HTC Hero Android handset

[fractionMan]

I'll be getting a Hero or a Magic this week. From everything I've read, they have the same internals and the Hero's software doesn't handle the processor and memory constraints terribly well.

Anyone have any experience of the HTC Magic or a view on the Hero vs Magic question?

GS(v)

I've been wondering this

 

[subversplat]

whatsthat then? I'm out of contract with orange.

Massive hoo-har about Orange upping their prices, if you got in while the going was good your contract was cancelled midway. Free phone and everything.

Now I'm looking at a Hero, and keeping my Diamond for any winmo apps I want to use, thanks Orange!!

 

[fractionMan]

Massive hoo-har about Orange upping their prices, if you got in while the going was good your contract was cancelled midway. Free phone and everything.

Now I'm looking at a Hero, and keeping my Diamond for any winmo apps I want to use, thanks Orange!!

they quoted me £77 for the phone on a £30 18 month contract after I moaned at their crappy original offer of £126, but get this. No internet included. If you use it without their 500mb bundle (extra 5 quid) or outside of weekends or evenings with their other bundle it's £1 a MB

it's like they want me to go get an iPhone or Sign up with vodaphone or something.

 

[subversplat]

Oh yeah, I'm not going back with Orange!

 

[DaRealSpoon]

Hmm, I'm tempted to make the step up to a smartphone. I'm going to try and persuade Orange to upgrade me to one of these or maybe a nokia 5800... Which is better?

To be honest, battery life and ruggedness are still things I'm looking for, even in a smartphone.

 

[dweller]

bah the hero looks cool, but I still wouldn't touch a smartphone without a hard keyboard

 

[bmd]

bah the hero looks cool, but I still wouldn't touch a smartphone without a hard keyboard

Yeah same here and the different build on the Hero wouldn't make me choose it over the G1 either. I love mine. I don't really have a problem with the battery life and I have 7 widgets on the screens (Beautiful widgets, battery widget, TuneWiki, Calendar) at once. I tend to check out what's running with Taskiller and shut it down if it's not needed. I find that what hammers it the most is downloading stuff.

There is a larger capacity battery available for it and tbh if it bothered me that much I'd just carry a spare battery with me, the case is one of the easiest I've ever had for getting apart.

 

[sumimasen]

I don't really have a problem with the battery life and I have 7 widgets on the screens (Beautiful widgets, battery widget, TuneWiki, Calendar) at once. I tend to check out what's running with Taskiller and shut it down if it's not needed. I find that what hammers it the most is downloading stuff.

Do you have to charge your G1 every night? I do.

But I agree with you, battery life aside, I love my phone.

 

[editor]

My G1's battery life is shite, but at least I can pop in a cheapo £6 battery. Overall, I'm fairly impressed with the phone, but not enough to stop me wanting a Palm Pre the second it comes out (if it lives up to expectations and all the positive reviews).

 

[bmd]

Do you have to charge your G1 every night? I do.

But I agree with you, battery life aside, I love my phone.

Yeah I do and when I'm at home I just leave it on charge so that when I go out it's at 100% to start with.

Ed, are you on contract with the G1 and if so will you be waiting til it's up before getting the Pre?

 

[fractionMan]

How's the battery on the hero or magic? It better be better than a single day ffs!

 

[bmd]

How's the battery on the hero or magic? It better be better than a single day ffs!

If you turn it off after every call or text then you can get about four days out of it, which I can confirm from taking mine to Glastonbury. Back in the real world my G1 needs charging every day, not sure if the Magic is any better but it's basically the same phone so I wouldn't think so. The Hero has a slightly larger capacity battery so I would think you'll get about a day and a half.

 

[fractionMan]

balls

What's the iphone battery like then?

And are the HTC things any good as music players?

 

[bmd]

balls

What's the iphone battery like then?

And are the HTC things any good as music players?

The Hero has a standard earplug jack and a Micro SD slot. There are some really great music apps out there for it too, so it's pretty good imo. But really, if it's music and battery life you're after then the iPhone wins.

 

[editor]

The Hero has a standard earplug jack and a Micro SD slot. There are some really great music apps out there for it too, so it's pretty good imo. But really, if it's music and battery life you're after then the iPhone wins.

The iPhone certainly trounces the Hero as a music device, but it's battery life is pretty poor too (and the HTC does at least have a removable battery).

Battery life

We were impressed with the Hero's staying power, though we'll reserve our final judgments till we have a device running US 3G to look at. On EDGE / WiFi, we saw impressive, full day use with a single charge. Standby didn't seem to pull much power, though it was obvious that many of the widget updates were just waiting till we woke the phone up, which made for maddening floods of syncing and updating (a real drain on speed). Overall, the Hero beats the pants off of our G1, and gives the Magic a run for its money. Battery life was favorable in comparison with the iPhone 3GS...

http://www.engadget.com/2009/07/23/htc-hero-review/

Comprehensive HTC Hero test here: http://www.pcpro.co.uk/reviews/smartphones/350633/htc-hero