1
Sep
2009
The HTC Hero: Poise and Power
It looks like HTC has struck gold with its newest Smartphone. With the latest HTC Hero, critics are claiming that we have finally been presented with an Android-powered device that is able to strike a balance. We totally agree. Based on what we have, it seems like the HTC Hero is a device that does not only excel in the software department, but in its overall design as well.
Android Power
Google’s Android operating system has long been touted as the closest competitor the iPhone’s excellent proprietary OS. For one reason or another, not too many manufacturers have teamed up with the search engine mogul to produce Android-powered devices. Thankfully, HTC is one of them and the new HTC Hero sports the newest version of the Android OS.
HTC has even gone a step further by giving the Google operating system a major makeover in order to have a more customized OS. With their new Sense Experience user interface, users can surely expect an excellent overall experience with the HTC Hero.
Beautifully Designed
Design-wise, we feel that HTC couldn’t have done any better. The HTC Hero still has that sleek and stylish feel to it which was made famous by its predecessors. However, it stands out in that it looks and feels more sophisticated. It has also taken on the elevated chin (also present in the HTC Dream), which makes it even more innovative. The unit is available in four different colour schemes (white, black, pink, and brown), but our personal favourite has to be the white version complete with its classy Teflon finish. It definitely exudes a unique and flamboyant flair to it. With the HTC Hero, we finally have an Android-powered Smartphone that is also able to compete in the design department.
HTC Hero Links:
17
Jul
2009
HTC Hero. Enter the factorium
The HTC Hero is the first phone to be carrying HTC Sense, the new User Interface that all HTC phones in the foreseeable future will be launching with. However, there are a few things we’d like to point out about it before you get too excited. You may have already got excited by looking at sites such as the official product overview, or by coming across HTC Hero review‘s like this, but we want to temper all that excitement with a little fact-based work. Yes, we really are that sad, and this is indeed how we get our kicks. That’s why you love us.
Fact number 1 – The HTC Sense is a User Interface, a skin, if you like, put over the Android OS that supplies a little jazz, a modicum of razzmatazz. It is not, however much HTC might try and insist, some kind of revolutionary new thing called a ‘User Experience.’ Calling it so just proves a little how HTC are trying a little to hard to generate buzz for the HTC Hero.
Fact number 2 – Most of the features in this so-called spiffingly new User Interface have been seen elsewhere, either on other manufacturer’s phone, or even on HTC’s own handsets. The ‘Stay Close’ group of features, for example, are basically the same as the Nokia 5800′s Contacts Bar. The ‘Make it Mine’ set of features is simply the terribly groundbreaking ability to… wait for it… customise your homescreen and other menus. Oooohhhh.
Fact number 3 – According to some marketing buff or other who’s name we can’t even be bothered to copy, “Sense is a distinct experience created to make HTC phones more simple for people to use, leaving them saying, it just makes sense.” No, it isn’t. No, it doesn’t. It’s a decent enough User Interface, that leaves us saying, it’s a decent enough User Interface.
So there we have it. Your daily dose of fact. Straight from us to you, for free, with love. Don’t get us wrong, this is a pretty decent phone. Just nothing revolutionary. Out sometime very soon.
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