HTC Hero - Review

Tech reviews, in this review video you will learn about the HTC Hero mobile and it's features.

What’s up everyone, Jon Rettinger from Techno Buffalo here with a full review for you on the unlocked HTC Hero. So, before I get started with the review, let me preface this with this device does not currently support US 3G bands. So, I want to support 3G for AT&T or T-mobile since it’s a GSM unlock device. However, it will support 3G in parts of Europe and other places known world so it’s something to keep in mind as you watch this review. So, when I start my cellphone reviews, I always talk about call qualities since that’s the most important in a phone. It can have the best browser and the best—the most ROM, the most RAM. But if the call quality sucks, the phone is going to be useless so call quality on the HTC here was actually quite good and I tested it using AT&T’s Edge network and it was fantastic. Call quality was great. The radio seemed to be very strong. I turned 3G off on my personal iPhones that was running just on Edge and this one actually had better Edge reception. I think the radio that was put in here is quite strong. I can’t speak for the 3G radio but edgewise, it was quite good. Battery life just running on Edge was fantastic. I could easily go with three or four days and that’s even with WiFi turned on. However, I would expect that number to drop significantly if testing could be done over 3G. I think if you want to get a full day of use out of this, you won’t want to have any trouble with it. Definitely, you’re going to want charge it every night. From a design perspective, it’s kind of a lover hate type of thing with the android chin that it’s kind of been known through the Jay Leno smart phones I talked about during my unboxing. I actually like the chin. I'm a big fan of smart phones and you know flip phones as well. And one of the first phones that I ever had that I loved was the old razor and I liked it because I could push the microphone right up to my face and it wasn’t like a slab phone where it was one piece and wouldn’t bend. So, I do like that when I'm talking to this, the microphone is sort of extended closer to my mouth. I think that helps improved call quality. And speaking of the call quality, like I mentioned it sounds quietly good. So, from the design stand point, it really is either love it or hate it. I personally really do like it. Built quality seems all that feels nice in the hand, it’s not terribly slippery. The five megapixel auto-focus camera is—although I do wish that it had a—mirror or some sort of flash, something that I can definitely overlook because five megapixel, pretty high quality, not too bad. So, let’s move on to the screen and this is a capacitive touch screen similar to what you find on the Blackberry Storm, the iPhone, the myTouch 3G and the original T-Mobile G1. Meaning there is no squishy feel to it. It’s quite nice and the screen is very responsive. I’d say it’s much more responsive than the Blackberry Storms and—responsiveness with the iPhone and the G1, meaning it’s very good. There is much of a log which is might nice at least when using the screen. However, there is a flag, when you try to open multiple programs or you’re trying to flow from screen to screen. Now—talked to that being fixed with upcoming software and firmware updates but this is the shipping Ram so you're going to buy this right now today. This would be what you would have on your device. It’s only a review what it shipped with. So, programs can launch a little bit slowly. It feels like it’s struggling to keep up with some of the applications. And I think that’s due to the pretty resource—that HTC put on this device. You may have seen in the previous video that I did going over the ‘Sensui’. I’ll put a link to it in the side bar so you can check it out. But essentially, what it is the skin I’m sitting on top of Android. That’s in order to take some of the Android features and makes them look a little better, makes them a little user friendly and really adds a little bit of HTC flare. You have seen something similar done with TouchFlo 3D found on Windows mobile devices. I’m a big, big fan of the ‘Sensui’ and I'm encouraged to see what else HTC is going to be doing. And I think that the Android platform has a whole lot so much potential. And I think that the Hero was the one of the first devices to really top into that customizing potential. So overall, I think it’s a very, very good phone. It does a fall a victim I think to its own success and the reason the ‘Sensui’ is so good is because of their process are heavy and resource intensive. And because of that resource intense activity, you’re going to get a little bit of silence with the device. Nothing bad, nothing that’s going prohibit you from using on a regular basis but it’s not going to be as snappy as you might be used to on other Android devices. However, let’s say version 2.0 comes out with a faster processor and a little more RAM, a little more ROM, I think you’re going to have a killer phone here. I really like using it. I was impressed with the Android market place. Gmail integration is fantastic—notifications when you slide your finger down that little bar that pops up. It’s really nice. The multi tasking is quite good. Alright, the ‘Sensui’ gives you a ton of screens you can flick through. The widgets that they’ve put on here are very useful. It’s a really, very user-friendly operating system. That’s also very powerful as well. I kind of almost put it in the middle between let’s say the iPhone operating system as far as finger friendliness and ease of use and Windows Mobile on the other end which is very customizable but not so user-friendly. And I think that Android’s kind of sits right in the middle of that which is a really good place to be. So, I'm very impressed with what HTC and I guess a Google Built-in operating system has done. So guys in conclusion, there is ton of features that I can talk about but I really kind of want to keep this relatively short. I will drag on for a 20-minute video, but I am very impressed with the HTC Hero. If you have 3G in your area or 3G that rather supports the HTC Hero, I can recommend it without hesitation. Note that you’re going to have a little bit of slowdown from resources but I think that will be addressed with feature firmware updates to make it little less intensive. If you’re trying to import this into the US where you don’t have 3G, you may want to think twice. You try to use Edge rather on a regular basis, it’s so painful especially having gotten used to fats 3G speed if that’s going to come down to personal preference. So, on a one to five scale, I can really give this a solid four and a half star. I think it will have a little faster processor, a little more RAM, a little more ROM. We’ve been looking at a solid fire here. This phone is fantastic and I think HTC really, really did a nice job. Anyway guys, this is Jon Rettinger from techno Buffalo. If you want an exclusive content, check me out at Twitter in twitter.com/technobuffalo and to learn more about me personally, twitter.com/jon4lakers. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed and I will see you guys in the next video, bye-bye.