US$ 697 US$ 515.00

Wow…the story of Android to be continued. Starting from HTC G1 (Dream), with a full QWERTY keyboard which make the dreamer’s Dream come true. And then the Google 2 (Magic) broke with the full QWERTY heritage and become slimmer, also powered by its magical tricks. Lastly, the caterpillar is turning to a butterfly. The latest Android-powered, HTC Hero, our superhero has finally arrived without putting the Google’s logo on the head, and comes with many features which are much more different from its previous. Let’s see how the powerful and invincible hero saves the day.

Hero comes in 2 colours, Black and White. The white one is covered with Teflon coating which we normally see on kitchen utensils like frying pans whereas the black one is covered with rubber-like material, but both protect the phone from dirt and scratched. The package contains a battery, a charger, a handsfree headset, a USB cable and a User’s guide. You may immediately notice that the accessories are in showy white next to the white Hero. Yes, if you take the black one may get all accessories in black.

Inherited from Dream is the 3.2” HVGA widescreen, discarding the full QWERTY but keeping the trademark angled chin, the Hero continues the tradition of slim full-touch phones much along the lines of Magic.

Hero Pink                                                                            Hero Brown


Hero Black

On the top there's a nice surprise - the standard 3.5mm audio jack for the music lovers which is absent in previous Google phones.

The angled chin here is more convenience in operating the hardware below the screen and comfortably around your face while talking on phone, but a bit difficult to slip into tight pockets.

On the bottom, there is the standard miniUSB port used for plugging a charger or a data cable.

Where’s the microSD card slot? You may find it after remove the cover.

Let’s talk about the new features in Hero.

It used to be just TouchFLO, but enter Sense UI, a new profile feature which is a cross between TouchFLO and the stock Android interface. They are customizable and switchable beyond recognition through a variety of widgets. The arched scrollbar at the bottom of the screen is used to create and edit your homescreen. The left key launches the main menu. The middle key is a shortcut to the Phone apps and the right key brings up the "Add to Home" menu. They have extended the flippable homescreen to seven partitions instead of the usual three.

The People widget and Wi-Fi and Bluetooth setting widgets here. You can scroll through a list of your favorite contacts directly here no need to get to the contacts list.

The grid interface here. You simply flick between them using your finger or the trackball. Impressively, even with lots of applications on the go, there's also little noticeable lag.

The bookmarks widget here. It is a gateway to online collections of you and your friends on Facebook or myspace. Of course you can customize it. Nice~

Another cool feature called “Scenes” which comes preloaded with several, named HTC, Social (for social networks and contacts), Work (business related), Play (music and entertainment), Travel, Clean Slate and Custom 1, plus you can save your own personalized versions. Unfortunately, there is no fast switching between modes. Web browsing is another strength here which working at 7.2Mbps download and supports flash video and can be operate in multi-touch. A “Pinch to zoom” gesture is also welcome. With the upgrading camera to 5MP and the “Sense” UI which adds great value to Android by putting the widgets at glance view and makes it uniqueness with a variety of designs and sizes that best match your personality. The Screen QWERTY keyboard matches the best for responsiveness and auto-correction, and acknowledges each press with a useful haptic vibration. So, what do you think? The superhero? The best Android phone to date?

HTC Hero A6262 Video Review