Some questions about the Hero.

[Sorbi]

As you see I'm completely new here, and I wanted to say: Hi!


I have a few questions about the phone.

1.Does it support Java applications. If not, is there any third-party application to enable it?

2.After using this phone for some time, would you recommend me any other phone in the same price (more or less)?

3.What do you think about the camera? Does it make good photos or rather bad?

4.Could you give me some sample photos made using the phones camera?
(I am about to buy it for the camera too)

5.When does the phone start to be laggy, and how to prevent it?

6.I've heard about rooting the phone and is it 100% safe? Having a bluetooth without an ability to send files is just silly.

Sorry if I made any mistakes, but I'm still learning the language

Thank you for your replays

Regards, Sorbi.

 

[Slug]

As you see I'm completely new here, and I wanted to say: Hi!

"Hi" from me!

1.Does it support Java applications. If not, is there any third-party application to enable it?

Not sure about that, as I haven't needed to try any yet.

2.After using this phone for some time, would you recommend me any other phone in the same price (more or less)?

Nope, simply because I haven't used any others recently.

3.What do you think about the camera? Does it make good photos or rather bad?

They're nothing to write home about; fine for spontaneous snaps but not on a par with even my tiny old 4MP Canon Ixus let alone my DSLR. It's definitely not going to satify you if image quality is top of your list of requirements.

5.When does the phone start to be laggy, and how to prevent it?

That varies depending on the user, as we all have differing definitions of "laggy". One killer is lots of active widgets on-screen e.g. email, SMS, weather.... too many constantly working in the background will drag performance down.

6.I've heard about rooting the phone and is it 100% safe? Having a bluetooth without an ability to send files is just silly.

Nothing is 100% safe but thanks to the hard work of many enthusiasts it's almost that way. Btw, I understand that full BT support is planned but Android as an OS is still young. There are bound to be growing pains.

Sorry if I made any mistakes, but I'm still learning the language

Nothing to apologise for - your command of English is better than several native speakers I know.

/Al

 

[Sorbi]

Thanks for the fast reply and the warm welcome

They're nothing to write home about; fine for spontaneous snaps but not on a par with even my tiny old 4MP Canon Ixus let alone my DSLR. It's definitely not going to satify you if image quality is top of your list of requirements.

Nothing is perfect
Beside the camera the phone is just as I need.
Anyway, I'm used to the quality of image on my Sony Ericsson w810i, so I guess the photos that Hero make should be better

That varies depending on the user, as we all have differing definitions of "laggy". One killer is lots of active widgets on-screen e.g. email, SMS, weather.... too many constantly working in the background will drag performance down.

I've heard something about a special memory card type which should make the phone go faster... Does it noticeably work faster or it doesn't matter?


If there is anyone who has some time to upload His images snapped with the Hero (or send it via e-mail) - I'm still waiting

Regards, Sorbi.

 

[FADviral]

Hi Sorbi,

I haven't tried any java applications yet either, but I believe you have to install a third-party app to run them. I've just checked and more than one *is* available at the marketplace.

*However*, I've just read at Phandroid that the next firmware will have Sun's Java virtual machine pre-installed. It even shows the icon for it on the apps screen.

On a related note: The browser *does* do Javascript, and it does it *very* well. It also renders Flash applets in webpages (double-tap them, and they display full screen).

One thing to bear in mind about the camera is that it doesn't have a flash. It doesn't have particularly good optics, and doesn't compare well to any Nokia smartphone camera I've used over the past three years (including the N95/N85/N97), but it's better than the iPhone camera, and I personally think it's pretty good at macro and landscape shots. (I'm not in a position to upload pics at the moment, but I will do that later if possible.) The biggest problem is that you need an incredibly steady hand (and motionless subjects!) to avoid blurred pics. Due to lack of flash, the shutter deliberate stays open for slightly longer than a normal camera to let more light in.

Also, I've heard all this talk about Class 6 microsd cards speeding up the phone, but please bear in mind that it's already very fast! I personally don't find performance to be a problem unless I have 3/4 apps open in the background, but because they reside on the memory card, I imagine a class 6 microsd card *would* reduce that problem. My class 6 card was despatched a week ago but I haven't received it yet due to postal strikes in the UK, so I'm unable to offer experiences with that.

By the way: The new firmware is said to speed up the phone significantly. Wonderful news! I guess we just have to wait for HTC to finish beta testing it.

.

 

[FADviral]

I just took a couple of pics for ya.



Both indoors. The first in a dimly lit room with the light on.
The second in room lit by natural daylight.

 

[Sorbi]

Thanks, that was what I needed
After looking at these photos I'm sure that I'm buying it
I've got half of the price for it, so not much left to go.
Thanks again!

Regards, Sorbi.

 

[FADviral]

You're welcome! I just took some more photos outside.

These pretty much demonstrate the problem with slow shutter speed and moving subjects:



(The background on the second pic is actually pretty crisp because I managed to hold the camera steady.)

Also: There is supposedly a superior camera app in the Android Marketplace which allows you to select faster shutter speeds. Maybe somebody else can elaborate on that?

These were taken very quickly while being pulled by the dog so not as good as they could be really:

 

[Jason71]

I have just switched from a W810i and of course the Hero is in a different league and yet I imagine you will find as I have that while it does some very clever stuff very well there is some very basic stuff it does badly or not at all. In comparison the things that I have found most frustrating are (in no particular order):


1) Camera has only a 1 stage button not a 2 stage one like a proper camera or the W810i so there is not the option to focus then move the camera or wait then take the picture. This means you cannot take a shot of a person against a backgound but not in the middle. It also makes it almost impossible to capture something that is moving.

2) no camera-light or flash.

3) no way to recieve contacts or send them except an MMS VCard that does not seem to be compatible with much else.

4) Short battery life. OK its probably ok for a smart phone but if you are used to a W810i it will seem very short.

5) No way to send or recieve files via bluetooth.


some of the issues above can be partly resolved by 3rd party apps as someone will probably reply but I have yet to find any resolution to the camera problem.

response is not always instantainious but concidering that this was the thing that many reviewers banged on about I have not really seen it as an issue. So long as you are sensible with your background apps and have taskiller it is fine.
For a newly launched phone it is also remarkably stable. My friends N97 is a nightmare by comparison.

 

[FADviral]

4) Short battery life. OK its probably ok for a smart phone but if you are used to a W810i it will seem very short.

If you use it exactly like you used your W810i (ie. ignored all the smartphone features) the battery would likely last around the same time. This is a really common complaint with all smartphones (I recall it with the Nokia N95 three years ago, and the Nokia N97 just a few weeks ago... and now the HTC Hero. )

I find that it last 14-18 hours if I hammer it (meaning downloading apps, twittering, enabling/disabling GPS & WiFi all day), but a couple of days if I only use it for calls and little else. I haven't charged mine since the 25th because I've been all work and no play for a couple of days. I have listened to Last.fm and twittered for five minutes here and there though, just not so frequently.

 

[nafe]

You're welcome! I just took some more photos outside.

These pretty much demonstrate the problem with slow shutter speed and moving subjects:



(The background on the second pic is actually pretty crisp because I managed to hold the camera steady.)

Also: There is supposedly a superior camera app in the Android Marketplace which allows you to select faster shutter speeds. Maybe somebody else can elaborate on that?

These were taken very quickly while being pulled by the dog so not as good as they could be really:

Awesome dog .

 

[Sorbi]

2) no camera-light or flash.

Yeah, that's what I'll be missing the most...
I used to use the flashlight a lot, but now when I got myself a head lamp (from Petzl ) I stopped, so no big deal.

... I haven't charged mine since the 25th...

You mean that it have been running uncharged for two days? I didn't expect that battery life, even without using it much
It is such an expensive phone, that I'll probably buy another battery for it, so the problem would disappear.

3) no way to recieve contacts or send them except an MMS VCard that does not seem to be compatible with much else.

5) No way to send or recieve files via bluetooth.

I believe that this would be fixed in the upcoming soft updates. If not, then I'll start thinking about rooting my phone.

1) Camera has only a 1 stage button not a 2 stage one like a proper camera or the W810i so there is not the option to focus then move the camera or wait then take the picture. This means you cannot take a shot of a person against a backgound but not in the middle. It also makes it almost impossible to capture something that is moving.

For me it's not that bad. I understand It may sometimes annoy.
I'm sure there is a way to do that, but the way haven't been found yet.

I'm kind of missing the QWERTY keypad from the G1 (Dream)...

Regards, Sorbi.