HTC’s New Android Phone Works its Magic

The HTC Magic will be the company's second-ever Android phone, following up the T-Mobile G1.

Only a day after its announcement of the HTC Touch Pro2 and Diamond2, HTC has issued an official confirmation of a much bigger attraction at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. The HTC Magic, revealed Tuesday, will be the company’s second-ever Android-based handset.

Though it could be called the logical successor to the T-Mobile G1, the Magic won’t have a full QWERTY keyboard, relying instead on Android’s on-screen keyboard for text input. It features a 3.2-inch screen HVGA screen with both a trackball and four quick navigation buttons, for functions like home, search and back. The back also gets a 3.2-megapixel shooter with autofocus.

On the software side, it will get all the usual Android accoutrements, including the Webkit browser, Google Maps, Google Search, YouTube, and Android market.

HTC has partnered with the European cell carrier Vodafone for the initial release of the Magic, which will occur in the UK, Spain, Germany and France, as well in Italy without ties to a carrier. The company hopes to push it out by spring.