Initial Impressions of the Sprint HTC Hero

[TattierPub]

I

 

[ChrisPlague]

I

 

[Edaze55]

this just made me cry but congrats on the purchase and to everyone else who purchased one!

Just one more day before you have yours right?

 

[ChrisPlague]

Just one more day before you have yours right?

not until monday cus ups doesnt deliver on the weekends

 

[Edaze55]

not until monday cus ups doesnt deliver on the weekends

That sorta sucks, but at least you'll have it soon.

 

[hunt577]

I

 

[Heroic Lover]

Hello all,

I just signed up today to give my support to this device.

It's fantastic.

Very cutting-edge.

I owned the Pre twice. Tool it back both times due to me wanting to see how the Hero performs.

And the Hero blows the Pre out the water, IMO. The screen on the Hero is to dos for. I know the specs only say its slightly larger than the Pre's, but on your hand, it appears significantly bigger.

Another point I want to address is the supposed lag issue.

None for me. The Hero is just as fast as the Pre which is a good thing given that's one of the Pre's strengths. Nut no lag for me. BROWSING THE WEB IS SMOOTH AND VERY FUNCTIONAL.

Unlike this video: WWW.Droiddog.com/

 

[FatKoko]

I'm sorry, but I just have to add my thoughts to this thread. I picked up my Hero yesterday at Best Buy.

Here are my thoughts:


Have not experienced any lag whatsoever. I was definitely on the fence in terms of picking up the phone because of the reported lag from BGR and engadget. However, just like other users who actually have the phone, the lag has been unfounded.

I currently have Pandora on running in the background off of Wi-Fi and am surfing the net no slower than my blackberry storm.

Around the web, most people who have reported lag have been playing with Demo units and I would assume that those units would have had multiple apps running in the background. This was the same issue when new people try Blackberries and don't know how to close all of the apps running in the background.

Just my .02.

 

[TattierPub]

Nice review, but are you saying that the Hero is better or not as good as the Pre?

The Hero is way better than the Pre

 

[Heroic Lover]

Ok, have some time to sit down and get detailed about this phone.

For the record, this is my first virtual keyboard phone. Had the TP. Treos. Had the Pre twice for a month a piece. With that, hands down best phone I've had. The biggest adjustment is the virtual keyboard. oh yeah, had the Instinct too but returned that cause it was too laggy on the keyboard.

But for what I use this phone for, its great. Browser is ridiculously nice. People focus on the pinch and zoom feature bit the screen is so nice, I find myself hardly ever using it. Most sites are formatted perfectly where you can read it normally without issue. That what was annoying about the Pre. Would bring up sites speedy, bit the damn site was always rendered where pinch and zoom was mandatory.

speakerphone....awesome.

Visual voicemail, nice.

Music Player produces great sound. Significantly louder than the Pre or TP.

I mean, this is what I use my phone for. Don't really Twitter like that. Don't use the peep widget.

once this phone hits on Sun, I thinly several Bloggers will need TP accountable for lackluster reviews about this processor. This is the no-brainer flagship device on Sprint.

 

[MrMattux]

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[Edaze55]

The port is awkward. I do not think it's usb at all...

Its Mini USB made proprietary by HTC.

And I think you mean "Thanks Tat".

 

[TattierPub]

The USB question is silly. It's a USB port.

The local phone kiosk here has Zaggs available.

Instead of Peep try Swift, great little program. Another one to get good reviews is Twitdroid (haven't tried it)

DoubleTwist works, not by syncing but by dragging and dropping. Imports your iTunes library. Something to note not all my songs play on the Hero. Pink is one artist that comes to mind.

When you connect to Mac, pull down your notification screen, and select mount ( I think that's what it says), can't check now because a program (quick calendar) crashed my Hero.

 

[Sabre66]

I have to say that i've noticed a slight "lag" when i have alot of things running (i.e. the AppKiller has a list of 10 or more). The transitions between scenes and on the net become slower and less smooth, and the browser loads pages a little slower. I can say that killing some of the running apps does speed it back up.

Anyone else notice this?

 

[TattierPub]

I have to say that i've noticed a slight "lag" when i have alot of things running (i.e. the AppKiller has a list of 10 or more). The transitions between scenes and on the net become slower and less smooth, and the browser loads pages a little slower. I can say that killing some of the running apps does speed it back up.

Anyone else notice this?

Why on earth do you need 10 apps running?

Why do you think the iPhone can't run multiple apps at a time? Because it kills the responsiveness of the iPhone same as it does on a Hero.

Seriously if you are running a lot of widgets you're killing your processor. Instead of widgets install application shortcuts for the applications you use frequently or just use the app screen more.

Widgets are a great idea and if the phone were running a bigger better processor you wouldn't be worrying about responsiveness, or would you? Most would probably keep more apps running with the larger processor.

I can't speak for everyone but I know being a user of everything Google I get my Twitter updates even with Swift closed, Facebook app closed still get updates. E-mail closed, they still come in. Google Talk closed still get instant messages. Google Voice closed, still get phone calls.

And don't tell me the Blackberry multitasks better, that's BS! I've had a Pearl, Curve, and Tour and the more apps you have open the less responsive it becomes.

 

[SDscorch]

okay tatt, you sound like you know what's going on

i've got task manager - i am currently running fifteen apps

some, i should kill -- others, i hesitate


lets open up for discussion here - what should we keep running, what should we kill?



i'll list them - the "<" means something i'm afraid to kill:
----------------------------------------------------

gmail
browser
clock < can't kill THAT can you? its the big thing on the front page right?
day <
google voice < i'm running GV 24/7 - i want calls to go out through GV, so i'm hesitant to kill that
htc sense < uh.. just "sounds" too important to kill
mail < how will i know when mail comes in?
market
people
phone < again "sounds" too important to kill
phone < why do i have TWO "phones"? and how do i know which is which?
settings
voice search < i like the idea of voice search - doesn't it need to be running for it to work when i need it at a moment's notice??
weather


that's eight apps i would leave running

so, what does everyone say about this?

 

[Edaze55]

i'll list them - the "<" means something i'm afraid to kill:
----------------------------------------------------

gmail
browser
clock < can't kill THAT can you? its the big thing on the front page right?
day <
google voice < i'm running GV 24/7 - i want calls to go out through GV, so i'm hesitant to kill that
htc sense < uh.. just "sounds" too important to kill
mail < how will i know when mail comes in?
market
people
phone < again "sounds" too important to kill
phone < why do i have TWO "phones"? and how do i know which is which?
settings
voice search < i like the idea of voice search - doesn't it need to be running for it to work when i need it at a moment's notice??
weather


that's eight apps i would leave running

so, what does everyone say about this?

Are you looking at Apps or Processes? When I look at my Apps, I dont have any of these running.

Gmail - Would killing off Gmail stop the push? If not, no loss

Browser- Kill it, can always relaunch it.

Clock - You could kill it, but yea, its the big one on the home screen

Day - Is this the calendar?

GV - You want this running so it has to stay.

Sense - You could kill it I suppose, but then you wouldnt need your Clock.

Mail - Again, you could kill it, but would you know when you got mail?

Market - You dont need this as you can quick launch from the main HS.

People - You have a short cut for this right under market.

Phone - Theres a Phone button on the sense bar that brings up the dialer.

Phone - No idea if they are the same. Kill one and find out. Worst case,
you have to reboot.

Voice Search - If you think you will need it, keep it.

Weather - Goes with the Clock. Maybe even the date goes with it too?

 

[Fake Name]

get the appkiller, I believe that it kill unnecessary things running

 

[Edaze55]

This should help.

You can long press and switch to the App in question to see what it is/does. That should help you decide what to leave running and what you can kill.

 

[SDscorch]

uh.. what's the difference btwn a process and an app

i just see items in the Task Manager window - they're all the same to me


??



looks like i need some basic android edumacations!ol

 

[Edaze55]

uh.. what's the difference btwn a process and an app

i just see items in the Task Manager window - they're all the same to me
??
looks like i need some basic android edumacations!ol

Just for giggles I killed off all my stuff, including Sense. LOL. The screen went black for a few seconds. Sense re-applied itself, and thats all Im running now. Everything "seems" to work.

 

[SDscorch]

Just for giggles I killed off all my stuff, including Sense. LOL. The screen went black for a few seconds. Sense re-applied itself, and thats all Im running now. Everything "seems" to work.

ooh! just had my first soft reset!


i was killing apps (processes?) in task mgr, i was down to the last three - settings, htc sense, and market

i killed settings, then market - and i was gonna leave htc sense running


then.. boom!

i'm staring at the "htc" splash screen!



after a minute or so i was back at the familiar home screen and all was normal again but... i think extreme app-killing strains the system and introduces instabilities

 

[Edaze55]

LOL I had my second hard reset today. Had to redo all my stuff again.

I really need to stop trying to root my phone.

I do have an app that "should" root it, but its not working.

 

[steb0ne]

The Hero is way better than the Pre

Way better? I disagree. I know u said this is ur 1st touch screen phone and I know this is an Android forum, but sheez! I have both the Pre and Hero. My initial thoughts are that the Hero's hardware feels a lot better than the Pre's (thank HTC for that, they've been making solid handsets for a few years.)

Performance wise, just tested loading up Engadget.com on both phones. The Pre's "rounded" edges on the display make it appear smaller with the notification area on top used for displaying the time, signal and browser menu. However, the Pre's browser loaded the page much faster (maybe it's the flash in the Hero's browser). Scrolling up and down on the page, the Pre's browser is much more smooth. Trying to zoom in and out using one hand (2 fingers), worked great on the Pre (very smooth, no hiccups)... not so great on the Hero (it didn't even respond to pinching a few times, seems to work better using my 2 fingers from 2 different hands)

On another note... I have Gmail setup on both phones, and the Pre seems to be getting mail notifications faster than the stock Gmail app on the Hero. (Haven't tried HTC Mail on it, I've heard it's not any better.)

The biggest thing advantage (to me) the Hero has over the Pre is the app catalog has more apps (we see how much can happen in a year) and the hardware is better. Plus Google Voice is awesome on Android. Also, Hero comes with a bigger battery.

I like that the Pre has a physical keyboard (eventho it's small, I'm totally comfortable using it) and the option that you can sync music or drag-n-drop. Also, the Universal Search on the Pre, is totally awesome...something maybe Android needs to look at.

I honestly wish I could run WebOS on the HTC, and merge both app stores. Palm's app catalog looks a lot better, there's just not many apps. I hope the 1.6 update improves the app catalog (give us some screenshots) and improves the browser kit. But, I think if Palm can improve the hardware and once more developers start producing more WebOS apps, it can be just as great as Android.

 

[Heroic Lover]

The biggest advantage Hero has on the Pre is the fact its a better phone. I detailed why in another thread. TO each is own but the Hero is the phone I've been looking for. Test the Pre twice but the screen was too small. Pinch and soon is mandatory on that. Not the case with the Hero.