The HTC Legend has some big draws, not least of which is the rebooted version of HTC Sense. Adding in new skills, it aims to make the social networking skin work even more intuitively and deliver web-based winning extras, without needing to tap into tons of widgets or apps. Read our breakdown of the best features in our HTC Legend review of HTC Sense.
Read the rest of our HTC Legend review
HTC Legend review: Overall verdict
HTC Legend review: AMOLED Screen
HTC Legend review: Design and build quality
Friend Stream
Friend Stream is the biggest new addition to HTC Sense. The idea is simple: a homescreen widget, or a full blown app if you prefer, that aggregates all your social networking sites and updates in one page which constantly connects to the web to pull in real time data.
It’s an absolute breeze to set up. When you first fire up the HTC Legend, you’ll be promoted to add your Twitter, Facebook and Flickr login details. And that, simply, is it. Flick the touchscreen to the left, or use the ‘7 screen leap’ feature to zip to the homescreen holding Frend Stream’s widget and you’ll see the latest tweets, pics and status updates from your mates. Want more? Then tap on one and you’ll access it in the browser.
It’s easier than falling off a greased log, and a real win for HTC. Once we’d dabbled with Friend Stream, the nosey parker at the back of our minds couldn’t stop going back. It becomes a habit, and one which wins the HTC Legend a place in our hearts. Social networks rarely integrate into an Android phone this well, and HTC’s ability to do it simply and effectively earns HTC Sense a serious hat-tip.
Leap
Leap or ‘7 screen leap’, lets you scope out the HTC Legend’s homescreens all at once. It takes a clear lead from the likes of Exposé on Apple’s Mac OS, and by pinching the homescreen you’ll see seven small icons for each home screen currently running. These aren’t icons either, they’re live previews. Squint enough, and you’ll even see the contents of widgets on each screen. Pick the one you want, and you can dive right into it with a tap.
Leap works very well on the HTC Legend, with pinch-to-zoom making it easy to get the homescreen you want. The icons don’t appear too low res in spite of the small scale 3.2-inch AMOLED screen either, and the intuitive haptics reassure you that you’ve chosen the correct screen.
Again, Leap is a feature we kept heading back to. The way those seven screens fan out as you gradually pinch them free is a delight. It seems HTC’s interface is finally getting the finishing touches that push it forward, from a nuts and bolts operator, to a seriously slick, even loveable, window to the heart of our Android phone.
Newsreader application
Easily added to the HTC Legend’s homescreen, the Newsreader app is pretty much Google Reader for your mobile. It integrates snugly with the browser on the HTC Legend, allowing you to easily add feeds by tapping in a site’s address as you browse the web. Once you do, you’ll see all your headlines in one easy app, which can be dragged onto the main homescreen or accessed from the Android phone’s main menu.
HTC Legend review: AMOLED screen
We did have some niggles to start though, with the Newsreader app failing to register the BBC’s site first time. Not a great start when you can’t pick Auntie out of an RSS lineup. However, it’s a welcome extra, if a tad unreliable at times, and means the browser is becoming increasingly redundant when it comes to snacking on trusted news sources at speed.
Read the rest of our HTC Legend review
HTC Legend review: Overall verdict
HTC Legend review: AMOLED Screen
HTC Legend review: Design and build quality
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