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.
As a Google Android phone, the HTC Hero obviously supports a number of Google services--Google search, Google Maps, and Google Calendar--but it also comes with a number of standard personal information management tools, including a clock, a calculator, a voice recorder, and a PDF viewer. In addition, you get a handful of extras, including Documents to Go, a Twitter app called Peep, and the new Facebook for Android, but you can have access to plenty more utilities and games through the Android Market, which now has more than 8,000 apps in the catalog. Unfortunately, you still can't save apps to a microSD card; you must store them on the phone's shared internal memory.
Features
Underneath the fancy HTC Sense user interface, you've got one feature-packed smartphone running Android 1.5. While the HTC Hero can do many things, it wouldn't be worth much if it couldn't do the most basic and core function of a phone: making calls. Fortunately, the Hero handles that task well (see Performance for more) and offers a number of voice features, including a speakerphone, voice dialing, conference calling, speed dial, and visual voicemail. Bluetooth 2.0 also allows you to connect the Hero with mono and stereo Bluetooth headsets, hands-free kits, file transfer, personal area networking, audio/video remote control, and more.
The Hero offers a contact management system similar to the Palm Pre's Synergy function, but not quite as sophisticated. When you first set up your device and enter login information for your various e-mail and social networking accounts, the Hero will automatically pull and import contact information into your address book. We say it's not as sophisticated as Synergy because the Hero doesn't necessarily merge all the information (different e-mail addresses, IM handles, etc.) and get rid of duplicates, so we had numerous entries for the same person. Also, you have to manually link up Facebook and Flickr profiles to a contact, which on the one hand, gives you more control over what you want attached to a person's page, but on the other hand is a time-consuming and tedious task, especially if you have a lot of friends.
That said, we do like how the Contacts pages are set up. From the main directory, you can view all your friends in one massive list, but along the bottom of the screen, you'll see tabs where you can filter down the list to Favorites, Groups, and Call History. There's also a tab for Updates and Events, where you can see upcoming events or any updates people have made to their Facebook profiles and so forth.
The tabbed interface carries over to individual contact pages and is even more handy, since it aggregates any text messages and/or e-mails you've exchanged with the person. It's just nice to see all this information in one place so you don't necessarily have to go through your in-box to find that one e-mail you've been searching for. You can also view call history, status updates, and any albums they have on Facebook and Flickr. On the main screen of a person's address book entry, you'll find the standard information, such as phone numbers, e-mail addresses, birthday, and here, you can also assign a picture or custom ringtone for caller ID.
Underneath the fancy HTC Sense user interface, you've got one feature-packed smartphone running Android 1.5. While the HTC Hero can do many things, it wouldn't be worth much if it couldn't do the most basic and core function of a phone: making calls. Fortunately, the Hero handles that task well (see Performance for more) and offers a number of voice features, including a speakerphone, voice dialing, conference calling, speed dial, and visual voicemail. Bluetooth 2.0 also allows you to connect the Hero with mono and stereo Bluetooth headsets, hands-free kits, file transfer, personal area networking, audio/video remote control, and more.
The Hero offers a contact management system similar to the Palm Pre's Synergy function, but not quite as sophisticated. When you first set up your device and enter login information for your various e-mail and social networking accounts, the Hero will automatically pull and import contact information into your address book. We say it's not as sophisticated as Synergy because the Hero doesn't necessarily merge all the information (different e-mail addresses, IM handles, etc.) and get rid of duplicates, so we had numerous entries for the same person. Also, you have to manually link up Facebook and Flickr profiles to a contact, which on the one hand, gives you more control over what you want attached to a person's page, but on the other hand is a time-consuming and tedious task, especially if you have a lot of friends.
That said, we do like how the Contacts pages are set up. From the main directory, you can view all your friends in one massive list, but along the bottom of the screen, you'll see tabs where you can filter down the list to Favorites, Groups, and Call History. There's also a tab for Updates and Events, where you can see upcoming events or any updates people have made to their Facebook profiles and so forth.
The tabbed interface carries over to individual contact pages and is even more handy, since it aggregates any text messages and/or e-mails you've exchanged with the person. It's just nice to see all this information in one place so you don't necessarily have to go through your in-box to find that one e-mail you've been searching for. You can also view call history, status updates, and any albums they have on Facebook and Flickr. On the main screen of a person's address book entry, you'll find the standard information, such as phone numbers, e-mail addresses, birthday, and here, you can also assign a picture or custom ringtone for caller ID.
