HTC Hero Reviews

[BigDiesel07]

As the thread title states, post reviews here!

best device i have ever owned. I give it a 9/10

overall speed is very snappy, it has its slight hiccups but faster than my old Touch Pro and Palm Pre overall so im very impressed with speed having seen the old firmware bashes on speed.

The device is so rock solid that it looks and feels like its never gonna break, the glass screen is a huge plus for me

i gave it a 9/10 cuz the Browser is a tad on the slow side, and not as smooth as the Pre's browser when it comes to panning and pinching. I bet its because of the flash add-on and auto text reflow. Its faster than Opera but not Palm WebOS browser. Overall i love it, it renders beautifully and i can use all the sites features with HTC flash player (bummer it wont play directly from the browser though)

whhat i LOVE the most is that what you see is the ACTUAL OS!!! (let me explain) WinMo is basically take the OS and add what you like in a attempt to hide the native apps and menus to get a better experience. Now Android is OPEN SOURCE so HTC REWROTE the apps with their version and REPLACED them with the new ones, so HTC's version is the native one when it comes to the Hero. No coverups, no nothing. just improvements

ill get deeper when i get more time with it....

[Drewman247]

I like the phone a lot.. I am coming from a TP with Juicy 8 ROM. Everything seems to work really well on the HERO. I do however have issues with Pandora radio. When you are using it it tends to slow the phone down to a halt. At this time I have no other issues with the phone.

[heydjbobby74]

I haven't even had it for 24hrs yet, but I did trade my TP2 in for it. I do miss WinMo features, but not enough to let go of this phone. I love the light weight of it, the size is smaller (I can deal with the smaller screen) it is thin and sexy! The TP2 wasn't any of these, except sexy. I am still getting used to this device, but so far, I have no issues at all. I think the incorporation of the Social Networking Sites on this device are FAR better than the TP2 or the TP1. The one thing I can't stand is that when I try to access my storage card, I can't view the files like I did on my TP/2. I guess this is because of the WinMo thing, but I am sure I will deal with it somehow.
The battery life is good so far, and I could be the HEAVIEST user in all the forums. I am on this thing all day long! I will add to this review as time comes, hope this helps. I had a hard time letting go of winmo, until I convinced myself that I don't even really use winmo anymore... peace-br

[quiqnezz]

Originally Posted by heydjbobby74

The one thing I can't stand is that when I try to access my storage card, I can't view the files like I did on my TP/2. I guess this is because of the WinMo thing, but I am sure I will deal with it somehow.

Astro file manager in marketplace.

[Biggjimmy7]

Great phone and deffinitly a step up over my old Touch Pro!

I have found two issues that are far from worrysome, just some slight hiccups:

1) The phone can only hold so many apps before it starts slowing down. The Hero is brillian in the way they insured good memory allocation and cache BUT without being able to utilize the SD card for applications and widgets the phone will have a very noticable ceiling.

2) The default home weather/clock seems to have an issue keeping the right time as it switches location to location. My suggestion is to remove the clock from the home page then reinstall it but have a fixed location for your weather/time (IE) instead of updating as you travel set the clock to only support your home city. Worked for me and helps from constant updates as you travel.

This is a fantastic phone (so far). I have only had it since Tuesday but considering what I came from and those two items above being my only issues thus far with a large amount of time glued to the screen I give this phone a 4.9/5! Definitely recommended!

[riironman]

i agree. i was so skeptical about giving up windows..but wow my phone last 3x as long as my touch pro. no lags and no soft resets. love it!

[thacounty]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.0; en-US) AppleWebKit/532.0 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/3.0.195.27 Safari/532.0)

I'll throw in my 2 cents haha. I will tell you my history with ppcs first, Nextel 930, Palm Treo 700wx, HTC Vogue, HTC Touch Pro, Palm Treo Pro, and now HTC Hero. I have to say that after the Touch pro and the constant problems I had I was skeptical about going back to HTC, but the Treo Pro was very well made minus the issue with the memory but that was possibly Palms fault. I was getting tired of the constant winmo problems, soft resets, phone locking up randomly, lack of centralized app store (even though it came out it still is nowhere near androids), and a few more but this isn't about winmo... On to the Hero...

1. Build - This thing feels like a phone should. It is light weight, rounded and just forms correctly to the hand. The buttons while some people say they look bland are in perfect places and I rarely hit a hardware button when I'm not trying to. The only gripe I have with hardware is that I have grown accustomed to the button on top for power, but I have found that pushing the end button like on the 700wx and the menu button to wake it have been sufficient. I still reach for the top button every once in a while but it isn't so bad. The screen being glass is fingerprint resistant, and I know you may say well I've heard that, but I'm telling you that it is resistant! All my other phones were obviously touch screens because they looked like I had eaten fried chicken before eating them, but this one does not have that problem! The glass screen is also a welcome change from the mushy screens on the Vogue and Touch pro. Best G-Sensor I have seen in a phone. It is quick to realize its position even though some screens don't rotate as quickly as I'd like. Also the light sensor is much better than the Touch Pro's. It changes the screen dramatically, but I may end up with it off because I'm sure polling it all the time is killing the battery.

2. Lock Screen - While the notifications on the lock screen don't start out so hot, Handcent can replace this problem quickly while adding speech to text and a few new sounds for the notifications. Also it is free!! The lock screen is nice and if you have the stock screen playing you can control the volume of the media, back, forward, and play/pause. It is intuitive, and it is a huge step in the right direction from HTC. The Android lock is overkill to me because I don't want to have to go through 2 lock screens but when I am in class I turn it on just in case someone decides they like my phone too. It is the regular android lock and is pattern based. This is sometimes laggy, but is still useful and a good lock. The only gripe I have about the lock screen in general is I have no idea if you can or how to turn off the Sprint hero lock, but since I like it I don't actually want to.

3. Home Screen - Sense UI - Sense UI has been beat to death and reviewed numerous times, and it is even said to be coming to Winmo. Sense UI is amazing. It is incredible. The hiccups people talk about only come up if you are flying around screens and are hardly noticeable if you are used to the constant lagginess of the winmo phones. I am not saying it isn't there at all, I'm just saying that it is NOTHING compared to Winmo's problems. Location services on the clock tell you where you are and control the weather for you which is very nice but I agree with the above poster that sometimes it jacks up the clock if it changes locations. So my only gripe with the homescreen is the clock being off sometimes. Hardly something I can't live with and the regular phone clock keeps the right time as does the lock screen and the alarm fires at the correct time, not the location based one. So I can't complain too much.

4. Android - Someone got an OS right? Are you telling me that everytime Google releases an Android OS that the phones GET FASTER?!?! I couldn't believe when I heard this. Everytime a wm release is dropped you need double power from your last phone to even run it without having to wait 5 minutes to load an app. I'm exaggerating I know, but you get the idea. 1.6 is faster than 1.5, and 2.0 is faster than both? That is incredible to me! All I can do is applaud.

5. App Store - If you want an app it is probably in there. Also, its probably free. I can't even get a start on the apps that are amazing but there are plenty of forums about it around here. The store has a decent interface but it desperately needs an option to Update All apps when they are out of date. I understand that people may want to read the updates, but sometimes I just want to say, update em all, no need to read.

6. Camera - This camera takes great pictures. While low light may not be very useful and an LED would have been nice for a flash but I found that I only used my LED for a flashlight on my Touch Pro, which I loved. I do want an LED, but that doesn't mean that this camera isn't good. It takes great pictures, best I have ever owned on a phone. I have a few pics, but I am doing this while tethering so I won't be able to upload them, I am sure someone will start a thread about pics with your Hero, Coz usually starts that thread. Ahem... Coz? Haha...

7. Trackball - This deserves its own point, it is useful to say the least. I didn't know how much I'd use it, but it is leaps and bounds better than any dpad I have ever had, including the Treo Pro's. Lots of apps use the trackball and it is extremely useful in games like pong and the browser. I like that you can use it to zoom in the camera too.

8. Keyboard - The keyboard, even though griped about often, is awesome. This keyboard's prediction is amazing. If you take the time to go into settings and calibrate the kb then type quickly you will find that at least 90% of the time it will get it right. I haven't had to change many words and honestly don't notice a difference in speed from any phone I have owned with a physical keyboard. In fact sometimes I am faster.

8.5 - SMS - because some people won't know what I am talking about I made this an 8.5 point, I haven't missed a text so far. Knock on wood. But on WM I would miss texts or they would be 5 hours late, not anymore!! This alone was worth the switch!

9. Google Services - 2nd to none. The google docs, maps, voice, mail, etc... are great. I don't think anyone is matching these, the only thing I want back is Bing. I loved that app! Where doesn't even come close to it, but it is a good alternative.

10. Wow Factor - I actually have people with Iphones going "I wish my phone did that". I have to admit that even though I wouldn't have an iphone, they got a lot of stuff right. Android got it right! HTC got it right, for once haha. All of these things put together make this the most powerful, amazing phone I have ever owned. I haven't put it down. I have never used a phone constantly for a week before, but this one I have. Here is to hoping that it is rooted, until then, pdanet it is.

11. Broswer - Faster than PIE, Opera 9.5, and Iris, but slower than Opera Mini. It renders most pages perfectly and has an option to view pages as mobile or regular pages right in the settings menu! That's new to most of us WM users! The included browser isn't the best I have ever used, but it is really nice. The windows idea is great and fun to switch back and forth.

[ToxicToastKatz]

Originally Posted by thacounty

[SIZE=1]

Also the light sensor is much better than the Touch Pro's. It changes the screen dramatically, but I may end up with it off because I'm sure polling it all the time is killing the battery.

I'm just full of stupid questions with this phone, but I'm trying to learn

About the light sensor.....is it just me, or am i thinking backwards?

When you are in a dark surrounding, shouldn't the light sensor detect the darkness and make the screen brighter? I have found that sitting in a room with low lighting, the screen actually gets darker, and thus harder to see. Am I thinking about this incorrectly? I've tried a few demo Heros as well, and if you completely cover the light sensor (next to the earpiece), the phone's screen gets very dim. Expose it to light, and it goes back to a useable brightness.

[thacounty]

Originally Posted by ToxicToastKatz

I'm just full of stupid questions with this phone, but I'm trying to learn

About the light sensor.....is it just me, or am i thinking backwards?

When you are in a dark surrounding, shouldn't the light sensor detect the darkness and make the screen brighter? I have found that sitting in a room with low lighting, the screen actually gets darker, and thus harder to see. Am I thinking about this incorrectly? I've tried a few demo Heros as well, and if you completely cover the light sensor (next to the earpiece), the phone's screen gets very dim. Expose it to light, and it goes back to a useable brightness.

You are thinking about it backwards. Which I also did with my Touch Pro haha. When you are in a darker room the screen has no reason to be as bright because it is easier to see. If you are outside in the sun then it is harder to see the screen so it must be brighter. It does get kinda low in low light rooms, I have found that if you make sure you aren't shadowing the phone it will get bright enough to see. Of course I'm usually in class leaned over shadowing it haha.