[askwhy]

First of all, to all the PPCG readers and staff, I want to wish a HAPPY NEW YEAR!

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Hero Review

Have Owned: i730 > Mogul > Touch Pro > Hero

The HTC Hero, just over a week out of the box, has already provided the most satisfying smartphone experience I have ever had. It seems to me that HTC and Google are a match made in silicon heaven.

It's the Big Things:

Hardware build quality
It's up there with the best of them. Rock. Solid. While I have never owned an iPhone, I have handled many, and I would have to say that imho, the Hero is comparable.

Developer support
Enough to cast a shadow on anything but the iPhone (and growing fast). Also, it appears as if large numbers of people from the awesome WinMo communities are making the move to Android, and various Android communities are booming from the boost.

OS Functionality, Efficiency, & Stability
Check, Check, and Check (and it's still a baby) It really highlights Microsoft's failures in the smartphone arena when you consider that Apple, Palm, and Google have all just recently created more impressive mobile platforms than what Microsoft has been able to refine in years and years of development with the market completely to themselves. Android, being open on top of all it's other strengths, is a real winner in this department.


It's the Little Things:

SenseUI > TouchFLO3D
HTC continues to step up their game, and Android platform lets them do so freely. No more 'hiding the OS' game -- everything is seamlessly integrated into the Android system. It's beautiful, by the way.

Trackball > D-Pads
The one smartphone feature I never knew I really needed till I had it. It never impressed me much during the small amounts of time I have had to endure on various BBs, but combined with a good touch screen and a solid platform, it's so useful it goes from 'neat' to 'necessary' in no time.

3.5mm Headphone jack > proprietary anything
HTC finally figured that one out...just in the nick of time. Quite seriously, I was not going to get another HTC phone without a regular headphone jack, ever, and I think a lot of other people felt the same way. I guess they got the message.



Bottom Line: I used to have to go 'under-the-hood' just to make my phones work properly -- now I can do it solely for fun. I feel like I was just 'saved' from WinMo -- the Hero really lived up to it's name!