A HERO'S WELCOME

       The latest offering from HTC, the Taiwan-based manufacturer of portable devices that's going from strength to strength, is the Hero smartphone. It's the third in the company's A Series, and is a big jump from the recent Dream and Magic (which it replaces) models in terms of design - both internally and externally. But can it rival the iPhone and the Palm Pre in the Thai smartphone market? Let's take a closer look.
       Visually, the model is instantly appealing with its chiselled clean lines and bevelled edges. It appears modern, stylish and durable; quite a jump from previous HTC models. The distinguishing feature is the angled base, or "chin", which has drawn both criticism and praise from gadget fondlers worldwide. While ruining the contoured flatness of the phone, it also protects the screen and tracking ball from scratching when you drop the phone or place it "flat" on its face. It also enables the phone to nestle nicely in the palm of your hand, and its robust 135g gives an overall feeling of strength.
       In terms of usability, the dimensions of the model enable single-handed operation. However, bad positioning of the back and search buttons will give right-handers thumb cramps or worse. The four buttons across the top of the chin are well placed, but could be a little bigger. Also on the chin is the slightly undersized but effective track ball that flashes nicely when you receive a call or text message.
       Feature-wise, the impressive 3.2-inch, 320x480 HVGA screen has an oleophobic coating, the same as its iPhone 3GS rival, that deters fingerprint smudging. It is also nicely sensitive, requiring only a light touch to activate. Although it boasts five megapixels, the camera takes dull and grainy photos, and the track ball works as a slippery shutter button. The speaker is adequate for a phone of this level, but falls short of the Nokia N97's speaker, although - finally - a 3.5mm headphone jack is included. The 1,350mAh battery requires daily charging without excessive usage - a similar performance to the iPhone 3GS but worse than the Palm Pre after battery tweaks.
       Inside, the specs of the Hero are almost the same as those of the model it replaces - the big difference is the software upgrade. HTC has stayed committed to open source software and has come up with Android 1.5, which it calls HTC Sense. The new and vastly improved operating system supports Adobe Flash and is compatible with social networks - namely Facebook, Twitter and Flickr - which are well integrated into the software and multimedia features of the phone. The keyboard is easy to use in landscape mode, and the predictive text function makes typing and web browsing very manageable, however, users must open and close the keyboard themselves. Searching for contacts is fast and intuitive, and the widgets are easy to manage and use, especially the toggle controls for network connectivity, which gets a big tick. The seven-panel homescreen might perhaps be a little excessive with the hardware limitations, but time will tell, as a firmware update has been promised. Another aspect that has been thrown around is the lag issue, which was apparent in the demo model, but others have reported much less lag.
       Overall, the HTC Hero is a wake-up call to major phone manufacturers who have enjoyed an oligopoly on the market for too long. The battle for phone operating systems is heating up, and Apple has traditionally dominated this with its iPhone software. But as the Android OS draws level, only the hardware in the models of the other manufacturers such as HTC holds them back now. With better hardware specs, the Hero could have gone ahead of the pack here, but it's still a strong sign of things to come from the HTC camp.
       The HTC Hero, priced at 22,900 baht, is available from Hardware House, Pantip Plaza, Phetchaburi Road, call 02-685-8936.