Review: HTC Hero from Sprint

HTC Hero for Sprint has the same name as its European counterpart but without the Leno chin.

First I just want to say how I think it is great to have a phone with a 3.5mm audio jack.

Once you turn on the Sprint Hero, you'll forget all about the boring exterior. The interface design is fantastic. It's clever and useful, with polished, colorful menus and icons.

The body of the phone is a gray color with a silver metallic band encircling the sides that extends to the bottom of the device where it meets HTC’s miniUSB port. Thanks to the slightly rubberized backing, the Hero feels great.

The phone comes with the standard: NASCAR mobile, NFL mobile, and SprintTV but can be removed.
There are active widgets that make the desktop much more functional and an improved look throughout the phone that makes the interface a joy to use.

Android and Sprint's HTC Hero excel with the numerous customization options. You can build themes that change not only the look of the phone's wallpaper and desktop icons, but also change the desktop's organization to offer exactly the tools and apps you want right on the home screen.

At 4.5 inches tall, 2.2 inches wide, just over half-an-inch thick, and weighing in at a trim 4.5 ounces, the smartphone is a compact device that will slip comfortably into most pockets or purses.

When accessing an individual contact, a tabbed menu offers the option to easily call, email, or text that contact, see text and email messages exchanged with that contact, access call history, and see that contact’s updates from Facebook and Flickr.

Unfortunately, Facebook integration is relatively limited, synching only a contact’s Facebook picture and birthday and alerting you to the fact that a contact has updates without going into any detail, but that's what the web browser can be used for.

The phone dialer screen is simple. You can use the on-screen numerical dial pad to quickly search through contacts by name or phone number while the matching results are narrowed down in the background as you type.

Calls on the HTC Hero on Sprint sounded very good.

For messaging and social networking fans, the Sprint Hero does a great job keeping up with all your separate accounts and networks. (Facebook, Email, Twitter, etc)

The HTC Hero on Sprint uses the standard Android browser, and this is one of the better browsers on the phone market. Pages loaded quickly and looked sharp, exactly like their desktop counterparts. The Sprint Hero also features multi-touch, which works very nicely on Web pages. Though the two-fingered controls weren't as smooth and accurate on this device as they are on the Apple iPhone, it was still easy to zoom in and out on Web pages (and photos) by pinching and spreading our fingers.

Pictures taken with the 5-megapixel camera on the Sprint Hero are pretty good but nothing special.

After some lighthearted debate, we’ve all come to agree that HTC’s latest Android device brings a hero to Sprint’s smartphone lineup. The Hero boasts HTC’s impressive Sense interface and full support for Microsoft Outlook synchronization including email, contacts, and calendar. From Wifi, to GPS, to 3G support, the smartphone didn’t leave us sorely missing any desired feature big or small.

The Sprint Hero is not the best phone for first-time smartphone users, since the interface can be complicated. You might forget whether you have to pull down the window pane menu from the top, press the menu key for the pop-up menu from the bottom, or hold your finger for a contextual menu in the middle of the screen, and sometimes the choice isn't obvious.

There are plenty of useful, silly, and fun apps in the Android Market.

Specification
Processor:    Qualcomm® MSM7600™, 528Mhz
Operating System:    Android™ platform
Memory:    ROM: 512MB, RAM: 288MB DDR, 2GB microSD™ memory card
Display:    3.2-inch 320 x 480 HVGA resolution, 262K-color TFT LCD touch-sensitive screen with LED backlight
Network:    Dual Band CDMA2000 1xRTT/1xEVDO/1xEVDO Rev. A (800/1900 MHz)
GPS:    Internal GPS antenna
Camera:    5 megapixel camera with auto focus
Connectivity:    Bluetooth® 2.0 with enhanced data rate, Wi-Fi®: IEEE 802.11b/g, HTC ExtUSB™, 3.5mm audio jack
Power:    Rechargeable battery — 1500 mAh
Talk Time:    Up to 250 minutes
Standby Time:    Up to 360 hours
Dimensions and Weight:    (LxWxT) 4.5" x 2.22" x .54"; 4.5 ounces with battery

I'll give the HTC Hero from Sprint 4.5 out of 5 stars.