Linked by Eugenia Loli-Queru on Sat 31st Oct 2009 23:01 UTC
PureMobile sent us in the GSM version of the HTC Hero, one of the most popular Android-based smartphones out there. There are already a number of in-depth reviews about this phone out there (here's one), but here's my own take on what I liked, and what I disliked.
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Member since:
2005-07-06
A few months ago, we borrowed a HTC Dream (aka G1) for some testing at work. This review is fairly close to my own impressions of the hardware and software.
The two devices that I was comparing to were a recent iPod touch and an old Palm Tre 650. Overall, I found the Dream fit somewhere in between: way more modern than the old Palm OS, but with a less-polished interface; more flexible than the iPhone OS, but not as slick.
Two details that weren't touched on in the review:
The little trackball isn't particularly useful (I still prefer the d-pad on my old Treo, FWIW). It's too easy to accidentally scroll while attempting to click (the ball is clickable, in the same way that most mousewheels are). And while I expected it to work like a scroll wheel in the browser, it actually just jumps from one link to the next in the direction that you're trying to scroll.
And the keyboard - I preferred the Dream's hardware keyboard to the software keyboard in the iPhone OS, but I found it harder to type on than the Treo keyboard (despite being larger). The main problem is that the keys are fairly flat (presumably so they don't get in the way when sliding the phone closed). The Treo has keys that are rounded enough that I can use it to slowly touch-type (touch-thumb?), not so with the Dream.