HTC Hero

amazon HTC Hero reviews

Design and Build Quality

The HTC Hero was a striking departure from the design of previous smartphones, particularly in the Android ecosystem. One of its most distinctive features was the “chin,” a slight curve at the bottom of the device that angled the screen upwards. This design choice was not just aesthetic but also functional, as it made the phone more comfortable to hold and use, especially during calls. The chin also helped protect the screen from scratches when the phone was placed face-down.

The Hero featured a 3.2-inch capacitive touchscreen with a resolution of 320×480 pixels. This was a standard resolution at the time, and while it may seem modest by today’s standards, it was more than adequate for most tasks in 2009. The display was bright and colorful, with good viewing angles, although it struggled slightly in direct sunlight.

The body of the HTC Hero was made of plastic, but it had a solid and premium feel, thanks to its soft-touch finish. The phone was available in several colors, including white, brown, and graphite. The white version, in particular, was notable for its Teflon coating, which made it more resistant to scratches and smudges.

The Hero had a physical trackball below the screen, which was a common feature in smartphones at the time. The trackball allowed for precise navigation and was particularly useful for tasks like selecting text or navigating menus. Alongside the trackball were physical buttons for home, menu, back, and search, as well as call and end buttons. This combination of touch and physical controls made the Hero very user-friendly, especially for those transitioning from feature phones.

The HTC Hero is made from good materials. Except for the LCD screen, the whole case is made of dull metal, which is great to hold on the hand. In addition, the Hero does not sweat or dust, the size of the machine is 112 x 56.2 x 14.4 mm, weighs 135 grams, not thin compared to most other smartphones.

When HTC introduced the first images, many people were hesitant about designing the curved display below the screen. Although, this design has previously appeared on Dream (G1) and Magic, but the Hero is more pronounced. Actual use shows, the tilt up does not reduce the friendliness of the hand, put in the pocket, pants. Unknown to HTC, but the Hero is a distinctive feature, compared to straightforward smartphones today.

Below the screen, there are up to 6 shortcut buttons including call, menu, back and trackball with the ball will light up. Hero’s key system works better than Magic.

Like many of HTC’s mobile phones, the two charging lines and connecting to the computer are via the miniUSB interface. However, the Hero can plug a standard 3.5mm headphone jack at the top. The left side of the machine is the volume up and down keys.

Hero’s 3.2-inch screen, HVGA 320 x 480 pixel resolution, capacitive touch. This size is equivalent to Magic, but adds dust resistance.

Compared to the configuration, the Hero is almost identical to the HTC Magic. The machine runs on GSM networks, supports 7.2 Mbps HSPA download speeds and 2 Mbps uploads. In addition, users can also use Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and GPS.

The difference from Magic is that the Hero possesses a Sense interface. Instead of the Android home screen with 3 pages sliding across, the new model allows the scroll pan to the left, right to go into the shortcut just like TouchFLO.

In addition to the shortcuts, HTC also equipped with new widgets on the Sense interface, in the first version of the default table, users can use the first 12 different widgets from social networking Twitter to weather, Wi- Fi, GPS, Bluetooth …

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Like HTC’s TouchFLO, HTC is refreshing the Hero’s contact list. Users can see the full details of phone numbers, addresses, and details of incoming calls, as well as messages, emails, even Facbook, Twitter, and Flickr with different tabs.

Technology that HTC uses on the Hero is capacitive touch similar to the iPhone, but the operating system does not support multitouch. But the actual test shows that the web browser supports multitouch in the two-finger zoom, but other apps do not appear.

However, it can be seen that Hero’s browser is nothing more than Safari on the iPhone at finger speed and ability to control, the display is slightly dark and does not have the sharpness as Apple’s mobile. However, the Hero browser supports flash, users can watch live video and play flash games.

Like other Android mobile models, the Hero is equipped with many Google features such as Gmail, calendar, contacts sync or watch movies on YouTube with the accompanying gadget. In addition, users can go to the Android Market app store to download other programs.

The 5 megapixel camera on the back of the camera supports autofocus. Photographs were relatively good, but the camera was slow, especially under some light conditions, which required a firm hold, avoiding shake to reduce blur.

Hero has 512MB internal memory and can be expanded with SDHC memory card. The card slot is located behind the battery cover.

One of the surprising is that the Hero has 288 megabytes of RAM, using a pretty heavy Sense interface, but runs very smoothly. It’s only a little slower when using many applications like HTC Clock or Peep Twitter, but it’s not that great.

Pin on the machine more impressive than the Magic. It takes two days to recharge even when using a variety of battery-consuming gadgets like browsing, downloading, playing Twitter. However, users should turn off automatic modes like Gmail sync constantly.

User Experience

The HTC Hero offered a user experience that was ahead of its time in many ways. The combination of HTC Sense and Android provided a rich, customizable environment that appealed to both tech enthusiasts and casual users. The phone’s design, with its distinctive chin and comfortable form factor, made it easy to use one-handed, which was a significant advantage in an era when smartphones were rapidly increasing in size.

The capacitive touchscreen was responsive and accurate, making it easy to navigate the interface and use apps. The inclusion of physical buttons and a trackball added to the overall usability, giving users multiple ways to interact with the device. This was particularly important for tasks that required precision, such as editing text or selecting small on-screen elements.

One of the standout features of the HTC Hero was its integration of social networking. HTC Sense brought together contacts, messages, and updates from multiple sources, creating a unified communication experience. This was a precursor to the deep social media integration that would become standard in later versions of Android and other mobile operating systems.

The Hero also had a robust web browsing experience, thanks to its inclusion of the WebKit-based browser. While the browser was not as fast or feature-rich as modern browsers, it was more than capable of handling most websites, including those with complex layouts and multimedia content. The addition of Flash Lite support allowed the Hero to display some Flash content, though this was limited and often resulted in slower performance.

However, the HTC Hero was not without its flaws. As the Android ecosystem evolved, the Hero’s hardware began to show its age. The limited RAM and processing power meant that the phone struggled with newer apps and more demanding tasks. Multitasking could be slow, and users often had to manage their apps carefully to avoid running out of memory.

Another issue was the lack of official software updates beyond Android 2.1. While the Android community developed custom ROMs to bring newer versions of Android to the Hero, these unofficial updates were not supported by HTC and often came with their own set of issues, such as reduced stability or missing features.

Strength

– Beautiful interface and professional

– Robust design, good material

– 3.5 mm connector

– Multi-touch browser

– Battery healthy

Weak

– Slow camera

– Not yet supported for video calling