Let's go through the steps together, shall we? A "senior member" forum poster on the
xda-developers forums has posted the above pic as proof that the HTC Hero is coming to the US on October 11th -- a claim he's been making as far back as April, but this is the first time he's brought a picture with him. The poster says he works for a wireless developer firm, and while this picture can easily be faked, we don't think it's necessarily that much of a stretch. Let's look at some of the other phones listed. There's "Samsung Q (Android)," which could provide a missing link between the
InstinctQ and the company's
mysterious Android phone that was supposed to be out on Sprint and T-Mobile by now.
BlackBerry Aries is the CDMA version the Curve 8520, and traditionally RIM's CDMA devices wind up on both Sprint and Verizon. The LG LX610 / Lotus 2 is a new one to us, but Lotus seems to have been well-received for Sprint. So to pull all that data together, if this list is the real deal, we'd say it came from Now Network company. This
is the sort of phone Dan Hesse would be
glad to have waited for, isn't it?
Read - HTC Hero (Android) Release Date: 10/11/2009
Read - Initial release date claim
posted Jul 31st 2009 12:22AM
How can a company release a phone when they see the software is sluggish?
Obviously you've never used an iPhone...
Ready...GO!!
Most phones I have used in my life have been sluggish, except the iPhone 3G (demoed it for 5 minutes), and the Palm Pre (though I don't claim to have tried out every phone).
Of course, at home I run a custom built PC pushing 4.15GHz proc speed w/ 4 GB of DDR3 2000MHz and two velociraptor 10,000's in RAID 0, so everything is pretty sluggish compared to that.
I should probably buy a craptop to manage my expectations for mobile tech.
@ Sisyphus
Do you even need porn with a setup like that? The boot time alone would do it for me...
What about the HTC Touch Pro 2? *sigh*
@Sisyphus
It would provide humorous entertainment to know you were running it with GMA950 graphics.
Hmm....
The US reviews moan about it as a deal breaker, the European reviews say it's a minor issue.
Probably because the Euros know enough not to have every bloody widget on at the same time I suppose.
M.
Haha Adderz...
Well right now I have a couple of GTX280s in SLI. A little bit of a performance increase over the integrated.
Could I run two 30-inchers @ 2560x1600 a piece on that puppy?
@ onelove
are you saying the tp2 is sluggish? because everyone review, and every demo, and every video review i've seen has said quite the opposite. many have said, "most responsive" and among "snappiest" of htc/winmo devices/phones period
@SimbaDogg: No. I am looking for the "HTC Touch Pro 2 coming October 11th to Sprint?" announcement.
"Hmm....
The US reviews moan about it as a deal breaker, the European reviews say it's a minor issue.
Probably because the Euros know enough not to have every bloody widget on at the same time I suppose.
M." (quoted from Mark Anderson)
@ I myself am from the US and cant stop laughing hahaha
Everyone, including myself is waiting for this phone....do you think its really going to help Sprint out of its 3rd place position...it doesn't seem like the Pre has done much for them.
I'm actually starting to see more Pres on the Metro (Washington D.C.).
It feels sort of like how it did when the original iPhone was launched. I saw one or two around D.C. for a few months, and then all of a sudden they were everywhere.
I don't think the Pre has nearly the hype or consumer interest as the original iPhone, but it seems like I'm starting to see more and more.
Didn't Topolsky demolish this thing in his Review? http://bit.ly/j9zp6
@Dan,
yes, Topolsky b*tch slapped the Hero, however, you have to remember these Engadget guys are uber-tech nerds and not much is really going to truly excite them for an extended period of time...but for us, average tech-nerds...this phone is the bees-knees...
at least for now...
"We're not saying this isn't the best build of Android on the market -- we think it is. What we are saying is that this build is a bit too much for a device like the Hero to handle, and that makes for an uneven, sometimes frustrating experience."
I think this experience is DIRECTLY applicable to the end-user, and they'll notice it right off the bat.
I had the same problem with the HTC Touch Diamond. HTC prettied up WinMo with Touch Flo 3d, but the hardware was just not enough to handle the 3d interface -- after 2 months the phone was MISERABLE to use because of its sluggishness.
The difference between things opening in 2 seconds and things opening in a fraction of a second is a HUGE deal for the consumer, and they'll notice it. Josh's review was enough to make me dismiss the Hero and feel solid in my decision to grab a Pre on Aug. 9th -- I can't handle another phone with hardware that can't match the software.
I'm a self-proclaimed "apple hater," and I've even seriously considered the iPhone 3Gs because of how damn snappy it is. Don't underestimate the importance of capable hardware and responsive software. A lack of either can turn a pretty phone with promise into a disaster on the second day of ownership.
You know, I sometimes wonder if technology has spoiled us. I remember being on a 28.8k modem and being patient was a part of life. When you say "The difference between things opening in 2 seconds and things opening in a fraction of a second is a HUGE deal for the consumer", I can't help but to think 'What kind of impatient son of a bitch consumers are we where .5 seconds and 2 seconds make or break a PHONE?'.
Let's be honest here. Should they have upgraded the hardware? Yes. But, I'm still holding out hope on a finalized US device review by several other sources before I make my judgement. On top of this, I've read various comments here and there providing insight as to why the system could be sluggish, primarily of which could be the fact that you can have numerous widgets on up to seven home screens. Also, I see no reason why future firmware revisions couldn't work out some of the sluggishness. Writing it off so quickly is foolish, IMHO.
Wil,
Spoiled? Maybe, but only if you don't see increases in speed and efficiency as progress. I remember those days too... I used to play the original EverQuest on CompuServe dialup and it was a huge pain in the ass.
If you are like me, you use your phone to do a whole bunch of stuff. Calling, texting, email, maps, documents, music, etc. Going back and forth between all those things, when you're on the run, doesn't give you a lot of time to be patient. Why wait longer to open the same application on one particular phone if I don't have to? That's an area where I'm not particularly nostalgic for the good ol' days of waiting 20 minutes for something to boot up.
If we're applying that logic to say, appreciating nature, or taking time to read a good book, then I agree with you. But I'd rather spend less time getting the work done that I need to get done on my phone, and more time enjoying those other things.
There's a difference between efficiency and speed. Windows 3.11 is undoubtedly faster than Windows 7 (in terms of booting and launching of apps), but that doesn't mean that you will be more efficient using it.
HTC Hero may be more sluggish than other phones when it comes to opening and closing apps, but the addition of 'full-screen' widgets also means that you don't have to open and close apps as often. Much of the information you want is accessible at a glance.
Now, as for UI sluggishness, that's another issue. And it's one I hope HTC makes sure to address before shipping the device.
This phone is not sluggish.
Topolsky made a point in his review about the processes running in TasKiller. He reckoned there was a bunch of stuff on there hogging resources. Not true on mine, I have only a handful of processes which aren't consuming any CPU resources. My experience with the Hero has been the polar opposite of Engadget's. The only laggy situation so far was opening Wikitude which took a few seconds.
I can't figure out why some US reviews have found problems with sluggishness. I think in Engadget's case, they had a whole load of widgets running, all trying to download data over a slow connection at startup. Who knows, but I can tell you as someone actually using this phone who has a quick temper and gets easily pissed off with slow phones/computers/drivers; I love this thing.
HTC have a total hit here, it looks and feels amazing. It's got a good, firm, weighty feel to it aswell. Sometimes I find myself picking it up and just holding it and feeling it, it's a piece of art. There's nothing else on the market to match this.
I've been running Android (from http://code.google.com/p/vogue-android ) on my HTC Vogue (Sprint Touch). It's ~128Mhz slower with half the RAM, and I run it off a class 4 microSD card. It's perfectly usable and even preferable to WinMo 6.1 on the same device. Runs all day with moderate usage , approx 1-2 hours of internet and texts, a couple phone calls, checking email, etc. Android is generally more responsive and it's browser surfs the web way faster than IE or Opera Mobile under WinMo.
Running it natively off of faster on-board flash, with twice as much RAM, a faster CPU, with a larger battery, I can't see having any complaints personally.
The biggest thing I've discovered is there are a ton of apps on the marketplace that are programmed with no regard for performance. Simple stuff that's 4x larger than similar apps (RSS readers, for example, or soundboards that appear to have included .wav files), or stuff that is really slow when more complex apps that share similar IO and bandwidth restrictions run faster.
Me on ATT, me sad no get new Android phone
Me too, don't worry, we'll get one eventually.
*cough*cough*Lancaster*cough*
The Hero is already on sale here in Norway, not locked to an operator.
I don't understand why US consumers keep bending over for the telco's.
Because we have different 3G bands. There was a brief period where most phones being released were quad-band 2G GSM, so we could just grab an unlocked phone, but now most phones that support AT&T or T-Mobile 3G are sold through the carrier.
@Ryback
You use different frequency bands for 3G and thus the HERO stateside would simply be a EDGE or 1xRTT which sucks.
boo! i was hoping this would come to at&t
Here's hoping it's compatible with SERO.
SERO compatible?
nuff' said
pats Touch Pro on top and says "dont worry, you're safe still as long as Dan Hesse's in charge"
and you wonder why you lost 275,000 customers last quarter?
numbers dont lie Dan.
I'm pissed I would have this over my pre anyday.... I thought this phone was going to be only going to be only on tmobile
wow, im finally truly excited for a phone to come out of sprint. i wish i had more info on this mysterious Samsung/InstinctQ with android...
I'm still waiting on that Touch Pro 2...come on Sprint where's the damned launch date?
No TG01, or Omnia II despite both phones have CDMA/EVDO versions with US bands? Seriously?
If this is all that we have on tap, I'm switching to GSM (shudder).
I was sorely disappointed after watching the video review of the HERO.
However, it does confirm my thoughts that things DO get better.
In less than a year after its release, Android is a true competitor.
October marks one year, right?!
I'd much rather wait this one out, as much as I don't want to, and grab me a much better, faster, polished Android phone in 2010.
I suspect that my then, mobile CPUs will reach 1.0GHz :) We are almost there!
Ill say this..that Touch Pro 2 Best come out before this...otherwise this is SOLD. And then ill Pick up that Low-End Blackberry for the Holidays.
*smh* People want the Latest, greatest and high end phones...but cant afford to go outside of their SERO plan. Sad...
SERO is that hotness...nothing wrong with saving money
Hopefully it will be available on SERO. If not I guess I'll just upgrade to the Diamond or Treo Pro from my HTC Mogul.
Who wouldn't want to save money on SERO?? The plans are awesome. I make pretty decent money but just starting our family I have a house payment, wife, kid, etc to take care of. My plan is $30 a month, $35 with taxes. A comparable IPhone plan is $90 + taxes. That's about $700 a year difference.
Why wouldn't I want a flashy phone and only pay $30 a month???? Different strokes for different folks is true. Hell, I'll rock a Diamond or TP for a decade to keep a cheap plan. Sounds like envy to me...
will get if SERO
if not, will stick with Touch Pro
Hmmmmmmmm...Sprint? Can you perhaps say 3G/4G with EVDO and Clear's incredible 4G WiMax? Add Android to that and I would like this MUCH better than the iPhone! Sprint does have that in the arsenal and can release it at any time. Well, we all can dream, can't we?
Will this be my hero baby
Will it kiss away the pain
Will it stand by me forever
(Whispered) Let me be your hero
Oh yes, You can take my breath away
Hold me in your arms tonight
Hey,
WTF sprint!
The Hero is good news for Sprint. Bring on Android!
oh damn! is no one else seeing that the kyocera 410 is coming out on november 1st!!? it's really too bad that the hero's launch will be quickly overshadowed by the hot kyocera.
Those would be Sanyos if Kyocera hadn't bought the company.
I got the HTC Hero this week, first impressions: not sluggish , second largest appstore ( can improve still with more useful apps) , well build and a battery that last pretty long.
The review here on engadget and boy genius was totally a review out of that apple phone fanboynism.
Never used a touchphone and also first android phone, it doesn't disappoint me and has a lot of potential.
Used WM mobile-blackberry-symbians60- symbianUIQ3 etc.
Happy with how the hero works and that counts for me, buy whatever you like and if thats an apple phone so be it.
The iPhone 2G/3G/3GS' aren't the best smartphones. How would I know? I own the 32GB 3GS. They are nice phones but they are getting out dated. They are basicly giant app launchers that only run one application at a time (although some Apple made ones run in th background) unlike PCs, Macs, the Palm Pre (WebOS), Android, and even Windows Mobile. It's getting old, there UI is starting to get boring and the phone is getting dated. iPhone = Giant App Nonmultitasking Launcher.
Opps this post was @The "i" . Sorry posting from my crappy 3GS.
@Twig978 yeah i think they decided to not let you 'reply' to shadowed (low ranked) comments to stop trolling
@The "i" I don't understand you people. If your going hate on a devise, than don't get it. You understand that even if you're a die-hard Apple fanboy that by companies getting closer or better devises to the iPhone will push Apple to innovate again. Something the iPhone desperately needs...
*device
The iPhone 2G/3G/3GS' aren't the best smartphones. How would I know? I own the 32GB 3GS. They are nice phones but they are getting out dated. They are basicly giant app launchers that only run one application at a time (although some Apple made ones run in th background) unlike PCs, Macs, the Palm Pre (WebOS), Android, and even Windows Mobile. It's getting old, there UI is starting to get boring and the phone is getting dated. iPhone = Giant App Nonmultitasking Launcher.
Sorry for double post guys.
^Not a fanboy
That was a reply to the "i", stupid comment system.
I have to semi-disagree with the reviewers who portrayed the HERO in a bad light due to this 'sluggyness'.
I have been using the HERO for about 2 days now, on Orange in the UK. Ok, the boot time is longer than other phones i have used previously, but who turns their phones off nowadays?! And about the supposed laggy nature of the software, I -am- going to make a comparison to the iPhone. The fact is, most apps on the iPhone have a small delay in starting, and this is virtually the same as the HERO. Personally, I have experienced no 'freezing' or laggyness about the handset, and found that the Sense UI running on this build of Android makes a killer phone.
There also seems to be a love-it/hate-it divide with regards to the 'chin' on the device, which (ok, I am going to be bias here) photos don't do justice. Get this device in your hand, and all becomes very clear. It just feels right.
I agree. I'm also seeing a trend developing; people who have read the US reviews have convinced themselves (through confirmation bias perhaps?) that this phone is sluggish and not worth having. People who have bought and used the Hero on the other hand, find no sluggishness at all and are very impressed overall, with the design, the UI and the speed. I think that says enough really.
I got my Hero a couple of days ago. Coming from various other phones and operating systems I find the Hero really well designed and a joy to use. It has pretty much everything you would need from a phone and unlike some phones actually focuses on better communication with links to various social networking trends. The android app market is increasing in size everyday and has a wealth of tools, widgets and applications to make the phone functionality more efficient. Out of the box it did seem to stagger about a bit but after a couple of days use its increased in fluency to a point where there is virtually no lag. The capacitive touch screen and multi touch sold it for me after using the Omnia and been plagued with screens forcing me to use the stylus. I am going to order a new SD card for is as i've heard the swap file is on there and atm its only class 4 which is a possible bottleneck. Htc seem to have taken android very seriously with this device and I think its paid off.
Thanks for posting. I think I'll definitely have this phone just didn't really want it on Sprint. :)
I read on a forum that a guy using Hero ROM on the Magic experienced sluggishness because the swap was on his SD-card. He moved it to the internal flash and it wasn't sluggish anymore. You might want to look into that. It was a Norwegian forum so I take it you won't be able to understand it if I digged up and url, and I am lazy too.
And I just had the info that the Hero is coming to SFR in France in September.
Will it be available for SERO?
I'll be dropping TMo in a heartbeat if the Hero comes to Sprint. I've grown impatient with their painfully slow 3G rollout anyway.
I -will- wait for a few more reviews on Hero performance to come out, but I think it sounds like the performance is pretty good if you aren't running multiple apps/widgets, which the iPhone (for example) can't do anyway.
FAIL!!!!
There is NO CDMA support for Android yet. The next software update for Android is called "Donut" and is still in development.
The the info is wrong.
People have been running Android on the CDMA Sprint Touch for almost as long as Android has been available. One guy wrote the code for CDMA radio support in a matter of days - I don't think it'd be much of a problem for HTC. In the last 8 months or so, the community has gotten everything to work except bluetooth.
I guess you missed the Engadget article about how the HERO rom had a "CDMA settings" tab.
Yea there is support for CDMA. Keep up with updates man, it was posted here a few days ago!
The one day I don't check and Voila.
InstinctQ, eh? if an instinct and a moto q had a baby...
slide out qwerty?
HELLLL YEA
Just in time for my upgrade :)
Please let me keep SERO, Sprint.
LOL, sluggish software...in comparison to what exactly? I personally cannot wait for this phone. My 2009 HOLY GRAIL!
Sprint= win Verizon-AT&T= fail
I'm returning my Pre and waiting for this phone.
The Pre is great, but the keyboard is too small for me.
Come on Sprint!
Hell yea.
Sprint is finally understanding that average consumers don't care about network quality or data speeds.
All "average consumers" care about is a flashy phone and saving money.
I have this phone (Orange UK), and i like it.
The only pain is that there's no Bluetooth File Transfer.
There's Bluetooth, but some idiot at Google won't enable it to transfer files (only headsets)!!!
For me, that's the deal breaker.
Hello I am Spanish and one of the lucky ones that has the phone. Only confirm that expectations have become magnified when you have it in your hand. In Spain the Mobile sells exclusively in Orange. For more information
Hello I am Spanish and one of the lucky ones that has the phone. Only confirm that expectations have become magnified when you have it in your hand. In Spain the Mobile sells exclusively in Orange. For more information
http://tiendamovil.orange.es/htc-Hero.htm
http://www.orange-empresas.es/producto/htc-hero.html