HTC Hero. A little from column A, a little from column B

We’re caught in two minds about the HTC Hero. Yes, it looks like it’s going to be a more than decent Android phone. And, as you probably know if you’ve read our previous rants about Android phones: we love them more than just about anything else out there at the moment. And yes, the new User Interface that they’re debuting on it, called Sense, is pretty decent. But there’s just something lacking, some final 5% that doesn’t quite seem to be there. It’s a little bulky, at nearly 15mm thick. The battery life isn’t that great, with HTC only able to promise a single day’s use for ‘heavy’ usage (i.e. using all the things they put on there). The camera’s not a killer.

But then it does have an awesome teflon coating and fingerprint resistant screen, meaning our chip fat oiled fingers can play around with it with confidence. It’s capacitive touchscreen is equally amazing, and the pushes-you-back-as-you-type onscreen keyboard is a work of genius, quite possibly the best keyboard we’ve seen on a touchscreen, in fact.

But then they’ve felt the need to suppress the Google-ness of the phone, removing all logos and direct access to firmware updates and Android Market (you can still access both, it’s just a bit more of a pain in the ass).

But the dedicated search button is fantastic.

But then most of what they’re shouting about with the new Sense UI has been seen before.

But but but… can you see the dilemma reader. Can you see how, with the HTC Hero, we can’t find our usual stride, we can’t rant in ecstatic joy or hell-like pain about anything it has to offer. But maybe that’s a good thing, right? Bah. Anyway, maybe you can make your own minds up via the official product overview, or using this handy HTC Hero review. No? Try this video on for size instead.

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Category: General, HTC Phones
July 17th, 2009
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