HTC Hero Sim Free Android Smartphone

Jan 19th 2011. *NOTE* (Updated from when I purchased some time ago...)

The new Cupcake 1.5 with sense UI, has proven such a success even hackers with the old HTC T-MOBILE G1's; Have upgraded their Phones with all the new Hero software with their inferior hardware, compared to the G3 HTC HERO 528Mhz CPU, 512 ROM, 288 RAM. - Hackers or Dev teams have even optimized the software With minimal lag to run on the T-mobile G1 & found it on YOUTUBE. (what an acheivement considering the G1 is over 2 years old).

Anywayz, the Hero's touch screen in my humble opinion is better than my iPhone 3G (2008 version), I now for the first time on Vodafone have an "H" Sign on top of my screen which means "high speed broadband", something I could never get on my iPhone without using WIFI.

1. Heptic feedback that tingles your finger tips with the very lightest touch of keyboard, portrait or landscape, (FAB)
2. The Android store has well enough FREE APPS to keep anyone busy upgrading their Phone (very happy)
3. Full compatibility with New "Google talk and Skype". (Unlike iPhone)
4. SIM FREE and upgradable memory to 4GB, 8GB, 16GB Micro SDHC Cards.
5. Beautiful smooth, sharp and clean screen. (in my opinion better than the iPhone 3G).
6. The whole experience is very intuitive and after a week or two, you will understand the device without the need for PDF Manual.
7. The Phone is very well build to a High standard, together with 5 megapixel Auto-Focus Camera & video-camera.
8. The White one I own is Teflon coated.
9. Adobe FLASH compatible (iPhone isn't)
10. From "Flat to Fully Charged" in just less than 2 hours, which is very convenient.

I could go on and on... I'm just happy I took the plunge and bought the phone. I have no regrets.

Highly recommend you buy a decent case to protect it, one made by "tuf-luv" here on Amazon.
Amazon also have the best price. (with next day delivery if chosen at checkout).

EDIT: UPDATE JAN 19th, 2011 - "This Phone is still One of the very BEST Smartphones on the market" -: with the "very latest HTC HERO" (Firmware updates.!), and New*(2.2 Froyo, Android OS)*, and the small Lag issues have now all been ironed out, and (runs very smoothly in every day to day operation...) Now the price has been greatly reduced from what I paid, so bag your self a bargain.

Amazon UK currently have the BEST Price with superb Customer Support.! BUY With Confidence.! :)

if you found my review helpful, please reward my efforts by CLICKING (YES) "as its appreciated - Thanks!" (David :)

I originally had a Blackberry Bold and was trying to decide between this, a Storm 2 and an iPhone. I'm so glad i went for this. If you're a gadget freak like me it's brilliant. I love how customisable it is, you can chop and change your widgets and background to turn it into a completely different phone. You can tweak the hell out of it!

The first thing i did when i got the phone was to update to the latest firmware from HTC which has got rid of any lagginess and improved the camera by giving it touch focus. Speaking of the camera i found that by going into camera, clicking menu > settings > 'image properties' and changing the settings to contrast -2, saturation +2, Sharpness +2 really improved the pictures, especially for low lit indoor shots (you could change the numbers to 1 instead). The camera is good enough and it's very handy being able to easily share to Flickr, Facebook, Twitter etc - useful if you want to save space on your memory card and you can easily browse your facebook and flickr albums on your phone as if they were normal built in albums.

I'm pleasantly surprised at the keyboard, it's a lot easier to type on that i thought it would be and the auto correct is very clever so i hardly ever make any mistakes. The touch screen is very responsive and the addition of a trackball is great for web browsing. Videos look great on this phone and speaking of which, 'Videora Android Converter' is a free program that will make your video files playable on your Hero.

The sound quality is great, i've installed the Spotify app and Last.fm on my phone and i now no longer use my iPod touch. I didn't think it would sound as good as it does, though the bundled earphones aren't much good so i use my own. It has it's own mp3 player built in too which is very good.

My fave apps that i think really enhance the phone are Spotify (you can have an album on your phone instantly), Twidroid which imo is better than the built in twitter app, beebplayer (BBC iPlayer), Taskpanel for managing memory, Pure Calendar (to add a much needed agenda to your screen) and FeedR which is a brilliant RSS feed reader.

Battery life is fine considering i can't stop playing with it! I have to charge it every night and after a day of heavy use (music, video, photos, calls, tweeting, texting, etc) the battery is at around 20%. On a normal day (calls, texting / emailing) battery is at around 50% at the end of the day.

My only real niggles are so far there isn't a decent facebook app for android and the built in twitter widget has problems on the vodafone network but there are other twitter apps that work fine. After a week or so i noticed that the phone failed to recognise when i plugged in my headphones and carried on using the built in speaker. After a lot of googling i discovered a lot of people had the same problem. I have an app called task panel installed and it had 'killed' one of the background programs (pc synchronisation) which caused the problem (for me) so i just moved it to the ignore list and now its fine.

There was no screen protector with my phone so i bought the 'Genuine HTC Hero Screen Protector SP P260' and it went on easily and clearly with no bits or bubbles. I also bought 'iTALKonline GEL Soft Case hero' for added protection which looks really well on the phone.

Overall i'm extremely happy with this phone, i'm amazed at the features it has and i'm always finding something new on it to play with. Highly recommended.

I have had my Hero for about two weeks now and I can honestly say that it is the best phone I have ever had! I should temper this statement with the fact that I have been a regular Nokia N series user, but this has ended forever now that I have come to terms with the android operating system and fallen in love with the crisp and vibrant screen that comes with the Hero.

If your a little worried about on-screen keyboards, don't be. They are particularly good on this phone. Even the full qwerty in portrait mode is usable as there is a very active predictive text type of thing going on as you type, so half the time you only need type half the word and select the suggestion. There are 2 other keyboards other than the full qwerty, including a t9 phone keypad type thing (that I don't bother with) and a cut down qwerty, that has two letters per key (don't bother with that one either). The full qwerty in landscape mode is a dream and I can type fast with it.

Internet browsing is fast. Sadly I have an Orange branded phone (which essentially means that Orange UK has put their own settings on and as usual made a pigs ear of it). Wifi connection is good and fast too. The standard browser in the phone is all you need, though Opera Mini is available from the Android Market.

HTC Peep twitter client is OK but I usually use Hootsuite from the Android Market, though other clients are available. Accessing the android market could not be easier. There is no guarantee of quality of programs on the android market, but there are plenty, and I am sure others will give you long lists of their favourites, but I wont bore you with that. Note: The Android Market recently went past 100k of programs and at the rate it is expanding, it will over take the number of downloads available in the iPhone App Market some time next year.

HTC Sense is very very good, there is very little lag, the graphics are smooth and choices wide and varied. You might think (for example) that 12 different clock types would be enough for anyone, but I would love them to come out with more as I am a little fussy that way! Pity that the music player does not immediately grab cover art, but there are programs on the android market that will!

If you are thinking about getting this phone, but are a little hesitant, don't be! It is worth every penny. I have not found anything I do not like about the phone. Email integration, web browsing, twittering, updating photo's to flickr - its all good and all easy thanks to this phone. Get it, you wont regret it!

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I have had the phone about a year now and it is still the best mobile phone I have had. Things have moved on and there are better android handsets out there. If your thinking about getting a Hero, don't! Think about the HTC Legend (aka Hero2). It's better than this product, but if you really want a lot of phone, go for the HTC Desire. As soon as I can upgrade I will be going for it!