Saturday, July 4, 2009

Review of GSM/UMTS-communicator HTC Hero

Mobile-review have posted a review of the new HTC Hero. Here are the phone's specifications and final conclusion.

It wouldn't be correct to judge the Hero's reception quality by its engineering sample, but it's worth mentioning that we never had any issues with it on this front, nor did our signal drop off in areas even with so-so coverage. Its earpiece was pretty loud on top of that, and in quiet environments top volume settings would be overkill. The loudspeaker is average volume-wise, however the set of bundled ringtones negates this drawback, as most tunes are pretty loud already. The vibro alert's strength was more than satisfactory as well - I event felt the phone when it was buzzing in my bag.

The Hero is set to land in Russia some time in August at an estimated retail price of 700-750 USD. HTC don't put much stock in this phone as a mass-market offering, for its target audience isn't familiar with its brand-new platform, and therefore it's positioned more as a device for tech geeks. In fact, it's one of those rare cases when the phone maker fully realizes its solution's potential and positions it in an appropriate fashion.

On balance, the Hero does have a lot of potential, being the first Android-powered phone officially available in Russia, which puts it in a league of its own among other latest and greatest offerings of this summer. As far as I'm concerned, the HTC Hero, along with the other two Android-powered communicators, are what a gadget maniac's dreams about the Apple iPhone look like.

Specifications:
•Type: communicator
•Form-factor: candy-bar
•Competition: Samsung i7500
•Materials used: matte plastic, metal
•Operating system: Android 1.5
•GSM/EDGE 850/900/1800/1900 MHz, UMTS/HSDPA 2100
•CPU: 528 Mhz (Qualcomm MSM7200A platform)
•RAM: 288 Mb
•Storage: 512 Mb + microSD memory card slot
•Connectivity: Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.0+EDR (A2DP), proprietary ExtUSB (USB 2.0) for charging/synchronization, 3.5mm audio jack
•Display: TFT 3,2” with 480x320 pixel resolution (HVGA), auto backlight brightness adjustment
•Camera: 5 MP autofocus-enabled, can capture video in CIF resolution;
•Navigation: gpsOne-based navigation (with A-GPS support)
•Extras: accelerometer
•Battery: detachable 1350 mAh Li-Ion
•Size: 112x56,2x14,3 mm
•Weight: 135 g.

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