HTC’s first Android device for the Indian market was a downer. I would say it was a futile attempt to give Indians an Android device but cripple it by locking it down to Airtel and give no possible way to gain access to the Android market. Soon after, HTC introduced the Hero, an Android device with the refreshing Sense UI and full access to Google’s Android market.
Design:
HTC really upped the Hero when it comes to its design. We totally dig the phone’s matte body offering superior grip and its unique chin design. You’ll be happy to know that the white version of Hero comes with Teflon-coating to repel dirt as well as save from finger smudges. The face is covered by a large 3.2-inch HVGA display and with the trackball, call/end, home, menu, search, back buttons placed beneath it. The left side is taken by the volume controls, bottom with a miniUSB port for charging, top with a standard 3.5mm audio jack and rear sporting a 5MP camera auto focus lens.
Despite all the good things, the design comes with its flaws. The back and the search buttons are placed on the chin and since using it frequently tends to become a bit irritating and uncomfortable for the thumb to access the buttons with ease.
Display:
HTC Hero sports a 3.2-inch capacitive touchscreen display with support for HVGA resolution. The screen’s similar to Magic and has the same responsiveness and clarity when it comes to using it. However, one thing that’s present in this screen is multi-touch. Multi-touch gestures don’t work everywhere but it sure becomes handy when you know where to use it. You might also want to keep a cloth at your disposal because the screen is a fingerprint magnet.
Sense UI:
HTC stole our hearts when they came out with an innovative TouchFLO UI to spruce up the aging Windows Mobile. And though, we expected the same TouchFLO to be ported on the Android versions, HTC threw in a user interface dubbed as Sense.
The new UI unlike Android’s stock UI claims to bring everything under the Sense umbrella. It emphasizes on Make it Mine, Stay Close and Discover the Unexpected. The first part gives user the liberty to place different widgets of different things according to his priority. The second part takes every communication related to a contact and puts it under one channel for easy viewing. For instance, a contact’s details, twitter/facebook updates, flickr photos, email, call history can be viewed in a single view. Finally the third part offers to give unexpected features like improving the dialer to make calls quickly and more.
Since the Sense UI runs atop the operating system, it tends to get slow if you try to access lots of multimedia content from the memory card. Otherwise, it’s one step forward compared to Android’s bland UI.
Camera:
HTC Hero has a camera lens situated at the back of the phone capable of clicking pictures at 5MP resolution. The still photo camera quality won’t suffice the best of photographers but it sure gets the work done. The images churned out were good but the lack of some kind of flash (LED or Xenon) or a dedicated camera key breaks the deal. I’m surprised HTC left out a camera key since taking pictures by clicking the trackball is really cumbersome.
On the video front, it’s capable of recording videos at a resolution of 352×288, which is a disappointment. Expectedly, videos aren’t that great and the need for at least VGA recording was badly felt.
Multimedia Playback:
Hero takes care of various multimedia playback formats by way of its preloaded media player. For the music, the phone handles MP3, AAC, WAV and WMA and needless to say, it does its job as expected. The sound output was good on the loudspeakers and since I can hook any headphones with a standard 3.5mm jack, the audio quality was really good coupled with my favorite headphones.
For videos, it supports MPEG-4, H.263, H.264 and WMV. Watching videos on its 3.2-inch display is a treat, provided you’ve converted a video fitted best for Hero’s resolution. It would’ve been nicer if HTC included out-of-the-box DivX/Xvid playback.
Android Market:
Access to Android Market repository means endless potential to download and try out new apps and games. Setting it up is really easy as it only needs a gmail account to start with. Keying in the right username/password and accepting the terms & conditions instantly gives an access to thousands of Android apps.
Extra Features:
Hero’s feature set doesn’t end here. The phone boasts various sensors to enhance battery life, internal GPS, Wi-Fi, browser with Flash support and 3G. The internal GPS can be quickly made to use by installing Google Maps. However, I would love to see an offline maps provider so I don’t have to connect to the internet to find the right way. As for the Chrome browser, it sure is an improvement as it brings Flash support.
Battery:
Hero comes with a 1350mAh battery and its high capacity is evident with the usage. The phone has an impressive battery life that gave me around 1-1.5 days of juice. Do note the full day usage came with a heavy load of Wi-Fi and decent amount of calls.
Conclusion:
HTC has decent amount of Android handsets in the market but Hero is by far the most superior attempt of all. Right from the hardware set to the software, HTC has tried to emphasize on everything and has, in fact, succeeded in some areas but not all. Hero is a good phone, worth for its money but you can’t term it as a must-have since it has room for improvements. Hero currently retails around the Rs. 25k range in India.
Rating: 
Pros: Sense UI, Build Quality
Cons: Camera performance, no dedicated camera key or flash, Back button placed on chin
One app that can really improve the usability of the Hero is Screebl. It’s an app that keeps the phone’s screen on based on the orientation of the phone. When holding the phone in front of you, the screen stays on. Set it down next to you, and a few seconds later the screen turns off. Very convenient and can save power too!
See http://keyeslabs.com/joomla/index.php/projects/screebl
Euughhh…Shoot the Designer!!! Seriously I’m sure it’s a great phone but its damn ugly. I won’t be buying one as I’m a self confessed Tart.
good phone, like the gsm version better. like the processor and the email is nice. also like how practical it is. bought one off of gsmallover.com and so far it’s been good. i give it a 7 out of 10. will probably get the new bold2 if this doesn’t work out.