( Sprint ) HTC Hero review – multi-touch features

For:

Outlook contacts, calendar, and email synchronization, 3G support, GPS, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, 5-megapixel camera, 3.5mm headphone jack

Against:

Sluggish performance; needs improvement for Flash support of Web browser; Applications are limited to internal memory; Lacks file manager and media sync software.

The Whiz Kid Speaks:

The HTC Hero is based on CDMA2000 1X technology that supports dual-band of CDMA2000 1X 1900/800. It is powered with 528MHz Qualcomm MSM7600 processor, 512MB ROM and 288MB RAM. Its micro-SD expansion slot accepts up to 32GB cards. The operating system is Google Android 1.6.

The supported wireless interfaces are Bluetooth 2.1 EDR, and IEEE 802.11b/g. 3.2 inches capacitive touch screen has 320×480 pixels resolution. 5-megapixel camera features geo-tagging, Footprints application, and video-recording.

The connector set includes 1×Data port – 11 pin HTC ExtUSB, and 1×3.5mm Headset jack – Mini-phone. 1500mAH lithium ion battery has a life of 250 minutes talk time and 360 hours of idle standby time. Accessories supplied inside the package are user manual, 2GB micro-SD card, USB cable, and power adapter.

Razzle Dazzle:

The HTC Hero is 4.46 inches tall, 2.2 inches wide, and 0.54 inch deep and weighs 4.5 ounces. It does not give plastic or slick feel while holding in hand. The complete body with brushed metal plate has soft-touch finish.

Inside Dope:

The Sprint is offering its first Android smartphone – HTC Hero. At the time of launch, it was the latest Google Android device available. It looks like its GSM counterpart of Europe. It features multi-touch screen, 3.5mm headset jack, Outlook contact and calendar synchronization, Wi-Fi, 5-megapixel camera, 3G support, GPS, and Bluetooth. The HTC has also added the Sense user interface and redefined the hardware for better performance. However, the Hero smartphone suffers with some faults as well. Its performance is a bit sluggish and still we would like to see some improvements by adding file management and media sync system. It does not have a great appeal like the Apple iPhone and the Palm Pre. The Hero is available for $179.99 with two-year Sprint contract after a mail-in-rebate of $100. It is important to mention here that you have to sign up for unlimited data plan additionally to take all the benefits from the Hero. More to like – it looks better than T-Mobile MyTouch 3G and the G1.

Design

The 3.5mm headphone jack sits on the top of device; while mini-USB/power port is located on the bottom. The volume rocker is on the left side, whereas the camera is on the back. As usual, the micro-SD card slot is located behind the battery door.

Display

3.2 inches capacitive touch-screen of the HTC Hero has 480×320 pixels resolution. It features inbuilt light sensor to adjust the display brightness as per surroundings, and accelerometer to rotate the display on tilting the phone. However, the accelerometer works in certain applications including Web browser, photos, and email. There is a bit delay in the screen orientation. We are disappointed that the Hero also does not have proximity sensor to lock the screen while holding the phone to your ears on calls. In contrast, there are multi-touch and pinch-to-zoom features.

Navigation Array and QWERTY keyboard

The navigation array is located beneath the display and consists of Talk button, Home shortcut, back button, Google Search, trackball navigator, and End key. There is HTC virtual QWERTY keyboard. It has spacious keys and provides haptic feedback.  The keyboard also rotates from portrait mode to landscape mode on tilting the phone. The HTC Hero also has advanced text functions including auto correction, word prediction, and spell check. For copying the text you can drag the finger on the text or highlight it using trackball. You can do push the trackball or press it long to paste. This copy and paste process is much simpler than that on Palm Pre.

HTC Sense User Interface

HTC has included its Sense UI to the Google Android smartphone. It is much like the TouchFlo 3D interface for Windows Mobile. However, the Sense UI provides more customization options like seven home screen panels that can be navigated by sweeping your finger from left to right. You can add various widgets and shortcuts at each panel. Some of the widgets are Twitter, Footprints to add geo-tag on pictures. It also has some Scenes that allow changing the phone theme, which includes Travel, HTC, Play, Work, and Social.

Calling and Contact Management System

The calling features of the HTC Hero are Visual Voice mail, speed dial, conference calling, voice dialing, and speakerphone.

The contact management system of the Hero is quite similar to the Synergy function of the Palm Pre. While setting up the phone first time, you can provide login information for your social networking and email accounts. The smartphone will import all the contacts automatically in its phonebook. It also helps to get rid of duplicates.

Messaging Features

The messaging features are text and multimedia messages, instant messenger (GTalk), email app for POP3/IMAP4/SMTP accounts, and support for Microsoft Exchange Server via Outlook Web Access (OWA). You can also sync the Outlook and Google calendar using the Calendar app. There is also Documents to Go for viewing the attachments.

Advanced Highlights

The HTC Hero has Google HTML browser that supports to access Flash content. The browser features full screen view in landscape mode, copy/paste, visual bookmarks, and sharing of URLs via SMS, email, Twitter, and Facebook. The smartphone comes with preinstalled Google services including Google Calendar, Google Maps, and Google Search. You will also find PDF viewer, voice recorder, calculator, a clock, Peep (Twitter app), and Facebook. There is also Android Market that has 8000 and more applications in its catalog. You can download and install these applications on internal memory, but not on micro-SD card.

The advanced highlights are EV-Do Rev. A network support, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth. The onboard Bluetooth 2.0 supports audio/video remote control, personal area networking, files transfer, hands-free kits, stereo and mono headsets, and so forth.

Camera

The 5-megapixel camera features Footprints app, geo-tagging, and video recording. The Footprints application allows to capture the location co-ordinates, add text and voice notes, plot on Google Maps, and then export them. The other camera features are ISO settings, effects, flicker adjustment, auto-focus, zoom, and so forth. The overall picture quality is average. There is little shutter lag while capturing the images. You can view the pictures in Albums application and share them via MMS, email, Twitter, Flickr, and Facebook. The videos can be shared via MMS, email and YouTube.

Media Player

The inbuilt media player supports WMA9, WAV, AMR-NB, MIDI, AAC, and Mp3 audio formats. It features play-lists, playback controls including backward and forward, shuffle and repeat modes. As there is no sync software available for Android devices, so you can transfer the music via USB cable and micro-SD card. The songs can also be purchased and downloaded through Amazon MP3.

Sprint Services

Sprint has also included its services such as Nascar Sprint Cup Mobile, NFL Mobile Life, and Sprint Navigation. However, these services are included with Simply Everything Plan.

Call Quality

We made few calls through dual-band based the HTC Hero via Sprint for testing. We received loud and clear sound with some background noise. The callers received good sound at their end. The overall call quality was average. The speakerphone calls were also good with loud sound. We did not get any problem while making Bluetooth headsets calls.

Battery Life

The HTC Hero has 1500mAH lithium ion battery that has a life of 4 hours talk time.

Verdict:

If you need a smartphone with good feature set and can overcome a bit slow performance, then the HTC Hero is a good smartphone to buy.