Yay! Finally I bought HTC Hero for my personal use. I was actually waiting for iPhone 3GS to launch (legally) in India, but unfortunately there was no news from official sources.
I wasn’t very much sure about buying HTC’s phone as they don’t have much reputation in India like Nokia and other cell phone distributors. So, yesterday I took the decision and bought my ‘Hero’ for Rs.32k.
I have used iPhone in the past and I very well know its good features as well as bad features. Now, it would be easy for me to write a review of HTC Hero.
HTC Hero Specifications:
Processor – Qualcomm® MSM7200A™, 528 MHz
Operating System – Android™
Memory – ROM: 512 MB, RAM: 288 MB
Display – 3.2-inch TFT-LCD touch-sensitive screen with 320×480 HVGA resolution
Network
HSPA/WCDMA:
- 900/2100 MHz
- Up to 2 Mbps up-link and 7.2 Mbps down-link speeds
Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE:
- 850/900/1800/1900 MHz
Device Control - Trackball with Enter button
GPS - Internal GPS antenna
Connectivity
- Bluetooth® 2.0 with Enhanced Data Rate and A2DP for wireless stereo headsets
- Wi-Fi®: IEEE 802.11 b/g
- HTC ExtUSB™ (11-pin mini-USB 2.0 and audio jack in one)
- 3.5 mm audio jack
Camera
5.0 megapixel color camera with auto focus
Audio supported formats
MP3, AAC(AAC, AAC+, AAC-LC), AMR-NB, WAV, MIDI and Windows Media® Audio 9
Video supported formats
MPEG-4, H.263, H.264 and Windows Media® Video 9
Expansion Slot
microSD™ memory card (SD 2.0 compatible)
These are some of the important features of HTC Hero. If you want to know more features, check them on HTC’s official website.
HTC Hero has seven home screens which is quite unusual, but it’s awesome. It allows you to keep your favorite apps on first screen and you can access them without going to Programs menu. The trackball and six buttons on the phone makes it look stylish and comfortable for users.
Multi-touch experience on HTC Hero is really good, especially when you use it for browsing. The default browser supports flash and I must say that the browsing experience on HTC Hero is far better than iPhone’s Safari browser. The 5.0 MP camera is completely wasted in Hero. It’s an auto focus camera and doesn’t have good zooming facility.
Music experience on HTC Hero is cool, but not as outstanding as iPhone or iPod Touch. The 3.5 mm audio jack allows you to use any other headset to listen music. Music player in Hero is similar to iPhone and has almost same features.
On screen QWERTY keyboard is an important feature of this phone, which works really well while typing web address or message. The phone also supports USB 2.0 for high speed data transferring. Other features like Gmail, Google maps, Google Talk, Clock (12 amazing styles) and Quickoffice makes it more productive phone.
That’s all about HTC Hero. I have not gone through all its features, but Android OS impressed me a lot and I think it has potential to beat iPhone OS.
Good Features in HTC Hero
- Android OS
- Connectivity
- Touch screen
- Browsing
- Email, Twitter or SMS Notifications
Bad Features in HTC Hero
- Camera
- Market (App store)
Android OS is very basic and needs some improvements. I’m happy with HTC Hero and certainly it’s much more than just a normal phone! I’ll write some useful posts for Android and HTC users, so stay tuned.
Have a look at its screenshots below.
My HTC Hero
HTC Hero Box
HTC Hero
Audio Head Set
