HTC Legend

[Leigh]

So, since there is a thread for every other new phone i thought i would start one for the legend.

Looked at one yesterday in the local vodafone shop. £20/month on a 24 month contract. Also read the following review:

http://www.techradar.com/reviews/phones/mobile-phones/htc-legend-675421/review

...and was quite impressed. Need to decide on this or the Desire.

Thoughts?

[rav2k]

There's nothing wrong with it but why would you when for the same or slightly more you can get the Desire which is much better specced. The Legend is only a slightly upgraded Hero. I'd rather just get one of those and save the cash.

As far as I can tell there are only two reasons you'd want one. The size or the unibody aluminium styling. In that sense it's a bit of an Apple product.

[Leigh]

Size is certainly a consideration.

Having read a bit more the main concern seems to be battery life

[nigel_williams]

I had a play with the Legend last week at a Vodafone shop, and I have to say I was quite impressed. It feels much better in the hand than the Desire even though there is little difference in size. Side by side with the Desire, it was difficult to tell them apart in terms of snappy performance. Build quality is excellent, it really does feel very solid and looks great.

At the end of the day, the Desire is slightly more expense and has a better spec on paper. But in terms of useabilty there's little to separate them, the Legend may well edge the Desire on battery life due to the slightly slower CPU.

[Leigh]

Is that battery that bad on the Desire then? The legend seems to get slated wherever you look but the Desire not to the same extent.

[rav2k]

Once you start installing lots of apps and multi tasking you will definitely notice the performance difference. A fresh phone will always feel quick.

The Desire's Snapdragon processor is newer and more power efficient than the Legend's so shouldn't cause more battery drain.

If the Legend suits you better than fair enough. But don't underestimate how much more powerful the Desire is. In 2 years time it'll still be plenty quick for whatever you'll need it to do.

[Rabbi of Caerbannog]

So, since there is a thread for every other new phone i thought i would start one for the legend.

Looked at one yesterday in the local vodafone shop. £20/month on a 24 month contract. Also read the following review:

http://www.techradar.com/reviews/phones/mobile-phones/htc-legend-675421/review

...and was quite impressed. Need to decide on this or the Desire.

Thoughts?

I've just taken delivery of this as an upgrade from Voda and this is my first HTC phone or any phone like this. Gone from a Nokia N95 8gb.

So far so good have installed a few apps from the sugegstions on the apps thread, just need to figure the more intricate ones out.

The battery did not last very long when I first got it but it did not have a full charge which is probably why but had a full charge last night so we'll see.

Did not do any research, but just liked the look of it which is what my decision was made on.

Just need to sit and play with it more indepth to learn how it all works.

[Lee Brown]

Interesting that the new issue of T3 is proclaming the Legend the current 'iphone toppler', rather than the better specified Desire.

They do like their 'style over substance', of course

[tpr007]

Style is quite important to people who are interested in the iPhone. I know I am :D

As much as I know the Desire is a better phone, I'd still be tempted by the aluminium looks of the legend!

Went for a 3GS yesterday, and specifically wanted a WHITE one, so it goes to show how vain us geeks can be, even when we know what's under the hood

[Leigh]

I've just taken delivery of this as an upgrade from Voda and this is my first HTC phone or any phone like this. Gone from a Nokia N95 8gb.

So far so good have installed a few apps from the sugegstions on the apps thread, just need to figure the more intricate ones out.

The battery did not last very long when I first got it but it did not have a full charge which is probably why but had a full charge last night so we'll see.

Did not do any research, but just liked the look of it which is what my decision was made on.

Just need to sit and play with it more indepth to learn how it all works.

Thanks would be interested to know your thoughts after a bit more use.

[Rabbi of Caerbannog]

Had a bit more time with this now and still trying to understand some stuff on it. It took me 20mins to forward a txt message last night :nuts: before I gave in and searched the net for the answer

Have not been using it as heavyily as when I first got it and now the battery has lasted ok and is on a par with my N95 8gb. Charged over night on Wednesday and have just put back on charge now, although it battery icon was orange and appeared to be low down I'm not sure if I really needed to charge now and could have waited until later at home.

Also just realised that what I thought was the mic for the phone is in actual fact a roller ball, which explains how the screen kept moving when I did not even think I was touching the screen :lol:

Tried to take a couple of pics of my daughter last night and there is quite a lag from hitting the button to actually taking the shot. Not sure if this is common with HTC or other phones in general.

[rav2k]

What's your rough usage been? With heavy use (data all day and testing plus an hour of calls) my Hero would last a working day.

The camera on my Hero also used to be very slow. You had to hold the phone quite steady or you'd get motion blur. The Desire takes shots pretty much instantly.

[nigel_williams]

I had a play with the camera on the Desire and thought it was excellent, very fast and seemed to take pictures when the button was pressed. Quite a difference from my G1!

Rabbi, have a look at Handcent for text messaging, it's a pretty good replacement for the stock.

[Rabbi of Caerbannog]

What's your rough usage been? With heavy use (data all day and testing plus an hour of calls) my Hero would last a working day.

The camera on my Hero also used to be very slow. You had to hold the phone quite steady or you'd get motion blur. The Desire takes shots pretty much instantly.

It is not very heavy at all. A fair bit of web browsing and market place browsing, I've made / received 8 calls (popular I am :) )

I've had wifi / bluetooth on since I got it until this morning.


Rabbi, have a look at Handcent for text messaging, it's a pretty good replacement for the stock.

Will have a look at this thanks.

[ac]

I've had my Legend for about a week now as well.

Was tempted by the Desire but the size put me off, the Legend just sits much nicer in the hand. Having moved up from a Nokia 6300 the Legend just about sits in the 'pocketable' bracket I'm looking for. In reality I'm not really a smartphone power user so probably wouldn't use the Desire to it's full potential, the Legend is plenty good enough for my needs.

First thoughts.... This is my first touchscreen phone and I've resisted going down this route for some time. I just like keys, ok?! It will take a little getting used to still but the HTC Sense software keyboard is pretty good and, having tried Swype out for a few days too, I think I'm starting to get used to the lack of hardware buttons. Being my first smartphone too I've only touched the surface of what it can do, but am enjoying tinkering with getting things set up just right. I like the way Android has come on so strongly in the last year or so and that was the main reason I decided to bite the bullet having avoided the lure of the iPhone. The styling is great, simple and sleek with a real quality feel.

The main complaints I have so far are that there are still some bugs in the Android/HTC Sense software. On the whole they're little quirks, but the big annoyance for me is the Bluetooth issues. The Bluetooth implementation is very flakey and there is a long running problem with connecting/synching with (factory-fitted) handsfree kits for most major car manufacturers, apparently this wasn't an issue pre-v1.6 so will hopefully be resolved in a software update. As for the hardware, battery life isn't the greatest but that's to be expected with a smartphone. Having installed the JuiceDefender app I'm quite happy it'll last a couple of days on a charge with average usage and hopefully longer once the battery has been conditioned. Screen visibility in sunlight is v.poor, which goes for most devices, but becomes more of an issue on a touchscreen one. Haven't done a direct comparison with other handsets so not sure if the AMOLED screen of the Legend makes it perform particularly badly or if it's on a par with them.

So, overall I'd say I'm pleased with the phone so far. With a little more tweaking, and hopefully some of the software issues ironed out it should see me right for some time. :)

[rav2k]

Screen visibility in sunlight is v.poor, which goes for most devices, but becomes more of an issue on a touchscreen one. Haven't done a direct comparison with other handsets so not sure if the AMOLED screen of the Legend makes it perform particularly badly or if it's on a par with them.


Have you tried using the power control widget? I just bump the brightness up to max and it pretty much does the job.

[ac]

Cheers, I'll give it a go. As the auto brightness feature was on I didn't think to actually adjust it myself to see if it made a difference. :doh:

A couple of other thoughts I had, which are more to do with Android than this particular handset...

The market/finding (good) apps really could be better. Once you do find apps in the market, installing/uninstalling is a breeze (relatively straight forward for non-market apps too).

The availability of particular apps on the market for some handsets seems to be sporadic. The whole process needs to be a bit slicker for new handsets, I know it's often down to the developer and compatability with new hardware (eg. screen size) or software (eg. Android 2.1) but other times it's just seems to be down to handsets not being registered quickly for copy-protected apps.

Not being able to immediately download all of the apps everyone is talking about onto your shiny new handset is going to disappoint a lot of people. This is one area where the tight controls of Apple actually benefit iPhone users. I guess that's something you need to accept with an open-source market?

PS. I really want to try Layar! :D

[nigel_williams]

Just saw this on Pocket Lint, a fix for the Legend camera which meant some apps were missing:

http://www.pocket-lint.com/news/32711/htc-legends-missing-apps-found

[rav2k]

Cheers, I'll give it a go. As the auto brightness feature was on I didn't think to actually adjust it myself to see if it made a difference. :doh:

A couple of other thoughts I had, which are more to do with Android than this particular handset...

The market/finding (good) apps really could be better. Once you do find apps in the market, installing/uninstalling is a breeze (relatively straight forward for non-market apps too).

The availability of particular apps on the market for some handsets seems to be sporadic. The whole process needs to be a bit slicker for new handsets, I know it's often down to the developer and compatability with new hardware (eg. screen size) or software (eg. Android 2.1) but other times it's just seems to be down to handsets not being registered quickly for copy-protected apps.

Not being able to immediately download all of the apps everyone is talking about onto your shiny new handset is going to disappoint a lot of people. This is one area where the tight controls of Apple actually benefit iPhone users. I guess that's something you need to accept with an open-source market?

PS. I really want to try Layar! :D

Us Desire owners are having the same issues. You can normally download the APK files off the net and install using a file manager on the phone but you shouldn't have to and it's very anoying.

[ac]

Anyone found any decent skins for the Legend?

I've just ordered the HTC pouch style case for occasional use to offer a bit of protection against keys and coins whilst in my pocket but would prefer a skin/shell that would probably just stay on all the time (in conjunction with a screen protector).

On a related note, Play.com (http://www.thedvdforums.com/affiliatelink.php?localaffiliateid=2) are doing original HTC screen protectors (2pk) for £4.99 which is about half the price of everywhere else at the moment. Not sure how these compare to cheaper alternatives or the Invisible Shield variety?

[Rabbi of Caerbannog]

The Legend was featured on The Gadget Show tonight. Missed the segment but the bit I caught they seemed impressed with it.

[ac]

The firmware update which fixes the use of camera in apps is now available for Vodafone branded handsets (the one released for stock HTC handsets a few weeks ago).

That's not too bad a turnaround from Vodafone, here's hoping the FroYo (2.2) update gets similar treatment from both them and HTC.

[Rabbi of Caerbannog]

Updated my phone the other day. What should I be looking for with the camera update.

[nigel_williams]

I expect the fix is for apps like Barcode Scanner, Shop Savvy, Google Goggles and Layar. Basically anything that uses the camera for something?

[AQUALUNG]

I have had my phone for about three days now and I am getting very attached to it, it is my first touch screen fone.

I do have a question about the pre installed widgets. There are some I do not use and want to delete. I have tried dragging them to delete but they will not go. Does anyone know how to get rid of the pre-installed widgets?

I would much rather have the memory free for stuff I do want.

[Rabbi of Caerbannog]

Can they not be deleted in Manage Applications