nlike all the other reviews you’ll find of this phone, I am unable to compare it to an iPhone because I have never had an iPhone. Nor have I had an earlier Android-based phone or even a Blackberry. I did have a Palm Pilot a few years ago, so that is my only point of reference.

So! I can tell you that this phone works very well. It does what I want it to do with two limitations, both founded in my earlier experience with Palm: it doesn’t synch to your desktop and it’s harder to input information.

The Palm Pilot has a desktop application to facilitate synching. However, I use Google Mail, Calendar, Reader, etc., so most of my synching is over the Internet and that means I don’t HAVE to dock to a particular desktop. All my info is in … well, whereever it is out there on some server.

You have to go through a short procedure to access the device from your desktop, but it’s fairly easy and all you have to do is copy and paste the files you want. I use iTunes to subscribe to my podcasts, download them to a folder in My Documents, and then copy and paste them into my device. Not elegant, but not difficult.

If you want to edit spreadsheets and Word documents, you will have to buy an app for that. It’s only a few pounds, but it’s not free.

Inputting information via the touchscreen may be difficult for people who are either used to a Blackberry-style keyboard or using a stylus. I happened to love using the stylus on the Palm, and I’m sad that it’s no longer an option. However, the screen on the Magic is not pressure-sensitive. It responds to the electricity in your fingertip. So, a stylus wouldn’t do anything to it. This is good in the sense that I can put it in my pocket with no worries.

But, yeah, the touch screen keyboard is not easy to master. Turning the device sideways prompts a switch to landscape view, which makes the keyboard bigger, but not that much bigger. Since the screen is smaller than an iPhone or iPod Touch, that means the keyboard is also smaller. J