There is a fairly standard montage in the canon of bad 80s movies. It involves the protagonist(s) working hard to build/do/invent something to beat the stuck up and dismissive antagonists. See, for example, Summer Rental, a John Candy vehicle in which Candy and crew convert a seafood restaurant that was originally a boat back into a boat in order to win a big, rich boat race against snobs. I don’t quite recall why they needed to win the race, but that’s immaterial. In the end [SPOILER ALERT] they thumb their noses, triumphantly, at the crews of the other, more richly appointed boat. It’s the tale of the underdog – an important tale to be told in that dark decade – and it is applicable here.
This brings us to the HTC Hero, HTC’s first Android phone to use the company’s new Sense UI. In one sense the Hero is “just another Android phone”; in another sense, it’s an entirely new direction for HTC and the platform.
The Hero is a great phone. It is on par – and ultimately better – than the Palm Pre and, some would say, the iPhone on many points. It also turns those lumbering Windows Mobile and Symbian into something that you will fondly remember from your youth, a set of dinosaur technologies now extinct.
Furthermore, we can easily extend the metaphor above to say that the Hero is John Candy lacquering the deck while Apple and Palm are the rich, stuck-up yacht club members laughing at the upstart. I’m here to tell you that these yacht club members should ignore this upstart at their peril.
The Phone
The HTC Hero is quite slim. It is, except for the chin (which we’ll talk shortly) about as big as the iPhone. It’s slightly thicker and slightly shorter, but it’s just about the same size.
The model we tested was clad in soft touch rubber in black and brown. The white Hero is the only one covered in the smudgeproof Teflon. The 3.2-inch screen itself stays surprisingly clean under daily use thanks to an oleophobic screen. The phone is featureless except for six front buttons (Call, Home, Menu, Hang up in a line above the chin and Search and Back on the lower right side.) There is also a small glowing trackball on the front. There are small LEDs above the top speaker and there is a 5-megapixel camera – no flash – on the back. There is a full-sized headphone jack on top and Mini-USB on the bottom. Two unmarked buttons on the side control volume.
The phone also has the G1’s “chin.” This is a small protuberance under the screen that is bent out at a 30 degree angle. HTC explained that this was more a design choice than a functional choice. The chin defines HTC’s android line in the same way the home button defines the iPhone: it’s a deliberate grace note to a minimalist design. I don’t think this design gets in the way of portability or usability and you don’t notice it in your pocket.
On the whole the Hero is amazingly small and quite attractive. It is a well-designed phone with no rough edges, a la the Pre, and none of the iPhone fragility. You could feasibly drop this without much thought, something you’d want to rethink with the iPhone.
Call quality was fine in both handset and speaker phone mode. I have a T-Mobile SIM in the phone and I found the reception to be quite poor in general. This is a function of T-Mobile’s coverage in the area, however, so I can’t make an ultimate assessment on reception at this time. The phone runs on HSPA/WCDMA 900/2100MHz and supports Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE. 3G does not work in the US under T-Mobile or AT&T in this model. The device also supports Bluetooth and Wi-Fi b/g.
The camera is about standard with 5-megapixel resolution and autofocus. I uploaded some photos straight to Facebook. The middle two photos are of the same scene, taken from about five feet from the subject. The first is zoomed all the way in and the second is zoomed out.
[PSGallery=2ux6hxcjoa]
Here is sample video:
The battery lasts about a day on one charge with everything, including Wi-Fi and GPS, turned on.
The OS
Android is messy. It is like a good Linux distribution – visually impressive some of the time and technically impressive all the time. But, like a good Linux distro, it is unfamiliar to the lay user and this could cause it to be considered an exotic. I believe that Android will, in the end, replace Windows Mobile and Symbian as the OS of choice for most smartphones. However, it is still a work in progress.
It’s been a little over nine months since I encountered the first Android device, the T-Mobile G1. If you weren’t around to read Peter Ha’s review then I’ll summarize it for you here: the G1 and Android sucked back then. With the passing of two seasons, we’ve found that it’s a much more robust and useful OS than we initially thought.
The Android Market is no match for Apple’s App Store, but it doesn’t need to be. In fact, it’s better than the App Store. You see, the majority of apps cluttering the App Store are full of entertainment value and nothing else. That’s fine if you’re into entertaining yourself, but if you take a look at the Android Market you’ll notice it’s much, much different.
There are many more apps than there really needs to be simply because the Market is open and free. While this makes for some dumb apps, it allows the really good apps to shine. As you browse through the Market you find odd apps everywhere: What’s this ToggleWifi app? Oh, it let’s me toggle Wi-Fi on/off without having to dig through the menu? Can the iPhone do that? Nope. Google Voice? It’s there and it’s free. Find My iPhone? Sure, Android has the same functionality. Thanks to Wheres My Droid I can send a quick text to it and it starts chirping. Need to fuss with Transmission, the bittorrent app, from the phone? You can do that with Transdroid.
I think you can see where I’m going with this. You might consider the Android Market homebrew, but what’s wrong with that? That’s the great thing about being an open platform. Android, on the whole, is a great platform.
The UI
Separating out the UI from the OS is difficult, but let me try to comment on the HTC’s homebrew Sense UI while trying to avoid all of the limitations placed upon it by Android.
On the whole the Sense UI is as impressive as the Palm Pre’s and, from a purely functional standpoint, better than the default interface for the iPhone. The Pre, for example, has pages, just like the Hero, but the pages in this case are actually “widget containers” that can hold multiple data points and controls on one page. For example, you can dedicate one of the seven pages to entertainment apps while other pages can be dedicated to email accounts.
The device also has Scenes, an important addition to the UI. Scenes are “themes” defined for set activities. For example, the Work theme has stock information and a world time clock while the Social scene has a prominent calendar and social networking features up front. This is a great feature and works around some of the widget and page limitations imposed by the OS.
The HTC widgets, which differ from the standard Android widgets in that they’re offered exclusively by HTC, are beautiful. The clocks, for example, are quite attractive. Watch lovers willy be happy to know that some are an homage to Bell & Ross’ aviator-style watches.
The Sense UI also adds social network awareness to your contacts. This means you can watch your friends in real time, picking up tweets, updates, and Flickr images without thinking about it. The Contacts app, for example, has an “Updates” tab that allows you to connect your contacts with their Facebook profile. It also keeps track of all the exchanges you had with that person, including text messages and emails. Finally, it shows that person’s current Flickr stream. This system isn’t foolproof but it works better than the Palm Pre’s.
The search system is quite nice inside apps but outside of any app it defaults to a Google Search. Not so good.
The notifications bar at the top of the screen slides down to show recent activities including emails, tweets, and alerts. It’s great to see all of these in one place and very useful. All of the settings are quite easy to control straight from pages including Wi-Fi on and off as well as Bluetooth controls.
To further extend the Summer Rental metaphor, Sense is WebOS built on a platform with an already vibrant developer community. While Palm was working on that blasted “ribbon” thing and drinking martinis, the scrappy kids at HTC were building a simple overlay that mimics everything that is good about the Palm Pre.
The browser, for example, expands on the standard Webkit installation by adding smart reformatting and zooming. Rather than making the page generally bigger the browser zooms in by making the font bigger and the images wrap quite nicely. Interestingly, Flash also works in this build. I was able to browse to the Flash welcome page and load the small bit of code there after a long wait. This is Flash, verily, but it isn’t quite fast enough yet.
The onscreen keyboard is also very usable, once you get the hang of it. The keyboard auto-completes most English words and to pick out special characters and numbers you hold down the alphabet keys until alternate keys appear. Most of the time there is only one alternate key – a colon, perhaps, or a plus sign – but for most letters you find almost all of the international symbols needed for casual correspondence.
Email set-up was simple – you just pick your provider or input POP/IMAP settings. It can support multiple accounts. It also supports Flickr, Facebook, and Google App content natively.
Google Maps works as expected. It can pinpoint your location and get you from point to point without fuss.
In general the Sense UI is a triumph. It’s that good. They’ve made Android amazingly usable and that’s quite exciting.
The Bad
Now for the bad news: the Hero widget engine is very slow. It runs a 528MHz Qualcomm MSM7200A chip with 256MB RAM compared to a 600MHz with 256MB RAM for the iPhone 3GS. There is no reason, then, that this device should be so slow to update the widgets. Sliding from page to page is fast enough, but once you’re there you’ll notice a definite lag. For example, when you slide to the email page, it’ll take about 5 seconds to see the latest email. Then when you go back to the default clock page you’ll notice the clock is stuck at a previous time – say ten minutes before – and updates a few seconds later. It’s frustrating to see this lag front and center on the device. Once you dig deeper, however, you find all the rest of the apps are more or less speedy enough. It’s only this one sticking point and could frustrate potential users.
The Bottom Line
At the end of Summer Rental the heros win against the evil yacht club people and everyone hugs it out. I don’t know if the way is as clear here, in this case, but I think the HTC Hero is the dawn of a new era of Android usability. Windows Mobile and Symbian should be shaking right now and Palm execs had better be planning a built-in vibrator/teleportation device combo in the next WebOS phone because anything they can do, it has been shown, HTC can do better. The iPhone is still #1 in my book but this is #2, supplanting my long-held love for the Sidekick LX.
The Hero is well-designed, usable, and powerful. The OS and UI combo is almost perfect and the future is bright for the phones running Sense. My official recommendation – if anyone is listening – is for HTC to abandon Windows Mobile development and to dedicate their team to Android development. They already pretty much own the space, with other manufacturers just hopping on the bandwagon now; with the proper resources allotted, they could lead the way for years to come.
I’ve always been on the fence about HTC. I thought their smartphones were derivative and, when not derivative, too “fancy” for their own good. Now, however, they’ve creating a perfectly balanced smartphone with some of the best software on the market.
As I recall, Summer Rental ends with Candy’s ragtag crew winning the race and sailing off into the sunset. It won’t be as easy for HTC to win this race but they’re definitely ahead of the pack. Other manufacturers are just hopping on to the Android bandwagon now; with the proper resources allotted, HTC could dominate this area for years to come. This proves Androids value in the mobile ecosystem.
This is a phone for the masses, yet it still has the power and geek chic of Android. To paraphrase Candy’s character in the movie, the Hero is fun for the whole family.
any word on US carrier yet?
From what I understood, the 3G bands in the US version of the phone point towards it going to AT&T.
Do you mind telling me where you heard this from? I’ll be pissed if this goes to AT&T. I have a g1 and I want this phone and I’m with t-mobile.
Information regarding 3g bands was unofficially released when it got approved by the FCC. A number of sites reported it, but you would only have noticed it if you have been tracking HTC Hero news.
example – http://phandroid.com/2009/07/02/htc-hero-through-fcc-att-bound/
2 – http://www.pmptoday.com/2009/07/03/htc-hero-with-8501900mhz-att-3g-bands-approved-by-fcc/
Alex,
Prepared to be pissed:
Evidence A:
http://gizmodo.com/5310109/t+mobile-straight-out-says-no-htc-hero-from-them
Evidence B:
http://www.engadget.com/2009/07/02/htc-hero-hits-fcc-with-us-3g/
So it looks like it has AT&T 3g and T-mobile is sticking with the less beautiful mytouch 3g.
Sorry to break it to ya!
I work for Sprint and it is coming to sprint not AT&T. Due out some time in october.
Got to love the comment “lumbering windows mobile” in the review. Um as the tech sites have already pointed out from the final build of Hero for Sprint which is leaked and floating around, all task — ALL — are slower on the Hero than windows mobile phoens like touch pro 2.
Want to read a incoming email: Here takes twice as long as WM Touch pro2, twice as long as WM touch pr, twice as long as WM treo Pro.
Ditto calling up navigation, ditto getting to simple dailer, ditto for calander ditto for web browsing, diotto for use of camera, ditto for lookign at pictures.
There is NOT one fucntion this has over same relase frame windows mobile, while in fact wm phoen ssuch as TP2 can do manyt things the Hetro cannot, and all the features the Hero does it dowes SLOWER.
Lumbering WM? LOL.
Adn does this review actually portray widgets COPIED from extant widgets in HTC own Windows mobile TF3 as “innovations” in Andriod!! WTF.
it is going to sprint, i researched it
Is it 256mb or 288mb?
i saw 288 which is really weird. I suspect it might be 256 but i can’t confirm right now.
“Now for the bad news: the Hero widget engine is very slow. It runs a 528MHz Qualcomm MSM7200A chip with 256MB RAM compared to a 600MHz with 256MB RAM for the iPhone 3GS. There is no reason, then, that this device should be so slow to update the widgets.”
Based on searching for info on twitter: HTC Hero uses an ARM11 processor, while iphone 3GS uses an ARM Cortex A8 type of processor. That makes 3GS 3x faster.
Archos also has ARM Cortex A8 based devices since last year and is coming with ARM Cortex based Android phones soon.
Last week’s software update HTC pushed out fixed the lagging widgets, it’s a non issue now.
This review must of taken place before the update was applied.
288mb.
http://www.htc.com/www/product/hero/specification.html
288 = 256 + 32. Some sort of bonus RAM.
Great review – can’t wait to get hands-on!
Can’t wait to upgrade from my Mogul.
Great Review!!
I love that all of the Android phones will have a unique character about them. Can’t wait to see the Sony android phone.
Thanks for a well written review highlighting very valid points. :)
This is the same what HTC had in store for Windows Mobile for years now. I don’t see much difference from UI point of view between this and Windows Mobile.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TouchFLO_3D
It’s available now in US via HTC Diamond line with 3G speeds.
Notice that HTC wants to be consistent across its devices, that is, smooth over differences between Windows Mobile and Android and highlight their own branded UI instead. Where does that leave 3rd party Android apps? What if I just want a good Gmail device?
It will be interesting to see how HTC, Sony Ericcson and soon Motorola start differentiating themselves by burying Android under dubious UI schemes and gratuitous effects.
I think this does not bode well for Android’s future.
I tend to disagree with you last statement:
“I think this does not bode well for Android’s future.”
There will be phones that will be available if someone just wants a “good Gmail device” you already have 2 (G1 and Magic/mytouch 3G)
There seems to be no issue with 3rd party apps with the Hero and I guess Jason could let us know about it. If there is, then that is a major issue.
I think it is great there are going to be so many different options for phone. The way they look and feel but all still can pull from the same app store.
If you read fourms, everyone has their own unique taste. Some like this and hate that..but the great thing about Android is that since each phone will be different it will be a great chance you will find what you want.
We have only seen 4 phones so far. (G1, Magic, Galaxy, and Hero) we still have the Sony, Motorola, LG, etc.. yet to come..
Maybe with those 3 to 4 phones coming up later on in the year..you will find what you want.. but that is the beauty..CHOICE..because their isn’t just 1 Android Phone.. :D
Meant to say John not Jason.. Misspelling.. LOL! :D
I own a G1, I like it but it’s slow and battery life is bad.
I need a keyboard. HTC seems to be doing away with those in favor of more iPhone-like devices. Overlays are not going to help making better devices.
You are stating your opinion which is great! You want a Phone that is a great Gmail Device, w/ Keyboard, and has better battery life, and no overlay.
However, other ppl like the Sense UI and will like the Rachel UI from Sony. Many think this is what is need for android and love what the manufactuers are doing with the OS but that is their opinion also.
I think you are looking like this is the only Android phone. Which it is not..not by a long shot and the other manufacturers I named are not even HTC. So there is more to come.
The problem to me with most phone is that everyone wants something for their own..they have their own standards..We Android tries to meet what everyone whats..by being adaptable.
I enjoy seeing what each group is bring to the Android table. It makes it a bigger family.
I think what you want will come soon. That is beauty there are still many phones yet to drop this year..
As far as the G1 and it being slow, how many apps are you running at one time?
I have one as well and I know what you are talking about but I have improved my speed by knowing how many apps are working in the background.
I also beefed up my battery to a 1400mAh from the 1150mAh that it came with. It fits inside the stock back and I get great battery life..
I think the Hero comes with a 1350mAh
gosh, this is the end of android. g1 suffers from his weak cpu, its often annoying. i dont know if hero with its shitty HTC-UI on top does it better.
You’ve played with the Hero and it’s “shitty HTC-UI”?
no, but i had htc touch pro and i dont like overlayings, inconsistent, slow GUIs. responsiveness and overall high operating speed is where the developement should go – not superficial, useless eye-candy. htc should reach iphones qualities in this fields and then maybe and suger.
this is different
Nice review Mr Biggs. Where did you get your video background music from?
It’s really funky music.
I have heard that before…Is it GarageBand?
How are those archos coming
I’d suggest to John Biggs to do away with “Best”, “Better” and such subjective pronouncements and get to the details of how devices actually work. What are their overarching navigation paradigms, and are they effective.
Not a single word on the ease of entering a calendar event and searching for one. Nothing on single-handed operation, nothing on phone call management. Nothing on multitasking.
This review says amazingly little on how the device is actually used beyond the UI appearance.
I concur, what about battery life as well? I had a G1 for a week but the battery life was horrid. More details
I agree. This was a Preview, not a Review.
If you want a very complete video diary on using the phone … with more information on searching, installing apps, using,removing widgets and many more things. (I hope I can link to this website here) At coolsmartphone the lucky bastard had the HTC Hero for a week and shot a video every day about it, answering questions and just showing the phone on every day usage. The link below links to the search page about the vids.
http://www.coolsmartphone.com/results/?cx=partner-pub-8070718282955104%3A5z2ob1fobl7&cof=FORID%3A10&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=A+week+with+the+HTC+Hero&sa=Search#1151
Nice, interesting and useful review, John.
I also like the short intro/teaser referencing our dark decade. There are way too many people sugarcoating things.
John,
Great review. Something that might help explain what you’re seeing: the Qualcomm chip in the Hero is an ARM11 processor, what’s in the 3GS is an ARM Cortex A8. While the frequencies may be similar, the performance is very different.
I wrote an article going into the differences here:
http://www.anandtech.com/gadgets/showdoc.aspx?i=3595&p=2
Again, great job on the Hero. I’m glad to see a serious Android phone…if it only had a serious CPU to go along with it :)
Take care,
Anand
great info. thanks, anand
John,
Any time, feel free to drop me an email if you have any questions about it or anything like it in the future :)
Take care,
Anand
Anand Shimpi is a real hero.
This phone…not so much.
Hah, I was about to link to that article and the author himself beat me! Great article, Anand. :)
If this phone had the latest processor instead of “last years model,” I’m not sure I could find a fault with it (assuming a US 3G-capable version comes out).
Excellent review. Happy to see another point of view about the “appstores” than the number of applications.
Also, the reviewer is a liitle too snarky when it comes to comparing HTC’s hardware with its competitors.
There’s a lot behind this that could make for an interesting discussion. Until recently HTC has been manufacturing devices for Palm, but it’s now a competitor, and Palm is working with cheaper Chinese manufacturers.
So who’s in a better position. Palm with its mobile software design expertise, or HTC with manufacturing expertise leveraging Android?
Maybe CrunchGear is not the pleace for these discussions.
I look forward to your detailed review on SivansPleaceforSeriousDiscussion.tumblr.com
Now if we can just get the Sense UI running on the Android 2.0 generation in a few months with the 1Ghz snapdragon and 800×480 screens oh yes
That’s why I wouldn’t get this. It looks awesome, but I think Sony’s Rachael will be even better with that Snapdragon!
I want this phone so bad I can taste it.
I hate you Biggs.
Hey John, can you please please add 2 more photos:
1) of the hero + iphone side-to-side FRONTAL view (i want to know how smaller the hero screen is compared to the iphone.
and
2) of the phone in your pocket (i want to make sure the phone doesn’t make one look “unusually happy”)
@10things.me
You can check more images here: http://www.nyemobiltelefoner.dk/ny-nyeste/htc-hero-mobiltelefon.html
Why is there all the hype for android powered phones. I do not feel that this is ANY replacement for windows mobile other than it gives ease of programming when it comes to apps. If you really Android then tell me why it is so great. Visit my site and join the ongoing debate.
Android is a blast. From a developer’s standpoint it’s a heavenly creature. As a user, remember what makes a smartphone better than a dumbphone is the quality of the apps. And android so far has an excellent record.
First off, thanks for your review, I really enjoyed it. Many thanks as well for noting that this phone will not work on either T-Mobile or AT&T 3G. Do you have any other information about carriers? I had heard via a couple of blogs that a version had passed the FCC for use on AT&T, so is this perhaps just the British version? I’m also assuming that you either do not know about any US release or have been asked to keep mum regarding that, but if you have heard anything it would be awesome to know about it.
I think I want to blame you for your message that the phone is slow.
I returned the palm pre because that phone was too slow and because it took palm to convince me that maybe a virtual keyboard would work okay. (The pre keyboard is terrible.)
But I returned it, hoping to find that the HTC Hero would be an awesome phone and probably retail for $29.00 with a $10 month data plan.
Grr.
I like the music, but I suggest based on the 80s theme, you include the song from better off dead when they fixed the camaro – Howard Jones’ ‘like to get to know you well’
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XD3qA54Fn_Q
another good song might be bone symphony’s ‘put one foot in front of the other’ featured in revenge of the nerds when they remake the LLL house.
Great review, John!
I was wondering if you could try an iPhone headset with this new kid to see if the mic is recognised as this would open up a world of great headsets for the Hero also…?
Thanks in advance!
How does the awful service from the carrier end up as a mere afterthought in your review of this phone? I have yet to meet one professional who is satisfied enough with the iPhone to use as his/her everyday work phone to call colleagues + clients. The reception from AT&T just isn’t good enough for that. Until one of these great new phones comes out on Verizon, I am staying away.
this was not an official phone for an official US carrier. i couldn’t comment on it officially.
Nice review ! I’ve got a Mac but i can’t handle with Iphone design ! I don’t Know why ! Hope it came out quickly in France!
OMG, In all the videos you actually see John clicks twice and thrice on the same place and the screen doesn’t respond, or respond really, really slowly.
I don’t see any difference between this half-baked cupcake Android version (or whathever they call it now) and the half-baked Windows Mobile 6. They both rely on crappy hardware/software implementation. But I just played around with the Toshiba TG01 which has the horrible Toshiba and Windows Mobile UI but at least it’s twice faster than the Hero.
very true. this is great except for the slowness.
Great review like others have said. They HAVE to correct the lag on the widgets or else this is as good as a paper weight. Perceived slowness = Death.
I’m surprised this hasn’t been ironed out yet.
Other than that I’m excited by this device, I wish it was getting more coverage in the larger media. While I love my iphone, I’m not in love with the closed market apple has me locked into.
Texas Instruments OMAP3, Qualcomm Snapdragon, Freescale i.MX51 or Nvidia Tegra all would have been 3-4x more powerful ARM based processors. So I’d much rather have an ARM Cortex A8 based device.
Lots of Android phones are coming out in the next few months by many other manufacturers than only HTC and Samsung.
He was not reviewing an AT&T phone, why would he discuss AT&T’s service?
John what music is that you have playing in the video?
Android, like Google is the future.
Funny how it’s often John Candy in those movies.
And amazing that I’ve never heard of HTC before. Looks like I’ve got some catching up to do.
I’m skeptical about megapixels as an indicator of photo quality. Since you actually have a model on hand, how does the camera compare to the G1, in terms of: 1) Startup time for the camera app 2) Focus time between trying to snap a picture and the picture actually being taken, 3) Ability to take pictures in low-light situations that don’t look like black blobs on reddish backgrounds 4)General, every day photo quality?
Amazing review! Thanks for this.
Thanks for the review John.
Just one thing, I notice you comment about how bad the widgets perform.
Have you applied the update that HTC pushed out last week for you folk lucky enough to have a model to review? The update was specifically fixing performance issues like the one’s you have encountered.
I suspect that much of the review was done before the latest update was pushed out.
it sure looks good…white would be nice. I found android (on my g1) to be very simple to use. But I’m a techie…
John,
Good work, at last a review!
Can I just second the questions from Alex on the general usability/quality of the camera. Startup time/shot to shot and maybe some comparisons photos with a Nokia or other half decent camera phone of similar spec.
Also can you comment more on the slowness, is it a deal breaker or do you think you could live with it?
Thanks!
The pics you posted are only meh. Woulda expected better from a 5 megapixel camera. The Palm Pre pics are superior and the Hero has no built-in flash. A year or two back, I would have said who cares about the camera, but now I find myself wanting something that will take a nice pic when I don’t have my DSLR with me so that issue for me now.
How well does it play Bejeweled Blitz on Facebook?
Wow… John Biggs… I just want to say this…. AWESOME article.
Finally someone that understands what we want to know. I dont care what apps are available, I dont care about alternate desk tops, I care how fast is this machine? How does it fair up to its competition? How big is this sucker? Is it worth getting?
So far ONLY John has answered these questions for me.
Thanks man.
Your slobs-vs-snobs metaphor is amusing, although not particularly accurate, John. Palm is a tiny, tiny little speck of a company teetering on the brink of ruin. Bit of a stretch to call them the rich snobs!
Very solid, thorough review. I question the 1.5 days of battery life through a combination of daily 3G usage on voice and data (with potential for some minutes of WiFi). I’m betting you barely get a day which is a huge downfall for this device.
I would also look at the media playability for music – its not an ipod, but simple finger gestures and layouts make it just as easy as the ipod…
With respect to the slowness, I’d venture a guess and say it’s probably not so much a CPU speed issue, but rather a mechanism to conserve battery. Presumably, widgets just won’t update when not visible, so it seems that it’s only once you swipe to a screen that the system even begin to do the updates.
I think with the “lesser” processor and still having a strong performance across the board says a lot. Now with the minor gripe(widgets issue) fixed, the Hero should perform even better.
Also, 3GS’s processor/battery life makes it very tough to last through one day. As per coolsmartphone’s mention that Hero’s battery can a day easily, I think this is all very promising for this handset.
Hi, I just Noticed That the HTC Hero (sim free) has hit the UK, you can buy @ cleverkit.com
I am Just waiting for the Hero to show up on Sprint – Pre is nice, I think the Touch Pro 2 will be too much, the Tour’s reviews are not promising, but HTC and Android? Gotta be a sure bet. I’ll be checking out this site to see how it settles out. Yeah, I know – GSM to CDMA, yada yada yada, but I’m looking for users real-world observations on the device as a whole. Still chillin’ with my trusty Q9c! Discuss about HTC Hero at http://www.HTC-Hero.com take care.
Folks,
Be wary of the HTC hero. I bought one a couple of weeks ago and recently discovered that I was not receiving all text messages. A few people thought I was ignoring them – a few others probably still do.
I contacted HTC and they don’t have a fix yet. This is documented on the android forums.
http://androidforums.com/htc-hero/8155-do-not-receive-100-my-texts-htc-hero.html
I’m putting this up because while I was thinking of buying the HTC hero this review got me off the fence. I think its only fair to warn people.
Its a great UI and slick device but its a phone first.
John
Loved this phone and this review. Wrote a short post on it.
http://prashantagr.blogspot.com/2009/09/hero-is-born_21.html