I'm going to be a Hero owner next week

Well I had rooted my Moment so I have some experience with that, but all help is greatly appreciated! Next question is, how reliable is the thing out of the box? I.E., how do the photos look, how is the web browsing experience, how well does it handle some of the graphically intensive games (c'mon, that's important!), how is the GPS receiver, HOW IS IT AS A PHONE, etc.

Oh, and I guess - how can rooting change/improve these performances?

toasty said:

Since you asked, I loathe my Hero, worst phone I've ever had. On my third one, and while they've all suffered from intolerable lag and apocalyptic battery life, each one has been awful in its own quirky way as well.

Can't say that the Intercept would be better because I don't have any experience with it, but the Hero has been a nightmare.

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Just out of curiosity, did you root it and install the custom ROMS that everyone else that loves their phone did?

Ok...I got it today. My verdict: I certainly don't hate it. As far as toasty being on his 3rd one and each one being quirky in its own way, to me that's the nature of cell phones. I've yet to have a device I didn't need a warranty repair for (or in this case, a swap out) at some point. This Hero I got is refurbished and from the get-go has trouble with phone calls (ironic), where I can't hear who I'm talking to unless its on speaker phone, or they can't hear me. I did a hard reset and it hasn't been a big problem since *knock on wood* but still, day friggin' ONE and I'm probably going to bring it back tomorrow to have another one ordered if it happens again.

Compared to the Moment, I noticed right off the bat that it definitely has a more responsive touch screen. Scrolling seems smoother, and I'm really digging the Sense interface. CNET really didn't give the camera function enough credit when I read their review last year - though no flash, it still takes solid pictures with enough ambient light. And it handles 3D graphics way better than the Moment, which was horrible at it while supposedly having the faster processor (worse GPU I guess).

I can see where the sluggishness claims may come from, but I don't intend on over-doing it with customizations and multiple processes. The Moment was pretty sluggish at times too. I like the build quality, it feels sturdy in the hands. The battery is more powerful than the Moments as well - 1500 mA to 1440 mA. And what else can I say - multitouch is fantastic being as the Moment didn't have it.

Say what you want about this phone, but I think after one day I can at least say I'm sold on HTC as a manufacturer. Not sure I'd go back to Samsung, they've been underwhelming as a manufacturer and they quit on their phones shortly after release; the Moment came out a month after the Hero and Samsung apparently dumped it long ago. I know the phones I buy will be obsolete so far as technology and features go 2 months after purchase, so its better to know that the manufacturer will stand behind it well beyond its release date, which it seems HTC does.

Update: ok its day 3 with this thing. It doesnt take long to see the lag issues everyone's complaining about. I may have to root this badboy and overclock it. My wife is getting Samsung themselves to fix her Moment. I miss some things about it (keyboard, internet speed, processor speed) but there's still some impressive aspects of the Hero (touch screen, Sense, camera quality, battery life).

Here's a few things I DON'T like:

1. Internet speed. This is EVDO Rev A?? I dont buy it, its gotta be Rev 0. My last phone was way faster.

2. Lag. I dont think i need to elaborate more on that, but I will say its amazing that the phone can handle some graphically intensive games well (Raging Thunder, Deadly Chambers) but plays other simpler games like Angry Birds terribly.

I rooted it, and WOW. Amazing difference. I'm running CM6 and I'm using the Overclock Widget. It seems to default at 691 (is that the safest speed? Is the max speed safe?). Even without overclocking, FroYo just seems to be so much smoother than Eclair with Sense bogging it down. The thought of vanilla Android was disappointing at first after seeing all of the cool features Sense offered, but that was before I checked out 2.2. There's a lot of improvement.

I'm very happy with this phone now. Thanks to everyone for all the input and help. This blows my Moment away, and my wife can take the next Premier upgrade for all I care, I'll be good with this for awhile, I love it.

MahaloCat said:

Nomadic - If you decide to root -There are Lots of us that will Help
and You can make both of your Don't Like Items Go aways -
I played angry birds this morning....it was fine! : )

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Well, it turns out there was an update that included ads and apparently lags on a lot of devices. DON'T UPDATE!