magnificent view of the Notre Dame Cathedral.

Okay, I am kidding. I am really stuck at home, but looking at the streets of Paris through the Street View mode in Google Maps on the new HTC Magic.

And it feels pretty real too, as I can pan the phone around and the view changes accordingly.

The Magic is HTC's second Google Android phone and it is a boon for Google users, with Maps, Gmail, Talk and YouTube preloaded. Setting up the phone with my Google account was a cinch - I just had to input my username and password when starting up the phone for the first time, and Gmail and Talk were set up automatically, while my Google contacts were also synchronised quickly.

It is downloads galore at the online Android market - a seemingly bottomless pit of free, fun but sometimes useless apps.

The Magic is not just a fun phone: it looks pretty good too. Its design is a vast improvement from the Dream - the first HTC Android phone - which looks far from one. The Magic is smaller in size and looks way more stylish with its glossy white exterior.

Unlike the Dream, the Magic does not have a slide-out keyboard, so I relied mostly on the large 3.2-inch capacitive touchscreen, which responds only to skin touches. Below the screen are home, menu, back, search and call/hang-up buttons.

There is also a trackball, which was helpful when I had problems selecting small items with my fingers. It also doubles as a shutter release for the 3.2-megapixel camera.

As quick Internet access is crucial, the Magic has HSDPA and Wi-Fi and also GPS for Google Maps. The Web browser is a joy to use: it loads pages and scrolls quickly, while the GPS picked up signals quickly.

Voice quality is excellent over the handset and speaker.

The touchscreen is responsive, although I found the Qwerty keyboard too small in portrait mode, even for average-sized fingers like mine.

Turning the phone on its side reorientates the screen automatically and a larger keyboard pops up.

With this keyboard, I still made mistakes but the auto-correct feature is fairly helpful. Still, I preferred the iPhone's keyboard with buttons that are more spaced out. Also, the Magic does not support multi-touch gestures like the iPhone.

Another minus point: its headphones use the USB jack, so I could not listen to music while the phone was charging.

Final say

After a week, I was hooked. It would have been perfect if it had a conventional number pad instead of a touchscreen.

This story was first published in The Straits Times Digital Life.

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