HTC Hero

[T-Bag]

"please remove from your pants pocket before sitting down"

They're insulting your pockets. I wouldn't stand for that.

If they mean trouser pockets then who would actually do that? If bundled with a case it would be fine in your pocket. Cheapskates.

[smilodon]

I think that comment is in the same context as " Your new microwave unit is not suitable for drying small pets. Do not place pets in the unit for any reason." i.e. a clause that protects them from idiots.

To be honest not may phone manufacturers actually provide a case, although some will give you one of those little bags to put the phone in.


Second impressions. While it's not the utter silky smooth experience the iPhone is, the UI is perfectly fine and very responsive. For anyone worried about the Endgadget video review they must have been using a very early pre release phone (regardless of what they claim) as the lag just isn't there and in fact the calendar works completely differently on my release phone than shown on the video. It's scrolls up and down through the months and not from side to side.

I've only been messing for an evening but I've opened just about every screen and application and everything seem fine. It's also a complete dream to set up, especially if you Gmail, Flickr, facebooks etc.

Next stop Google Marketplace

[OldBloke]

Another review but from the eyes of a (ex)dyed-in-the-wool WinMo man.

[T-Bag]

Now on T-Mobile (as the G2 Touch) Free with Ã,£30 per month. Ã,£200 with Ã,£15pm etc.
So if like me you're on T-Mobile then you can still have this phone.

[smilodon]

OK two days in and I've been using the phone so hard yesterday it needed two charges.

There are loads of good reviews but I thought I'd add a couple of points not really covered fully by the reviews I've read so far.

1. There really is no lag at all. As I've mentioned it's comparable to the iPhone. I had a brief play with Penfolds iPhone at TL's BBQ and the iPhone might just have the edge for silky smooth UI but there really is very little in it. The Hero is rock solid and it's only one or two badly coded apps that seem to have caused any issues.

2. The main thing though is the location stuff. It's not really been covered by the reviews as it requires some of the 3rd party apps from the Google Marketplace. The phone has a compass as mentioned. It also has something called rough GPS. This allows the phone to work out your location to within about 50m by triangulating it's position from moblie phone masts. It obviously has full GPS too, but that uses more battery and will not work indoors. Rough GPS is always on and works anywhere there is a phone signal.

So even with full GPS turmed off the phone knows where it is and what direction you're facing. Two example apps which use these feature are NRU and Movie Finder and there are many more.

So while the Hero is touted as a social netowrking phone, for me it's more of a mobile location aware database. I can find almost any place or venue, learn where it is in relation to me, what it offers, how to get to it and what other people think about it. That's the genius of a smartphone.

Interest Hero v iPhone comparision http://www.phonedog.com/cell-phone-videos/iphone-3gs-vs-htc-hero-dogfight-pt-1.aspx
Interesting to see how much brighter the iPhone screen is. I do still disagree about the lag. It's gone in release versions.

[OldBloke]

Thanks for sharing your thoughts on the Hero, Smilo.

I've convinced myself that I'll need to have the excellent keyboard that comes with the TP2 but the Hero reviews seem to suggest that its on-screen keyboard is excellent too.

In your opinion, would the Hero be suitable for making contributions to a forum and composing emails?

[smilodon]

Well I posted this reply on the HTC Hero . And I've not had to make any manual  corrections so far. However if is Mich slower. I guess I'm typing about one letter a second. That's ok for a short reply like this, but if l was doing a long post it would become a serious problem. If you plan on doing forum administration using a touch screen for example it might be a problem? Invite me up for tea and biccies and you can have a play with mine ooh err

[Gandalf]

Well I posted this reply on the HTC Hero . And I've not had to make any manual  corrections so far. However if is Mich slower. I guess I'm typing about one letter a second. That's ok for a short reply like this, but if l was doing a long post it would become a serious problem. If you plan on doing forum administration using a touch screen for example it might be a problem? Invite me up for tea and biccies and you can have a play with mine ooh err

give it time, once you are used to the keyboard you can type really fast. and if you rotate to landscape, the keyboard grows in size

[smilodon]

http://www.phonedog.com/cell-phone-videos/iphone-3gs-vs-htc-hero-dogfight-pt-2.aspx


keyboard is about 7 minutes in

[T-Bag]

I've been using a touch screen now for nearly 18 months (with Touchpal keyboard). I find when sitting down I can type just as fast as I used to with a regular phone, so I don't mind using it. It's more that when walking the rate drops to a very small fraction of the speed. I'm with you Oldbloke and will be looking for a keyboarded phone, though I'm not sure which yet, the Pre still looks good.

[Bob]

Got any more updates on your experience with the Hero Smilo?

I'll probably be getting my very own in one of the coming days. And I'm so lucky that my work covers both my phone and subscription (have to chip in a wee bit on the phone though, as they have an upper limit for that)

I was a bit in doubt after reading several reviews complaining about lag etc, but since the release I've come across several better reviews, and also what Smilo already has written here - as well as I got my hands on a test model in a store this weekend - and I'm completely positive that this is what I want :wub:

So my question is then: have you learnt any tricks about it? Come across any exceptionally good apps worth checking out? Anything else good you can tell us?

[delanvital]

So my question is then: have you learnt any tricks about it? Come across any exceptionally good apps worth checking out? Anything else good you can tell us?

Be sure to check out the tethering app i link to further up

[smilodon]

Well there really isn't any lag. Now and then a screen will hang for a second and as I've mentioned the touch controls are not quite as sharp as the iPhone, but if you've never used the iPhone then you won't have anything to compare it with and so that shouldn't be an issue. Also the hangs seem to be in certain third party apps so I'm not sure I should even be blaming the phone at all? Basically it's smooth and responsive.

Where (for me) it wipes the floor with the iPhone is multitasking. I was out in London today. I had the mp3 player running continuously but was able to

- have the web browser open on the page of a camera shop, so I could check it's address and if it had stock of what I wanted,

- have Google maps open showing me where it was and which was the nearest tube station to it,

- have the 'Tube Status' app running showing me any tube delays

- and have 'Tube Map' showing me the route between where I was (outside Baker Street) and where I needed to be (Russel Square Station). It also told me where the next train was ( at Finchley Road) and when it would arrive at Baker Street (6 minutes)

I could flick back and forward between these apps and they remained as I left them with the same information showing. So multitasking is an absolute must have. If I shut my browser I can't have it going back to my home page when I flick back to it. It needs to be on exactly the same page I left in on. Likewise Google Maps, Tube Status, Facebook etc etc I believe the iPhone cannot do this and shuts each application completely when you select another. Clearly many users don't see this as a problem as the iPhone has millions of users but I simply don't get it. Imagine a PC where you could only open one program at a time :blink:

The customisable screens are also must haves. Just a page of icons is very limiting. I really like the way I can build my phone to suit my own way of doing stuff. The widgets are excellent. I can see that I have new mail but I can also quickly view them from within the widget so I don't have to actually open the email application and scroll through each mail. I can skim through them in the widget and find the important ones. Then if I want I can tap and go directly to that email in the email app.

The Google Market Place is filling up with loads of apps. Like Apples App Store you'll need to pick the ones that are of use to you but there's literally thousands of apps to choose and about 80% of them are free. Not sure how that compares to Apple?

So I have no regrets about the Hero. I'm even getting used to touch typing which with auto spelling, predictive corrections and a keyboard that can be calibrated to match my way of typing it's getting nearly as fast a my E90's keyboard.

In summary

customisable screens

widgets that allow me to see information from the screens without having to open a specific application (weather, e-mail, SMS, Twitter, etc)

multitasking - which allows me to link together information from different applications i.e web browser, note pad and maps.

[smilodon]

Quick update, we have a patch or two coming as well.

http://www.electronista.com/articles/09/08/18/htc.confirms.hero.update/

[Bob]

Quick update, we have a patch or two coming as well.

Brilliant

I've had my Hero for almost a week now, and I am in no way disappointed. I have intended to write a bit longer post about my thoughts and experiences this far - just havent' had the time yet. Expect this to come All-Of-A-Sudden(TM)