HTC Hero Reviews

[BruceBanner]

just got mine last night and i cant put it down, theres so much more to do and way more fun than anything WM....im freakin blown away. ive used symbian, iphone, WM and android is by FAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAR the best OS for a phone. so far im really really lovin it.

[Chef Ben]

Is there a "MS WORD" type of program? I am so sick of WinMo and I'm ready to make the switch to Android...it's got everything I need...

They only thing holding me back is that I use WMobile Word very often and I need it or something very equivelant.

[IFMISM]

yes. it is docs to go

[nexxman]

I'm in the same boat. Is there anything out there as good or better then SPB Wallet for android? Would like to get rid of my mogul but I use this app a lot. thx

[askwhy]

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

________

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!

[KBZL]

Originally Posted by askwhy

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!

AMEN!! I didnt think i would ever leave Winmo, i knew for a fact i would never do Iphone! I have had this phone for approximately 4 days and all i can say is WOW! Im loving it and I can honestly see that this is only gonna get better.

[grock]

Well I made the jump to android and being a winmo user from the start(athena from sprint, you know the phone that only had speakerphone or wired headset) to the end (touch pro 2 for me) and I only have a couple of regrets so far...
1. How pissed off I am at myself for not making the jump sooner!
2. I grabed a hero, and its small comming from the touchpro2, I figure if i had made the switch from the touch pro1 I wouldnt have this problem.
3. no physical keyboard, my fault i guess for not grabing the Sam. moment,
although the onscreen keyboard is okay

If you are thinking about making this switch and the only thing holding you back is your love for wm and desire for them to finally make an out of the box working fun productive product... ANDROID did.

I have yet to find something on WM that I can't do on Android, except for the changing of ui's, (sense,tf3d,mobileshell, etc..)

On the flipside, I have found so many great programs, silly soundboards, and 100,000 and counting apps yet to be played with, One that I'm still trying to figure out that my iphone friends are "googling" over is the metal detector 1, how in the hell did he turn the hero into a metal detector???

[slbailey1]

Originally Posted by Chef Ben

Is there a "MS WORD" type of program? I am so sick of WinMo and I'm ready to make the switch to Android...it's got everything I need...

They only thing holding me back is that I use WMobile Word very often and I need it or something very equivelant.

Documents To Go. The view only version is free. You have to pay for the edit version of the software. I can't remember what I paid for it, but it is worth it.

[heydjbobby74]

Originally Posted by 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.

Is there anyway you can shorten that County...lol

[thacounty]

Originally Posted by heydjbobby74

Is there anyway you can shorten that County...lol

You didn't like my review? I thought it was pretty good haha.

Sorry I didn't get back to you, I have been projectile vomiting and sick for 3 days. To answer your ?, the home button shows the last 6 apps you accessed, those are not running. You were correct that a task manager is unnecessary although I use one because I am so used to having one from WinMo and all my old windows OSes.