Unboxed – HTC Hero and HTC Sense

UPDATE: Check out our hands-on video of the HTC Hero here

We got a sneak peek at HTC's third Android handset, the Hero, before its official UK launch at lunchtime today. 




At first glance, it comes across as a lighter, slimmer lovechild of the T-Mobile G1 and the HTC Magic. Just like the G1, the Hero has an angled mouthpiece, but like the Magic, it dispenses with a Qwerty keyboard in favour of a 3.2in capacitive screen.

Where the G1 felt like a clunky brick and the Magic was no great shakes in the design department, the Hero feels comfortable and light in the hand and the Teflon coating makes it feel like a quality item.

Just like the Magic, the touchscreen is iPhone-rivalling – it's fast, responsive and a joy to use, with the trackball at the bottom giving extra navigation options.




Many of the features that were lacking on the Magic have been rectified on the HTC Hero – there's now a 3.5mm headphone jack, as well as A2DP Bluetooth and the camera has been upped to a respectable 5MP with autofocus.

There's the same dedicated search button below the screen, which will perform a contextual search of whichever screen you happen to be in – Twitter, email, web, etc.

But it's the all-new user interface that's got us most excited. Dubbed HTC Sense, it'll be rolling out on all HTC handsets beginning with the Hero and it gives the user a whole host of options to make your handset ultra-customisable.

The concept is that your handset is a blank slate, and you decide which live, widget-based apps you want to add to one of your seven – yes, seven – homescreens.

Instead of launching an app every time you want to check your Twitter feed, emails, weather or stocks, you simply choose from the HTC or Android widgets and drag and drop them onto one of your screens.

The huge time and effort that has gone into widget design – there are 12 different clock styles for instance – means that you'll never have a phone exactly the same as anyone else.

You can rig up a homescreen for all your multimedia apps, one for business use, one for all social networking, one for weather and transport information etc etc – and it's a cinch to flick between them.

Another neat touch is that your contacts screen contains all information on how that particular mate has been communicating – you'll see their SMS, call history, emails, Facebook updates, Twitter and Flickr feeds all in one place.

It's then up to you how you want to get in touch with them. This is a brilliant touch and dispenses with the need to launch loads of separate apps to see what your mates are up to.

Web browsing is also a seamless experience, with familiar pinch and zoom features, but – here's the clincher and take note iPhone – full Flash browsing is supported, and pages neatly reflow when magnified.

From what we’ve seen, the Hero coupled with the Sense interface is the first combo to fully capitalises on Android's massive customisation potential, while live widgets, Flash support and a 3.5m jack could actually nudge it into the lead over the iPhone. 

If Android can get together a decent app store that doesn't drag behind Apple's, then this Hero could be our new favourite handset.

The HTC Hero will be available in July, from Orange and T-Mobile, with Orange carrying an exclusive graphite colour as well as the Teflon-coated white model.