Obviously HTC pays a lot of attention to user requests so their smartphones are getting better with each new model. Compared to previous HTC Magic model, new HTC Hero has few interesting improvements along with all good features that Magic had.

HTC Hero is based on new Google Android smartphone OS that is getting better and better every day. This operating system is developed by Google and few dozen biggest IT companies, that contribute on regular bases with new applications, to already huge Android application base, that are in most cases free.

All Android based phones, including HTC Hero, are packed with additional software. Main menu is packed with essential application that are every user needs: Office document viewer, mail client, internet browser, media player etc. For users that want to modify this list according to their taste, there is Android Market with additional software ready to be downloaded and installed on your phone. Since Android is based on Linux kernel its stability and memory management is very good, so you will have to get used to the fact that applications are not closed when not needed, but instead just “minimized”. Because of this feature, applications are not launched again and again. Consequence is that applications that are launched once, can become active very fast when needed, so you can continue working right where you previously “minimized” application. We have launched almost all applications that we imagined that could be useful at some moment, and that didn’t have, almost, no impact on performances.

Since this smartphone is based on Google OS, integration of Google services can be found everywhere. There is Gmail client that will alert you on every new mail, Google search, Gtalk and many others. Integration of all Google services is very good so for example, pictures that are taken with 5MP camera with just 2 or 3 clicks can be sent as attachment in an e-mail or published on Picasa, Facebook, Flickr, as MMS etc. All Google services, along with most of additional gadgets and applications, need some sort of Internet connection to be active from time to time. Because of this we recommend you to buy this smartphone in combination with some good mobile operator plan that will include hefty or unlimited mobile internet transfers. If you don’t, you may get unpleasantly big monthly bill.

HTC Hero has same CPU as few months older Magic model, but it really does not need more than that. Internal storage is rather small but one microSD memory card can solve all problems. Unfortunately microSD slot is found below battery so changing one isn’t a simple task. Since large capacity microSD memory cards are cheap, it is highly unlikely that you are going to change it ever.
 
Along with some other HTC models, Hero also has trackball as control interface along with touch screen. Display of 3.2inch (320x480) is at this moment standard option and it is enough for watching videos but at the same time small enough to be securely held in one hand. Display supports “only” 65.000 colors, which is enough since picture is clear and sharp. Phone has 5MP camera with autofocus, which supports video recording. GPS module is also present and it can be used in combination with Google Maps service. Battery is above average for this price category with 1350mAh, which is enough for 2-3 days of really intensive talk, e-mail communication, internet browsing and general torture of device with installing and uninstalling of almost all applications that were available at the moment.

  All these HTC Hero features are actually already seen on almost every other Android phone with one difference. HTC supplied Hero with one of the best virtual keyboards that we had chance to work with so typing even large amounts of text isn’t unpleasant experience at all.

Conclusion

Despite the fact that every Android smartphone is Internet oriented (Google), and Hero sure isn’t exception, HTC managed to include decent multimedia features. Solid camera, with great picture quality and very good display with decent sound quality, makes this smartphone almost perfect solution in every situation. HTC Phone can be another perfect holiday gift for a person that is Google oriented. Because of all this, HTC Hero is perfect candidate for InsideHW Approved Award.