Review: HTC Hero It Is

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Yes, I upgraded my phone, and I went with the HTC Hero (via Sprint). Here is Gizmodo’s take on the Hero. I am having a TON of fun with this thing. Let me try and break this thing down in a semi-organized fashion:

  1. The Hardware: Physically, it looks like a typical touchscreen phone. As mentioned in the Giz article, they got rid of the ‘chin’ HTC is known for when bringing the phone to the US. I don’t honestly care about that, but there you go. The screen does show some smudges, but you can’t tell when the screen is on, so no biggie to me. And that screen – videos look great, text is sharp and readable down to very small sizes, it’s great.
  2. The Software: It’s currently running Android 1.5, but HTC let it be known that Android 2.0 is forthcoming, as soon as they port the SenseUI over. That, by the way, is beautiful. It looks modern, and the seven screens you have or widgets and buttons come in very handy. Heck, I could use MORE.
  3. The Speed: This was a concern with the European version, but I can confirm it’s not here – apart from a few isolated times (usually when doing something really intensive like watching a movie while goofing with the screen a lot) things are snappy. Remains to be seen how well it works with 2.0, though.
  4. The Keyboard: Okay, it doesn’t have a real one, just a virtual one. And you know what? I don’t care. That was my biggest concern, but I am doing pretty good with the VK. Just let the autocomplete help you, it’s pretty darn smart.

Is there anything I don’t like? It’s a bit clunky to find the speakerphone while I’m on the phone, but part of that was me jumping right in before I read the book. ;) I wish the battery lasted longer, but I am fixing that up a bit – more to come on that. I’m going to do a seperate post on the apps I’m using. If you have any questions about the Hero or Android in general, comment away – I may take them and answer in that next post though, FYI.


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Comments

  1. Erin K Avatar
    Erin K

    The Hero is my first smartphone, and the only thing I don’t like about it is: the phone!

    When you’re in phone mode touching the people listed in your call history automatically dials them, so I keep calling people by accident when I’m just trying to save their numbers. At the same time, I have trouble finding my friends’ numbers to call. The virtual keypad is a little bit annoying when you’re in phone mode.

    Hitting the red button apparently doesn’t end a call, it just takes you to a screen where you can end the call. Annoying that you have to actually look at the screen to end the call.

    The icing on the cake was when I tried to hold the phone on my shoulder once and hung up on someone with my cheek. That was sub-optimal.

    Luckily, I don’t actually use the phone much. And as I said, other than that, it’s way fun.

  2. TheTick Avatar

    Make sure you’ve installed the Shake Awake app – one of the things it has is a cheek guard. Haven’t yet had any issues with that installed. :)

  3. GNC Avatar
    GNC

    Hey, Tick where do u get the shake awake app.
    GNC

    1. TheTick Avatar

      Should be able to search for ‘shake awake’ on the normal Android Market.

  4. ErinK Avatar

    I totally forgot I found your blog via an HTC entry! Just came to read a hockey entry and noticed these comments.

    Shake Awake seems to have solved my problem (though it seems to keep running after I finish my call, just e-mailed the dev for advice on that – maybe they’ll add to the doc). Still having UI mishaps with the phone, but still love the Hero!

    1. TheTick Avatar

      Hey, thanks for the return visit! Shake Awake is a little quirky, definitely, but it helps. :)

      I am still very much in love with the phone – but then I’ve never had a smartphone before.

  5. htchero owner Avatar

    Thanks for the great article, I am very excited. I’ve had my phone for just over a month now and am actually enjoying all the free apps from the android marketplace, being able to have the internet and navigation at my fingertips all of the time. The one not up to thought function is the picture/video textual content messages, as they don’t seem to be downloading properly.

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