HTC Hero
The HTC Hero has been an object of lust for some time now for gadget enthusiasts. Even from the earliest days of leaked hardware shots and blurry demo videos of its UI, smartphone fans seemed to agree that the company had finally achieved what has been missing in the world of Android. Namely, a polished and attractive device -- polished enough to go head-to-head with the iPhone -- that kept its open source heart. So, here we are months later with an actual, bona fide Hero in our midst. Yes the reports were true, it is a beautiful device, both inside and out (though of course opinions differ on that chin). But does being a beautiful device mean Android is about to move to a bigger stage? Is HTC's spit-shine enough to overcome some of the hurdles that have plagued the platform? That question -- and more -- is answered in the text below, so read on for the full review.
Industrial design
In terms of overall design and layout, the Hero is very much a product of evolution. Like its forebears the G1 (or Dream) and MyTouch (or Magic / Ion), the general stats like screen size, technology, and resolution, button placement, unit size and weight, and basic aesthetic are pure HTC. Like those previous devices, the Hero contains a smattering of hardware buttons on the base (or chin as some call it) of the phone, including a home, menu, back, send, end, and dedicated search key. The device also sports a trackball in this area, which shouldn't surprise any Android aficionados.
Where the Hero breaks from convention, however, is in the overall look and feel of the phone. If the Dream and Magic felt plasticky and cheap (they did), the Hero is quite the opposite -- it's like a solid brick in your hand. The casing is made of a soft-touch material (Teflon on the white version to prevent dirt), and the shape of the device takes a much more severe, almost rectangular slant. The buttons along the bottom are small, evenly spaced ovals (save for the search and back key -- we'll get to that), the earpiece is covered in a stylish mesh, and the volume rocker on the side is a smooth, single button. The screen also uses a new oleophobic treatment (similar to the iPhone 3GS), and thankfully HTC has added a 3.5mm headphone jack to the top of the phone.
Internals
The guts of the Hero should seem familiar to most gadget buffs -- they're essentially identical to HTC's Magic (at least the Rogers version). What does that mean for you, end user? It means you're stuck with the same Qualcomm 528MHz CPU, the same 288MB of RAM, and a paltry 512MB ROM. The onboard radios include WiFi, GPS, Bluetooth, and a quad-band HSPA cell chip. The model we tested is the European release of the phone, and as such is only able to access EDGE networks here in America. Luckily for us we don't leave the house much, so most of the time we were on WiFi. So just to be clear, beyond the new screen coating, industrial design, and improved camera, this phone is the HTC Magic inside.
Screen
The display on the Hero is gorgeous, no doubt. Using a similar smudge resistant material as the iPhone 3GS, it certainly seems to repel oil, though you'll still find yourself wiping it clean on a regular basis. The 3.2-inch, 480 x 320 capacitive touchscreen works well, but not notably better than its predecessors -- in terms of color and clarity, however, the Hero's LCD is on par with the competition. One nice added feature is a proper light sensor here, so automatic dimming works as it should, whereas neither the Dream nor the Magic can take advantage of the eye- and battery-saving functionality. There's nothing particularly special about this screen, however we noted a bit less blurring while scrolling through long pages or detailed images, a problem which we've been bothered by with the Hero's Android brothers. One problem that plagued the unit we were testing was screen freeze ups -- it just simply wouldn't accept any input. This seemed to happen mainly on the homescreen, which made us feel like it might be more of a software problem than a hardware issue (we'll get to that momentarily).
Camera
The Hero's 5 megapixel camera is pretty darn amazing, we must say. Coming off of most devices with their paltry 3-or-so megapixel entries, it's a real treat to have an onboard cam which can actually stand in for a proper shooter. While the image quality isn't up there with dedicated point-and-shoots, it's certainly leaps and bounds better than the nearest competitor, with near-macro focus length. We take a little bit of issue with HTC's UI design on the camera app -- using the sometimes-slippery trackball for both zooming and snapping shots seems kind of ill-advised to us, though we didn't have much trouble with it (a toggle to cancel zooming would be nice). As with most phone cameras, the colors weren't quite as vivid as we would have liked -- bright hues somehow came out murky with the Hero -- but we weren't expecting the world here. HTC seems to have tweaked shutter speeds and processing as well, as snapping photos was noticeably faster than on the earlier Android phones, though we still think the iPhone 3GS and Pre feel tighter (of course the Pre doesn't have to worry about that pesky focusing stuff).
On the other hand, video recording on the Hero wasn't quite as awesome an experience as still photos were; the maximum resolution is a pathetic 352 x 288, and even at that resolution we experienced noticeable hiccups and stalls in our videos. We're not asking for much, but we'd at least like some smooth VGA here. If you plan on using this for any kind of decent video -- think again.
Speaker
We're big speakerphone users, so the external audio of a device is actually important to us (besides, how else can we entertain friends with the "Ras Trent" video while out and about?). The speaker on the Hero is definitely up to the task, producing loud and clear audio while on calls or listening to music. Of course, no one is really going to jam this way very much, but at the very least you can make our your tracks pretty clearly. For calls, the speaker and microphone seemed pretty outstanding to us (we were testing mostly with T-Mobile, mind you).
Battery life
We were impressed with the Hero's staying power, though we'll reserve our final judgments till we have a device running US 3G to look at. On EDGE / WiFi, we saw impressive, full day use with a single charge. Standby didn't seem to pull much power, though it was obvious that many of the widget updates were just waiting till we woke the phone up, which made for maddening floods of syncing and updating (a real drain on speed). Overall, the Hero beats the pants off of our G1, and gives the Magic a run for its money. Battery life was favorable in comparison with the iPhone 3GS, and obviously puts the Pre in a world of hurt.
General
2G Network GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900
3G Network HSDPA 900 / 2100
HSDPA 850 / 1900 - American version
Size
Dimensions 112 x 56.2 x 14.4 mm
Weight 135 g
Display
Type TFT capacitive touchscreen, 65K colors
Size 320 x 480 pixels, 3.2 inches
- Sense UI
- Multi-touch input method
- Accelerometer sensor for auto-rotate
- Trackball
Sound
Alert types Vibration; Downloadable polyphonic, MP3, WAV ringtones
Speakerphone Yes
- 3.5 mm audio jack
Memory
Phonebook Practically unlimited entries and fields, Photocall
Call records Practically unlimited
Internal 288 MB RAM, 512 MB ROM
Card slot microSD (TransFlash)
Data
GPRS Class 10 (4+1/3+2 slots), 32 - 48 kbps
HSCSD
EDGE Class 10, 236.8 kbps
3G HSDPA, 7.2 Mbps; HSUPA, 2.0 Mbps
WLAN Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g
Bluetooth v2.0 with A2DP
Infrared port No
USB, miniUSB
Camera
Primary 5 MP, 2592 x 1944 pixels, autofocus
Video
Features
OS Android OS, v1.5
CPU Qualcomm MSM 7200A 528 MHz processor
Messaging SMS(threaded view), MMS, Email, Instant Messaging
Browser HTML
Games
Colors Brown, White (teflon coating), Graphite, Black, Pink
GPS Yes, with A-GPS support
Java Via third party application
- Digital compass
- Dedicated search key
- Scenes quick profile switcher
- MP3/AAC+/WAV/WMA9 player
- MPEG-4/H.263/H.264/WMV9 player
- Voice memo
Battery
Standard battery, Li-Ion 1350 mAh
Stand-by Up to 440 h (2G) / Up to 750 h (3G)
Talk time Up to 8 h (2G) / Up to 7 h (3G)
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