It was a shock to find out that Bell was getting the successor to the HTC Hero. But now that the shock has largely worn off, I can rest easy knowing that, on June 16th, I can bang out $400 for one of these bad boys off-contract.

The HTC Legend is one hell of a device. Leaving off where the HTC Hero succeeded, the specs are only slightly better, with a slightly faster processor, more RAM, better camera with flash; but the best part of the phone is the body. Crafted from one piece of aluminum, it feels about as sleek and robust as the iPhone 3GS. It’s a phone to believe in.

Not to mention that this will be the first phone brought to Canada with HTC’s updated Sense UI, which they brought to Android 2.1 earlier this year.

Telus probably saw this launch a mile away, and seeing that Bell was launching the Legend at $79.95 on a 3-year contract, they have dropped the price of the Hero to $29.99 to compete. The Hero is still a great phone, and I recommend it over the Legend if you’re into hacking and custom ROMs, as there is a very active development community around the Hero.

The comparison, however, to the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 is not really fair. The X10 has a much better screen than the two other devices, and runs stock Android (with a couple additions) over HTC’s entries. That doesn’t mean that I would recommend the X10 over the Legend, because I don’t. Even with its low-resolution screen, the fact that it is AMOLED gives it added brightness and clarify over the TFT equivalent.

Definitely looking forward to reviewing this unit!

(via Mobile Syrup)