HTC Hero review

I like it

Yes!

By yorkshirelad on 11 Aug 2009

Erk

It looks like one of those lilos you find at a holiday resort. Not impressed.

By ichimp on 11 Aug 2009

Mr Danton

"Opt for T-Mobile, and you’ll be paying £34.26 inc VAT for an 18-month contract, with a 1TB-per- month data cap"

1TB? Are you sure?

Nice review, can't say it'll make me switch from my WinMo device at the minute though. There's just some things that are too good to give up, like mobile office and seamless outlook integration. The UI of this does appear to be very slick though, and compared to the G1 it's a much more aesthetically pleasing device.

By zeropitch on 11 Aug 2009

Terabytes?

@zeropitch Thanks for pointing this out - a slip of the finger, as you might have guessed! Now corrected in the review.

I agree about the lack of Windows integration being its big disadvantage. Nevertheless, I'm very tempted by it myself.

By TimDanton on 11 Aug 2009

TODO

Really like the new design.

TODO:
1/ Fix the News RSS feed. Blog RSS does work.
2/ Print article feature should print the whole article. Currently prints only the current page.

By c6ten on 11 Aug 2009

Bugs

@c6ten Thanks for this. We're working on the RSS feeds and the print out issue. Hopefully both will be fixed soon!

By TimDanton on 11 Aug 2009

Monitoring Feedback

Might I suggest that someone monitor the Forums for feedback re the changes/bugs?
One example: Widget which shows how may are/who is online is missing?

By incognitii on 11 Aug 2009

A bit sensationalised

HTC aren't dropping Windows Mobile from the line up, and Android is still very much an exception in their product range. Give it a few weeks and a ROM update will likely appear to make it a Windows Mobile phone by the guys and girls over at xda-developers.com.

By Phil_Z on 11 Aug 2009

Windows Mobile Guide

Where can I find this useful-sounding guide to using Windows Mobile phones for business?

By Peter_Tennant on 12 Aug 2009

Re: Windows Mobile Guide

Link now added!

By DavidBayon on 12 Aug 2009

G2 or HTC Hero

Is there a difference between the HTC Hero and the T-Mobile version (the G2)? I've been told the techie specs can vary from supplier to supplier...?

By abuzertahir on 12 Aug 2009

G2 or HTC Hero

Is there a difference between the HTC Hero and the T-Mobile version (the G2)? I've been told the techie specs can vary from supplier to supplier...?

By abuzertahir on 12 Aug 2009

good game Brucie

a bit chinny, deal breaker!!!

By Gz_nigelcarter1a on 13 Aug 2009

I've been WinMobile since day 1 and now I have got the Hero ... and it has (so far) been worth the swap, very pleased with it.

By a7awo on 13 Aug 2009

Just noticed that the IPhone is on the A-List for smartphones ... unsure about that with the Hero on the market. The iPhone doesn't even multi-task does it?

By a7awo on 13 Aug 2009

pricing

can be had on t-mobile for £20 month including 3GB data. hand set priced at about £50 IIRC.
very tempting.....

By darkhairedlord on 14 Aug 2009

I went for the iPhone

The big downside to the iPhone for me is that it doesn't support DivX or AVI files. Oh and Apple's control over what software I can run.
Not being able to multitask doesn't matter to me. I've had Windows Mobile and S60 phones for years now, and I can tell you the benefits are outweighed by how slow and unresponsive the device can get. Palm got it right in 1998 by deciding applications should simply 'mimic' multitasking by remembering their state. In fact the IM apps for the iPhone all use a remote server to keep you connected, rather than the traditional method of your phone keeping the connection - so you save a lot of battery life.

So glad I went for the iPhone, but I can see the appeal of a less restricted device.

By ManicMarc on 16 Aug 2009

Battery Life

I wonder what the battery life it like.
The iPhone's battery life is brilliant - until you do some web surfing, watch a video, or make a phone call.
Phones are becoming more like laptops, I often sit listening to an audiobook with it plugged in!

By ManicMarc on 16 Aug 2009

Great phone if you don't use a proxy

I just received my Hero a couple of days and it's frankly brilliant. It could do with a faster processor or at least further performance tweeking, but you don't often notice a lag.

My gripe comes from there being no way to set a proxy for internet access. I want to use this phone at work as well as home and I feel rather silly for not checking this in advance. You generally just assume such functionality as being standard. There is allegedly a way to do it by getting into the cofig files of the OS itself but that's not what i'd call practical. If i'm missing something then please enlighten me. Otherwise this is a fantastic machine that really is a true Iphone competitor.

By hjl4354 on 17 Aug 2009

Great phone if you don't use a proxy

I just received my Hero a couple of days and it's frankly brilliant. It could do with a faster processor or at least further performance tweeking, but you don't often notice a lag.

My gripe comes from there being no way to set a proxy for internet access. I want to use this phone at work as well as home and I feel rather silly for not checking this in advance. You generally just assume such functionality as being standard. There is allegedly a way to do it by getting into the cofig files of the OS itself but that's not what i'd call practical. If i'm missing something then please enlighten me. Otherwise this is a fantastic machine that really is a true Iphone competitor.

By hjl4354 on 17 Aug 2009

Taken Plunge

I have finally taken the plunge and bought one of these baby's to replace my ageing MDA Vario and Treo 750. Delayed due to out of stock (some 20hrs after ordering). Question:how are people getting on when switching from hardware keyboards found on above type phones to using the touch-screen versions?

By darkhairedlord on 19 Aug 2009

Graet Phone

I actually like the looks, nice and geeky. Potential buyers might be interested by this:

http://gizmodo.com/5340981/software-update-fixes-t
he-htc-heros-only-real-problem

By Kid_Spock on 20 Aug 2009

Reading PDF files & other docs

Could I use it for reading PDF files and other documents stored on the phone? Can one search within PDF files, etc? What about searching across all files stored on the phone?

If you can't edit docs, is there any notepad-like facility?

By hugheagle on 20 Aug 2009

PDF's

HugeHagle-

Yes, comes with pdf reader. pretty essential as the manual is in pdf on the memory card!
Phone is not as well built as my Treo's (600 and 750) but hey-ho I doubt if you'll find anything that is! Beginning to miss the treo's hardware keypad though!

By darkhairedlord on 21 Aug 2009

Thanks. I've now downloaded the manual and see that you can Search within the PDF Reader app. What about searching for files stored on the phone that contain keywords?

I'm puzzled by the lack of editing of Google Docs. This seems to imply that the browser is not fully functional. What else is missing from the browser?

One of the criticisms of early versions of the iPhone was that there was no copy & paste. Is this included in the Hero? Can one for example a URL from the browser and paste it into an email?

By hugheagle on 21 Aug 2009

Answering one of my questions: the manual specifically mentions copying a URL and pasting into an email. Googling throws up mentions of a "system clipboard", so the facility seems to be there provided that the programmers of individual apps use it.

By hugheagle on 21 Aug 2009

International roaming

I'm aware that the iPhone is notoriously expensive to use abroad, so I wonder whether the Hero would be better in this respect ... for example could I buy a SIM in each country that I visit to slot into an unlocked Hero?

A couple of our local phone shops said that there were technical reasons why it would be difficult to connect a Hero (or a G1) to a new network. The T-Mobile shops said (after checking with head office) that if I took in an unlocked Hero they would not be able to supply me with either a PAYG deal or a monthly contract for it. Can this be right? Even if it's wrong, how can I be sure that I won't get the same answer when I ask the same question in a foreign country?

By hugheagle on 21 Aug 2009

Google Docs

Hugh-
Full google docs support is something they are working on for android and I would expect this to be a top priority (given the obvios benefits)

By darkhairedlord on 21 Aug 2009

International roaming

I went back to the T-Mobile shop today and spoke to a different salesman. He said that the "G2 Touch" (or an unlocked Hero) could not be used on a T-Mobile PAYG deal because it's internet connection is "always on".

Some googling seems to confirm this. For example read this horror story:
http://androidcommunity.com/t-mobile-g1-a-true-alw
ays-on-connection-20081203/

Is this a feature that is peculiar to T-Mobile, or would I find the same problem with any other provider?

By hugheagle on 22 Aug 2009

Speed

I got this as an upgrade on my Orange contract. At first, I thought it was brilliant - battery life aside - but over the week I noticed it woud slow down more and more. I installed TasKiller, to try to resolve this, but the brutal fact is that the processor can't handle what the phone tries to do. If you remove the HTC SenseUI app, and resort to the straightforward Android skin, it is quicker, but this loses a lot of the funcitonality of the phone in the first place. It got to the stage where pushing the 'People' button, to bring up my contacts, would take the best part of 5 seconds to ope, and then flicking through the list was jerky and unresponsive.

The problems I found I think are due to the fact that it tries to update all your facebook etc.. contacts when you open it, coupled with the fact that the processor doesn't ru nat full speed all the time - to save battery, probably. As a result, once you have turned the screen on, and done some stuff', it feels more zippy - but as soon as the screen goes black (after 5 seconds inactivity) you're back to square one again.

Brilliant phone design, lovely UI - just too slow for now. Stay away, and get the next HTC android phone which will resolve these issues!

By Demiurge82 on 28 Aug 2009

Some answers to questions posed above

I bought a Hero and am delighted with it. Since it was your podcast and this review that first put me onto the Hero, thanks very much, Tim!

In case anyone stumbles upon this thread in future, here are answers to the questions I posed above:

Yes, there is a PDF Reader which is pretty good. I have been able to read very big PDF files with it. The only significant drawback that I have found is that, although it is easy to use the touch-screen to zoom in and out and scroll around pages, it is not possible to make text flow within the screen in the same way as in the web Browser; consequently, I often find I need to make the text uncomfortably small in order to fit a column into the screen width. It's still readable, but a bit harder on the eyes than I would like.

There is a preinstalled App called Quick Office which reads Word docs, spreadsheets, etc. However, it is very limited. You can't create new documents or edit existing ones with it, and it can't cope with large document files. However, you can easily obtain Ebook reader software from the Android Market.

One can search within files in all the Apps I've tried.

There is no system-wide search, but Google are said to be working on this for a future release of the operating system.

There is no pre-installed Notepad facility, but there is a voice recorder and you can easily obtain Notepad apps from the Android Market.

I've not noticed any browser limitations apart from the inability to access Google Docs.

The unlocked Hero I bought was extremely easy to get going with a PAYG SIM from 3. The shop assistants who advised me otherwise clearly didn't know what they were talking about!

It is very easy to switch 3G Mobile Data access on and off (and the status is clearly shown on the Home screen) so it should be easy to avoid running up big phone bills.

I've not yet experienced any of the speed issues described by Demiurge82, but I've not yet connected to Facebook. The word on the forums is that speed should be much improved by a software update which is expected soon.

By hugheagle on 9 Sep 2009

Rom update now available: Great improvement on speeds with updated ROM

Have just updated the ROM (orange) from the HTC UK site. Much inproved speed when changing applications and multitasking. Video now plays without any glitches.

Glad I have gone for this phone. Thanks to HTC for a great and very sensible design and operating flow.

By FlutePRO on 22 Sep 2009

Link to the price/phone is wrong

Link to the price/phone is wrong: it has nothing to do with the phone. It looks like someone is having a free ad ride on your site...

By raritzu on 2 Dec 2009

Great device, poor phone

Been using the Hero for a few weeks now, and love lots of the apps and its PDA functionality. But finding it a very poor phone.

Very slow (I can press "Call" and be down two floors of stairs before it actually starts dialling) as a phone. (It's also more than once that I've answered a call by accident, but before it's actually rung.)

I've yet to make the People directory work to make a call - it usually freezes, freezes the phone, then crashes the process. I've taken to using my iPod Touch to get people's numbers.

There is one particular quirk that strikes me as odd - turning the thing off. Hold down a button, select an option on the screen and the confirm the option, again on screen.

Given that, if it's crashed, each action can take 30 seconds, rebooting the phone can be a slow process...

By tquinlan on 23 Jul 2010