Vodacom to launch Google G2 phone

Rudolph Muller

Rudolph Muller is the editor at MyBroadband and covers telecoms and broadband news. Rudolph comes from an academic background, but left the University of...

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Vodacom is set to launch the HTC Magic, also known as the G2, in South Africa.  The Magic is the second handset from HTC with the Google Android operating system.

The HTC Magic was first unveiled in mid-February at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona and was commercially available in Europe in late April and early May. Vodafone has exclusive rights to the HTC Magic, and it is through this agreement that Vodacom could bring the latest Google phone to South Africa.

The HTC Magic includes the Google suite of services like Gmail, Search, YouTube and Google Maps and further boasts Outlook synchronization, Smart Dialer, and an onscreen keyboard with predictive text.

The HTC Magic, which has a 3.2-inch TFT-LCD flat touch-sensitive screen with 320×480 HVGA resolution, supports both HSDPA and HSUPA and boasts an internal GPS antenna.  The Vodacom HTC Magic comes standard with a 2 GB Micro-SD memory card.

It packs a 3.2 megapixel color camera with auto focus and supports a variety of audio and video formats.  When it comes to battery life HTC promises up to 400 minutes talk time for WCDMA and up to 660 hours stand by time.

This announcement from Vodacom comes only days after MTN announced that it will be launching the first generation Google phone, the HTC Dream, in South Africa.  The HTC Dream, also known as the Google G1 phone, was the first HTC phone to run the Google Android operating system.

MTN is offering the HTC Dream to customers on the MTN AnyTime 350 package for R529 per month, which includes R350 worth of airtime and 100 MB worth of data per month.  The HTC Dream is currently not available on prepaid.

The HTC Magic will be available from Vodacom on a Smart 120S contract – which includes 120 anytime minutes, 100 monthly SMSes and 250 MB of data – at a total cost of R 599.00 per month.  Vodacom however pointed out that there will be a ‘launch price’ which will be lower than the standard retail price. The HTC Magic will also be available on prepaid at a recommended retail price of R 8269.00 including VAT.

The HTC Magic will be available from Vodacom outlets next week.

HTC Magic G2 phone discussion