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HTC Hero for one week...

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.
 
Yeah, I'm probably asking too much of the phone ;)

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.
 
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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.
 
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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.
 
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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.
 
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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.
 
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I am not alone.

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.
 
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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.

You are not asking to much, your expectations of the Hero are incorrect.

Sounds like your should get an iPhone.
 
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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.
 
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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.

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.
 
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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.
 
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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

I'm not able to find this Anysoft keyboard. Is it available for non-rooted sprint heros?

Ok, found any soft keyboard. Have to put a space between "any" and "soft"! I wish the search function worked better on the market. Sigh
 
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Apparently the phone is asking too much of you. :)

Well you got that right, it's being awfully demanding of my time these days.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Later.
 
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