New to forums - Should I root or upgrade to EVO shift?

[deathlesswords]

Hello all. New to the forums here.

Ok, so I unfortunately bought the Hero just before the EVO 4G was released, and didn't return it within the 30 days they gave me.

I literally hate this phone. I hate the virtual keyboard, it seems my speaker has become distorted during music/ringing, its slow as hell, a lot of times when I select a thread in my messages to send a text it picks a random thread (sometimes multiple times in a row).

Anyway, I am really attracted to the speed and the slide-out keyboard of the EVO Shift, and I am due for an upgrade next month. I have zero experience with rooting or installing ROMs.

My question is, should I just upgrade next month to the Shift, or try rooting my Hero and save a little bit of money?

P.S.- I am still running the stock Android 1.5. Is this hindering anything this phone is capable of at the moment?

Thanks in advance for any help.

 

[DonB]

Rooting it is a no brainer, you will love your phone once rooted, but are you still under warranty, if yes, before you root I would take the phone back to a Sprint store or call customer service and have them replace the phone if the speakers are bad, then I would root your hero. When your ready come back and post in the all things rooted section and we will guide you in the right direction.

Hello all. New to the forums here.

Ok, so I unfortunately bought the Hero just before the EVO 4G was released, and didn't return it within the 30 days they gave me.

I literally hate this phone. I hate the virtual keyboard, it seems my speaker has become distorted during music/ringing, its slow as hell, a lot of times when I select a thread in my messages to send a text it picks a random thread (sometimes multiple times in a row).

Anyway, I am really attracted to the speed and the slide-out keyboard of the EVO Shift, and I am due for an upgrade next month. I have zero experience with rooting or installing ROMs.

My question is, should I just upgrade next month to the Shift, or try rooting my Hero and save a little bit of money?

P.S.- I am still running the stock Android 1.5. Is this hindering anything this phone is capable of at the moment?

Thanks in advance for any help.

 

[deathlesswords]

Rooting it is a no brainer, you will love your phone once rooted, but are you still under warranty, if yes, before you root I would take the phone back to a Sprint store or call customer service and have them replace the phone if the speakers are bad, then I would root your hero. When your ready come back and post in the all things rooted section and we will guide you in the right direction.

I've had the phone since April '10, so I'm not sure if it is still under warranty. If its not, then maybe I will just upgrade to the EVO Shift. I was thinking of rooting my Hero before I upgrade to get used to the process and feel of having a rooted phone, and maybe rooting the Shift. Or just having the Hero as a 2nd device that's rooted? I don't know.

 

[JB in AZ]

The warranty is one year.

 

[DonB]

You should still have warranty until April 10-2011, and worth having them change it, this way even if you decide to upgrade you can sell your phone on eBay for more because it works fine, and you will love rooting it, I am sure of it. Simply call Sprint and tell them that your speakers are really bad, they will try to troubleshoot with you, let them do there thing and then tell them the phone still sounds bad once done, they will ship a refurbished phone over night with a return call tag for your old phone. Make sure that all your contacts are on Google. Once you received your replacement phone, simply swap your your SD card in it, then call Sprint tom activate it, and sign in to Gmail

I've had the phone since April '10, so I'm not sure if it is still under warranty. If its not, then maybe I will just upgrade to the EVO Shift. I was thinking of rooting my Hero before I upgrade to get used to the process and feel of having a rooted phone, and maybe rooting the Shift. Or just having the Hero as a 2nd device that's rooted? I don't know.

 

[LBPHeretic]

Ha, you will see a huge difference going from Android 1.5 to say, Android 2.2. Night and day performance and battery life difference. If you are using Android 1.5 on your Sprint HTC Hero, i would highly recommend at least doing the official Android 2.1 RUU.

If you are having problems that indicate defective hardware, what everyone else has said about the one year warranty is completely accurate. Take your handset into a Sprint store and get a replacement.

 

[deathlesswords]

Well, I think I'm gonna upgrade to the EVO Shift. Guy at the Sprint store said he'd give it to me for $99, upgrade me 1 month early, and waive the $18 upgrade fee. I think I'm gonna give my Hero to my bro - but I literally just asked him and he said he doesn't want it. So, maybe I will root it and keep the Shift as my phone and Hero as something else.

BTW, while I was at the Sprint store, I noticed the Hero is STILL $149. Same price as the Shift. WTF?

Oh, and I got the phone updated to 2.1, but when I got home, it had me to an OTA update to 2.31.651.7. So, now my Firmware version is 2.1-update1, and my Software number is 2.31.651.7. So...what does this mean?

 

[DonB]

Means nothing other than that you are updated on your RUU, you can still root it if you want, but you will have to use the Z4Root app, or you can sell it on eBay if you want

Well, I think I'm gonna upgrade to the EVO Shift. Guy at the Sprint store said he'd give it to me for $99, upgrade me 1 month early, and waive the $18 upgrade fee. I think I'm gonna give my Hero to my bro - but I literally just asked him and he said he doesn't want it. So, maybe I will root it and keep the Shift as my phone and Hero as something else.

BTW, while I was at the Sprint store, I noticed the Hero is STILL $149. Same price as the Shift. WTF?

Oh, and I got the phone updated to 2.1, but when I got home, it had me to an OTA update to 2.31.651.7. So, now my Firmware version is 2.1-update1, and my Software number is 2.31.651.7. So...what does this mean?

 

[andygu3]

Regaw's new root method should work on this build also