I have a HTC Hero since it was launched, and I have been satisfied with it, and think it can fill most people's needs. However, this phone also has a lot of faults, especially hardware-wise. But the android operating system makes this phone a great one, and the sense UI from HTC makes it even better!For those interested, the technical specifications are here. From there, you can see that it isn't even near the performance of current generation smartphones. However, it offers great functionality and covers the needs of most people. It can be used to listen to music, update status on sotial networks, browse the web, update you on the weather and make a phone call, all at the same time! (try doing that on a factory iPhone!! xD), although you'll get some lag, especially on the browser (the browser is great and deals with page rendering and javascript magnificiently! But I can't blame it if it lags on pages full of ads, JavaScript and images, although I don't experience any lag on mostly text pages). One of the most overhyped caracteristics of this phone is it's flash support: you don't see that on many smartphones right now (although adobe has made announcements that this will change soon). However, flash isn't really great on this phone anyway. I hardly notice a difference. However, I don't really like flash sites, since they are too heavy, so I tend to avoid them (flash games, etc), neither on my phone, but for some sites I visit, that use flash buttons and banners, and that don't really slow down the computer, the flash animations seem to work perfectly well on the phone too.One of the things this phone has that many android phones don't is sense UI. It looks really good, and since the last update, it isn't really heavy, so it works well. Unfortunately, some of the widgets for sense UI don't seem to work on the normal android interface (although normal android widgets work on sense). Sense gives me 7 home screens where I can place whatever I want. And I find that I need all of them, since I like to use some apps fullscreen. The animations are nice, but nothing to special. For those who dislike sense, they can change to the normal android interface at will.One thing I don't really understand about many if not all android phones is the lack of an official sync application compatible with Linux. And the Hero has this same problem. Fortunately I don't have anything to sync with my phone except for files (and for that I use the memory card), but if I want to update the ROM, I have to boot to windows, which is unpleasant. However, being android, syncing with google services (calendar, contacts, etc.) is automatic.One of the things I really love about this phone is how easy it is too share the internet connection with linux, without the need to hack or configure anything. You just have to connect the phone to the computer through USB and set it to share the mobile network and you're done – no need to configure or install anything, on Linux. On windows you have to install drivers, but that doesn't really bother me, since I don't use it much xD.One thing I don't really like about the phone is it's camera. It has a high resolution, but the photos end up blured if the light isn't perfect, and auto focus isn't much help on this. It could be a lot better.One thing I really dislike about the phone is that the android market is incomplete: there is no access to paid apps since this is not a google phone. I really hope this changes in newer versions. Although I don't really have any wish to pay for apps, there are some useful ones that are paid only (for example, to add bluetooth file transfer functionality, since it's unexistant – that is another thing I dislike, but don't really give a lot of importance, since I don't really use bluetooth).In conclusion, this is a good phone for most people, since it provides everything that they need, however it has some lag, especially if there are many apps running, and it provides some limitations. Still, android+sense makes this phone really shine, and the lag has been reduced since the original phone with one update, and the new android 2 OS seems to bring some performance improvements which could further improve on this. However, this phone, to be great, deserved much better hardware (something like an AMOLED screen, snapdragon and 512MB ram), a decent camera, a sync app for Linux and only a few more pollishing made to the android OS (full bluetooth support and paid apps in market more specifically).
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