I've had my Hero a year now and...

[Whiteicedmstech]

well, I love it, more so then before.

I recently upgraded from 1.5 to the current official version a week ago. I was scared to upgrade all this time reading all the complaints and issues. For me, I love the update and it has improved my battery life more then I thought it would.

Then I just learned about stuff like Launcher Pro and OMFG I love it. I was ready to pay my cancel fee on Sprint, jump over to ATT and get the iPHONE 4 and pay there crazy monthly rates for it. Now that I have learned about this program and all the customizing I can do without needing to root, it's like I have a brand new phone.

I am now starting to think if I should go ahead and jump and do the upgrade and get the Evo? I love the Android OS now, and I can get my Apple fix with the iPOD Touch 4G 32 gig I have now. I wouldn't mind having the bigger phone. But I am trying to think if it would be worth it for $200? Any input? How much internal memory is there on the EVO? And, what would be the benefits of upgrading from the Hero to the EVO if I were to do it?

Anyhow, just wanted to share my new found love for the Android OS and my Hero that I have had a year now.

Thank you for letting me share,
Whiteice

 

[DaWeav]

Well for me, the Evo is just too big to 'grasp' the monster. But, that's just my personal preference.

As for features, the Evo doesn't have the Trackball, so if you are use the Hero's Trackball, then you will miss it.

Also, if you live in a 4g area, then you will be able to take full advantage of the Evo's additional 4g premium fee. As for me, I don't live in an area with 4g, and won't be getting 4g in my area anytime soon. And, I don't travel to a city that has 4g service hardly ever either. So, because of the mandatory (rape-me-now) $10 per month 4g premium fee for the Evo, it would cost me an extra $240 over the life of the 2yr contract, or $120 for a year until I could upgrade to the next best Sprint phone next year. So even with the reduced price, the Evo would actually cost me $320-$440 since I could not take advantage of the 4g premium fee.

So for me, it's just not worth replacing my Hero with anything Sprint has to offer today. And, 3g (EvDo) sure seems fast enough for what I do on the Hero. Now if Sprint had the HTC Incredible, Desire, or Desire HD, without the 4g (rape-me-now) fee, then I'd consider it since I'd want a 3.7-4.0 inch screen with at least a 1 gigahertz processor minimum.

 

[Cuso]

Well for me, the Evo is just too big to 'grasp' the monster. But, that's just my personal preference.

As for features, the Evo doesn't have the Trackball, so if you are use the Hero's Trackball, then you will miss it.

Also, if you live in a 4g area, then you will be able to take full advantage of the Evo's additional 4g premium fee. As for me, I don't live in an area with 4g, and won't be getting 4g in my area anytime soon. And, I don't travel to a city that has 4g service hardly ever either. So, because of the mandatory (rape-me-now) $10 per month 4g premium fee for the Evo, it would cost me an extra $240 over the life of the 2yr contract, or $120 for a year until I could upgrade to the next best Sprint phone next year. So even with the reduced price, the Evo would actually cost me $320-$440 since I could not take advantage of the 4g premium fee.

So for me, it's just not worth replacing my Hero with anything Sprint has to offer today. And, 3g (EvDo) sure seems fast enough for what I do on the Hero. Now if Sprint had the HTC Incredible, Desire, or Desire HD, without the 4g (rape-me-now) fee, then I'd consider it since I'd want a 3.7-4.0 inch screen with at least a 1 gigahertz processor minimum.

Yep I thought I would get over the whole need to have the greatest and latest EVO drama, and I did. Your post pretty much sums it all up... An incredible on Sprint would be a no brainer for me, but for now I'm fine with my Hero thank you very much.

 

[LBPHeretic]

I feel exactly the same way. I actually live in an area, or at least in the outskirts, which has Sprint 4G coverage. However, I am still not keen on paying the extra $10.00 a month for that. As I have said in other posts, I am perfectly happy with the speeds of the Ev-Do and Wi-Fi networks.

Sprint should try and remember the people that do not want a 4G handset, but do want a higher end one. Unfortunately, I doubt that is the direction they are headed though. It seems like all of the high end handsets will be of the 4G variety and the low to mid level handsets will be Ev-Do. I hope that Sprint proves me wrong on that though.

 

[Bnice]

Well its all an individual choice, the $10 fee is still cheaper than any of the other carriers plan. I have a Hero and my wife has the EVO, the screen alone blow my phone away, i hear some say the phone is to big again that depends on the person, the speed on the EVO is faster as well and i think the 2.1 update don't run as smooth on my hero. In all i still like my hero but the EVO is a beast i'm just waiting to see what gingerbread brings.

 

[kristi-lynn]

having used both phones for a long period of time, the evo is the clear winner here. i bought the evo on a new account so i still had my hero running simultaneously. i eventually returned the evo (regretfully) because i couldn't keep the new account, but i'm looking to buy one out of contract now. going back to the hero i feel like the phone is handicapped in comparison. there's no question that the evo is a far superior phone (albeit rather large). once you see what 2.2 is capable of and what a faster processor and more ram can do you'll never want to go back to the unable-to-do-so-much-as-make-a-simple-phone-call hero. don't believe me? use your upgrade for the 30 day trial period and see for yourself.

 

[LBPHeretic]

If you want Android 2.2 on your Sprint HTC Hero, then CyanogenMod 6 is the answer. My friend has it on his handset and it is extremely smooth, not only due to the JIT compiler, but also the overclocked CPU set at 691 MHz by default in that ROM.

I found it ironic that you mentioned that the Sprint HTC Hero cannot do more than make a phone call considering the trouble people have had with dialer lag and missed calls because of that. Anyway, I have not had really any issues with my Sprint HTC Hero outside of small quirks. I am glad people are happy with the Sprint HTC EVO 4G and that it has been such a huge hit for Sprint itself. I am just not ready to move into a 4G handset at this time.

 

[kristi-lynn]

I found it ironic that you mentioned that the Sprint HTC Hero cannot do more than make a phone call considering the trouble people have had with dialer lag and missed calls because of that.

Oh but you've mis-read. I actually said it CAN'T make phone calls. Aside from all the other things it can't do, like load maps without a full restart, or go back to the home screen without reloading sense, or hold more than 15 apps without filling the internal memory... but otherwise, sure it's a great phone.

 

[andygu3]

Oh but you've mis-read. I actually said it CAN'T make phone calls. Aside from all the other things it can't do, like load maps without a full restart, or go back to the home screen without reloading sense, or hold more than 15 apps without filling the internal memory... but otherwise, sure it's a great phone.

Rooted or not, the Hero is a good phone I'm sorry you've had a bad experience but I've never had much trouble with the phone. It's weird that different people have different experiences, some good, some bad

It's even better with Froyo/2.2 though

 

[oOMavrikOo]

Root the phone with Universal Androot, flash Clockworkmod Recovery from Rom Manager, download CM6 from Rom Manager (premium), enjoy your device. It's that simple! I love this mod and I haven't even scratched the surface yet.

 

[Whiteicedmstech]

Thanks for all the input and feedback all.

I think I may hold off for a few months and enjoy the Hero some more. Though, I would love LOVE to get the EVO. I don't mind the "bigger" phone, I actually would love LOVE to have the bigger screen and what not.

Whiteice

 

[ron]

I have both and I honestly like the hHero more. Partly because it's the right size, and partly because the track ball is far superior to the directional keys on the Evo. I also like having more hardware keys. Plus the 4g drains batter fast enough that it is not that much use unless the phone is plugged in. Of course the Evo has a great and large screen, but overall the Hero rules IMO.

 

[danimallector]

A message to Anyone who can help...........have you rooted your hero? I need help with getting the stock alert sounds from a htc hero, do you have any ideas on how i'd go about and do this? I dont have a hero but theres a particular oriental mms tone i really really want have been looking for a while now.Do you know how to get stock tones of htc hero. Do you need to root the phone to do something like that? Could someone please send stock alert and ringtone files to me from a HTC Hero. Help, Thanks

 

[Rube8514]

Oh but you've mis-read. I actually said it CAN'T make phone calls. Aside from all the other things it can't do, like load maps without a full restart, or go back to the home screen without reloading sense, or hold more than 15 apps without filling the internal memory... but otherwise, sure it's a great phone.

Amen to ya!! lol

 

[LBPHeretic]

Oh but you've mis-read. I actually said it CAN'T make phone calls. Aside from all the other things it can't do, like load maps without a full restart, or go back to the home screen without reloading sense, or hold more than 15 apps without filling the internal memory... but otherwise, sure it's a great phone.

Granted, I may have misinterpreted what you meant, but it was a bit ambiguous to start with. It could be taken either way really, but we will not get bogged down in the details.

To be quite honest, I have had little to no troubles with accomplishing any of the tasks you mentioned above and I also have over forty apps installed without issue, but I know others will agree that in their situation they HAVE experienced the same issues you have pointed out. Out of the box, I have always been pleased with my Sprint HTC Hero, even when it was on Android 1.5. That is because I was, apparently, a member of the lucky group that really had no issues from that version to even the Android 2.1 update that I have installed now. I have to agree with andygu3 about it being a good handset regardless of rooting status.