Camera Phones Plaza

HTC enters the smarpthone's market with a highly praised new device running the Android operating system. Taking a fresh and a stylish design and an innovative graphical user interface, HTC Hero threaten the iPhone smartphones supremacy on the market by its performance. While its specifications are not far above what is currently on the market, how they work make Hero the best device compatible with the Android and, perhaps one of the best smartphones on the market. As things stand, I think HTC Hero is the main rival of iPhone. I avoid making comparisons between high-end phones of the three principal manufacturers claiming to hold supremacy in the market: Nokia N97, iPhone and HTC Hero, because people have different tastes and needs. Instead, I will try to show the qualities and drawbacks of Hero, and some of the strengths that make it better than its main rivals.

Following closely as the first two devices with Android, HTC Hero presents the same characteristics with the same curved form. This time, however, the forms are more pronounced and highlighted, which is also a technical advantage, since the microphone is closer to the mouth during phone calls. The smartphone is made of a special plastic that is very much like Teflon. Unfortunately, this will fill with prints very quickly, and with the touch screen that will be full of fat very soon after use, those are two of the minor disadvantages of the phone. Of course, a small cloth will temporarily resolve this disadvantage, but the problem remains, as fingerprints will reappear as soon as you start to use your phone again. The same goes for the touch screen that can be controlled only with your finger.

However, the design of the phone should make users forget this disadvantage. There are no external control buttons around the phone, except for the long volume key, which was hidden in the phone casing, on the upper left. On the top of the phone, HTC has placed a 3.5 mm jack port, while on the bottom side, we can observe a miniUSB port. Below the 3.2-inch screen, four keys are arranged symmetrically, from left to right are: Accept calls, Home, Menu and Reject calls (Power on / off). Immediately below these keys in the middle, you will find the well-known trackball. To the right of it, there is a double key, which fulfills two functions: Search and Back.

The search function will open a Google window, allowing users to quickly find the information they need. The photo / video camera of 5 megapixels on the back of the phone has no protective lens; the module is protected by the mere fact that was introduced a little inside of the back cover. The camera lacks the flash function, but you can see a very small speaker near it. Under the cover of the smartphone, you will find the SIM card slot and the microSD memory slot. The microSD is a little hard to find being situated in the upper left corner of the phone, but is hot-swappable, so you will not need to remove the battery to insert your memory card.

HTC Hero is measuring 112 x 56.2 x 14.4 mm and weighs 135g (including the battery), making it a very well balanced device. You will probably wonder how well a phone with such a curved shape falls into a normal pocket, but to my surprise, it had no problems. The phone feels great in the hand, both because of the refined material that is made and because the keys have been placed on the curved bottom, so that it will be easier to access. I think the curved shape of the phone is the main attraction of the smartphone, at first sight. Beyond this, however, HTC Hero design is very elegant and ergonomic thought.

HTC Hero includes a capacitive TFT touchscreen of 3.2 inches, which supports 65K colors and a resolution of 320x480 pixels. Even if the display seems to be the same as that of HTC Magic, it is clearly visible in strong sunlight. Another new feature introduced is the multi-touch input method, which makes your device even easier to control. All because of the embedded technology that removes the need to use a stylus making the finger the only way you can control the smartphone's display.

The accelerometer works perfectly, but only with a low number of applications (including the gallery, the browser). However, image quality is superb, and the change between the landscape mode and the portrait mode is fast and it even includes animations. All you do using the screen seems very natural: touch, drag or move. This proves again that the technology behind these capacitive touch screens is higher than resistive screens. The process of scrolling is even better than the iPhone, while the on-screen keyboard is very easy to use. In fact, I think all these are above the iPhone, because it also benefits of the haptic feedback feature.

The photo / video camera of 5 megapixels on the back of the phone does not have advanced features, instead it benefits from autofocus. The maximum resolution that can be used for taking pictures is 2592 x 1944 pixels. Even if there is no question of making pictures at night, users will continue to take pictures on the daylight more than decent. You will not benefit from features like smile detection and blink detection, but I would say that this camera is almost the same quality with that of Nokia N97.

HTC Hero's camera can not be compared with that of the iPhone, because as we know it has a maximum average quality. The interface of the camera is quite simple, without complex settings and it can be accessed through a simple touch. To take photos you will have to use the trackball. The trackball is a bit weird to use, compared with a dedicated camera key, because it does not present that feature (to half press the button) to trigger the autofocus function. Instead, you simply have to point the camera towards the target to be photographed and just press the trackball. The camera will automatically make autofocus in approximately 1-2 seconds, and the save processing time will take another 1-2 seconds. It can be strange at first, but certainly is much easier to take pictures.

The camera can also record video clips, but to my disappointment, it only records CIF videos at 15fps. It is not a big deal, but this is one function you can use if necessary. In conclusion, I think this 5 megapixel camera takes pictures above average in terms of quality, but remains to think that an upgrade of the module with new advanced features such as Samsung and LG are already required.

HTC Hero includes a slim Li-Ion Battery 1350 mAh, which has an autonomy of 440 hours of standby time (750 hours for 3G) and 8 hours of talk time (7 hours for 3G). Our test unit required a recharge after about 2 days, but it was very used. During the tests, I noticed that you could extend the battery life interrupting the data connection for all widgets that need regular updating and for the email accounts. In fact, you can benefit from an almost double battery life of if you make these changes, which means that you will need only one or two recharges a week. However, HTC Hero has one of the best-optimized energy consumption of all other Android devices.

The sales package comes with:
HTC Hero;
Stereo headset;
2GB microSD memory card;
Li-Ion 1350 mAh battery;
Charger;
USB cable.