We live in an electronic age. And as a general rule of thumb, each year electronics get more and more sophisticated. They also tend to have more and more features. The same is true with cell phones. As a gadget guy, I used to have multiple portable electronic devices- cell phone, PDA, MP3 player, ect. Now you can do all that and even more. Up for review is the HTC Hero. It uses the DROID operating system. I have been a fan of the Windows Mobile Platform. But the DROID platform is catching on, and as an open platform applications will be plentiful.
Starting with the display, it is a high resolution and when tilted sideways for watching video it appears to be pretty close to widescreen in format. Living in Arizona where we tend to get a lot of sunlight means it can get very bright outside. While I love the high resolution display, I would personally like a brighter display to make it easier to see outdoors. It is sufficiently bright most of the time; it is just not as bright as my blackberry.
Its primary job is a cell phone, and as a cell phone it excels. Volume is good and understandable. The speakerphone functionality also works well. Reception is also quite good. In comparison to my HTC Touch, which I usually have three bars, I was able to get 4-5 bars in the same locations.
The layout is typical, and functional. At the top is the headphone jack. The up and down volume buttons are on the left hand side. The right hand side is clear of buttons, and on the bottom is the mini usb connection for charging the phone. On the back is the speaker for the speakerphone and lens for the 5.0 megapixel auto-focus camera and camcorder. Looking at the front you see a stylish design. At the top is the speaker, and at the bottom are two protruding buttons for connect/call and hang-up/power, and for flush buttons for menu, home, lookup, and back buttons. Inside the battery compartment is the memory card slot.
The functionality was very good. The main screen is easy to read, with time, date, local weather and temperature. There are also most commonly used programs, such as contact, email, voicemail, camera and internet. At the bottom is also a button that brings up all of the applications stored. You can also bring up additional screen by dragging your finger left to right, or right to left. Dragging left to right takes you to a screen with Sprint TV, IM and messages. One more drag in the same direction takes you to the calendar. Dragging right to left takes you to the MP3 player , and one more drag the same direction takes you to the webpage bookmarks.
I love the DROID as an operation system. My previous favorite was Windows Mobile, but the DROID is growing on me. And the HTC Hero implemented it very well. It worked great without any detectable glitches. If you are in the market for a new cell phone, I would highly recommend putting the HTC Hero on your short list. For more info and complete specs, feel free to check out HTC’s Website at www.htc.com.