HTC's third Android OS smartphone, the HTC Hero ($180 with a two-year contract from Sprint; price as of 9/23/2009), is a giant leap forward for the company's family of Android phones, both in hardware and software. It isn't without its flaws, however: Performance can be slow, video playback is unreliable, and the touch keyboard isn't the easiest to use. Even so, the Hero is jam-packed with features, and I appreciated all of its easy customization.
Compared with the European Hero, the Sprint-branded version looks like a completely different phone. Its corners are much more rounded, and it no longer has the trademark HTC chin (also seen on the T-Mobile G1). The hardware buttons are rearranged and now surround the trackball, instead of being placed above it. I'm not really a fan of the chin, so I found that these design tweaks actually improve the ergonomics of the phone.
by Ginny Mies
