HTC Hero user reviews

coolcarrot 26 July 2010

Good: *AMAZING BETTER THAN THE IPHONE 4*

Bad: NOTHING

Comment: Amazing, Trust me when i say that i compared phones day and night and end up with the hero , It really is a hero. AMAZING. AND BETTER THAN ALL IPHONES, BTW I WORK IN O2

weetanhops 20 July 2010

Good: The Sense UI has some better features than stock Android, Keyboard almost as good as the one on the iPhone, Navigation buttons are mechanical and not capacitive.

Bad: Sluggish at times, Volume rocker is too easy to press.

Comment: The phone is superb again now that the update to 2.1 has finally arrived in the UK, with full access to all the new free and paid applications on the Market that were previously unavailable as they were only available for 1.6+ firmware.

The update seems to have improved performance somewhat, although once you have a lot of applications open and running it will start to slow down - getting a task killer application from the Market would be a good idea.

The keyboard on the Hero is brilliant: much better than the stock Android one, and almost as good as the one featured on the iPhone. However, you're not tied down to using it if you don't want to - as well as offering a choice of QWERTY, Half-QWERTY, or T9 keyboards, new ones can be downloaded from the Market, the best contenders being Swype or Swiftpad.

Now that the Hero has 2.1 the Google apps really come into their own. Gmail has support for multiple inboxes (Gmail accounts only), the calendar is much improved, with agenda views supported, and maps finally supports pinch-to-zoom, labs extensions and free navigation. Support for the hardware compass is also included, which means that your current direction will be displayed on the map (sadly, the map remains fixed instead of rotating with you, which can make interpreting the map difficult at first.).

Pinch-to-zoom is also added to the home screens, allowing you to quickly switch between them, and the library of widgets and shortcuts is far more extensive, with room for more to be downloaded and installed.

In conclusion, the Hero still holds its own in the Android world now that it has been brought up-to-date, but it is vastly outperformed by more recent HTC handsets like the Desire and the Legend, which will receive an update to 2.2 later this year.

Nick Hide 20 July 2010

Good: Huge array of features; compact, hardy design; Android market is improving

Bad: Buggy; unreliable connectivity; hardware problems; inconsistent touch response

Comment: I think this was the phone that made Android viable. It's such a huge step up from a dumb phone in what it can do - fast internet access, GPS, email, hundreds of decent apps. It's not perfect (the touch response is particularly buggy) but it's a brilliant phone.
I'm just hoping Orange gets around to updating the OS at some point...

stuartstead 13 June 2010

Good: Screen, internet

Bad: Battyery life, lag, ringer volume to easily touched by mistake

Comment: Light, good screen, good internet, good customisation ability

Awful battery life unless all key features killed, bad phone functionality, ringer volume touched every time I pick it up to make a call. Softwarre very slow

Andyt95 21 May 2010

Good: easily customisable, intuitive

Bad: sometimes laggy, games aren't great

Comment: Very, very good: phone, browser, interface, features and widgets, better than the iPhone in that respect, but it is flawed by the lag and poorer quality and less range of games and apps...

BFT 26 March 2010

Good: Thousands of free useful apps, easy to use.

Bad: Battery life when using wifi, but this is nothing unique with any phone!

Comment: This is the best phone I've ever used or seen, blows the iPhone out of the water. Lots of free cool apps, I even found one that is a metal detector which I then used to find my rotary airer's ground spike buried and unused since November! Easy to customise in every way with seven home screens, good user inputs, good call management (about time in a phone). I love it, and so do all my friends and family, yes even those with more money than sense - sorry, iPhones, are envious (but stubborn). Before I'd even received it I'd bought a leather case and six screen protectors off ebay for £4.98 and £0.99 respectively as I know how touch screens can be. Didn't cost me anything either, just phoned Orange and told them what I wanted, they threw in a load of extras and I'm classed as a low user - this would be the case with the iPhone.

Buy this now (or even better get it free on an inexpensive contract) you will not regret it.

maxindigo 19 February 2010

Good: Easy to use, eveything at your fingertips, loads of customization

Bad: low battery time, youtube slow, monthly charges

Comment: ive had this phone now for a good few months....at first i didnt know how to use it but i was impressed to say the least. Now, i can scroll through like it was born for me and its so easy to use after you get the hang of it. this phone is so good i would never think of getting an iphone! it has 7 customizable screens and then it also has the application page that iphones have.

emails, texts, mp3, internet, games, anything you want on there you can do with its 'scenes' settings....all in a few seconds you will be hard pressed to find a more easy goin, fun phone. the problem i have with it is...i need to fully charge it every day! the battery is ok but if your going to be using the mp3 and internet be prepared to charge it somewhere in a couple hours or so....shame....also dont even try using the internet with youtube its a no go....instead the phone comes with a youtube application which works a little better.

in conclusion you will not regret getting this phone....the market allows you to update and download whatever apps you might want and if your looking for something thats not an apple product which i was then your in luck! the HERO is here!! 8.5/10

mister_dan 18 February 2010

Good: It's a good looking phone.

Bad: The phone resets itself, the trackball is temperamental, it's slow, the 'Sorry!' message appears A LOT, the battery life is poor, there's no camera flash... and text messages often fail to send even with full signal.

Comment: I've owned this phone for a few months now, and to put it bluntly... it's doing my head in.

I've just had a message through at 16:53, but it the actual time it came through was 16:47 - why is it taking five minutes for a text message to come through? Even then, when I go and open it, the phone practically stops working and it takes at least a minute to open. Upon writing a text and sending it back, the 'Please Wait' sign appears for about twenty - thirty seconds, and then a 'Sorry!' message will appear asking if I want to 'Force Close' the application, or 'Wait' and see it through.

All applications are slow on load & exit. The keyboard takes a long time to change between the vertical and horizontal setting. There's no flash for the camera. The battery life is horrendous. You can't personalise the text tone (just the ring tone). It takes longer for the phone to start up than my PC.

And although this is nothing to do with the phone itself, I've tried changing it but T-Mobile have said I have to see the contract through, which unfortunately, is at least another year away. Stay away from this phone at all costs. I mean, I'm a patient man... but the sluggishness of this phone will drive even the most patient person crazy.

daniel140993 15 February 2010

Good: android market, heavily customisable

Bad: can be very slow at times which gets infuriating, also the lock button is the call end key and because of the slowness you end up pressing it twice and always locking it

Andyt95 6 February 2010

Good: biblical customizability, brilliant apps, awesome feature

Bad: a little hard to use for complicated tasks