Verizon Droid

Highlights of a review from Electronista
HTC’s Hero is the company’s first signal that it’s serious about taking the lead in Android smartphones; it’s the first to try and improve in a significant way on Google’s platform — including multi-touch and in-browser Flash — as well as the first to reach multiple North American carriers. Much is riding on its success, especially as it’s one of the most important phones for Sprint, Telus and Verizon (through the Droid Eris) all at once. Our review hopes to gauge whether the phone has the strength to carry that burden and give the iPhone serious pause.

the Hero’s design: Telus, Sprint, Verizon

Discussing the ergonomics of the Hero is difficult than for most smartphones simply because of the liberties HTC has taken with customizing the design for different regions. While our review unit is the world version that ships to Telus, the Sprint model and the Droid Eris at Verizon have both undergone major cosmetic overhauls.

wrapping up

The Hero has a knack for creating an oddly emotional attachment with its owner. While we’ve had gripes with the strictly average performance or the lackluster camera, the subtle but unique design and the customizations to Android make it feel like a constant companion. Its design always seems tailored specifically to help you, especially in terms of long term wear and tear. The Sense UI additions also provide just that much extra help, saving the trouble of going one layer deeper or having to resort to an outside app. Combined with a very Internet-aware OS with a robust app market, the net effect made us eager to hold on to the phone for as long as possible — something we can’t often say for the phones that pass by our desk.

Our only true disappointment is that the Hero at times feels more like a bug fix for the Magic than the follow up you’d expect. Besides expanding carrier choices, there doesn’t appear to be any real reason for the Hero to exist without the Magic being phased out. A truer upgrade should be available soon with a 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor and other possible improvements, so if you’re willing to spend the premium those are likely to command, consider that option first.

Sprint’s Hero or Verizon’s Droid Eris won’t have the design advantage, but they’re still well-shaped. Whether or not the handset is a good deal depends entirely on which of the three networks you use, even so. Arguably, those worst off are Sprint customers: the phone there costs $180 on contract and comes only with a 2GB microSD card, which will be enough for photos and apps’ content storage but far from adequate for serious media playback. In the States, the Droid Eris is the better bargain as it not only costs $100 but packs a much more reasonable 8GB card. The international version we tried with Telus sits somewhere in between: it has the anemic 2GB card and requires a three- year plan, but it too costs $100 and has the best call quality and design traits of the three.

Sprint customers may have the option of levelling the playing field by shopping through a third-party or simply waiting for a sale; we should also add that Cellular South has the Sprint version of the phone for $100 if you happen to live inside its coverage area.

Regardless of how your geography dictates your purchase, the Hero is arguably the best touchscreen-only Android phone in North America for 2009, even when pitted against the technically more advanced Samsung Behold II at T-Mobile. HTC’s ability to balance hardware and software design makes it a tough phone to defeat, and if it weren’t for the existence of the Motorola Droid, we’d consider it the go-to phone for Android, full stop. We don’t think it will unseat the iPhone from its throne as the iPhone 3GS’ speed, browser and media features still give it an edge, but anyone disillusioned with Apple’s policies in the App Store, who craves multitasking, or who simply wants to be different will be satisfied with a Hero.

Essentially a rebranded version of Sprint’s HTC Hero, the Eris (see it in action in the above video) goes on sale today, but for $99 ($100 less than Motorola Droid handset).

The Eris runs Android 1.5, features a 3.2-inch capacitive touchscreen, and a 528-MHz Qualcomm processor (less powerful than the Motorola’s ARM Cortex-A8)