The HTC hero is a full touchscreen smartphone, in fact, it is born to remain always under UMTS or WiFi connection, to function as a powerful vehicle that can take the user beyond the simple use of a cell phone. After other models, HTC produces a full touchscreen devices with Android, confirming the intention to focus on the operating system in this period. Will be repeated the goodness of Magic? Let’s see togheter.
Package
We have a USB data cable, headset jack, 3.5 mm and controls on the wire, the 2GB memory card, the travel charger, battery.
Features and Materials
The new HTC Hero is a full touchscreen candy bar device which operates in the dual system UMTS – GSM Quadband. Connectivity is very complete: there is the HSDPA at 7.2 Mbps, the HSUPA with 2.0 Mbps, but the wi-fi and bluetooth (unfortunately only audio, but there are additional programs that expand the functionality), which added to the data cable, return to “talk” telephone and home computer.
Aesthetically, Hero offers a nice change from the usual: the body is not in fact flat, but rounded on the bottom, in a curve that gives harmony to the whole body and personality.
The white color gives extra luster to the entire structure, but it should be noted that, compared to the images you see here, the model on sale will have a more grayish color.
Remains, skiing, the back cover with a covering of Teflon, which finally takes off from a HTC those annoying fingerprints with which we were accustomed. The terminal, in addition to being compact, it is very solid, but not heavy. On the front, sits on a 3.2-inch display, resolution 320×480 pixels, TFT 16 million colors.
The shades are returned with excellent sharpness, and also touschcreen capacitive allows the combined operation of more than one finger, quite agile. Although UMTS, Hero does not have a second camera on the front (not video calls). At your disposal there is only one, the one on the back cover. Si tratta di una cam a risoluzione massima 5.0 megapixel, munita di autofocus ma non di flash. This is a cam-resolution 5.0 megapixel camera, equipped with autofocus but no flash.
The photographs are quite good, especially those caught with lots of light and macros. Meno buoni i filmati girati a 352 x 288 pixel. Less good movies shot at 352 x 288 pixels. Integrated into the shell must not forget the chip GPS, digital compass, and even the accelerometer. Tutti funzionano alla perfezione. Everything runs smoothly.
Dimensions and Touchscreen
HTC Hero is one of the most ergonomic terminals that we have ever used.
Is it because of its compact size, it will be for the solidity of the chassis, or more likely will be for the form factor with that curve on the bottom, but all these things, together, contribute to a great handling and a simple alloggiabilità the terminal.
That is in every pocket, from jackets to skinny jeans to tight (suits curves back …). Hero has a height of 112 mm, a width of 56.2, and 14:35 mm thick, with a weight of 135 grams. As we have already noted more than once in this review, Hero is a terminal full touchscreen, no physical keyboard.
The center control arranged below the display, however, there are a total of six buttons: start and end call, homescreen, menu, and just below the search function and the back, near the excellent BlackBerry trackball style. On the backs, however, have the volume buttons on the left, while right-back is completely clean and seamless.
In the top of the chassis, we have the jack and 3.5 mm, while below you can engage the charging cable / sync the device. The touch screen, capacitive, it works very well: the sensitivity is above average, but perhaps slightly less than the iPhone.
Great it’s the possibility to act on screen with two fingers, for example, when we decide to enlarge or shrink your content.
Our test
As soon as a car produced and marketed, this Hero is completely new.
Not only the interface Sense, but in general the whole user experience is one step further usability of the manufacturer to simple and concrete.
Obviously, this product is a no brand, and will be marketed at a price of 499 euros.
To which you add the digits necessary to equip yourself for a flat subscription data with which to use all round the new model created by HTC. Hero is powered by a 528 MHz processor from Qualcomm, has 288 MB of internal memory and an optimized resolution to determine a simple user interface.
The only flaws of this system to cycle from light delay that in some cases affecting the software: we do not stop dead, but not exactly lightning-quick responses, as we had to wait, if we use fully all the features and widgets that HTC provides. In general, however, be said that the phone has never crashed during our tests, has suffered delays so strong.
The interface is completely customizable, ripetta standard Android, here we have 7 pages Home with the 3 classic., With up to a page indicator in use over the crescent on the phone and dedicated to the menu. In addition, HTC has decided to increase its customization of Android. How? By placing many widgets that you can insert and remove at will on each of the 7 faces. Widgets time, clock, shares of stock, Twitter etc … are all very nice and functional, some of whom need access to data but to stay up to date.
Almost all widgets are present in two versions, small and explosive, depending on how many blocks we want to occupy in the page that are customized. Obviously these shortcuts to contacts and favorite programs. Widgets do not replace the widget HTC Android, which remain available for those who wish to use them.
The screen, a command may be removed, cleaned, changed, to have a phone again and always suitable for every situation.
This enables us to create shortcuts functional, and the merits of virtual keys is that we always have on the bottom of the device.
Very interesting is the possibility of creating custom profiles, or create different homescreen to suit many different situations, switchable with a quick command.
Comfortable touch buttons placed in the bottom of the phone. Among these is also included in the button “telephone”, which we will allow a rapid typing contact numbers (with a quick search of contacts). Navigating between the different sides is almost a game, especially because we will never have fear of missing a notification through the top bar that will keep us updated of any event and that you can open each page by simply sliding your finger from top to low.
The trackball, in this sense, comes to our rescue flashing, and also to display a notice on the front further notice, and even preview (even with the phone locked), for instance for text entry. The icons in the menu, organized in a grid, we access via dedicated keys, the virtual and the physical.
Each item is easily accessible, every feature is accessible with just a few steps of the fingers on the display, from the point of view of the touchscreen there never creates obstacles. The party machine was equipped with a powerful speakerphone, with the reception that is abundant in the media and always sound very good. Maybe a little cold, but clean.
Messaging, in addition to displaying HTML email input, we devise ways to enable the mere writing of the text available, we reduced the QWERTY keyboard, and extended wider, and even the alphanumeric. The user will only have to choose. With Gmail, you have the push email and a virtually equal to that site, folders are included.
Our advice is to always use the T9, the system quickly enter the text may be too intrusive when using the qwerty, but very often effective. Be noted that, whenever we decide to orient in a different terminal, Hero all’accelerometro we will follow through with the positioning in the vertical and horizontal.
Early in our review, but we are left with an important premise: if you want to use Hero the best, forget to go offline with the data connection. The reason is the many points of agreement with social networking, and browsing online, that make Hero the ideal vehicle to reach friends, workplaces and even “virtual”.
Especially with Facebook, Flickr and Twitter, Hero proves capable of a great synergy. Facebook account with no canon, viewable to the special section, but real shortcuts designed for this application.
The contacts in our address book, for example, have a bar on the bottom which not only give us the history of phone calls, messages, e-mail, we can establish a direct dialogue with the Facebook application, as well as Flickr.
Let me explain: we can see, entering a contact, such as text messages I exchanged with that contact, such as mail, its status on facebook and his album uploaded on Flickr, in addition to the historic calls.
All of them, in a single screen. Brilliant indeed!
The additions, however, does not stop there. Even looking at the gallery of images, for example, besides our shared’ll have those of our contacts, Facebook and those of Flicker. A real treat, especially because the speed of loading of the albums online is really good. Web browsing, then, confirms truly remarkable: the scrolling of pages is straightforward and fast, rendering even the size of the disply more than enough to determine an easily readable font even smaller. Full support to flash then allows browsing experience closer to that PC.
And then, we can always zoom in with the movement of the fingers: two on the screen simultaneously to broaden or tighten the magnification. Among other features, you can not forget the multimedia course, with good audio part (no FM radio) and a 5.0 megapixel camera with autofocus but no zoom. The pictures taken are of good quality, especially those made with such light. In the dark, of course, you will have problems. HTC also deeply customize the menus on the camera, which are very similar to the corresponding versions of windows mobile.
Less well, however, the video, shot in a simple resolution of 352×288 pixels. The excitement for this final end there, though, came from the use of GPS. Of course there are the maps of Google, but not all. The fix to the satellites is quite fast, the system functional.
To cheer us, if anything, is the Street View built (as seen on magic). In practice, we can see directly, as on the pc, reproduced not only by our location map on the display terminal, which rotates the rotation of the phone, thanks to the digital compass (you first see him explain that). Hero is proving an all in one device, with a general speed of the processor more than sufficient, and a host of features that will delight owners. A device to promote, a success that can reach significant numbers, thanks to the battery that allows us to use multimedia for a whole day.
SPECIFICATION
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Processor Qualcomm® MSM7200A™, 528 MHz
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Operating System Android™
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Memory ROM: 512 MB
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RAM: 288 MB
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Dimensions (LxWxT) 112 x 56.2 x 14.35 mm ( 4.41 x 2.21 x 0.57 inches)
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Weight 135 grams ( 4.76 ounces) with battery
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Display 3.2-inch TFT-LCD touch-sensitive screen with 320×480 HVGA resolution
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Network HSPA/WCDMA: 900/2100 MHz
Up to 2 Mbps up-link and 7.2 Mbps down-link speeds -
Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE: 850/900/1800/1900 MHz
(Band frequency and data speed are operator dependent.) -
Device Control Trackball with Enter button
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GPS Internal GPS antenna
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Connectivity Bluetooth® 2.0 with Enhanced Data Rate and A2DP for wireless stereo headsets
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Wi-Fi®: IEEE 802.11 b/g
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HTC ExtUSB™ (11-pin mini-USB 2.0 and audio jack in one)
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3.5 mm audio jack
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Camera 5.0 megapixel color camera with auto focus
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Audio supported formats MP3, AAC(AAC, AAC+, AAC-LC), AMR-NB, WAV, MIDI and Windows Media® Audio 9
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Video supported formats MPEG-4, H.263, H.264 and Windows Media® Video 9
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Battery Rechargeable Lithium-ion battery
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Capacity: 1350 mAh
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Talk time: Up to 420 minutes for WCDMA
Up to 470 minutes for GSM -
Standby time:
Up to 750 hours for WCDMA
Up to 440 hours for GSM
(The above are subject to network and phone usage.) -
Expansion Slot microSD™ memory card (SD 2.0 compatible)
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AC Adapter Voltage range/frequency: 100 ~ 240V AC, 50/60 Hz
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DC output: 5V and 1A
CONCLUSION
Value for money
Terminal without keyboard born to remain connected, with lots of technology and multiple ways to get to talk with friends and acquaintances, even in unconventional ways. Qualities are there, then. Price? 499 euros. In line with the top of the range.
Packaging and envelope
Good. There is a 2GB memory card, the stereo controls bell’auricolare thread, travel charger, battery, USB data cable. Niente male, dunque. Not bad, then
Ergonomics
We really enjoyed the chance to have a phone with a sharp corner on the bottom. Truly ergonomic, this Hero, and easy to use even with one hand. Cover with Teflon and display scratch complete the facilities.
Usability
User friendly and easy to use. With a rapid and only a few small delay to be addressed. The many great shortcuts that are available. Obviously it is not like having a physical QWERTY, but the keypad is defended well.
Multimedia
Lacks the FM radio, but instead the well 5.0 mpx digital camera available to us gives excellent performance (not video). Well even the music player. Incredible synergy with the world of web and social networking.
GENERAL RATING
A terminal that ultimately we liked it very much. Capacitive touch screen performance, and generally lots of opportunities to complete a huge variety of operations. A device created to stay under cover data.To be taken into account. Success.
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