HTC Hero (Sprint) Review

Specs:

Display: Capacitive multi-touch color LCD. Screen size diagonally: 3.2". Resolution: HVGA 480x 320, supports both portrait and landscape modes. Has accelerometer, light sensor for auto-brightness (can also use manual brightness) and a digital compass.
Battery: Lithium Ion rechargeable. Battery is user replaceable. 1500 mAh. Claimed talk time: up to 4 hours.
Performance: Qualcomm 528MHz CPU, 288 megs RAM, 512 megs flash ROM with ~ 125 megs free.
Size: 4.46 x 2.22 x 0.54 inches. Weight: 4.5 ounces.
Phone: CDMA dual band digital with EVDO Rev. A for fast data.
Camera: 5 megapixel camera with autofocus lens, no flash. Can shoot video.
Audio: Built in speaker, mic and 3.5mm standard stereo headphone jack. Voice Recorder included.
Networking: Integrated WiFi 802.11b/g and Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR.
Software: Android OS 1.5 with HTC Sense UI and HTC Footprints. Standard Google Android apps including email, Gmail, Google Maps, Google Talk, calendar, contacts, web browser, camera, clock, Market, Amazon MP3 store and YouTube player. HTC's Sense adds user interface customizations and multiple email/PIM sync sources, HTC Weather, HTC Stocks, music player and QuickOffice (MS Office file viewer). Sprint software: Sprint TV, Sprint Navigation, Visual Voicemail, NASCAR and NFL Mobile Live.
Expansion: 1 SDHC microSD card slot, compatible with cards up to 32 gigs. 2 gig card included.

What's hot: Great enhanced Android UI that's fun, fast and powerful. Capacitive display.

What's not: Needs a reboot every 3 days to keep things speedy.

The HTC Hero was first released in Europe in a more angular form reminiscent of the Windows Mobile HTC Touch Diamond2. Sprint's version takes its design cues from the T-Mobile myTouch 3G (also running Android and also made by HTC). It's curvy and relatively small, but it loses HTC's signature Android "chin". We like the brushed metal front face that gives it a classier look than the plasticky HTC Magic (that's the code name for the myTouch 3G and the marketing name for that phone overseas). Front buttons are the same as the Magic, but they're in different locations. These are the home button, menu button, back, search, call send and call end/power button. There's also a very useable trackball in the center of the button cluster. The volume controls are on the left side, the mini-USB port is on the bottom and the 3.5mm stereo jack is up top. The microSD card slot is under the back cover but you need not remove the battery to access it. The phone's curves and non-slippery back make it feel good in hand and the size is manageable-- it's much smaller than the HTC Touch Pro2 and smaller and lighter than the iPhone 3GS.

This is the first Android phone to ship with multi-touch enabled, and needless to say we love pinch zooming web pages, just like the iPhone. And the Android web browser is as lovely as ever and we'd put it on even footing with Apple's Safari on the iPhone.

I love it! I don't get to say that very often, but the Sprint version of the HTC Hero really stands out as one of the best smartphones of 2009 and so it's won our Editor's Choice award. Google's Android itself is very compelling and both HTC and Sprint's customizations send it over the top. Thanks to the Hero, HTC Touch Pro2, BlackBerry Tour and Palm Pre, Sprint has the best smartphone lineup on the market among US carriers so far this fall. The HTC Hero features a 3.2" capacitive multi-touch display, Android OS 1.5 (Cupcake) with HTC Sense software, a 5 megapixel camera, WiFi, Bluetooth, 3.5mm stereo headset jack and a microSD card slot (2 gig card included). It has EVDO Rev. A (Sprint's version of 3.5G) for fast data, a GPS with Sprint Navigation and Google Maps as well as Sprint TV.

What makes the Hero stand out are HTC's software customizations that don't merely dress up Android but add useful functionality such as the 7 page vs. 3 page home screen, HTC's own widgets for the desktop, a launcher bar, weather, stock reports and more. Even better, HTC has answered our prayers with expanded syncing: now you can syncto all Google cloud services (standard on Android) and MS Exchange and Outlookon the desktop via cable. That gives the Hero a much wider audience. The only drawback is that firmware and OS updates must come from HTC rather than being a part of Google's OS update cycle (so far, HTC has already released one firmware upgrade for the overseas Hero, so that may not be an issue).

Standard Android phones sync only with their maker. That means all things Google: Google contacts, Google calendar and Gmail. In fact when you turn on an Android phone for the first time you must log into your Gmail account or create one before you can use all the of the phone's features. The iPhone does something similar, but there you must create or enter an existing iTunes account. While we love Android's cloud syncing, it's just not nice to have to create or enter account information if you want to do anything more than call 911. HTC's customizations in HTC Sense take care of this pet peeve: you turn on the phone, you use the phone-- all apps work except the Android Market and Gmail, and you can call anyone, not just the folks at the 911 call center. That does mean that you won't have any PIM data or email on the phone until you select your sync source(s) and initiate a sync. Under settings you can select sync sources and these are Google (Google's Gmail, contacts and calendar), MS Exchange using Exchange ActiveSync (email, contacts and calendar) and USB cable sync to Windows (contacts and calendar). Sorry Microsoft Outlook and Exchange users, there's no tasks and notes sync and no email sync with the desktop.

HTC Sync handles syncing via USB with Outlook in Windows. If you connect the phone using the included cable it should show up as a mass storage device and the included 2 gig microSD card has the HTC Sync installer. That said, our Hero's drivers loaded and Windows Vista thought the microSD card mounted as a volume but we couldn't access it. So we used a card reader to do the job instead. Once we did install the software, Windows loaded new drivers, but still the Hero didn't mount correctly. The installer warns you to disable your anti-virus software before running the installer (not always the easiest thing to do since many anti-virus programs do their best to avoid being turned off), but we had no problems installing when we left AVG running. Once we got HTC Sync installed and running (plug in the phone and then use the taskbar sync notification on your Hero to get things started rather than the sync section under settings) it worked fine. Note that HTC Sync supports Outlook versions 2000 through 2007 along with Windows Calendar and Windows Contacts, and it syncs only contacts and calendar items. The desktop sync application has options to repair synchronized data and it has an application installer-- an unexpected feature since apps are usually gotten from the Android Market application on the phone itself.

Sense UI has quite a few features, chief among them the 7 page home screen (swipe sideways to move back and forth between them), HTC Scenes, which are 5 different home screen layouts each with different widgets and HTC's Social Networking (integration with Facebook, Twitter and Flickr and HTC Footprints for keeping a log of favorite places you've visited using geo-location and the camera), A video tells a thousand words, so here's our video review of the HTC Hero for Sprint, with a focus on Sense UI and Sprint's TV and Navigation services. You'll also get a walk around the phone and see how responsive the phone is. If you're completely new to Android and don't know what the standard Android user interface looks like, check out our review of the T-Mobile myTouch 3G and its video review.