HTC Hero: The best Android
Over the past couple of years mobile phone maker HTC has really stamped its authority on the smartphone market. Many of HTC’s most popular phones to date have run Microsoft’s Windows Mobile operating system, but it is HTC’s recent move into Android – Google’s open source operating system – that has really got users taking notice.
The first Android-based phone was the G1, released in October 2008. The most recent of the HTC Android phones is the Hero, a phone that will be released in South Africa towards the end of this month and is widely being touted as a true iPhone competitor.
The Hero is distinctive for its shape, which is mostly rectangular with an angled “chin” bar at the base. The design of the Hero is very clean with just six buttons below the 3.2-inch touchscreen. The six buttons are for making a calls, a home key, menu key and a hang-up key. The other two are for “search” and “back” and are placed to the bottom right of the phone. Apart from these six keys all input on the screen is through the touchscreen interface or the trackball.
On the top side of the phone there is a 3.5mm jack port, a decision which is becoming increasingly popular as phonemakers realise that users prefer to use their own choice of earphones rather than being forced into using device-specific extensions. There is also a recessed volume rocker switch on the side as well as a trackball below the keys.
Being based on Google’s Android operating system the Search key will automatically open a Google search window.
The Hero is relatively well equipped, sporting a 5 megapixel camera which is a big leap up on other smartphones with their 3 megapixel versions, as well as being fully 7.2Mbps HSDPA capable. There is also a MicroSD card slot to expand the base memory of the phone. The 3.2-inch touchscreen supports 65 000 colors at a 320×480-pixel resolution. One of the big features included in the Hero is the multitouch capability which is new for the HTC range of Android smartphones.
As with many high-end phones the Hero includes an accelerometer which works with a number of included applications to rotate the screen for wider viewing.
Software
The HTC Hero obviously runs the Android operating system, but the one feature than has most people talking is what HTC calls “Sense”. This is essentially a layer put over the underlying operating system to make the phone as intuitive to use as possible. The new interface includes seven “homescreens” each of which can be populated with widgets for quick access. The Hero also keeps a record of the last six applications used in memory so that they can quickly be accessed by holding down the Home button for a couple of seconds.
While many smartphones err on the side of being a business tool as opposed to a multimedia tool, the Hero is clearly aiming for the iPhone’s domain with a built-in dedicated YouTube video player for quick access to to YouTube content. Other pre-installed applications include QuickOffice, PDF Viewer, Footprints, Stocks, VoiceRecorder and Teeter.
Communication
When it comes to connectivity the Hero is no slouch. The phone includes support for GPRS, EDGE, HSDPA 7.2Mbps and HSUPA 2Mbps, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g, Bluetooth 2.0 connections.
The Hero is also capable of POP3 and IMAP email connections and can be synchronised with Microsoft Exchange. Because of its Google heritage the Hero includes support for Google Talk instant messaging by default as well as SMS and MMS.
The built-in GPS receiver and digital compass are designed to work with Google Maps but it doesn’t include vocal directions.
In addition to the dedicated YouTube player the Hero also includes a media player that is mostly unchanged from previous releases. The audio player does, however, support a broad range of formats including MP3, AAC, AAC+, WMA, MPEG4, WAV, MIDI, Real Audio and Ogg Vorbis, which makes it one of the most capable phone audio players around.
All told the HTC Hero could well be the one of the best smartphones released to date.
HTC Hero discussion
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