I'm looking to get this phone around Christmas time and one really important thing to me (coming from a Palm Pre...LOL) is battery life. I really want my phone to double as an mp3 player so I don't have to carry the two separate objects around, so I'm interested in not only knowing how the Hero's battery life is normally (Fairly heavy texting use and a decent amount of browser usage), but with the function of an mp3 player added on top of that.
When I battery cycled my bluetooth player I set the phone to play MP3's continiously for hours. I could start at %100 phone battery and run the bluetooth out of juice after 3-4 hours and only lose 30-40% battery. A lot of people are complaining about battery life on these phones. I would say the expectation of this phone to update weather(gps)/Facebook(data)/Make calls/Text/E-mail/Music and then also hope to get a 2 day standy by time is a little over the line. Real world in mind expect to charge overnight each night and if you miss a day of music you can plug it in the next afternoon. I have charger at work/car/home. Its just a little adjustment to your charging habits really. I can get 24 hours out of this phone with all of the above and still play music. Hope this helps.
Seriously?! Charging only overnight is a dream come true for me! With the Pre I charge CONSTANTLY. I couldn't make an 8 hour drive with my Pre only texting and surfing the web occasionally. It's a disgrace. The battery life of the Hero seems leaps and bounds better than what I'm dealing with. The fact that I'll be able to double it as an mp3 player just adds to my wanting it more. I'm so excited to get this phone! Thanks for the info, nick!
I can get 15 hours with light texting, heavy web and a few hours of mp3 listening. Both from my MicroSD or from Pandora. I have to say, I too came from a Palm (Treo800W) and had to plug in after an hour train ride where I would lose 60% of battery, lol, you will enjoy this phone for sure. Follow some of the tweaks here as well, they help extend battery life too, most without sacrificing the overall experience. Especially for messaging. If you IM, those apps are notorious for draining battery and even on this phone too. If I use E-Buddy, battery life suffers but that is to be expected, it's constantly polling the server for messages. Even so, If moderate messaging there (IM) I can still get 6-8 hours on a battery. Enjoy... Happy Trails!
Ok, stop it, you're making my mouth water... I literally can not wait for this phone. If the virtual keyboards (landscape and portrait) are good and I'm able to type as quickly or close as quickly as I do with my Pre (~45 wpm I believe), then I will be in nothing short of heaven.
I agree with other posters regarding the good battery life on the Hero. Just the other day, I did around 30 minutes of GPS-based driving on Sprint Navigation (with the screen on the whole time), along with playing music off the SD card, and light email, texting...and later on that night, still had plenty of battery. One thing I've noticed with the Hero is that if you're playing music and doing other things, the phone can get tripped up and start skipping tracks...and coming from an iPhone 3G that has been a bit frustrating. But all in all love the trade-offs and flexibility.
Typing is decent once you get used to it. But much better without the heptic on (vibrates as you type), for some reason it slows down the typing.
I actually found the haptic feedback on the Sprint Hero doesn't slow down typing like it did with the T-Mobile MyTouch 3G.
I am not sure about playing mp3's but without the weather auto updating I was able to watch a an hour and 40 minute movie and I still had 80% battery left.
I find this one absolutely incredible; that is VERY impressive. But now I have an issue, do I wait for the alleged Espresso, Hero with slide out qwerty? Or is this one everything I'll need? I do like my physical keyboards, but if it's awful, say, like the Droid, then I'd rather not have it.
I was hesitant about giving up the slide out keyboard I had on the TP. But I have found that I like the smaller size phone without the keyboard. As to whether or not to wait that is a call you have to make. I am fine now without the physical keyboard.
Exact same for me. I had the TouchPro with the slide qwerty KB. The keyboard stopped working twice on me and I find I do not miss it one bit. It takes over all a week to get used to and now my pocket is not tight. Plus the slider kb always annoyed me because it would wiggle back and forth when not slid out and it made the phone feel cheap.
Well, I just got back to my home town from my university. Hopefully I can go to a Sprint store or Best Buy soon and get some hands on experience with it.
I was able to go to the Best Buy here and lucky for me they had a Hero I could try out. The portrait keyboard I didn't like...I don't even have big hands, they're kind of small for a guy, and I felt cramped. The landscape keyboard I loved. Fantastic. But I do here there's the Better Keyboard app or something? So I shouldn't be too bad off with that. The phone was very smooth and I was overall extremely impressed. Now I just need to get it. Hah.
It took me a little time to set up and get used but I found that if I use the portrait keyboard and set the keyboard type to compact qwerty and use the T9 input, I can type pretty darn quick with one hand. Now that is the only way I type. I started off trying to use the landscape keyboard but I have not gone back since.
I am a huge landscape keyboard fan and I have to admit I am using the portrait keyboard almost exclusively now. Once I calibrated the keyboard to how I type it has been very good. I do miss a key here and there but overall I love the keyboards on the Hero. I also have pretty great battery life with mine. I have been off the charger for almost 10 hours now and I am sitting at 75% with moderate use.
