I've had the HTC Hero for one week and I really dig a lot of things about this phone but below are some of my major frustrations:
Keyboard: It really bothers me that it's nearly impossible for me to type perfectly, there are always errors. I have an iPod Touch and can type entire emails on that keyboard without any problems. I don't like composing anything more than a text message on the Hero. The errors are one frustration but the major frustration is the amount of lag I experience 80% of the time I type. I've heard from others that they do not experience this type of lag, but I am wondering if it's something that will be solved by an updated Android OS because it's almost a deal breaker for me.
Apps: Although I do like the large selection of apps, I use very few and the ones I do use seem to lag considerably more than the apps that came with the phone. I use the handcent for SMS and I find it superior in every way to the original text program other than it's responsiveness. The software keyboard constantly slows this program down and sometimes does not even work.
My other gripe with the apps is that downloading them seems to be a major contribution to the lag I experience. I have only downloaded five apps and of the seven screens available on the UI Sense, I only use two with the exception of one screen devoted to a calendar. Why is it that the phone's performance has noticably decreased even though I seem to utilize only a moderate portion of this phone's full potential?
I love the internet browsing, I love the visual voicemail, the wi-fi/bluetooth widgets, the app store and the support this phone receives.
But I'm just not the type of guy that buys things to tweak or modify them to perfection, I just want a consistent phone that is great at texting, checking and responding to email and do some light browsing. Considering my major frustrations are with the typing function, I'm really curious if this issue can or will be resolved by updates or any other options. I am seriously considering getting the Palm Pixi just so I can have a keyboard available, even though I'm aware of all the reasons why the Palm phones remain inferior to the Android OS.
Thanks.
Last edited by mstott25; January 26th, 2010 at 11:06 PM.
Reason: t-t-t-t-typos yo
android phones are designed to be tweaked, prodded, customized, rooted. If you want an out-of-the-box easy to use phone, then android phones probably aren't for you.
__________________
If at first you don't succeed, get a bigger hammer
Running whatever release of Froyo I happen to be on at the time
android phones are designed to be tweaked, prodded, customized, rooted. If you want an out-of-the-box easy to use phone, then android phones probably aren't for you.
Rooting, and getting rid of those worthless Sprint apps will greatly speed the Hero up. Throwing a custom ROM on (a very easy process) will also greatly speed the phone up. Once 2.1 comes out, the phone should run pretty fast stock, and hopefully that won't be more than another few weeks down the line.
I never customized phones before the Hero either. Heck, I never even had a smartphone before the Hero. I really got into it though, and found it to be an awful lot of fun.
I'm not a big fan of the software-based keyboard either. I end up making a lot of errors too. But since I'm not a big texter, that's not a huge problem and I anticipate my skills will get better the longer I use my Hero. Downloading the Avanced Task Manager might speed things up a bit by closing out all those apps running in the background.
I'm not a big fan of the software-based keyboard either. I end up making a lot of errors too. But since I'm not a big texter, that's not a huge problem and I anticipate my skills will get better the longer I use my Hero. Downloading the Avanced Task Manager might speed things up a bit by closing out all those apps running in the background.
The auto-correct works great, and only gets better over time.
As for task-killers, read the sticky about them. Not at all a fan of task killers, except to kill an app that screws up. The system is very good at managing it's memory resources without additional help.
<snip>......... I am seriously considering getting the Palm Pixi just so I can have a keyboard available, even though I'm aware of every reason why the Palms remain inferior to the Android OS.
Thanks.
you want a keyboard...and Android... then get the Moment...
Apps are fine, but the lag when I type is madenning.
It doesn't auto-correct 1/2 of the words I type because it is too busy lagging while I type, so it just puts the wrong word. It also likes to auto-capitalize the first TWO letters of a sentence because it can't keep up with me and lags so bad it double capitalizes. My personal favorite is when you press a letter and it lags and thinks you long-pressed it, often typing the alternate character of the key. It's kinda pathetic.
Apps are fine, but the lag when I type is madenning.
It doesn't auto-correct 1/2 of the words I type because it is too busy lagging while I type, so it just puts the wrong word. It also likes to auto-capitalize the first TWO letters of a sentence because it can't keep up with me and lags so bad it double capitalizes. My personal favorite is when you press a letter and it lags and thinks you long-pressed it, often typing the alternate character of the key. It's kinda pathetic.
like it's been stated before, turn off haptic feedback. Clear your cache's from your apps as well, that will likely help. It VERY rarely does the long press for me. Usually it'll only do it when I receive a text while I'm typing.
Apps are fine, but the lag when I type is madenning.
It doesn't auto-correct 1/2 of the words I type because it is too busy lagging while I type, so it just puts the wrong word. It also likes to auto-capitalize the first TWO letters of a sentence because it can't keep up with me and lags so bad it double capitalizes. My personal favorite is when you press a letter and it lags and thinks you long-pressed it, often typing the alternate character of the key. It's kinda pathetic.
How can my expectations be incorrect? Are you suggesting I should expect lag and an annoying typing experience with the Android?
I'm seriously not trying to hurt your guys feelings, the crux of my post was to get a better idea of whether or not these types of symptoms will be addressed by future updates. If that is an unrealistic expectation, as you have suggested, than maybe I should get a different phone. If my hope remains in the realm of possibility, I can be patient seeing as there are many aspects of the phone I find useful.
Quote:
Originally Posted by BSki
You are not asking to much, your expectations of the Hero are incorrect.
You must have a bad app causing your general lag, because I have had almost 50 at one point and it didn't run any different then when It was new. The only keyboard lag I notice is when typing in the browser and the spell correction works 99% of the time for me. You will also get much better with time. The keyboard used to bother me a lot, but now its much better.
That makes a lot more sense. I might try one of these nifty Root-o-ramas and maybe that will clear things up. I couldn't imagine so many people being happy with this phone if all of them acted like mine, I do very little with the phone.
Quote:
Originally Posted by durandetto
You must have a bad app causing your general lag, because I have had almost 50 at one point and it didn't run any different then when It was new. The only keyboard lag I notice is when typing in the browser and the spell correction works 99% of the time for me. You will also get much better with time. The keyboard used to bother me a lot, but now its much better.
I have 80+ apps, on my SD card using apps2sd, and I have virtually no lag when typing. Like I said earlier, only the occasional blip when I'm receiving a text while typing.
I honestly havent had any of the keyboard lag that you are talking about. Maybe when your dowloading the apps if you are downloading alot at the same time and are trying to type or something maybe then. but so far for me the keyboard has been very fast. I turned haptic feedback and the sounds off on it and that of course makes a big difference too.
I seriously doubt that you type perfect all the time. I am on a full size keyboard and I still don't type perfect. It is possible that you have a bad phone. I have very little lag if any. Are you typing in landscape or portrait? Most people have best results with portrait.
Well you got that right, it's being awfully demanding of my time these days.
Quote:
Originally Posted by buggyman
I installed Anysoft keyboard from the market for free and the keyboard is WAY easier to type on then the stock. I make way less mistakes with it
Hmmmm...I'm trying to find it, that might work. The software keyboard on the iPhone rocks, it's very easy to use but that's because the iPhone is wider. Like I said I have an iPod Touch and I have no problem composing multi-paragraph emails and responses on the thing which is why I thought I wouldn't mind a software keyboard, but my phone is killing me.
Quote:
Originally Posted by mconigs78
I honestly havent had any of the keyboard lag that you are talking about. Maybe when your dowloading the apps if you are downloading alot at the same time and are trying to type or something maybe then. but so far for me the keyboard has been very fast. I turned haptic feedback and the sounds off on it and that of course makes a big difference too.
That's encouraging. I wanna figure out what the problem is, it's very noticeable on my phone. I showed it to the guy at Best Buy who recommended the Hero to me, I just opened up the handcent SMS texting, started to write a quick message to my wife like, "Yo woman I'm coming home so you better clean up the house and put on something pretty" and the thing draggggggged, the employee told me to check and make sure I had all the updates from the Sprint site and agreed that my phone sucked.
Quote:
Originally Posted by mich0020
I don't have any lag either...something is slowing down your phone for sure. And check out the compact qwerty keyboard.
Sweet...will do.
Quote:
Originally Posted by treborcj
I seriously doubt that you type perfect all the time. I am on a full size keyboard and I still don't type perfect. It is possible that you have a bad phone. I have very little lag if any. Are you typing in landscape or portrait? Most people have best results with portrait.
How does your ability to suck at typing on a full sized keyboard have any bearing whatsoever on my ability to type? Okay just kidding, I think your assumption is pretty safe that I do not type perfect all the time. I would like to point out that I never mentioned I type perfect all the time, so the relevancy factor in your statement registers at about a 2 on the pertinence scale.
I prefer landscape, I seem to make less errors.
Quote:
Originally Posted by treborcj
Also did you calibrate the keyboard?
Yuppers.
All right you guys have been pretty helpful thanks for the tips. I think it's confirmed that my phone has an extra chromosome or something, I get the vibe that it's not acting like the rest of your phones.
For anybody considering taking a similar path as me and getting a Palm over an HTC Android...don't.
Yes my keyboard lagged, but everything else was better. You get spoiled with the Hero and if you do as I did, you'll soon realize you solved one problem at the cost of inheriting 10 new ones.
I just opened up the handcent SMS texting, started to write a quick message to my wife like, "Yo woman I'm coming home so you better clean up the house and put on something pretty" and the thing draggggggged,
Maybe the phone lagged so much when you typed that because it didn't want your wife to get that message and kill you when you got home.
You've heard of "Divine intervention"? That just might have been "Little green guy intervention" trying to save your life!
Device(s): CDMA Sprint Hero | Fresh ROM 1.1 | 16gb SDHC Class 2
Thanks: 0
Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts
Mee Too!
My first post!
I don't have the lag on my keyboard, but I do find it to be almost useless as an input device. To me the problem is that the keyboard thinks it knows what I want to type instead of actually putting down what I do type. I usually have to re-read what I type at least twice to make sure it got it correct. And "correcting" it's mistakes is harder than it sounds. But I like the phone a lot other than that.
I thought I was alone, guess not. I'll try out the Any soft keyboard and see if that makes a difference for me, thanks for the advice. Also, I'll try to figure out how to calibrate my keyboard as was suggested in the forums and see where that gets me.
I don't have the lag on my keyboard, but I do find it to be almost useless as an input device. To me the problem is that the keyboard thinks it knows what I want to type instead of actually putting down what I do type. I usually have to re-read what I type at least twice to make sure it got it correct. And "correcting" it's mistakes is harder than it sounds. But I like the phone a lot other than that.
I thought I was alone, guess not. I'll try out the Any soft keyboard and see if that makes a difference for me, thanks for the advice. Also, I'll try to figure out how to calibrate my keyboard as was suggested in the forums and see where that gets me.
calibrating will help, as will using portrait over landscape. Also, give it time. It certainly seems to "learn" how you type, and gets better with time. There are very few words that my Hero guesses wrong as I'm typing, and it's usually because I was half looking through my glasses and half not while I typed, so instead of typing "wonder", I type "endre" or something like that lol
You can also uncheck word prediction in your keyboard settings so that it types exactly what you want it to....but I do think it works better with the prediction on. And as I've stated before I love the compact qwerty keyboard. With prediction on, I never have an issue anymore....
Maybe the phone lagged so much when you typed that because it didn't want your wife to get that message and kill you when you got home.
You've heard of "Divine intervention"? That just might have been "Little green guy intervention" trying to save your life!
I know...that must be the divine app I forgot I installed!
Quote:
Originally Posted by rlundeen
My first post!
I don't have the lag on my keyboard, but I do find it to be almost useless as an input device. To me the problem is that the keyboard thinks it knows what I want to type instead of actually putting down what I do type. I usually have to re-read what I type at least twice to make sure it got it correct. And "correcting" it's mistakes is harder than it sounds. But I like the phone a lot other than that.
I thought I was alone, guess not. I'll try out the Any soft keyboard and see if that makes a difference for me, thanks for the advice. Also, I'll try to figure out how to calibrate my keyboard as was suggested in the forums and see where that gets me.
The lag was frustrating, but I was being spoiled. I have nothing but confidence in the whole Android community and the fact that if you're experiencing a problem, somebody else has already experienced it and it will be resolved in one way or another.
The difference for me was that even though there was some lag in the keyboard, this Palm lags in general waaaaay more than the Hero ever did, so even though I like the keyboard better I'm not typing any faster because I'm waiting on other things.
I only had the Hero for about 10 days or so and I'm serious, it spoiled me in so many ways. I was nit-picking but I'm running back.
I do love the Palm Pixi though, it's got a great keyboard and it's pretty cool but I would only suggest it to people who have never used an Android phone before.
haha, well glad to hear you're coming back! Maybe, the 2nd Hero you get will work better.
I still have haptic feedback turned on when I type, just because I kind of like it. I get the occasional pause while I type, but it doesn't bother me enough to turn it off. I do have to agree with whoever it was that mentioned trying to correct the mistakes that auto-correct makes. If you're typing a word that is close to a word that is in your dictionary it will automatically change to the word in the dictionary. It's difficult sometimes to try and change it to what you really wanted to type. Frustrating.
You are not asking to much, your expectations of the Hero are incorrect.
Sounds like your should get an iPhone.
you should be able to expect the phone you paid for to work as its advertised.
I dont own this phone, but i used to really want it. it looks really cool, but the more i read about it the less i want it. it seems like a buggy, glitchy, laggy phone.
the text issues in particular are annoying, i text quite a bit and im sure after having this phone for a while i would be very disappointed in the performance.
Ill wait for something a little more reliable to come along
It's your choice and believe me, I fully understand you wanting to take your time and investigate things but during my 30 days I've tried everything from Sprint and it's not even a comparison between the other phones and the Hero.
You should read the rest of this thread, I was complaining but my complaints were equivalent to some dude in a Ferrari saying he wants to ditch his ride and get a minivan because the passenger seat didn't offer enough lumbar support.
Quote:
Originally Posted by davco
you should be able to expect the phone you paid for to work as its advertised.
I dont own this phone, but i used to really want it. it looks really cool, but the more i read about it the less i want it. it seems like a buggy, glitchy, laggy phone.
the text issues in particular are annoying, i text quite a bit and im sure after having this phone for a while i would be very disappointed in the performance.
Ill wait for something a little more reliable to come along
I installed Anysoft keyboard from the market for free and the keyboard is WAY easier to type on then the stock. I make way less mistakes with it
THANK YOU and thank you again I just tried anysoft keyboard from reading this post my God ! it is amazing I can control the size of the keys and it is so fast it keeps up with spell check and everything. So +rep you sir thanks : )
Glad I read this, I'll try Anysoft... I've been getting lag on my first and second Hero... Pre and Post Root... Though MUCH less post Root, and only in landscape would I get it...
like it's been stated before, turn off haptic feedback. Clear your cache's from your apps as well, that will likely help. It VERY rarely does the long press for me. Usually it'll only do it when I receive a text while I'm typing.
Haptic was turned off the millisecond I got a Hero (or any phone). I clear cache on my phone so often I wouldn't be surprised if it just stopped using cache all together. Only way to get rid of it is to constantly clear cache, turn location services off/on, reboot phone, close apps, do a Indian rain dance.
This phone is harder to keep running than a 1982 VW!
THANK YOU and thank you again I just tried anysoft keyboard from reading this post my God ! it is amazing I can control the size of the keys and it is so fast it keeps up with spell check and everything. So +rep you sir thanks : )
Mine kept up for about a day, then started acting just like the original keyboard as far as lagging. It is a better keyboard, I'll give it that, but the phone eventually broke mine and it started lagging.
HTC Hero for one week...
Mee Too!
