persuade me

[bauer]

at the moment im using my 18 month old n95,8gb and have been looking to upgrade my contract

i like the look of the hero, but the things that concern me are the camera/video camera (is it on par with the n95)as i use it to print out 6x4 images

and the lack of bluetooth file sharing, is there anyway around this?? or planned apps coming out??

i would also use the phone for watching videos, and would like wmv support (does the hero do this well?)

i just want to make sure that i will be making the right decision in getting this phone.

persuade away

 

[itsmoirob]

Do it.




For photos, have a look at any of the photos on my blog here. itsmoirob's posterous - Thoughts
Theyre all taken with Hero. You should be able to make up your own mind about photos.

Missing Bluetooth file transfer, I think that's a moot point. I've never seen the point of bluetooth file transfer. Perhaps sending one photo from phone to pc/friend, but the amount of times I did that I can count on one hand. The Hero/Android phones are supposed to always be connected to the web so I suspect they were expecting people to send files that way?
Also they're supposed to be trying to do away with bluetooth now for this kind of thing and promote Wifi Direct (Wi-Fi Direct - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)
wifi Direct would work through existing technology so you wouldnt need to change any hardware.

Phone works well playing videos. Unfortunately I can only confirm this for youtube/flv and .mp4 videos. .mp4s work and look just as good on Hero then on N95.
Do not have any wmv files so couldn't comment.

For many years I thought the N95 was the one of the best phones out. Then when I upgraded to the HTC Hero this trumped N95 in every way possible for me, social networking, instant syncing with all google products (gmail, calendar, contacts) and of course the ability to have apps, which seems to be the route every major phone company is taking these days.

I'd give it two thumbs our of two thumbs.

What are you waiting for.

 

[bauer]

cheers for the reply mate.


how much data do you use a month on the phone??

also whats the battery life like??? are there any good gps apps for it, like tomtom etc??

i think i will get it, time to ring t-mobile up and see what they can do ;D

 

[itsmoirob]

I couldnt really answer your first question. (Basically I have a UK phone, but for the last month I've been in Spain so don't use data, would cost a bomb, mainly use wifi)
I'm sure someone else would be able to comment on this.
But you can download an app called Netcounter where you can set limits to how data much per week/month your phone will use and warns you at that point. And if you did reach that limit it's very easy to switch off mobile data usage. Like I said, being in Spain I have mine off all the time so not to be charged lots.

A lot of people have complained about battery life. But I've often played with the phone, took a 3~4 hour bus journey with music player constantly on never had any issues.

There is one GPS app out at the moment. Cant remember what it's called. Googlemaps comes with a decent text navigation but the new 1.6 Donut update that most Android phones have (us Heroes have to wait a bit longer due to HTC Sense UI) implements text to speech technology, so I can see a lot of new apps coming out very soon that speak Google Maps directions (and even stuff like your texts, etc)

 

[bauer]

I couldnt really answer your first question. (Basically I have a UK phone, but for the last month I've been in Spain so don't use data, would cost a bomb, mainly use wifi)
I'm sure someone else would be able to comment on this.
But you can download an app called Netcounter where you can set limits to how data much per week/month your phone will use and warns you at that point. And if you did reach that limit it's very easy to switch off mobile data usage. Like I said, being in Spain I have mine off all the time so not to be charged lots.

A lot of people have complained about battery life. But I've often played with the phone, took a 3~4 hour bus journey with music player constantly on never had any issues.

There is one GPS app out at the moment. Cant remember what it's called. Googlemaps comes with a decent text navigation but the new 1.6 Donut update that most Android phones have (us Heroes have to wait a bit longer due to HTC Sense UI) implements text to speech technology, so I can see a lot of new apps coming out very soon that speak Google Maps directions (and even stuff like your texts, etc)

cheers mate, i think i will order one, cheers for your help mate

 

[MartinS]

You'll certainly see the difference in the Hero and your clunky Nokia!

Obviously it's an emerging platform and certainly not perfect, however the Hero is a good experience on Android. Good decision if you go for it.

 

[Bunjiweb]

N95 is an ancient brick compared to the Hero,

In regards to data use, I used over the 500mb limit on Orange in the first month, but this was primarily because I didn't at that point have net access at home after moving house.

Since then I have added the wi-fi and mobile network switch widgets to one of my homescreens so when I am in a wi-fi area I make use of that, but when I need to use the net or update anything when out and about I can turn on mobile internet and jump onto 3G or HSDPA.

There is also a program called Locale which can turn on/off wifi/mobile internet and the like depending on your location which many people use and find very useful. Personally I just do it manually, it doesn't take long.

You won't regret it if you order one, just make sure the ROM is up to date as this makes a BIG difference to the overall speed of the device. Android is still emerging, but in my opinion is the best overall mobile experience currently available, and will only get better with updates to Android 1.6 & 2.0 not far down the road, The open source nature makes for some great customisation / apps etc.

Ben

 

[bauer]

cheers people, aint got around to ringing them yet but i will

 

[Quazar]

Be warned, the camera doesnt really compare to the one on the N95. Everything else is much better.