HTC Hero smartphone review - a comprehensive hands-on

We've had HTC's Hero for a little while now, and have had the opportunity to fully get to grips with all of its features. It’s the smallest Android-based handset we've seen, with a thin 14mm casing and compact dimensions.

It looks stunning from the front, with a bright 3.2-inch screen and a brushed aluminium surround, but look a little closer and the rest of the handset is made from the same white plastic as the HTC Magic. The mix-and-match approach for the materials looks slightly cheap, and the design isn’t as cohesive as the Magic.

The touchscreen display is the same as the HTC Magic’s, but adds a shiny oil-resistant coating that results in excellent colour reproduction. It’s also sharp, with a resolution of 320 x 480 pixels that makes it a great device for media use, such as watching video clips or browsing the web. 

All text is entered by an onscreen keyboard, and although it’s one of the best we’ve seen, it lags behind Apple’s iPhone – the smaller screen resulting in more typing errors. Correction software helps, but it’s still not as fast as a proper hardware keypad.

Owners of existing Android handsets will recognise the operating system, but HTC has also added Sense user interface to increase usability – in much the same way as its TouchFLO software for Windows Mobile handsets. The new software brings with it more home pages – up to seven from the usual three, letting you keep different pages for different types of applications and shortcuts. The menus also differ depending on the applications you have running, speeding up navigation.

As with previous HTC handsets, weather information is displayed prominently, and social networking also plays a big part, with Facebook, Twitter and Flickr neatly integrated.

It’s all incredibly easy to use, the responsive screen letting you flit between pages with a swipe of your finger. Setting up an email account is also easy, with support for POP3 emails and Microsoft’s Exchange. There’s a wizard in place that lets first-time users simply enter their email address and password, automatically filling in the other details. Fans of Microsoft Outlook will find it a little trickier to set up their calendar, but it’s easy to export all details to Google’s Calendar.

Connectivity includes 3G/HSDPA, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, with GPS and Google Maps built-in for navigation. With Google’s Streetview also supported, it’s a great device when lost in an unfamiliar city. A 5-megapixel camera takes reasonable photographs, although there’s no flash for night time use.

Everyday performance is good, with the menus moving smoothly and quickly. Some of the applications can take a little time to load, but it’s much faster than Windows Mobile-based handsets. We found battery life – at around three days under moderate use – to be very good.

With the benefit of HTC’s Sense software alongside the intuitive Android OS, the Hero is an excellent product. The small onscreen keyboard won’t suit all users, but it’s still easy to recommend.

Visit HTC for more information.