HTC Hero Review

Check out the HTC Hero Full Phone Specifications and Review on GSM Arena.

Key features

* Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE support
* 3G with HSDPA 7.2 Mbps and HSUPA 2Mbps
* Heavily customized (in both graphics and performance) Android OS v1.5 (Sense UI)
* 3.2" capacitive touchscreen of HVGA resolution
* Qualcomm MSM 7201A 528 MHz CPU, 288 MB RAM
* 5 megapixel autofocus camera with video recording
* Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g and GPS receiver
* Trackball navigation
* Accelerometer sensor for auto-rotate and turn-to-mute
* Digital compass for automatic navigation of maps
* Multi-touch zooming in gallery and web browser
* Standard miniUSB port for charging and data
* Stereo Bluetooth (A2DP)
* microSD card slot with support for up to 8GB cards (2GB one included)
* Standard 3.5mm audio jack
* Direct access to the official Android repository
* Web browser comes with full Flash support
* Smart dialing
* Tethering support right out-of-the-box

Main disadvantages

* No video-call camera
* No FM radio
* No camera flash, dedicated shutter key or lens cover
* Camera features are a bit outdated
* CIF@15fps video recording (352 x 288 pixels) is below par
* No TV-out port
* No voice dialing
* Flash video playback is laggy
* Somewhat limited 3rd party software availability
* No DivX or XviD video support or a third-party application to play that
* Poor MP4 playback performance - barely watchable in video resolution above QVGA
* No Bluetooth file transfers (not without rooting)
* No proper file manager (not without rooting)
Click to expand...

The main disadvantages which make me not want to upgrade to this phone are: the lack of a camera flash and dedicated shutter key, poor video recording, and poor video playback. Swak.

Also, the display is quite poor for such a high-end phone. 65K colors at 320 x 480 pixels is poor (Nokia 5800 ExpressMusic has 16M colors at 360 x 640). Don't know if this is a limitation of capacitive touch screens, or the Android OS itself (like Windows Mobile - max colours - 65k).
 
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Sis!

After my experience with the Tytn 2....I've vowed never to buy HTC again!.

They just "remodel" the same phone.
Camera will always be sh*t:mad:
 
Hero Availability

Does anyone know when the Hero will be available? Nashua says 15 Sept, Autopage says end of the month, Leaf says October? This will be the best phone....
 
i really like that its Android, but this phone is bit crappy , no voice GPS, no shutter, no flash, crappy screen, no secondary camera.....hmmmm
However, Android has tons of free apps to download in their market. Also, the Androis OS really is a lot slicker anything out there right now

IMO, a safe phone to watch is the N97

Theres nothing this phone cant do, and do it well
 
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I just got back from leaf in Vodaworld and managed to use the new Hero!!!
Im in love...only problem is that Vodacom have no clue when they getting it for their network. I asked MTN aswell but they too did not have an answer for me.

Sent an email to Vodacom for light at the end of the tunnel.

The Hero is very nice to hold and the touch responce on the screen superseeds that of Nokia, Samsung and a few other HTC phones.

Im looking at either the iPhone or the Hero...hope I get a mail back from Vodacom soon.
 
Here's a nice little hands-on (if slightly Hero-biased) head to head between the Iphone 3GS and the Hero.
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G5F0Ruzwos8"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G5F0Ruzwos8[/ame]

Looks like a pretty sweet phone, although the newly released Motorola CLIQ seems to have a slightly nicer interface...

Here's a comparison:
http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/10/android-battle-cliq-edition/

Think I'll be getting a Hero though, apparently the recent software update for the Hero makes it way more snappy. Yum yum yum :D
 
I emailed Leaf about it about half way through last month - they reckoned by the end of last month or sometime this month, so can't be too far off..
 
This phone would have been a whole lot better if they stuck with the same resolution screen as on the Diamond 2.

For that reason I'm going with the touch pro 2. With its 800x480 screen and 5 row keyboard, it the best business phone on the market IMO.

That N900 keyboard just looks way too cramped. More a multimedia phone that a business one. It might have been better without the keyboard. Then it would be compact enough to compete with Iphone.
 
a very promising phone a let-down about the few flaws.
 
Had a choice:
Hero and 5800 - with 5800 2.5k cheaper.
Chose the 5800, brillant phone, and, after 4 months of research, the best phone cos of the price.
 
Hero v Diamond 2

I'm due for an upgrade and am thinking seriously about getting a Diamond 2. How does it compare with the Hero? And is it worth waiting for the Tattoo or the Touch 2?
 
cb22 said:
This phone has nothing on the N900:
Click to expand...
It's not meant to compare with the N900. The N900 was just revealed officially at Nokia World, and has yet to be released anywhere worldwide. The Hero has been out since July, though not in SA.

I'm just waiting for someone to put a real processor into an Android phone. The Sense UI is the only thing the Hero has going for it...the hardware platform was old even when it was released. If only I could fast track a Sony/Ericsson Xperia X3!

ToxicWazte said:
Also, the display is quite poor for such a high-end phone. 65K colors at 320 x 480 pixels is poor (Nokia 5800 ExpressMusic has 16M colors at 360 x 640). Don't know if this is a limitation of capacitive touch screens, or the Android OS itself (like Windows Mobile - max colours - 65k).
Click to expand...
Neither capacitive not resistive touch technologies limit the colour depth of screens. And it's not an Android limitation. It probably because the screen is being reused from other HTC devices, most of which were 65K because they ran WinMo.

As to the article...
The design of the Hero is very clean with just six buttons below the 3.2-inch touchscreen.
Click to expand...
How is 6 buttons + trackball clean when compared to the iPhone (the article itself makes that comparison)?
 
tRoN said:
After my experience with the Tytn 2....I've vowed never to buy HTC again!.

They just "remodel" the same phone.
Camera will always be sh*t:mad:
Click to expand...

I beg to differ on the Tytn2 thing...why? Cos I am actively using Android as my main operating system on my Tytn2 at the moment:-) And loving it! There are a few builds going, even a Hero one that I tried last week...it was pretty! A little slow, but nothing the geeks are not working to fix anyways.

Okay, so as a functional release, it's still not 100%, but it is 70% of what it should be. But that 70% includes everything I actively use.

To sum up, Tytn2 + Android = Geekfest! From my 3 weeks on Android I would highly recommend it, especially on a device preloaded with Android. With my phone, if I want to downgrade it, I just reset it, and use WM6.5, which I have completely quit using. It sucks. But having the choice of 2 OS's on a phone, almost dual boot style rocks:-)
 
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