I wanted to purchase a new 3GS iPhone, but it was supposed to cost me 800 bones, so I decided that I would look into other options. It came down to the HTC Magic for $114, or the LG Eve for $85.

I decided to go with the Magic, and have actually been very pleased.

I’ve noticed that it’s quite a bit faster than the iPhone when accessing things over the network, and even just the operating system is substantially faster. Because it’s an Android device, Google Docs and Gmail integration are some of the best features.

There’s a few things that are less sexy, and less “apple”, including the absence of the elastic ending to lists, and touch zoom option… but they’re things that are just “nice-to-haves”, not game-breakers in any way. It’s quite a bit lighter, smaller, and substantially cheaper than the iPhone, and makes for a much sexier pocket bulge.

HTC Magic receives a grade of A-