Well, it is Friday - Noon EST. Did anyone buy one yet? If so, how is it working? Is it true about the lag issues?
-
After 15+ years, we've made a big change: Android Forums is now Early Bird Club. Learn more here.
So does anyone own one yet?
- Thread starter jhumberger
- Start date
-
- Tags
- htc hero
I JUST got home with mine. Glad I did all the contacts, they all loaded right to my phone after the sync.
Google Voice
Mobile Banking
Pandora
all added
Google Voice
Mobile Banking
Pandora
all added
Upvote
0
Awesome - How is the lag issues? Is it noticable as BoyGeniusReport advises? Also, how is the typing on the phone?
Upvote
0
Typing on screen is going to take some getting used to. Im always one key off it seems.
Lag? I havent noticed any.
Upvote
0
I have no lag moving from screen to screen. It seems very fluid, and works quite well. There are a couple issues so far:
1. The browser is a bit slow (my 3Gs was much faster, and Pre marginally faster) Opera browser is faster, but no multitouch, and confusing to use.
2. Loading some programs seems to take longer than they should, but not a big deal.
3. Battery life has been just OK, but it usually takes a few charge cycles for the battery to reach full potential. (still a bit better than Pre)
4. You can not delete the Nascar, or Football Apps
5. Keyboard takes a few seconds to appear in apps that use it, but after opened, it works well.
There is a lot more to cover, but I am running out of time.
1. The browser is a bit slow (my 3Gs was much faster, and Pre marginally faster) Opera browser is faster, but no multitouch, and confusing to use.
2. Loading some programs seems to take longer than they should, but not a big deal.
3. Battery life has been just OK, but it usually takes a few charge cycles for the battery to reach full potential. (still a bit better than Pre)
4. You can not delete the Nascar, or Football Apps
5. Keyboard takes a few seconds to appear in apps that use it, but after opened, it works well.
There is a lot more to cover, but I am running out of time.
Upvote
0
Congrats again on your new toy!
Run the input calibration tool in Settings - Locale & text - Touch input - Text input. I found a huge improvement in accuracy afterwards.
Run the input calibration tool in Settings - Locale & text - Touch input - Text input. I found a huge improvement in accuracy afterwards.
Upvote
0
I picked mine up at 2pm. I'm really impressed with it. It feels solid in hand and the screen size is large, clear, and vibrant. I've been playing with it since i got it and burnt the battery to half-life, but that's expected until after the first few full charge cycles. I'm not the most computer savvy guy so hardcore messing with the software/hardware isn't in the cards, but for my needs all i can say is...this thing rocks!
Still having a few hang-ups getting it all setup for my taste, but i don't like burying my head in manuals much and prefer the trial and error method. So anyways here's an update on my 4-hrs worth of experience with my new HERO:
Positives
1. Phone is solidly built, feels great in hand and the screen is great.
2. Smooth touch-flo transitions between wigets/scenes and scrolling through web pages
3. Relatively quick browser uploads (but that has alot to do with 3G availability). Browser works fine for me, plenty fast for such a small device. Of course if your expecting desktop speeds you're gonna be disappointed.
4. Media player has great external volume and sounds pretty darn good for a mobile phone player. At full volume it gets a little scratchy. (haven't tried earbuds yet)
5. Market has tons of applications and so far i've downloaded about 15 (they download pretty quickly too)
6. Pretty decent stock ring tones and alerts
7. Voice service seems pretty good (only made one call so don't have lots of input on that yet)
8. Sprint NFL Mobile works nicely
Negatives
1. Battery life? As i said it will probably get better after a few full charges, but for now it's a downer
2. Track ball seems to be very loose (unsure if it supposed to be that way)
3. Not all Market apps are compatible with the Hero (or Cupcake)
4. Camera doesn't focus that well in low light and you have to be extremely steady handed to keep photo from blurring. Also you have to keep it on target for a at least 1-2 sec after you push trackball
5. Gets hot while charging and when running lots of applications
6. Sprint TV is kinda funky...no real shows, just lots of interviews and clips
Now this may be a server issue, but for some reason i can't get Phandroid to load properly and no access to forum when it does. Gmail and Hotmail both loaded easily and uploaded my emails with ease. Well i've been ignoring my family long enough so it's time to sign off. I'll be back on tomorrow hoping to hear how other's have faired with their Heroes.
Still having a few hang-ups getting it all setup for my taste, but i don't like burying my head in manuals much and prefer the trial and error method. So anyways here's an update on my 4-hrs worth of experience with my new HERO:
Positives
1. Phone is solidly built, feels great in hand and the screen is great.
2. Smooth touch-flo transitions between wigets/scenes and scrolling through web pages
3. Relatively quick browser uploads (but that has alot to do with 3G availability). Browser works fine for me, plenty fast for such a small device. Of course if your expecting desktop speeds you're gonna be disappointed.
4. Media player has great external volume and sounds pretty darn good for a mobile phone player. At full volume it gets a little scratchy. (haven't tried earbuds yet)
5. Market has tons of applications and so far i've downloaded about 15 (they download pretty quickly too)
6. Pretty decent stock ring tones and alerts
7. Voice service seems pretty good (only made one call so don't have lots of input on that yet)
8. Sprint NFL Mobile works nicely
Negatives
1. Battery life? As i said it will probably get better after a few full charges, but for now it's a downer
2. Track ball seems to be very loose (unsure if it supposed to be that way)
3. Not all Market apps are compatible with the Hero (or Cupcake)
4. Camera doesn't focus that well in low light and you have to be extremely steady handed to keep photo from blurring. Also you have to keep it on target for a at least 1-2 sec after you push trackball
5. Gets hot while charging and when running lots of applications
6. Sprint TV is kinda funky...no real shows, just lots of interviews and clips
Now this may be a server issue, but for some reason i can't get Phandroid to load properly and no access to forum when it does. Gmail and Hotmail both loaded easily and uploaded my emails with ease. Well i've been ignoring my family long enough so it's time to sign off. I'll be back on tomorrow hoping to hear how other's have faired with their Heroes.
Upvote
0
Here are my thought coming from the Palm Pre...
Got a Hero today at a Sprint store here in NY. So far it feels pretty good. It's very responsive - definitely less lag than the Pre all around. Not used to the virtual keyboard yet at all. But the mail setup was no problem, tons of apps on the android store. Hero's browser is generally easier to read because the type is is larger. Also the browser's type automatically reflows according to where the browser edges are, so there is far less scrolling/resizing to do.
I am just getting the hang of it - but any questions about the Hero, just ask ;-)
I also still have my Pre.
So far there is nothing unresponsive about it. Indeed less lag than my Pre - no noticable lag at all.
The launching of apps is very, very fast: email and sms apps launch in maybe .3 seconds.
The Hero seems to shut down in about 1 second. Agian, very fast.
Startup takes about 1:05, then another 30 sec to stabaliz after lock screen.
After booting email takes under 2 sec to start. Anytine after that it's instantaneous to start it.
Messaging takes around 1 sec the first time after boot, and it's instantaneous after that (until the next boot.)
Very refreshing to be able to use web sites with Flash! I work in the photography industry, and there are many, many sites I use every day which are flash-based.
Both browsers seem to be equally fast when loading pages via Wifi.
------------
Way less lag on the Hero for sure. The browser may be a little less smooth when pinching, but there is a lot less pinching required because the type is larger and repaginates - so its less work to view web sites. And less eye strain because of the larger type. Haven't used email much yet, but setup was easy and switching between 3 accounts is very easy.
-------------
The one place I see lag is rotating the phone from vertical to horizontal takes -a sec. I too a writing this on the Hero from a bar watching the Yankees game
--------------
I can't say enough about the repagination on the Hero's browser so your words are never running off the page. It's great.
--------------
The Pre's universal search and recently added email search are missed. No such functions on the Hero as far as I can tell.
Got a Hero today at a Sprint store here in NY. So far it feels pretty good. It's very responsive - definitely less lag than the Pre all around. Not used to the virtual keyboard yet at all. But the mail setup was no problem, tons of apps on the android store. Hero's browser is generally easier to read because the type is is larger. Also the browser's type automatically reflows according to where the browser edges are, so there is far less scrolling/resizing to do.
I am just getting the hang of it - but any questions about the Hero, just ask ;-)
I also still have my Pre.
So far there is nothing unresponsive about it. Indeed less lag than my Pre - no noticable lag at all.
The launching of apps is very, very fast: email and sms apps launch in maybe .3 seconds.
The Hero seems to shut down in about 1 second. Agian, very fast.
Startup takes about 1:05, then another 30 sec to stabaliz after lock screen.
After booting email takes under 2 sec to start. Anytine after that it's instantaneous to start it.
Messaging takes around 1 sec the first time after boot, and it's instantaneous after that (until the next boot.)
Very refreshing to be able to use web sites with Flash! I work in the photography industry, and there are many, many sites I use every day which are flash-based.
Both browsers seem to be equally fast when loading pages via Wifi.
------------
Way less lag on the Hero for sure. The browser may be a little less smooth when pinching, but there is a lot less pinching required because the type is larger and repaginates - so its less work to view web sites. And less eye strain because of the larger type. Haven't used email much yet, but setup was easy and switching between 3 accounts is very easy.
-------------
The one place I see lag is rotating the phone from vertical to horizontal takes -a sec. I too a writing this on the Hero from a bar watching the Yankees game
--------------
I can't say enough about the repagination on the Hero's browser so your words are never running off the page. It's great.
--------------
The Pre's universal search and recently added email search are missed. No such functions on the Hero as far as I can tell.
Upvote
0
Got mine today at lunch. I've been opening apps and testing things out all day, no lag. Not used to the on-screen keyboard yet although my last phone was a HTC Touch but I used a custom cootek touchpal keyboard, I think they make an Android version, I may have to check that out.
Minor point, but the digital clock on my home screen doesn't seem to do the flip annimations that I'd seen in all the demo videos, weird. I went into settings and turned on annimations, doesn't seem to make a difference.
And when I connected to WiFi at home, the speed of the browser slowed to a crawl, not sure what that's about, I may have all the WiFi channels in my house maxed out...
Still need to figure some things out like how to set up a second gmail account, and if there is a button in the browser to return to your home page. Guess it's time to read the manual.
Overall it's very cool, some minor things that I need to get used to.
Minor point, but the digital clock on my home screen doesn't seem to do the flip annimations that I'd seen in all the demo videos, weird. I went into settings and turned on annimations, doesn't seem to make a difference.
And when I connected to WiFi at home, the speed of the browser slowed to a crawl, not sure what that's about, I may have all the WiFi channels in my house maxed out...
Still need to figure some things out like how to set up a second gmail account, and if there is a button in the browser to return to your home page. Guess it's time to read the manual.
Overall it's very cool, some minor things that I need to get used to.
Upvote
0
i think phandroid has been down much of the day
trying it from my desktop its sucky too - other sites load in a blink of an eye (on desktop)
as for browser performance.... verrrry slow - but that's probably bandwidth
it appears as there's very little actual 3G coverage in my area - it always says "EV"
: (
Upvote
0
im so jealous of you guys
btw calibate your virtual keyboard to your own typing style then u wont be off by one key
btw this site sooooo laggy wtf? i couldnt get it on my phone all day
Upvote
0
Thanks Slug, and thanks again for directions to the text input. I had heard it was in there, but I didnt know where to find it. The Locale part was throwing me off.
I was under the impression that HTC removed the animations to help reduce the lag on the Hero. There were some that didnt like it, and some that did. They should have made an option to toggle it.
Upvote
0
im so jealous of you guys
btw calibate your virtual keyboard to your own typing style then u wont be off by one key
btw this site sooooo laggy wtf? i couldnt get it on my phone all day
no kidding!
someone find an admin - what the heck! its not just today - yesterday (and day before) practically been DOS'd
Upvote
0
Got mine last nite at bestbuy thats 40 mins away from my house cuz local bestbuys dont carry sprint.. suckers..
anyways, i moved from touch pro with really cool custom roms and win 6.5, so this android is really new stuff for me. and so far i really like it.
I had some problems yesterday with my internet connection ( it worked on and off), sometimes i was getting error msg that my username is wrong or something like that. that was pissing me off alot, i was wondering if its just my HERO. So later i removed the battery for 10-20 seconds and put it back on, and since then it seemed like it fixed the problem.
But today i still encountered a problem with downloading some apps from market, kept saying "downloading" and nothing was happening, so i had to restart the market app and my phone connection. that fixed it. but now im thinking if its just Android that needs to be updated with these bugfixes or is it actual sprint connection thats tripping.
Before i bought it i was still thinking if i should wait and get samsung moment cuz it has better processor and i read online how some ppl complaint about Hero being slow. MY HERO IS SMOOOOOTH AND FAAAAST ))) im glad i got it.
So, rite now im still playing with it and learning how to do that or that since i got used to my WinMo settings.
and btw I LOVE GOOGLE VOICE INTEGRATION )))
anyways, i moved from touch pro with really cool custom roms and win 6.5, so this android is really new stuff for me. and so far i really like it.
I had some problems yesterday with my internet connection ( it worked on and off), sometimes i was getting error msg that my username is wrong or something like that. that was pissing me off alot, i was wondering if its just my HERO. So later i removed the battery for 10-20 seconds and put it back on, and since then it seemed like it fixed the problem.
But today i still encountered a problem with downloading some apps from market, kept saying "downloading" and nothing was happening, so i had to restart the market app and my phone connection. that fixed it. but now im thinking if its just Android that needs to be updated with these bugfixes or is it actual sprint connection thats tripping.
Before i bought it i was still thinking if i should wait and get samsung moment cuz it has better processor and i read online how some ppl complaint about Hero being slow. MY HERO IS SMOOOOOTH AND FAAAAST ))) im glad i got it.
So, rite now im still playing with it and learning how to do that or that since i got used to my WinMo settings.
and btw I LOVE GOOGLE VOICE INTEGRATION )))
Upvote
0
Be careful with the GV integration. GV is not a cell number so, not free minutes. EEK!
Upvote
0
So far I'm truly in love with this device. It so cool and really keeps you occupied and in touch with everything. I have a had noticed a few issues that i'm hoping will subside or be easly remedied.
Anyone noticed the battery drains like someone took a shotgun to it? I fully charged it last night and unplugged it at 10PM and by noon today i had 16% battery. I downloaded several Apps and sent maybe 5 text messages. I charged it to 100% again and in the last hour it's dropped to 85%. Granted i've been playing with it lightly, but not really that much. The vizBattery App works great for seeing how much juice you have left.
I installed the TaskKiller App that lets you close stuff, but in reality once you open the browser, make a call or check messages several other functions start running as well. (Some i have no idea what they are - like OMADM, com.htc. provider, IQRD, com.google.android.apps.maps:Friendservice). The browser definitely is the main culprit for draining the juice from this puppy. I've also noticed that the device gets pretty warm when surfing the net too.
I was dying today since i couldn't check in to see how others were fairing with their Hereos because this site was having issues...since last night.
Hope everyone that got in on the early access has been having fun with it.
Anyone noticed the battery drains like someone took a shotgun to it? I fully charged it last night and unplugged it at 10PM and by noon today i had 16% battery. I downloaded several Apps and sent maybe 5 text messages. I charged it to 100% again and in the last hour it's dropped to 85%. Granted i've been playing with it lightly, but not really that much. The vizBattery App works great for seeing how much juice you have left.
I installed the TaskKiller App that lets you close stuff, but in reality once you open the browser, make a call or check messages several other functions start running as well. (Some i have no idea what they are - like OMADM, com.htc. provider, IQRD, com.google.android.apps.maps:Friendservice). The browser definitely is the main culprit for draining the juice from this puppy. I've also noticed that the device gets pretty warm when surfing the net too.
I was dying today since i couldn't check in to see how others were fairing with their Hereos because this site was having issues...since last night.
Hope everyone that got in on the early access has been having fun with it.
Upvote
0
I have GVoice as one of my Pick 5 numbers offered through Sprint so, it doesn't cost me minutes.
Upvote
0
Yeah I know that and so far i got enough "landline" minutes. I just find this app integration really cool cuz I couldn't use it the same way with my WinMo touch pro.
And.. about the battery... I HOPE THEY FIX IT WITH UPDATES... but then again its not too bad cuz i was playing with the fone for the whole day. And good part is that when i got first msg about low battery (30% i think) i started using it heavier just to kill the battery (using online radio, games, youtube), and surprisingly it lasted for about another hour or so with that heavy use.
Still love the fone.
Upvote
0
I have had my Hero since Saturday. Traded the Instinct HD for it. Best thing I could do. Love the phone and still learning everything it can do. My Battery is holding up well but I have been running task killer every time I use the phone so nothing is running in the background.
Upvote
0
I picked up my Hero on Saturdays. Can't seem to put it down. There is so much to do with it and so many applications. My biggest concerns up to this point are the speed (slow at times) and the virtual keyboard (I am trying different Keyboards also). Tried 'Better Keyboard' with various skins, not better that HTC keyboard. I just downloaded 'TouchPal', and it looks promising. Excellent T9 keyboard.
But this could be a deal breaker. Either to go with the Samsung Moment or wait for the Verizon Android phones.
But this could be a deal breaker. Either to go with the Samsung Moment or wait for the Verizon Android phones.
Upvote
0
BEST TECH IN 2023
We've been tracking upcoming products and ranking the best tech since 2007. Thanks for trusting our opinion: we get rewarded through affiliate links that earn us a commission and we invite you to learn more about us.
Smartphones
Best Android Phones
See All- Google Pixel 8 Pro Check Price
- Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra Check Price
- Samsung Galaxy Z Fold5 Check Price
- Google Pixel 8 Check Price
- Samsung Galaxy S23 Check Price
Upcoming
See All
Best iPhones
See All- Apple iPhone 15 Pro Max Check Price
- Apple iPhone 15 Pro Check Price
- Apple iPhone 15 Plus Check Price
- Apple iPhone 15 Check Price
- Apple iPhone SE (2022) Check Price
Upcoming
See AllTablets
Best Tablets
See All- Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 Ultra Check Price
- Apple iPad Pro (2022) Check Price
- Apple iPad Air (2022) Check Price
- Apple iPad Mini (2021) Check Price
- Microsoft Surface Pro 9 Check Price
Upcoming
See AllLaptops
Best Laptops
See All- Apple Macbook Pro Check Price
- Apple Macbook Air (2023) Check Price
- Dell XPS 13 Check Price
- Acer Chromebook Spin 714 Check Price
- Dell Alienware m18 (2022) Check Price
Upcoming
See AllTelevisions
Best TVs
See All- Samsung The Frame TV Check Price
- Samsung Neo QLED 4K QN90C Check Price
- LG G3 OLED Check Price
- LG A2 OLED Check Price
- ROKU Plus Series Check Price
- Samsung S90C OLED Check Price
- SunBriteTV Veranda 3 Check Price
Upcoming
See AllGame Consoles
Best Game Consoles
See All- Nintendo Switch OLED Check Price
- Microsoft XBOX Series X Check Price
- Sony Playstation 5 Check Price
- Microsoft XBOX Series S Check Price
- Nintendo Switch Lite Check Price
Upcoming
See AllWearables
Best Wearables
See All- Oura Ring 3 Check Price
- Apple Watch Series 9 Check Price
- Google Pixel Watch 2 Check Price
- Samsung Galaxy Watch 6 Classic Check Price
- Fitbit Inspire 3 Check Price
- Amazfit Amazfit Band 7 Check Price
- Apple Watch SE Check Price
- Apple Watch Ultra 2 Check Price
