OSPS Review: HTC Hero looks rather super
Tuesday, July 28th, 2009
Google’s mobile platform, Android, is taking a little while to find UK adopters, perhaps mostly due to the saturation of primarily Nokia, Sony Ericsson and Samsung handsets, as well as the rising popularity of Apple’s iPhone. HTC have already shown that they can create decent phones for the American market, but with the US cellular market around a year or more behind that of the UK, will they ever really take off over here?
Well, it looks like HTC may have just about nailed it here. Diverging from their usual Windows Mobile handsets, this Android phone may not an official Google-phone (that is to say, Google didn’t help out in the design and branding) but looking at some of its features and innovations makes it stand out as the most powerful phone out there powered by Google’s mobile OS.
The UK edition isn’t going to have such an intrepid name – it will be known over here as the rather more reserved T-Mobile G2 Touch – but in terms of features and the brand new Sense UI, both mobile phones are equal.
The first thing that sticks out – literally – about the G2 Touch is the ‘lip’: the bottom juts out like a vicious overbite. This is bound to be a love-it-or-hate-it thing; those obsessed with aesthetics will forever compare it to the sleekness of the iPhone, whilst those with an eye for practicality will notice that it does actually help the phone fit snugly in the palm of your hand and give you easy access to the little thumb pad.
Where the G2 Touch stands apart from its fellow touchscreen smartphones, however, it is customisable homescreens and built-in support for social networking widgets. These allow you to have instant access to Facebook, Twitter and Flickr, with support for many more. It doesn’t stop there, though – this is the first phone I’ve seen that allows you to link your phone contacts with specific Facebook profiles, meaning that your phone book will also list your friends’ latest status updates, profile picture, birthday, and other relevant info pulled from their profile. This integration sounds like a minor improvement over, say, the iPhone’s popular Facebook app; but it’s a very convenient and intuitive concept, and no doubt one designed to make the most of Facebook’s meteoric rise to popularity in this country.
There are widgets for a wide variety of other sites, such as YouTube, eBay, MySpace, and even BBC’s iPlayer; and one more feather in the cap of the HTC is full support for Flash video – something the iPhone will most likely never have due to its restrictive OS. HTC also allow you to sync your phone calendar with Google Calendar right off the bat – something that requires an obscene amount of fiddling with Apple’s effort.
One feature ‘missing’ is a front-facing camera, but this was probably a considered move on the part of HTC, as video calling still hasn’t really taken off, and doesn’t look like it ever will. The inbuilt rear camera (5MP autofocus) and the music player are the main departments where the Hero could stumble when being compared to its main touchscreen rivals. The camera is OK – not bad for a mobile phone camera, but really not fantastic. The media player is a little simplistic, but at least allows you to change track from the homescreen.
However, if there’s one thing the G2 Touch isn’t lacking, it’s features. Don’t for a minute forget about the onboard Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS, G-sensor and digital compass, all of which function better than ever seen before on an Android handset.
So, it may not replace the iPhone in the minds of the many as the current big thing, but the Hero/G2 Touch is definitely giving Apple a run for their money. As with most new handsets, you’d be better off waiting a few months until all the kinks in the firmware have been ironed out (and a bunch of new widgets have been added to the UI), and it looks like the Hero could stand pretty tall. Tall enough to save us all from a world where eventually the iPhone will take over, perhaps not, but it’s definitely worth considering as an alternative to the iPhone or Palm Pre – if a feature-packed multi-touch handset is the kind of thing you’re looking for.
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| HTC Hero/G2 Touch: the specs | |
| PROCESSOR | Qualcomm MSM7200A (528 MHz) | OPERATING SYSTEM | Android | MEMORY | ROM: 512 MB / RAM: 288 MB | DIMENSIONS | 112 x 56.2 x 14.35 mm (LxWxT) | WEIGHT | 135g / 4.76oz (with battery) | DISPLAY | 3.2-inch TFT-LCD touch-sensitive HVGA screen (320×480) | NETWORK | HSPA/WCDMA / Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE | DEVICE CONTROL | Touchscreen / Trackball with Enter button | GPS | Internal GPS antenna | CAMERA | 5.0 MP with auto focus | TALK TIME | ~420 mins (WCDMA) / ~470 mins (GSM) | STANDBY TIME | ~750 hours (WCDMA) / ~440 hours (GSM) | EXPANSION SLOT | microSD memory card (SD 2.0 compatible) | SPECIAL FEATURES | G-sensor / Digital Compass |
