Touch Pro vs Hero

bamf77 said:

I currently have a Sprint Touch Pro and I'm getting tired of the lag and other problems, with my sprint upgrade and with the money I could get from selling my touch pro, I could get a Hero for next to nothing, my question is, is it worth it to upgrade to the hero, even though it has the same processor, ram, etc as my touch pro, or should I wait for the next sprint android phone?

thanks

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I came from the Sprint Touch Pro, which I liked very much...but there really is no comparison. Just having the Andriod Market at your fingertips makes it worth the switch. You will notice some very cool improvements in HTC's shell as well. See some comparison's below.

Just one peice of advise. If you do get the phone, don't go crazy installing apps at first. Explore the phone, it is full of great apps, then when you need to expand, install one at a time and see how your phone reacts.

1. The hardest thing for me to get used to was the fact that the Hero has no keyboard. It will take you a while to get used to the on screen keyboard, but once you do you won't look back. This phone is much slimmer.
2. 7 scenes (homescreens) make accessing your programs and shortcuts a breeze.
3. The touch motion is smooth as butter and very fast.
4. While on a call you can actually do other things, like turn on your bluetooth! I do this all the time and love it!
5. No stylus, but the trackball more than makes up for that.
6. The browser on the Hero is awesome compared to IE or Opera mini on the pro.
7. The weather app on the Hero now tracks your current location, which is very nice!
8. If you are a big user of Microsoft Live Search aka Bing, a program called "Where" is almost as good.
9. The default messaging and mail apps are why better than the Touch Pro's.

I could go on, but I won't.

I loved my Touch Pro, and then I got the Hero, and realized I didn't really love the Touch Pro.

The Capacitive touch screen alone is worth the upgrade. Not to mention that I found the Touch Pro to be so poorly conceived. I mean all the butt-dialing alone that phone would do unless you installed a lock screen program was insane.

I had a touch pro before I got the hero. The biggest difference I noticed was BATTERY LIFE! Being on a touch pro you know what I am talking about. The hero lasts much longer. If you are into flashing custom roms, it is easier on the hero. To me it boots faster, has more zip, and is more useable than the TP.

I, too, was using a Touch Pro before. The one thing I love about the Hero so much, as with any android phone, is being able to put applications and widgets wherever you want on 7 different screens.

Even when u flashed ROMs on the TP, you still were either using the manila or platinum(i think). But with a Hero, your screens, including home screen, are modular. Widgets are actually pretty awesome too.

Flashing roms is a cynch because you don't have to reconfigure everything once you flash. A lot of times your settings stay the same. And yes... the Hero runs much smoother.

My biggest quarrel with the TP was that I couldn't stand browsing on it. Not unless I was in dire need to browse the web. Reading anything on it was killer on the eyes.

I'd have to say coming from any winmo device the hero should have everything your looking for ( except a way to listen to local fm stations)

I came from a palm pro, while it was a great device it was never any real fun. also since the TP2 has the same hardware as the TP but with a larger screen def go for the hero.


I just can't see MS's app store expanding to large, also its kinda of pathetic when you look down the list of app they have in there

While I don't have a Hero, I did come to Android from a Touch Pro. Though I would highly recommend you make the switch, there are a few things you will loose.

Full enterprise server support
Granular audible notification control
Out of the box Outlook compatibility
Contacts not as detailed
No available PIM ware like PocketInformant
No signatures in email

That's as far as I go playing devils advocate, because I absolutely hated the TP. I still don't know how I managed not to throw the darn thing against a brick wall in frustration, cause I imagined doing it all the time. Never have I had a device that could do so much yet routinely fail when it was needed most. If I had a dime for every time I poked that little reset hole, I'd be able to retire! I still don't know what I'm going to do with all the time I save not flashing roms, reinstalling apps, researching activesync error codes, etc..

pastafarian said:

there are a few things you will loose.

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Out of the box Outlook compatibility

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I can sync my Contacts and Calendar with HTC Sync. I think the support is pretty decent, but not perfect.

Contacts not as detailed

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No, not on the surface, but if you look around you can add additional fields such as Organization, Job Title, Notes, and more chooses for phone numbers.

No signatures in email

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There is a place to append a signature on outgoing emails. It s located in the general section of email properties.

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I was on the Mogul then TP and really went back and forth trying to decide between the TP2 and Hero. I did use the physical keyboard quite a bit and do miss it, but it hasn't been a killer. The screen on the new TP2 looks amazing, and I am sure it I had went that route I would be plenty happy. That said, I have loved the Hero so far. The lack of the physical keyboard helps to shrink the phone and it has very nice hand and it easily locatable. Now when/if the HD2 comes to Sprint, then I will have to have a look at that and really struggle with going back to WinMo. For now, I am quite happy with the Hero.

there are a few things you will loose.


Granular audible notification control

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I am assuming that you are talking about different tones for different events such as email or text? Open up your SMS app access it's setting and change it to the tone you want, do so with the email too. Install handcent and you can have specific tones for different contacts when they send you a text. You can have different tones for Alarms, for calendar events, for tasks, for etc and etc...

No available PIM ware like PocketInformant

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No but you got free software like Astrid (seriously the best task manager I have ever seen) and AK Notepad + many others which will allow you to create a much much more robust PIM system then PocketInformant......plus it will keep the $$$ in your pocket instead of WebIS's

pastafarian said:

While I don't have a Hero, I did come to Android from a Touch Pro. Though I would highly recommend you make the switch, there are a few things you will loose.

Full enterprise server support
Granular audible notification control
Out of the box Outlook compatibility
Contacts not as detailed
No available PIM ware like PocketInformant
No signatures in email

That's as far as I go playing devils advocate, because I absolutely hated the TP. I still don't know how I managed not to throw the darn thing against a brick wall in frustration, cause I imagined doing it all the time. Never have I had a device that could do so much yet routinely fail when it was needed most. If I had a dime for every time I poked that little reset hole, I'd be able to retire! I still don't know what I'm going to do with all the time I save not flashing roms, reinstalling apps, researching activesync error codes, etc..

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I had out of the box exchange sync. My contacts are as detailed as I need them to be. My e-mail has a signature from my phone.

I sold my TouchPro for 187.50 on ebay. that means I paid next to nothing for my hero. I wouldn't look back in a second..

I also went from the Touch Pro to the Hero, and I must say I'm only looking back because I miss the keyboard. Other than that the Hero, in my opinion is much better. The apps support is crazy on Android compared to winmo. The camera is very nice as well. Good luck on youre decision!

The ONLY thing I miss from my Touch Pro was SlingPlayer (I really miss that) but the Hero spanks the TP in every other respect.

marctronixx said:

there is no comparison between the TOUCH PRO and the hero..

the PRO has a physical keyboard and it designed for power business users with microsoft office standard as well as being able to edit the registry to design/custom the phone to your liking.

the PRO runs , of course, WIN OS which is nothing like android OS. android is new but will mature in its own right.

the PRO2 is a definite improvement over the PRO1.. leaps and bounds..

also you can put signatures on exchange accounts on the hero so i would expect you to do so with other email accounts.

i really like the TP2 and i use it more than the hero. i see and use the hero as a social device (out on the town, quick run to the store or burger king.. ) but the hero is not ready for primetime as my only device.. i still need a physical kb and i still need tried and true windows mobile... im 9 years into it...

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I agree! I love the Hero. Its a fun phone, but not ready for prime time. My touch pro got the job down. The one thing I really like about the Hero is the Google contacts syn over the air. When I had the Touch Pro. I would try my hardest not to hard reset. I only synced with my computer at work. The Hero is just a better built phone. And Im tired of running around with that bulky phone. When you carry it in a case, it looks like you have a gun on your hip. You dont want to carry this in the HOOD! LOL

Not ready for primetime?

I work as a salesman for a software company with exchange sync for mail calendar and contacts. A physical keyboard does not make any difference.

The Hero gets the job done just as good as a blackberry and is more fun in my opinion.

I had a touch pro as previously stated. Soooooooooooo unreliable and slow.

nick325i said:

Not ready for primetime?

I work as a salesman for a software company with exchange sync for mail calendar and contacts. A physical keyboard does not make any difference.

The Hero gets the job done just as good as a blackberry and is more fun in my opinion.

I had a touch pro as previously stated. Soooooooooooo unreliable and slow.

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I have to agree. This being the 1.5 version of an OS compared to Microsoft's 6.1 version on the Touch pro just shows you Google is on the right track. I have a feeling things are going to change drastically in the mobile market over the next few years.

I changed over last week from Touch Pro

I miss
keyboard - this soft keyboard adapts, but i'm def slower on hero
coreplayer - i'm so files in folder organized, Antropia is a marginal replacement


I don't miss
total lack of battery life - admittedly, i flashed every custom rom that came my way.
lag on programs (see above custom rom flashing lol)
expensive programs - lol so many free and low cost apps to choose from.

But really, using an Android phone is changing my perception of what a phone is for. It's becoming so much more a tool.

I would not go back to Windows mobile. I had the choice between a TP2 and the hero. I do think Android is the next best thing.

In the scheme of things, my touch pro is a 6/7, the hero an 8.

Good luck!