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Considering Hero - Browser limitations?

Hello;

Last week I started looking at switching to sprint. I came across the information about the Palm Pre on the web and was quite impressed. I have a Ipod Touch and use it frequently over WI-FI. From what I read, I was expecting pretty good performance on the Pre, something similar to what I see on the touch, but perhaps a bit slower load times on web site.
When I went into a sprint store and tried the Pre it took me 45+ seconds to load sprints site. I tried other sites that were very slow also. I just was not impressed.
I went to best buy a couple days ago, the guy took out a Hero and a Pre, the Pre was kind of locked up / hanging and he said that happens kind of often with the Pre.

He let me briefly try the Hero. I type in a web page, it loads fairly promptly, I think it was the sprint site I loaded, and I was trying to click on another link on the page, it seemed like it was just highlighting the picture I was clicking on and not opening it as a link like it should have. It might have been a flash object I was clicking on, but it was a link and I could not figure out how to get it to open. I only spent about a total of 90 second on the Hero, so I may just not have understood how it works.

On the Ipod, I've been rather disappointed that they still have not figured out how to support flash. Having that link not click and open up for me on the Hero made be wonder if there are browser limitations on the Hero as well that I should be aware of.


Thank you very much for your time

Jamie Dolan
 
The palm pre's web browser is noticeably faster than the hero's. There must have been something up with the one you were using.

Have you had any problems with the Pre hanging or crashing?

I was under the impression from the reviews and everything I read that the Hero overall was a much faster unit than the Pre, is this incorrect?

Thanks
Jamie
 
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On the Ipod, I've been rather disappointed that they still have not figured out how to support flash.

It's not that they haven't figured it out, it's that they won't support Flash. Huge difference.

Coming from an iPod Touch, it's going to be tough for you to become acclimated to a new mobile browser. I've been spoiled by mobile Safari as most people have. In my opinion, it's the best mobile browser out there right now. Nothing even comes close in terms of overall experience.

Once I started using the Hero, I was impressed with Flash support but I quickly realized why I like mobile Safari -- no Flash ads. Can anything be more annoying?

To answer your question, I find the Android browser to be quite nice and the EV-DO rev. A speeds are more than adequate. Speed is very good and pages are rendered pretty quickly and appear as they should. I think you'll the Hero browser for light to moderate browsing.
 
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I had the pre and hero side by side for about a week. They both occasionally take a while to load a page, but in my opinion, the hero does better overall. Both do great with wifi. Sometimes one would be a few seconds quicker than the other, and vice versa. But the lag with the pre on the calendar pushed me over the edge. It was AWFUL.

See my entry: Mr. Rubinstein: I do not care about Itunes sync. PLEASE fix the calendar! - PreCentral Forums

Overall, the hero is hands down a better out of the box phone. I am a palmoholic, so this is hard to admit.
 
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Have you had any problems with the Pre hanging or crashing?

I was under the impression from the reviews and everything I read that the Hero overall was a much faster unit than the Pre, is this incorrect?

Thanks
Jamie

The hero is GENERALLY faster. The issue here is that unlike the pre it is not possible to close an application (unless you download a task manager). After a while the phone starts to get quite slow. The remedy for this is to download a task manager and close apps, but the palm pre's card method is much more user friendly.

Having said that, i had the palm pre for around two months. The reason i switched to the hero was because of the hardware, lack of apps, and lagging. An example of the pre lagging is in the phone app: switching to recent calls took a whole 3 seconds. With such a fast processor this is unacceptable TO ME, I couldn't deal with it.

The hardware on the hero is amazing, except for the lack of two things a proximity sensor (while on call the phone screen stays on) and a ringer switch like the pre has.

The software on the hero is good, but has bugs. A few are the messaging app killing the battery and the SMS issues.

Overall i like the hero as long as i make sure i close apps when i don't need them. If I make sure to close apps i like the hero MUCH more.

But still, i'm going to be looking at the samsung moment when it comes out. Hoping that it willl be easily upgradeable to 2.0
 
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The hero is GENERALLY faster. The issue here is that unlike the pre it is not possible to close an application (unless you download a task manager). After a while the phone starts to get quite slow. The remedy for this is to download a task manager and close apps, but the palm pre's card method is much more user friendly.

Actually, this is a common misconception. Android apps automatically close themselves whenever you hit the back arrow, or load another program, UNLESS the app has been specifically designed to run in the background. Even if you do have an app that runs in the background, Android will automatically close it for you to free resources if it decides it has a need of more resources. You do NOT need a task manager for Android. Many apps look like they stay open because they are designed to save their state upon closing and reopen in the state you left it.

If you want to know more about the internal workings of Android, please check out this website: Android Developers
 
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Actually, this is a common misconception. Android apps automatically close themselves whenever you hit the back arrow, or load another program, UNLESS the app has been specifically designed to run in the background. Even if you do have an app that runs in the background, Android will automatically close it for you to free resources if it decides it has a need of more resources. You do NOT need a task manager for Android. Many apps look like they stay open because they are designed to save their state upon closing and reopen in the state you left it.

If you want to know more about the internal workings of Android, please check out this website: Android Developers

I've heard this before, and i want to believe it. I've even tried to go without a task manager. But android will get under 20 MB ram and things start slowing down. Using the task manager i keep the ram to above 60 and everything runs smoothly (dare i say as smooth as a 3gs).
 
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Thanks everyone for the feed back. The only other thing I am still trying to figure out is if the Hero will have a application that can support viewing my web cam over the internet.

Thanks
Jamie

Yes it does, I would get you the link, but androlib.com seems to be having some issues right now. Click the link a little later and do a search fro webcam.
 
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As far as your original question, i have 4 other devices to compare it to. I had and original instinct..
-original instinct: hero blows it away in ever way possible.
-wifes 3g iphone: My hero seems to be faster on the same website, and graphics look better on the hero. It was stated the pinch zoom was better on the iphone, I think they are about the same.
-my ipod touch: Browser is a tad faster than my hero, probably because i have never used the wifi on the hero and you can only surf online with wifi with the ipod. I can try it when i get home to see if any different.
-Instinct S50 HD: I owned this for about two weeks. The browser experience is much better on the hero, but the instinct seemed to be a tad faster. I have no idea why...but it should be the other way around. Im stating this on what i have experienced. For some reason my wifes iphone runs a bit slower than I would expect. maybe its just her phone. In my opinion, the hero is a great alternative to the iphone if you dont want to be like everyone else...plus its way more comfortable to TALK on...which is it main purpose..lol I'm just hoping they work the bugs out soon. The first phone i got was a dud...this replacement seems to be working the way i like.
 
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