Tried a Hero for 45 minutes at Best Buy--laggy

[gwlaw99]

So I went to best buy to play with a Hero as I am considering getting an Eris for Verizon next week. I really like it, but I was unimpressed with the speed. It sometimes took 3 seconds to switch from portrait to landscape and scrolling before a web page was fully loaded was jerky. The pinch zoom was not nearly as smooth as I have seen on a iphone, but of course is far better than the double tap zoom on other android browsers.

Could I have been using one without the speed enhancing firmware update?

 

[Aldo Junior Ao2]

Did you restart the phone before playing with it. Most likely the apps were running in the background just think of the people who play with that before you. The problems with demos like for window mobile or android is they need to put a task killer or atleast have people reset it. Trust me if we did not have a task killer ,over time this bad boy gets laggy but i cant complain it is running like a (dream) for me.

 

[illini]

Every BB i have been to use Dummy phones. The Hero works nothing like you decribed.

 

[gwlaw99]

Good points. I did not restart it. I really love pinch zoom so I might just get the Eris over the Droid despite all the Droid advancements.

 

[dvdqnoc]

My Hero works exactly as you descirbed. It IS slow. But that is just one of the prices you pay. You SAVE money by having a Sprint service instead of AT&T's ripoff service, but you lose speed. You just have to get used to it on the Hero. I am getting lag even after utilizing all workarounds mentioned concerning the software bugs, task managers to shut down background processing (with a little sense. I dont wildly kill apps, i take into consideration which apps are vital to the system and should be killed) and even after that I get about 50%/50% of lagginess and smoothness. It's just a trade off.

Now with Verizon, I have no clue about their plans and rates. May or may not be worth it. However, I have heard that the Eris is a bit faster than the Hero. Don't know how that works, as the Eris has basically the same specs as the Hero the last time I checked? I really dont know why they didnt just call it another Hero... I'm assuming because then there would be THREE different variants for "HTC Hero"... which would in fact be quite confusing.

 

[rockcrawler]

So I went to best buy to play with a Hero as I am considering getting an Eris for Verizon next week. I really like it, but I was unimpressed with the speed. It sometimes took 3 seconds to switch from portrait to landscape and scrolling before a web page was fully loaded was jerky. The pinch zoom was not nearly as smooth as I have seen on a iphone, but of course is far better than the double tap zoom on other android browsers.

Could I have been using one without the speed enhancing firmware update?

That phone had probably been on all day and had god knows how many apps started on it as well as countless other tasks. People play with it and then just walk away, the nest person simply hits home and then starts the next app. Would not really be a fare judgment unless you performed a soft reset to make sure that the phone was at its best.

 

[bray424]

Seeing as how pinch zoom being removed on all Android phones on account of Apple copyright infringement, that really shouldn't factor in to what Android phone you choose.

 

[troyboytn]

even though android 2.0 includes multitouch, the stock android os will likely never include "pinch zoom" in the browser. HTC includes this on Sence because they share patent cross liscences with Apple. Apple uses some of HTC's patent and vice versa

 

[Groovehog]

My Hero works exactly as you descirbed. It IS slow. But that is just one of the prices you pay. You SAVE money by having a Sprint service instead of AT&T's ripoff service, but you lose speed. You just have to get used to it on the Hero.

I'm sorry, what? By ALL tests, Sprint's CDMA network is substantially faster than any GSM network out there, and that includes AT&T.

 

[satinkzo]

I'm sorry, what? By ALL tests, Sprint's CDMA network is substantially faster than any GSM network out there, and that includes AT&T.

Yep, have to agree with that statement 100%.


Have to disagree with everyone who says this phone is laggy. I played with the moment today and compared it directly to my hero with Sense both on and off. Hero performed pretty much exactly like the Moment, meaning the moment had some of the same lag that I know to exist in most android phones right now with 1.5 on them. Overall, I don't find the hero laggy at all and especially not laggy compared to the winmo phones I have used.

 

[toomuchgame441]

Yea, I agree. With smartphones in general, the user has to use them efficiently for them to be used at its prime. Meaning, if your not regularly closing out apps your not using, your bound to experience lag here and there. My Hero works very well, theres a slight delay in typing but not a deal breaker, I'm looking forward to 2.0, I'm hoping it will improve the user experience, Android will be on top!

 

[jay24k]

I'm sorry, what? By ALL tests, Sprint's CDMA network is substantially faster than any GSM network out there, and that includes AT&T.

In Florida, sprint is slower. AT&T runs about 2 MB/sec here on their wireless. Sprint is about half that speed.

However that being said, AT&T's coverage absolutely sucks. Tons of disconnects and drops and bad spots make it absolute crap. Even their reps are usless. We are switching back from AT&T to sprint on our aircards. You would think an account of over 100 aircards would garnish some attention to them resolving issues. We regret switching from Sprint in the first place and Sprint is SO Much cheaper. We are now paying 32 dollars per aircard and our Sprint rep hooks us up with any phone we want. How I got my Hero for free. AT&T doesn't do that for any. We were even willing to possibly switch to AT&T but they wouldn't go below their normal corporate discount. With over 400 phones here, they lost out.

 

[dbpaddler]

thought the lag had more to do with 1.5 than the actual hardware. It may not be super zippy, but it won't be a dog when it gets updated to 2.0. My screen (and others) sits like a freeze frame when going from portrait to landscape and back. I can shake and shimmy it to my heart's content. Adding a program shortcut takes forever and the screen is just black until the list of programs shows up. Yet adding a widget is smooth and fast. There's other instance, but they stick out.

Regardless, we're only stuck with these ARM processors for a year (1yr till you can upgrade to a new phone). By then we'll have a phone with Snapdragon running at least 2.0 and all will be well. The Hero and Moment aren't bad to get your feet wet though. I'll most likely be returning my Hero for the Moment in a day or two. Need to verify it'll get 2.0 but haven't been able to do that as of yet.

 

[trick202]

Yep, have to agree with that statement 100%.


Have to disagree with everyone who says this phone is laggy. I played with the moment today and compared it directly to my hero with Sense both on and off. Hero performed pretty much exactly like the Moment, meaning the moment had some of the same lag that I know to exist in most android phones right now with 1.5 on them. Overall, I don't find the hero laggy at all and especially not laggy compared to the winmo phones I have used.

How did you turn sense off on your hero then?

 

[dbpaddler]

go to settings, application settings, manage applications, find HTC Sense and Force Stop it.
This screen is also something that has some lag. Seems to take forever to get everything loaded with the proper icon and info.

How did you turn sense off on your hero then?

 

[gwlaw99]

go to settings, application settings, manage applications, find HTC Sense and Force Stop it.
This screen is also something that has some lag. Seems to take forever to get everything loaded with the proper icon and info.

Can you still use pinch zoom on the browser?

 

[dbpaddler]

yes, you can still pinch zoom with Sense disabled.

 

[305Cane]

In Florida, sprint is slower. AT&T runs about 2 MB/sec here on their wireless. Sprint is about half that speed.

However that being said, AT&T's coverage absolutely sucks. Tons of disconnects and drops and bad spots make it absolute crap. Even their reps are usless. We are switching back from AT&T to sprint on our aircards. You would think an account of over 100 aircards would garnish some attention to them resolving issues. We regret switching from Sprint in the first place and Sprint is SO Much cheaper. We are now paying 32 dollars per aircard and our Sprint rep hooks us up with any phone we want. How I got my Hero for free. AT&T doesn't do that for any. We were even willing to possibly switch to AT&T but they wouldn't go below their normal corporate discount. With over 400 phones here, they lost out.

its all relative to location. i too am in florida and i get tremendous speeds with sprint i never got on ATT. Ive also been dealing with ATT in different departments lately and customer service is like pulling teeth. Im much happier that im not only paying less for what i have but im getting much more from my service.

 

[trick202]

Thanks for that.

Just switched sense off on my hero. I don't get all that much lag, but I'm just hoping it make the keyboard a bit quicker.