Pixel Concept

It’s been about a month since the almighty Hero came to rescue me from the N97, yet the gadget lust has not worn off. That alone should give an idea of my first impressions of this device. I must say, I am impressed. Though the design may seem like a slimmed down version of the Dream, the build quality of the Hero really stands out. The device is solid and feels good in the hand. The teflon coating gives a bit of that soft-touch feel to the back, and does a great job at fending off dirt and fingerprints. I must admit, the reorganized button layout does not make much sense. The ‘Back’ button should be easily accessible at all time; unfortunately, this is not the case. Hitting the ‘Back’ button requires a very agile thumb, and just feels unnatural when reaching for it. It’s not impossible to reach, but it could be easier. Of course the true appeal of the Hero is HTC’s new Sense UI. In short, HTC has scored a homerun with Sense. The multitude of widgets and additional home screens make the Hero extremely customizable right out of the box. Many reviewers seemed frustrated with speed issues and overall system lag, but I have not experienced that. Every once in a rare while an app will hang up, but it’s nothing out of the ordinary and so far seems to be more of an app issue than a Sense UI issue. Overall I am very happy with the HTC Hero and only plan on switching phones when I receive the Nokia N900. I will be writing a full, in depth, review in the coming weeks of the HTC Hero, so stay tuned.