Returning my Sprint HTC Hero and going to the DROID

[Dreamliner]

I have the Hero now on Sprint, and can join a family plan for $50 per month.

So, plan pricing being the same....is there any reason not to jump ship to the Moto Droid?

My biggest complaints on the hero were lag and dust under the screen...

Any reason not to go?

 

[king_of_hearts]

Big red does have its advantages (mostly service coverage area), but Sprint roams on all of Verizon's network. The only downside of which is that off network roaming with 'Any mobile' takes anytime minutes.

Big red also has disadvantages as well (poor customer support, and price), however Sprint's customer support also leaves much to be desired.

In your position since the price will be roughly the same, I'd suggest going with Big red.

The droid and hero are both great phones, and it really boils down to your gut feeling. Do what you feel best.


For me Sprint makes more since, but it's not for everyone.

 

[zombdroid]

Any reason not to go?

Non at all.

 

[gilroykilroy]

Any reason not to go?

Ugly phone with a keyboard?

 

[kennyidaho]

I love the hero and I think it's a great phone, I am rooting for it to succeed like no other. However if money was not a issue for me (ie I could get a price plan same price etc) I would move to the droid in a heart beat. I hope the droid wins big because if it wins it's a win for Android.

 

[sprucebeach]

I bought both and ended up returning the Droid. You may be interested in the comments I posted here a few days ago.

 

[mapimages]

ugly ugly phone

pointless crappy keyboard

no more Sense UI

Sprint Navigation bye bye

Motorola hardware....yuk

i'm sure there are more

 

[Namek]

I played with a friend Droid and the physical keyboard is almost impossible to type on. I don't know why Motorola would make a phone thicker with a shitty keyboard.

My friend doesn't even use the physical keyboard and said he uses only the on screen since it easier to type on. After he got done playing with my Hero for a full 30 mins he's taking his Droid back and getting the Eris.

 

[Bnice]

Well the final choice will be yours,both good phones,been with sprint 10yrs and never had had an issue with them.but I think the hero looks better and 2.o is on the way.

 

[toomuchgame441]

I love my Hero, and the sense UI is a plus, I love switching around my widgets and background. This phone is great and Sprint offers a great monthly plan compared to Vzw. Its all about preference and coverage, I just think the Sprint Hero is a better phone for me.

 

[Dreamliner]

Well, I went to the DROID. I really thought it was better, after I got it, it was amazed...the more I played with it, the less I liked it.

Sure, the screen resolution is double the Hero's but it does not use the real estate well.

For example, on a home screen, I can still only have 16 icons on a screen (really big vertical spacing). On a web page, I can see maybe 2 more lines of text.

There is nothing android 2.0 does that is better than the hero with 1.5. Honestly.

Also, the droid is uncomfortable to talk on, the corners dig into your hand and ear.

So, back to the hero I go.

 

[troyboytn]

Well, I went to the DROID. I really thought it was better, after I got it, it was amazed...the more I played with it, the less I liked it.

Sure, the screen resolution is double the Hero's but it does not use the real estate well.

For example, on a home screen, I can still only have 16 icons on a screen (really big vertical spacing). On a web page, I can see maybe 2 more lines of text.

There is nothing android 2.0 does that is better than the hero with 1.5. Honestly.

Also, the droid is uncomfortable to talk on, the corners dig into your hand and ear.

So, back to the hero I go.

Welcome back from the pits of Verizon "hell"!

 

[Wyzer]

Well being a former Cellular Engineer, as well as a customer, I am leaving VZW to go to Sprint.

Sprint has done a decent if not a "great" job of clearing up there Customer Service (CS), the Business side of Sprint CS should be the what all CPC's CS groups should strive for IMHO.

VZW, who I was with for 10 years, has slowly deteriorated into a "nag" cost company. What I mean by that is besides the actual plan costs, and they are spendy, is no where near the final bill cost you will pay. Alone right now I have 13 additional "nag" charges, not including my State's cut! So for a plan that should run me 99.97/month for 4 phones is actually running me ~144/month. Not to mention all the "hard sales" that are now going on when ever you call CS for support, and the dwindling TSC's in my area. The nearest one is about 20 miles away!

I recently reworked my business plan and was able to move the entire company over to an "unlimited" plan with Sprint, for 55 phones, that neither AT&T or Verizon could get close too! Let's put it this way, I got a nice raise for saving the company $2K/m and everyone gets navigation/txt/data unlimited, while the other carrier's only offered Voice!

Coverage; yes there is always the coverage issue, and the PCS frequency that Sprint uses does have building penetration issues, and that may get worse but that is another story for another time, but the coverage and roaming agreements that they have worked on for the last several years has greatly improved. I travel all over this country and other countries too, and sometimes the VZW is the only one with service, sometimes the Sprint, and sometimes neither.

So for my money, and I do have decent money, I am moving my family to Sprint. Not only will they be on an "unlimited" plan that is being offered for my 4 phones at 109/m, Sprint was able to inform me of my "close to actual costs" and with taxes and surcharges my bill will average about 125/m. That saves me almost 20/m, but adds EVERYTHING with no limit! I like to keep my money, and the deal for the personal phones is what Sprint is adverting in my area.

For me, I will be moving to, already there with work, Sprint and the Hero. Of course YMMV.

 

[kristi-lynn]

Well being a former Cellular Engineer, as well as a customer, I am leaving VZW to go to Sprint.

Sprint has done a decent if not a "great" job of clearing up there Customer Service (CS), the Business side of Sprint CS should be the what all CPC's CS groups should strive for IMHO.

VZW, who I was with for 10 years, has slowly deteriorated into a "nag" cost company. What I mean by that is besides the actual plan costs, and they are spendy, is no where near the final bill cost you will pay. Alone right now I have 13 additional "nag" charges, not including my State's cut! So for a plan that should run me 99.97/month for 4 phones is actually running me ~144/month. Not to mention all the "hard sales" that are now going on when ever you call CS for support, and the dwindling TSC's in my area. The nearest one is about 20 miles away!

I recently reworked my business plan and was able to move the entire company over to an "unlimited" plan with Sprint, for 55 phones, that neither AT&T or Verizon could get close too! Let's put it this way, I got a nice raise for saving the company $2K/m and everyone gets navigation/txt/data unlimited, while the other carrier's only offered Voice!

Coverage; yes there is always the coverage issue, and the PCS frequency that Sprint uses does have building penetration issues, and that may get worse but that is another story for another time, but the coverage and roaming agreements that they have worked on for the last several years has greatly improved. I travel all over this country and other countries too, and sometimes the VZW is the only one with service, sometimes the Sprint, and sometimes neither.

So for my money, and I do have decent money, I am moving my family to Sprint. Not only will they be on an "unlimited" plan that is being offered for my 4 phones at 109/m, Sprint was able to inform me of my "close to actual costs" and with taxes and surcharges my bill will average about 125/m. That saves me almost 20/m, but adds EVERYTHING with no limit! I like to keep my money, and the deal for the personal phones is what Sprint is adverting in my area.

For me, I will be moving to, already there with work, Sprint and the Hero. Of course YMMV.

exactly, you can't beat that deal. plus i've got free roaming from sprint bc we were getting so many dropped calls and lack of service we complained and got free roaming. so now even if i don't get sprint, i can just use verizon's network. win-win.

 

[stimulatedboredom]

I am sticking with the Hero and I have researched both phones. The promise of 2.0 was one thing, but since a Sense UI enhanced version of 2.0 is coming...that is now a non-factor.

For me, the Droid is ugly and I don't like physical keyboards...plus more moving parts means more things to break, become loose or take up space and make the phone bigger. For those with the Droid that only use the virtual keyboard, what is the point?

Also, my understanding is that the Droid only allows 3 screens, whereas the Hero and Sense UI allow 7 per scene. Personally I like being able to customize that many screens.

Sprints Everything Plan and the Navigation is also a big selling point for me.

On another note, I keep reading about dust under the screen. Is this something that is obvious to see? I do not have any that I know of (have the "with Google" version). Is it dust being accumulated by the user, or was it perhaps dust that existed when the phone was built?

Also, in terms of lag, remember to delete your cache's every so often, in addition to remembering that you are holding a mini-computer in your hand and just like with a computer, it is good to re-boot / re-start every once in awhile. I do this once a day and lag has stopped being an issue.

I also delete SMS messages as they accumulate (freed up over 5 mbs of space this way) and I uninstalled Advanced Task Killer and Task Manager, leaving the memory management up to the system and it has made a big improvement.

 

[Dreamliner]

HERO/ERIS VS DROID REVIEW

I have both of these phones, here is my review.
1.)Seven home screens instead of three.
2.)Better designed widgets
3.)Brighter more vibrant screen
4.)Smaller form factor
5.)Better Battery Life
6.)Dedicated call/end call buttons
7.)Better Camera
8.)Multi Touch
9.)Eye Candy
10.)Brighter LED Indicator Light
11.)Standard USB Plugs
12.)Better Keyboard

Some people may claim the higher resolution makes the DROID way better, I can tell you that it doesn

 

[enjoi926]

Being that I work at Sprint and have had the Hero and the Moment, you should honestly just switch to the moment. Its a much better phone than the Hero, doesn't lag nearly as much, and the screen is awesome. Not to mention with DXtop the phone's homescreen is a lot more attractive and a lot cooler to navigate through.

 

[Bnice]

(enjoi926) so you telling me I should get the moment because you work for sprint? N@*$a please...

 

[troyboytn]

Being that I work at Sprint and have had the Hero and the Moment, you should honestly just switch to the moment. Its a much better phone than the Hero, doesn't lag nearly as much, and the screen is awesome. Not to mention with DXtop the phone's homescreen is a lot more attractive and a lot cooler to navigate through.

I'm sorry, but I beg to differ. It has a faster processor and an amoled screen but it definitely is not a better phone. It feels cheap and has its own long list of problems documented well at Sprints forums. As far as updates go......Moment users are pretty much SOL if they want fixes or 2.0 quickly. Samsung has a long standing reputation for slow and lackluster fixes/updates. Samsung is simply not good with software at all.

 

[enjoi926]

(enjoi926) so you telling me I should get the moment because you work for sprint? N@*$a please...

No.... I'm giving you my peronal opinion. I've had the hero for more than a month andcouldnt stand how much it lagged. I've had numerous people return the hero because of that reason. I've had few complaints about the moment. I myself switched to the moment and haven't had an issue. I like it, reminds me of my g1 but quicker. I can write a list of why the moment is better than the hero but I'm watching the patriots game at the moment.

 

[enjoi926]

I'm sorry, but I beg to differ. It has a faster processor and an amoled screen but it definitely is not a better phone. It feels cheap and has its own long list of problems documented well at Sprints forums. As far as updates go......Moment users are pretty much SOL if they want fixes or 2.0 quickly. Samsung has a long standing reputation for slow and lackluster fixes/updates. Samsung is simply not good with software at all.

Use one for more than a few minutes and then write your review. From what I've noticed with reviews is that most of them are so biased or based off of 10 - 15 minutes with the phone (or other device). Although I do understand that normal consumers cant go out there and sign a new phone plan with 3 different carriers to try out the phones they want. I have nothing negative to say about the droid or eris and I'm not going by reviews because you can't get a real feel for anything without using it on a daily basis for what its supposed to be used for (be it whatever device it is / car etc. ). I can tell you from using the phone all day everyday its a great phone. Battery life isn't really that bad if you tweak the settings a bit and there's an application to make up for whatever the phone is missing, that's also another thing that a lot of reviewers leave out of their notes - " this phone doesn't have this or that " - but they never mention that there's an application to make up for that lackin feature or quality. Come on people were on the android forums you should all know this by now. Oh and typing this reply on a hero would have been a nightmare...... thank you moment for your keyboard.

 

[joek71]

If you want phone with hard keyboard try the Samsung Moment, faster cpu then the Droid, my wife has the Moment and she loves it. I have the Hero ported over from the Pre, and I love the Hero great phone, I dont mind no hard keyboard, but the is your pref to have hard keyboard.