Tag Archives: HTC Hero

“Alien” vs “the crowd”

I’ve just upgraded my phone and whilst historically I’ve always gone for the option with the best camera and have usually erred to Sony Ericsson this year the choice wasn’t so cut and dry.

The way in which I use my phone has changed, no longer do I just want it to just make calls and snap the occasional picture whilst on the move.  Now I want/need a PC in my pocket. I want to be connected to Twitter, Facebook and my email whilst also having the capacity to make calls and keep notes to hand, I needed a smartphone – but which one to choose, Blackberry? Android? or, do I wait knowing I like the Sony Ericsson model for them to catch up with the field?

Well after much reading/research, and with the announcement that the iPhone was coming to Orange I decided to ditch my S.E. and whittled the choices down to 2….the aforementioned iPhone or the  Android HTC Hero.

I debated with myself  for a while and still couldn’t decide iPhone vs Hero, iPhone vs Hero so I started asking around– most my friends are iPhone clones, so I had a play with their models (the 3G in one case and the 3Gs in another) and I asked their opinion  and they all came up with the same argument, and it wasn’t quite as you may imagine, the argument was simply – “but it’s the iPhone”.

Not really the answer I was looking for when asking some basic questions about the apps and functions-

..What if I want to have my email running in the back ground whilst also following my friends tweets? ..
“You don’t need to”
..But what if I want to…
“But it’s the iPhone!”

..What about the problem you’ve been having with it losing your contact lists?..
“Oh I reinstalled them”
..but what if it happens again wont you be pissed..
“But it’s the iPhone!”

What about the 24 month contracts?
“But it’s the iPhone!”

You get the picture!

Unfortunately I don’t know anyone *in the real world* who has the  HTC  who I could ask for a quick test run and I couldn’t play with it in the Orange shop  for as long as I’d played with the iPhones but as it turns out I didn’t need to, The man in the shop let me play with whateversettings/functions I wanted and after a short period of time I was hooked, it looked great, felt comfortable in my hand and functioned just how I’d like it to.

I went against the tide of popular opinion I went with the Hero…and I LOVE IT!

HTC-hero

I’ve had it just over a week now and I have’t looked back. We (well James, I was at work when it turned up and I wanted it activated for when I got home *impatient*) turned it on the first time it said” ohhh you have WiFi – do you want me to connect, this will be so much quicker if you let me”  and it then asked for my gmail, facebook, flickr and twitter sign in details and just like that everything was synced. It took 2-3 minutes and James said it was the best set up he’d ever completed.

Since then I’ve added a second email account,  played with many apps  for things I knew I wanted my phone to be able to do and a for things I didn’t know I wanted until I found apps for them. I’ve configured and then reconfigured my settings and now have the 7 – yes SEVEN home screens set up for optimum usage for me and that’s before I’ve even looked at the options the multiple scene selections offer!

I’m happy, I’ve overcome the teething problems getting used to the qwerty touch screen / predictive trying and now even some of my iPhone user chums are looking at Android in a different way now I’ve put my handset in front of their blinkers.

For me now it’s Android for the win!