Just yesterday, we saw the HTC Magic in some leaked images, with Vodafone’s branding on it, and today the smartphone has been officially announced.

Coming as Vodafone’s first Android device, HTC Magic is a keyboardless smartphone that will surely attract many of the giant V carrier’s customers.

Design-wise, the Magic does look better than T-Mobile G1, perhaps because it lacks a hardware QWERTY keyboard.

What’s interesting is that the new Android smartphone keeps that “chin” which dazzled us when the G1 first came out – could this be a trademark for all of HTC’s Android handsets?

The known features of HTC Magic include:

• 3.2 inch TFT touchscreen display with 320 x 480 pixels
• On-screen virtual QWERTY keyboard
• Trackball navigation
• GSM and HSDPA connectivity
• GPS
• Wi-Fi
• Android Market
• Google Maps
• Google Search
• Google Mail
• Webkit browser
• Easy access to YouTube
• 3.2 MP camera

Vodafone will start selling the HTC Magic in the next few months. The first countries to get it are: UK, Spain, France (via SFR), Germany (in a black version) and Italy (both black and white).

The handset will be available even for free – but that’s only with a lengthy Vodafone contract and an expensive data plan. Otherwise, with normal contract agreements, the Magic will be sold for 99 or 199 euros, depending on the contract.

Most probably, Vodafone will launch the new smartphone in its non-European markets too – and I’m mainly thinking about India.

As for the US, HTC Magic could be T-Mobile’s G2, but that’s yet to be confirmed.

Via Press release

Tags: Android, Connectivity, Contract Agreements, Easy Access, European Markets, G2, Google, Gps Maps, Gsm, Handset, Inch Tft, Keyboard Trackball, Magic, Mail, Mp, Press Release, Qwerty Keyboard, Sfr, T Mobile, Vodafone

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