Well I got a replacement finally, but have not set it up yet because they forgot to send me a battery with it, LOL, so I decided instead of upgrading to the EVO for now I will keep the replacement for a bit and see what happens, but wanted to get some input from those of you that did get a replacement from Sprint. I also do not think upgrading to the EVO and paying an extra $10 months for the service is not justified
Report here:
This thread is for those of you that have had your Hero replaced by Sprint since the 2.1 update
1) Has the new replacement been better than your original phone
Yes and no. It's tough to tell. I never rooted the original phone and it was awful. Things just didn't work. Wifi would always disconnect, the signal sucked, the phone was always bogged down, etc. The new one arrived and some of the issues were semi-resolved. The wifi was still wonky, the signal did, in fact improve and the phone appeared to be a bit snappier. I believe I had one of the "first batch" phones as it didn't have "With Google" on the back cover, and it also displayed the "visual error" of REV 0 in the system info. The refurb i was sent was of the newer batch. After rooting and installing 2.1 (different Fresh ROMs) the Wifi now works perfectly, the signal is unchanged and the phone is so-so with laggieness. It lags from time to time. I truly believe that most of my issues stemmed from O/S 1.5 being "Frankensteined" to work with CDMA networks.
2) Do you have any of the same issues as before
See above.
3) What do you like better about your replacement
Its a refurb, which I was VERY upset about prior to receiving it. From what I'm told (and after receiving and using it, I believe to be true) a refurb is completely broken down and reassembled with new parts. The QC testing on a refurb is also apparently supposed to be a lot more tighter than on the assembly line. Like I said, it's all hearsay, but I've had no quality issues (other than a weak processor running an O/S it can't fully handle)
4) Any other input for other to know or read
See above.