The HTC Hero has arrived
The HTC Hero Smartphone is the snazzy new baby from the stable that brought you Magic and Dream. This has been the source of excitement in anticipation for many a Google android fan. The first impression is that of a sleek device with a gently curved base that contain a small number of hardware buttons on including a home, menu, back, send, end, and dedicated search key. There is also a trackball. The hero feels solid and shouts quality! when in your hands.
Of course the main initial focus will be on the screen. This is a 3.2 inch of quality oleo-phobic glass, meaning it resists smearing. So, like iPhone 3GS then! A volume rocker has been conveniently placed on the side and there is the essential 3.5mm jack to use with headphones of your choice.
The engine of the HTC Hero is similar to that found in its predecessor the Magic.
This includes the Qualcomm 528MHz CPU, 288MB of RAM, and rather disappointingly only
512MB ROM. There is the expected Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, a quad-band HSPA cell chip and
even GPS.
The 3.2-inch, 480 x 320 capacitive LCD touchscreen is dazzlingly impressive. The light sensor is very good, so automatic dimming works as it should. However, worryingly, there are problems of screen freeze from time to time but this is likely to be a software rather than hardware issue.
The camera on the Hero is 5 megapixel and it performs exceptionally well for a camera phone. Pictures are vivid and colour reproduction fairly faithful There are very few phone cameras that can compare and that includes iPhone 3GS. There is also a video recording but here the images are basic and just passable especially indoors. The maximum resolution is 352x288 so that says it all.
The HTC hero’s battery life is good for a Smartphone. A full charge lasts a whole day even with a busy use of the various applications.
The HTC hero comes with a new all singing all dancing User Interface (UI) which the
company calls "Sense Experience." It does really look impressive. Of-course it
is still android (no bad thing) but presentation is unique. However, this re-skinning
of standard android has come at a price in some cases. Some applications are noticeably
more sluggish when compared to HTC Magic and Dream.
What is also particularly impressive is that the HTC Hero can access Exchange accounts
and also the phone has an underlying social networking tie-in which can pull in Facebook,
Twitter and Flickr data in various spots on the phone, and also allows you to move
media and messages between the services.
HTC has made marked improvements in the phone functionality on the Hero, making the
dialler and contact management pages a joy to use. Getting to number quickly is a
doddle since you're able to use the numeric keypad to call up both strings of numbers
and names, and HTC has forgone tabbed entries on contacts for a combined recent /
missed page coupled with your contact list. The music player is quite impressive
and an enjoyable experience. The same cannot be said about web browsing and this
is an area where HTC will need to seriously consider a hardware upgrade to do this
device justice.
You will have noticed that the physical keyboard has been jettisoned here in favour of a touchscreen keyboard. This works well enough but cannot really compare with Apple’s iPhone 3GS. Again this is clearly an issue of overwhelmed processing power under the skin.
You are spoilt for choice when it comes to widgets and some of them are simple but extremely enriching the user’s experience. A lot of functions which traditionally require going into the ‘settings’ can now be accessed via these discreet widgets that you can place on the home screen for ready access. Sleek.
Overall the HTC Hero is a triumph but not the complete package. With a hardware upgrade, this Smartphone can and will sit comfortable in the premier league.
