HTC Hero won't see upgrade to Android 2.1 until June, at least in Europe

Plenty of UK Hero owners were disappointed this morning upon hearing the news that free Google Maps Navigation had spread beyond the borders of the USA but required Android 1.6 as the minimum OS version. Stuck in their Android 1.5 world, they must have hoped that HTC would just hurry up and open the gates to Eclair heaven, but hurrying up is, regrettably, the opposite of what's happening. Tech Radar heard from a Google rep that the Hero's move to Android 2.1 won't be happening until June, and followed it up with HTC directly. The official response was that a free update for European Hero variants will indeed be provided "starting in June." At least this cloud of disappointment will only hang over Europe, as other territories -- like Taiwan -- might still get the update reasonably soon.

[Thanks, Paul]

[bluefisch200 Posted Apr 21st 2010 1:17PM]

We need FROOOOOOYYYYOOOOOOOOO...or maybe htc should just do the homework...just ship 2.1 with the old sense and give us the new one later...but give us 2.1...

[whySoSerious Posted Apr 21st 2010 1:19PM]

Y'all missed the opportunity to photoshop the lead picture by doing something like crossing out the "2009" and writing "2010" with a big frowny face.

[MrN1ce Posted Apr 21st 2010 1:20PM]

Thats exactly why the Nexus One is still an attractive phone for me despite better alternatives by now.

[aztek Posted Apr 21st 2010 1:23PM]

This is frustrating. If it really takes them this long to get Sense to be all that, it's not really worth it, is it? Where is the cost/benefit to 9+ months of dev work only to release the software for free?

And really Sense is not all that. The best part is the keyboard, but with Swype, etc, even that is marginalized. I put a hacked 2.1 on my Hero and can honestly say Sense UI = waste of memory at best.

So HTC, ditch Sense UI and just put out these updates already.

[kdatt Posted Apr 21st 2010 1:26PM]

Ah Crap!....When they finally do bring it out...T-Mobile are gonna take another 2 months to do their "Testing"....what a joke!
This 18 month contract is killing me :S

[Trevolutionary Posted Apr 21st 2010 1:37PM]

Happily running 2.1 on my Hero for over 2 months :)

[weeman Posted Apr 21st 2010 1:38PM]

I hope one year down the line, HTC are not gonna keep me waiting around for a major update for my HTC desire.

[ZackC456 Posted Apr 21st 2010 2:08PM]

How long has 2.1 been out?

[Hero24 Posted Apr 21st 2010 2:09PM]

Sprint CDMA Hero is still early May. If you can't wait, root it. I've been running 2.1 on my Hero for over a month.

[Jean Marc Posted Apr 21st 2010 2:18PM]

Who cares evo comes out in June

[Kromatik Posted Apr 21st 2010 2:29PM]

I think a slight bit of leeway is in order though.

HTC make great hardware and Google make great software.

HTC Sense is less than a year old and it has to be applied on top of a continually updating OS.

It's gonna take them a bit of time to streamline the process.

They're a growing company, but they listen, things will get better.

[GBobBillyBob Posted Apr 21st 2010 2:56PM]

Iv been spreading the android n HTC love for months now telling everyone how wonderful,blah blahblah.... sick of it now tho. I'd rather not be told I'm gettin anything then be pleasantly surprised, instead of always getting so close then gettin kicked in the nuts n told to fuck off. Ah well, still better than an iPhone n most of the other shit out there..... just.....

[Max1980 Posted Apr 21st 2010 2:57PM]

Sjeeeeeeez last time I ever bought a phone with custom shell. Man this really really sucks... I cannot believe they kept telling us over and over that the upgrade was due, and now still two months to go. HTC whatever.. I will not buy from you anymore..

[MariusE Posted Apr 21st 2010 3:26PM]

I asked HTC Support about when I can expect the 2.1 upgrade to my Hero. This is what they said:

New Response From [ Pedro (Nordics Support (Tech)) ]
Dear Marius

Thank you for contacting us.

Some of the phones in our Android line up including your Hero are due to receive an upgrade, and it is scheduled to be released starting at the end of April.

Your phone should be upgraded Over-The-Air. You can expect a pop-up message on your phone when connected to the internet once it is ready.

When the upgrade is ready, we will notify you via our website and on various social media networks including Facebook and Twitter - www.twitter.com/htc

I trust that this resolves your query, please do not hesitate to contact us again if required.

Best regards,

Pedro S.
HTC

[jellotime91 Posted Apr 21st 2010 3:31PM]

Honestly this is kind of pathetic.
The fragmentation of Android is horrible. The Droid came out ages ago with 2.1! It'll be almost a YEAR after that by the time the Hero gets 2.1....

[Narutogrey Posted Apr 21st 2010 6:56PM]

@jellotime91 At least all Android devices sooner or later get 2.1. For the iPhone, the first iPhone won't be able to upgrade to 4.0.

[jellotime91 Posted Apr 21st 2010 7:03PM]

@Narutogrey
First of all, I didn't mention the iPhone at all. Why do Fandroids always bring up the iPhone?

Second, the first generation iPhone is 3 fucking years old. It's been more than 3 years since its announcement and there isn't any Android phone anywhere near that old. The G1 is not even 2 years old yet and up until February nobody knew if it would get 2.1. Do you think the G1 is going to even get Android 3.0?? HELL no it's not.

So, Android is substantially worse than iPhone in terms of updates... Not to mention they are controlled by the carrier! That's just ridiculous! In some markets, people with an HTC Dream (G1) will never get an update. Again, pathetic.

[theleth1 Posted Apr 21st 2010 4:05PM]

GO F**K YOURSELF HTC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[tmahu Posted Apr 21st 2010 4:24PM]

no more HTC for me!

they need to learn a new word: support!

[Narutogrey Posted Apr 21st 2010 6:02PM]

@tmahu Go ahead. HTC only makes some of the the best of the current crop of phones. If you can live without the best phones....

[sfox8 Posted Apr 21st 2010 6:28PM]

@tmahu Sure. I doubt htc gives a care. Htc is pretty much ruling the market right now with their hardware. If you're sticking with android then you've cut out one of the best companies. Who else is really making any androids as good as htc right now? Not motorola. One hit wonder. Samsung has yet to make a dent.

Come on people let's not be immature. a lot of phones don't even get updates. Htc makes a lot of phones and they're trying to support them all. Either root your phone or gather up some patience. Htc is still learning.

[tmahu Posted Apr 21st 2010 6:37PM]

@Narutogrey

I know they build great phones,but i cant buy a new one every 6. month.

My problem is,that I think they got the 2.1 done,they are just holding it back.and this june date is just ridiculous.i cant use a bunch of apps with 1.5!

[Narutogrey Posted Apr 21st 2010 7:03PM]

@tmahu HTC is actually a very small company. With only about 100 of it's employees being engineers, they don't have the resources or the manpower to do support a phone after it's release like Nokia or RIM. Think about all the resources that it takes to make a single phone, and HTC is coming out with new ones every month. Palm is about the same size, but yet it only really has 2 phone models (Pre and Pixi). It's already pretty impressive that HTC can come out with new hot new phones all the time.

[OregonLAN Posted Apr 21st 2010 4:25PM]

This is nothing new for HTC. I’ve owned a couple HTC products in the past only to discover that once HTC releases new hardware with new software, they pretty much discontinue support for their previous models. Instead, they rely on the Internet community to pick up the slack. Honesty, you’ll be lucky to see an official Android 2.1release for the Hero before the end of this year. And then, it will be outdated and inferior to anything that’s already available.

[cez Posted Apr 21st 2010 5:09PM]

so Google is releasing Android 2.2 mid May, and HTC is "going to" upgrade HERO to 2.1 in June??!! does HTC really think we are all that stupid?

[Aku Posted Apr 21st 2010 5:11PM]

This is not just HTC issue. This is a problem with Android fragmentation in general. This has and is still is an issue with WM and BlackBerry devices. There is no mothership to update everything at once the way it is with iPhone ... hence the complaints. I really hope Froyo addresses this, but from the sound of it ... my understanding ... it will be just some components that will be decoupled from the OS ... so you may still run into incomparability issues and end up waiting for your carrier/manufacturer to roll out an update.

At least HTC makes it easy to root their devices. I'm still waiting for publicly available root for my Desire though.

[mrsatan Posted Apr 21st 2010 5:18PM]

Root that thing! The first thing I did when I got my hero was root it and throw on 2.1. Much better than 1.5 though we could still use the official one for some optimizations that's for sure.

For an easy hero root check this out. Should work for anyone who can follow instructions.

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=662964

[96th Posted Apr 21st 2010 5:24PM]

FML!

[rigden33 Posted Apr 21st 2010 5:35PM]

Come HTC or google

[rigden33 Posted Apr 21st 2010 5:36PM]

come on HTC

[scouzer Posted Apr 21st 2010 6:06PM]

the 2.1 ROMs on XDA are terrible. even the best ones (villain for example) are SO SO slow compared with a decent 1.5 ROM.

it makes the phone slow beyond belief. its so not worth it to run 2.1 on the hero right now.

[Milamber Posted Apr 22nd 2010 1:11AM]

@scouzer

You must be doing something wrong. All the roms I've run from XDA have been way faster than any stock android. Granted I have a Sprint Hero but that really shouldn't make a difference. My 2.1 is 100% working and bug free with crazy speed. On top of that they just released a mostly functional rom with the ability to overclock to 768 mhz. The only reason it's not 100% is because it uses the .27 kernel to enable overclocking. If you want to see a really fast Hero then flash that rom and check it out.

[scouzer Posted Apr 22nd 2010 1:17AM]

@Milamber i said a custom 1.5 ROM, not the stock. villainrom is largely agreed to be the best 2.1 ROM and it's impossibly slow.

i dont know of any overclocking ROM for GSM heroes. just the overclock widget for 1.5 phones.

[Milamber Posted Apr 22nd 2010 1:23AM]

@scouzer

I don't know the situation with villian rom because I'm CDMA but when I went from the Fresh 1.5 roms to the Fresh 2.1 or the DamageControl 2.1 Roms my phone didn't slow down at all. If anything it got a little smoother. We have the same hardware in our phones so I don't see any reason why your 2.1 roms can't be made just as fast.

[gabitech Posted Apr 22nd 2010 4:01AM]

@scouzer I've just rooted & installed a custom ROM last night - you should try the SenseHero 2.1 ROM, it works great - I don't know why but they don't talk much about it, maybe because it's not xda... All I can say is why haven't I done it sooner??? (here is the link: http://www.htcdevscene.info/showthread.php?63-%5BROM%5D-%5B17-04-10%5D-SenseHero-2-1-Beauty-Speed-Stable-%5BONLINE%5D )

[superaj Posted Apr 21st 2010 10:39PM]

I remember when it was supposed to come out in December, then it was early 2010, then it was march, then it was april, now it's June?!

WTF HTC?

[eka Posted Apr 21st 2010 10:41PM]

typical htc service = sucks.

[Jouten Posted Apr 22nd 2010 3:19AM]

I think I will get a Palm WebOS phone but also BOLO the next Symbian 3^ phones too. If anything, just for the novelty, I’m not sure if Palm will stay afloat, but from everything I have heard and seen with Palm’s WebOS, it’s a pretty damn good OS.

http://cyberbulletin.wordpress.com/