In landscape orientation, two-handed thumb typing – cradling the Magic in your fingers – is straightforward, and we’re pleased to see the accelerometer-based screen rotation extended to many more apps throughout the platform (although it only rotates 90-degrees to the left, not to the right). Upright, it’s possible to type with reasonable accuracy with one-hand, making Android far more usable when walking or holding a bag. As you type, the Magic suggests words in a scrolling bar above the keyboard it does a decent job of avoiding misspellings, but unwanted corrections are easily amended by hitting the backspace key and choosing the word as-entered. Tapping a button pops up a preview of that letter, visible above your thumb or finger, and you can change your selection by dragging across to another key. Google have obviously learned from other on-screen keyboards in circulation, as the most-requested features are in place. That update, preloaded on all Magic handsets, brings with it an on-screen QWERTY keyboard, usable in both portrait and landscape orientations. Since there’s no hardware keyboard, the Magic couldn’t avoid but come with Android OS 1.5 Cupcake. It’s a bright and responsive panel, evenly backlit, and the size and shape of the Magic now makes it far more reasonable to use the phone one-handed. Primary navigation, then, is done via the 3.2-inch capacitive touchscreen, ostensibly the same as on the G1. The only other hardware control is the volume rocker, a narrow strip on the top left-hand side. As for that curve, it’s less pronounced than the G1’s jutting chin, and cups the ball of the thumb nicely. As well as the trackball (which lights up when messages are received) there’s a Home key, Menu key, back and search, together with call and end buttons.
The reason for that reduction is the absence of a hardware keyboard, of course, though in keeping with Google’s Android requirements there are a fair few buttons on the curved front panel. The Magic measures 113 x 55.56 x 13.65 mm (4.45 x 2.19 x 0.54 inches) and weighs 116g (4.09oz) with the battery that makes it shorter, slightly narrower and – most importantly – thinner than the T-Mobile G1, as well as lighter. In the box there’s the Magic itself, a 1,340mAh battery, 2GB microSD card, AC adapter, USB cable, wired stereo headset, hands-free adapter (for using your own 3.5mm headphones) and a leather-effect pouch.
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