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:
2005-08-22
I really love my Hero but I'd also like to add some things I've noticed after using the phone for about two months.
In the bug department:
* Sending SMS containing special characters and bigger than 64 characters will scramble the rest of the message on the reciever's phone (encoding problems).
* TouchFlo sometimes crashes in loops and requires a phone restart.
* The phone will randomly call people in your phone history if you keep the phone application open and put the Hero in your pocket. It's not an unlock problem since I have set a difficult enough password.
In the usability department:
* When composing a number with the phone app, it matches contacts which have the keypad letters. This is really nice for fast dialing and should also be used in the phone search.
* The four buttons disposition is not intuitive. Maybe it's me, but I always mix them up and have to look at them to push the right one.
* You can sync contacts infos with Facebook, but you have to do it individually on each contact !
* Google maps path-finding doesn't draw the route on the map but gives a list of waypoints.
On the positive side:
* Making a call is faster than on the iPhone. It's unlock, dial button, 2-3 letter to find the contact and click. On the iphone you often have to exit a running application and finding the right contact takes longer.
* Home screen holds useful informations. I have my next calendar events so that I don't have to open the application.
* Less procrastination because the games on the app store are crappy :-p
* Direct synching with Google is a big plus, no more docking to keep my infos up to date.
* Availability of 3rd application data on the sd-card and trough disc mount is also nice.
On a more general note, I hope they will get the 1.6 version out soon. It was promised in September and we're still waiting. I hope it doesn't reflect problems in the developer department at HTC. Public communication could as well be improved and more transparent.
After reading my comments you may feel the review is really bad but don't forget it's much easier to describe problems than making positive comments. In general, I'm much more happy with the Hero then the iPhone. Small details like the number of steps to make a dial make the difference. And in general, I don't really use all those applications. It's much more important to me that the 2-3 applications I use daily are polished than having tons of them.
Cheers,
zimbatm