HTC Hero mini review
The mobile phone market is one of fierce competition, with a variety of manufacturers all competing to be top dog. A couple of years ago though, an outsider completely stole the show, and has taken the top spot ever since. That’s right, the iconic iPhone - Apple’s first attempt at making a mobile phone abosutely blew away the competition. Pushing all the other manufacturers back to the drawing board, nothing has come close to toppling the iPhone, despite many trying.
However, that may well change today, as we take a look at HTC’s latest and greatest handset, the HTC Hero. This is one of the first high end handsets to use the Google Android operating system, which may or may not work out for HTC, as Android is still in its infancy compared to some other mobile operating systems. However, unlike the others, Android is completely open source, which means anyeone and everyone can create programs or applications to suite their tastes.
Keeping the phone running smoothly is a fairly impressive set of specifications. A Qualcomm processor, coupled with a spacious amount of memory, work along side a turbo charged HSDPA connection, giving you brilliant 7.2mbps download speeds.
Appearance
The phone we received was an Orange branded device, and arrived in a grey outer housing. The front fascia is partly alluminium, with the remainder of the housing being plastic. However, it’s not your normal plastic, as it has been coated with a textured rubber, which helps you grip the phone, as well as giving it a quality feel. The phone also feels solid, with all the buttons having a reasuring level of resistance. The shape of the phone is also interesting, with a ‘chin’ at the bottom, jutting out from the main body – reminiscent of ex-F1 driver, David Coulthard. The sim card, battery and microSD expansion slot are all located under the rear cover of the phone, allowing easy replacement (something the iPhone fails to offer).
Performance
Firing up the phone you are greeted with a fantastic home screen, which would be equally at home on a NASA space craft, such is the array of customisability. There is a total of 7 ‘home screens’ each of which can contain upto 16 program shortcuts or just a single large widget. Widgets you say? These aren’t the sort you find in the bottom of a beer can sadly, but are best described as program portals, allowing you to see vital information without going into the program itself. For example, the twitter widget allows you to see your friends latest tweets, and also update your status.
HTC supply a more than satisfactory level of widgets and programs, however, if you feel there is something missing, fear not. Installed on the Hero is the market app, which takes you to the online applications and widget marketplace. With thousands of apps to chose from, there is almost certainly the one for you hidden in there somewhere.
Music playback is a bliss, with a standard 3.5mm audio jack used, allowing you to use your own pair of headphones should you desire (we’d recommend this, as using the pair included in the box would be like putting a knife in your ears, such is the poor sound quality). The headphones are useful for calls however, since they have an inline remote/mic to connect/disconnect the call.
Call quality is also very good, and the new dialing system that searches numbers and names is also very useful, helping us to find the required number much quicker than usual. Messaging is equally as good, with texts to and from people saved in ‘conversations’, much like the iPhone. The on-screen keyboard is intuitive, and is fairly easy to use, once you get used to the small size. That is our biggest gripe with the Hero – screen size. Whilst it’s nowhere near unusably small, you do sometimes feel it could do with being just a little bit bigger. The amount of on screen pixels is also a little lower than its rivals, at 320x240, but due to the smaller screen size this doesn’t have such a negative effect on the device.
Whilst we’re having a bit of a gripe, it’s worth mentioning the battery life. If you’re a heavy user, you’re looking at around a day, with a couple of days for light users. It’s reasonable, but again, it could be better. Fortunately for the Hero, the battery is removeable, so it is possible to carry round a spare when needed.
The software also seems to be a bit of a problem for the Hero, and you often get the feeling it’s trying to do too much at once. Opening an app called task killer, you can see the plethora of applications running in the background to keep the phone on the ground, which is quite astounding. This becomes evident when trying to do lots of things quickly, and the phone quickly lags out or stalls.
Conclusion
HTC have pulled out all the stops to make a true iPhone rival, and this is evident in the quality of the product. The Android operating system works a treat, offering far more expandability and customisation. Unfortunately the Hero isn’t perfect, and the small screen and poor battery life lose it a few points. However, if you’re looking for an alternative to the iPhone, then we can hand on heart say the HTC Hero is a fantastic choice.
The mobile phone market is one of fierce competition, with a variety of manufacturers all competing to be top dog. A couple of years ago though, an outsider completely stole the show, and has taken the top spot ever since. That’s right, the iconic iPhone - Apple’s first attempt at making a mobile phone abosutely blew away the competition. Pushing all the other manufacturers back to the drawing board, nothing has come close to toppling the iPhone, despite many trying.
However, that may well change today, as we take a look at HTC’s latest and greatest handset, the HTC Hero. This is one of the first high end handsets to use the Google Android operating system, which may or may not work out for HTC, as Android is still in its infancy compared to some other mobile operating systems. However, unlike the others, Android is completely open source, which means anyeone and everyone can create programs or applications to suite their tastes.
Keeping the phone running smoothly is a fairly impressive set of specifications. A Qualcomm processor, coupled with a spacious amount of memory, work along side a turbo charged HSDPA connection, giving you brilliant 7.2mbps download speeds.
Appearance
The phone we received was an Orange branded device, and arrived in a grey outer housing. The front fascia is partly alluminium, with the remainder of the housing being plastic. However, it’s not your normal plastic, as it has been coated with a textured rubber, which helps you grip the phone, as well as giving it a quality feel. The phone also feels solid, with all the buttons having a reasuring level of resistance. The shape of the phone is also interesting, with a ‘chin’ at the bottom, jutting out from the main body – reminiscent of ex-F1 driver, David Coulthard. The sim card, battery and microSD expansion slot are all located under the rear cover of the phone, allowing easy replacement (something the iPhone fails to offer).
Performance
Firing up the phone you are greeted with a fantastic home screen, which would be equally at home on a NASA space craft, such is the array of customisability. There is a total of 7 ‘home screens’ each of which can contain upto 16 program shortcuts or just a single large widget. Widgets you say? These aren’t the sort you find in the bottom of a beer can sadly, but are best described as program portals, allowing you to see vital information without going into the program itself. For example, the twitter widget allows you to see your friends latest tweets, and also update your status.
HTC supply a more than satisfactory level of widgets and programs, however, if you feel there is something missing, fear not. Installed on the Hero is the market app, which takes you to the online applications and widget marketplace. With thousands of apps to chose from, there is almost certainly the one for you hidden in there somewhere.
Music playback is a bliss, with a standard 3.5mm audio jack used, allowing you to use your own pair of headphones should you desire (we’d recommend this, as using the pair included in the box would be like putting a knife in your ears, such is the poor sound quality). The headphones are useful for calls however, since they have an inline remote/mic to connect/disconnect the call.
Call quality is also very good, and the new dialing system that searches numbers and names is also very useful, helping us to find the required number much quicker than usual. Messaging is equally as good, with texts to and from people saved in ‘conversations’, much like the iPhone. The on-screen keyboard is intuitive, and is fairly easy to use, once you get used to the small size. That is our biggest gripe with the Hero – screen size. Whilst it’s nowhere near unusably small, you do sometimes feel it could do with being just a little bit bigger. The amount of on screen pixels is also a little lower than its rivals, at 320x240, but due to the smaller screen size this doesn’t have such a negative effect on the device.
Whilst we’re having a bit of a gripe, it’s worth mentioning the battery life. If you’re a heavy user, you’re looking at around a day, with a couple of days for light users. It’s reasonable, but again, it could be better. Fortunately for the Hero, the battery is removeable, so it is possible to carry round a spare when needed.
The software also seems to be a bit of a problem for the Hero, and you often get the feeling it’s trying to do too much at once. Opening an app called task killer, you can see the plethora of applications running in the background to keep the phone on the ground, which is quite astounding. This becomes evident when trying to do lots of things quickly, and the phone quickly lags out or stalls.
Conclusion
HTC have pulled out all the stops to make a true iPhone rival, and this is evident in the quality of the product. The Android operating system works a treat, offering far more expandability and customisation. Unfortunately the Hero isn’t perfect, and the small screen and poor battery life lose it a few points. However, if you’re looking for an alternative to the iPhone, then we can hand on heart say the HTC Hero is a fantastic choice.
