A 6 hour stint with the HTC Hero – Quick Review

I’ve heard about the Android OS for a fair bit while now… as with any Google product, there will be tonnes of rave about it. I must say though, not all raves were good – INITIALLY. Some complained that the operating system looked a little blend, it didn’t give much oomph and honestly the first few generations of Android based devices didn’t look anything close to SEXY…. here’s one of the first few devices running on the OS, the G1

Not pretty? Well, all that is going to change… presenting the latest, the greatest, HTC Hero!

This thing just brings the word ‘sexy’ to a completely different level. Anyway, I’ve got to give credits to Phat Fabes for pouring liquid over his old phone and so he had to pickup a new one – the HTC Hero came to mind and voila… I was given the honor of setting it up!

The packaging…
1 word, very very iPhone, iPod – Apple like… from the little excess plastic they leave out so that you can pull your phone out of it’s ‘mini cave’ to the feel of the packaging… it’s just REALLY high quality… ok, NEXT!

The device…
First impression, WOW! it’s so SLIM! – the HERO feels great in the hand… what I quite like is the overall rubbery feel of the back and sides which can be very helpful for people with butter fingers.

Then there are the 6 mini keys at the bottom of the screen – in some reviews, the writer would complain about the size of the keys… I’ve got fairly large fingers and honestly, I had no problems pressing them. Plus, even if you do have REALLY REALLY OVERSIZED fingers, it shouldn’t be a big issue as the button’s tactile feedback is GREAT – you’d know if you’re hitting the wrong one.

Social networking is HERO’s favourite!
When starting up the HERO for the first time, network, data, mms configuration was done automatically in the background… once the phone comes on, that’s it – it’s configured! After going through a quick tutorial on how to use the on screen keyboard, you’d be asked four main questions…

1. If you’re on WiFi – “Hey! WiFi is detected? Would you like to connect?”
2. Your e-mail account login
3. Your facebook account details
4. Your twitter account details

Once you hit done, your phone is READY TO ROLL!

The applications
The HTC Hero comes with extremely polished applications. They look great and function great!

Since there will be too much to cover, I’d look at the social networking bit of the apps…

Twitter
The default Twitter client (you can download many more) easily replaces your regular Twitter homepage or Twitter app on your desktop / notebook. This thing is full featured – complete with status updates of your location in Twitter using the built-in GPS receiver to uploading photos…

Facebook
The default facebook interface here is not as complete as the ones you see in the BlackBerry or the iPhone but it’s HTC’s own – “People” app. Where you get to see your facebook invitations, pokes, status messages and such. That said however, if you’d like a complete facebook app, you can always download it for free!

One username and password does it all…
I’m a big fan of integration and ease of setup. The moment you key in your Google Username and Password during e-mail configuration, the HERO will share that information and automatically configure every GoogleApp available on the phone…

• Google’s Picasa Web – for easy photo uploading / sharing
• Google Chat – chat with your friends on other Android based phones or on Gmail itself!
• Google Map – logs into your Google Latitude and tells your ‘approved’ friends where you are!
• Google Search
• GMail
• and more!

There are surprises EVERYWHERE!
Playing with the HTC Hero is like a baby exploring the world for the first time. There’s something new, literally EVERYWHERE and the phone really knows how you WOW you.

Just one example of how will the phone WOW you… just look into your contacts and you’ll find that opening say “Ben” will show you:

• all e-mails sent by me
• all smses sent by me
• all photos of me (in Facebook / Flickr)
• my facebook profile (yes, you can link contacts to their facebook profile)
• my facebook status messages
• and if you don’t have my birthday and picture – the People will automatically extract the relevant information from Facebook and have it stored on your phone! BRILLIANT!

This thing has manners!
And here’s another one, whenever you receive an SMS while you’re using the phone, instead of it going NUTS on you – flashing the message infront of your screen and blocking whatever you’re looking at, the HTC Hero has manners. It discretely alerts you of an incoming message but displaying a tiny bar of scrolling message right at the top of the screen – so you can either choose to read it or leave it for later without interrupting what you were doing on the phone.

To keep things short, some of the things I really like…

• 5 megapixel camera
• 3.5mm standard earphone jack! YES!
• very rich & crisp screen
• is now one of my favourite operating systems – extremely clean, functional, classy and SURPRISES YOU!
• Digital Compass – just like the Nokia N97 and iPhone 3GS
• GPS
• has THE highest level of social media / web service integration with a mobile phone I have EVER seen – PERIOD
• Expandable / Removable storage
• the device feels extremely SOLID and VERY well built

Some of the things I don’t like…

• The screen is extremely reflective – too glossy for my liking – great for movies but not so in indoor environments when you’ve got overhead lights and fluorescent lamps. There is however a solution for this though, get a screen protector that has a ‘matte’ look to it
• A 5 megapixel camera is a lot of megapixels to shout about but the quality and sharpness however was not up to my expectations
• There’s no flash or LED light…
• After using it for 6 hours and opening up many apps, the phone began to slow down a little – I’m not sure if it was me or it was the device – I need more time with it to confirm this
• Package doesn’t come with a pouch

In short…
Android has become a part of the mobile world and I’m glad it has arrived. HTC HERO has certainly shown what Android is capable of and it is possibly one of the closest gadgets to an iPhone 3GS when it comes to ease of use and interface aesthetics. I’m hard pressed to say this but I believe even the iPhone 3GS is no match when it comes to how the HTC HERO integrates it’s contacts, text messages, e-mails, facebook, pictures in ONE application – I’m impressed.

I want more time with a HERO!!! Ok, now I’m done