HTC Hero, hands on

HTC Hero

This is quite a delayed post seeing that we had the HTC Hero almost a month ago. Definite fail on our part. However, it is better late than never and we have a full report on the phone and how it is possibly the leading Android based phone in South Africa at the moment.

Design

The first thing you notice about the HTC is the “lip” it has at the bottom of the phone. It is ergonomically designed to allow more comfortable use of the few buttons that actually exist on the HTC Hero. The phone has a sleek finish with very sharp lines, it may not be setting trends in the design of the phone but it definitely looks good in your hand. This means that I am yet to see an Android phone that both breaks the barriers of mobile operating systems and sets the trends in phone design.

It’s a pity because other than processing power (I will get into that later), the Android OS works amazingly well and is easy to come to terms with, even if you have not used a smart phone before.

Usability

When turning the phone on, you are greeted with the familiar Android interface with the multiple screens, draggable icons and multiple slide features. The ability to move between desktops is still one of the best features for me. That along with the Android Market allowing you to set up the phone the way you want instead of having every app you own thrust upon you (if you like that you still have that option though).

Everything works pretty much the way you want it to. SMSes, multimedia messaging, bluetooth, wi-fi, picture/video capturing, and of course access to all of Google’s major applications (Gmail, Gtalk, YouTube etc.). It truly is great foundation for a phone that is really smart.

Performance

This is probably where the phone loses out the most. After a week of using it and really putting it through its paces it started to get a bit delayed on it response time. It is definitely not a big problem but for me speed is everything and a highly responsive phone suits me very well. This might be due to the very average processor that the phone uses so if you are looking for speed maybe a bit of patience whilst HTC release better performing Android phones is the better option.

The camera was also found wanting. Yes sure, the ability for touch focus (on any area of the screen) and quite an array of settings does give you quite an advantage over many other phones but I feel the camera is missing 2 very important features.

The first, and this is getting very old having to repeat it all the time, is a flash. Having a phone with a camera is great for only one thing, to have a camera at hand all of the time. Not being able to take pictures at the first sight of darkness is really gay and is actually quite a frustration. Having said that even in light situations the actual quality of the image is not so great either. Having a photography background I played with all the settings and could not really get what I wanted done. A real pity.

Conclusion

The phone does have some cons, but the positive points definitely out way those and this phone still come highly recommended. It may not have the IM capabilities of the BlackBerry phones and the speed/look of the iPhone but it still packs a punch especially with access to so many free apps the the Android Market. This has not made my next smart phone purchase any easier.