HTC Hero

Yenwod

I think it's hard to properly judge a phone on a thread such as this. It's the nature of people to complain and not compliment and so on a thread like this, most people are coming on looking for solutions to their problems. I think the majority on here are really happy with their Hero though.

Personally yes, I think the camera is shocking bad. However I've never had problems with the signal dropping and I find the browser very good to use!

There's a good youtube review of the hero vs iPhone, it comes in 3 parts, think it's called dogfight or something? Anyway his conclusion is, as it stands, the iPhone is marginally better but the hero has FAR more potential!

dloob

Dman001 wrote: »

Can anyone who bought a Hero lately confirm that they are unlocked?
Is using a Hero on PAYG even an option? I know the phone is based around internet access so I dont want to be fleeced with Data charges.

Got a bill pay hero today. Works with my three sim.

Dman001

dloob wrote: »

Got a bill pay hero today. Works with my three sim.

Thanks mate. Did you have to get a Data package with your Hero as some were saying a few weeks back that Meteor were enforcing customers to take a Data package when Purchasing a Hero.

Black_Knight

Unless your giving the phone to someone else, you would be awful stupid not to get the Data pack! If your on a bill pay, and dont have a data pack, your either going to have a WHOPPER of a bill, or your planning on using this phone as a regular auld phone and nothing more, a sin in my eyes.

candlegrease

do i need a data pack if im on Pay as you go?

Mitch Connor

candlegrease wrote: »

do i need a data pack if im on Pay as you go?

there is no data pack on PAYG (for Meteor anyway) Just the 50mb per day for 99c.

I'd consider the Meteor Bill Pay Lite 20 offer, with one of their two data packs - €5 for 250mb or €15 for 10GB. At the higher option, that would get you 200mins, 200texts, Free Meteor-Meteor calls and texts, and a 10GB download allowance.

Shane O' Malley

candlegrease wrote: »

do i need a data pack if im on Pay as you go?

You need to get some data plan. Phone uses a lot of data.

I have used 29MB over the last two days with exchange push email, twitter and Gmail and not alot else. That really adds up without a data plan.

EPM

Just wanna say well done to Meteor Waterford who exchanged my phone yesterday no qualms! Best Meteor store I've dealt with. They may have to do the same with the replacement because the ear piece sounds like its got a bee hive in it compared to the crystal clear original though:mad:

To me it looked like the touch screen went completely with the original and kept wanting to force close

long_b

ShadowHearth wrote: »

Well by get htc and hope it will get better ( somewhere heard that OS is upgradable..), or wait vor HTC hero ver2...

It's a tough one. Thinking about one myself - Meteor's offer seems great value. (I kind of regret not going for their N95 8GB offer there last year).

Maybe have a poke around on www.gsmarena.com and see what's coming out in Android handsets.

Worst case: you buy one, hate it and sell it on www.adverts.ie or swap for something else ?

Maybe you could chat a Meteor store personage into letting you have a play with one ?

Danbo!

ShadowHearth wrote: »

Well by watching this thread, i see more bashing, then Good words.

I love what HTC hero stands for: Open source. And how much you can cusomize it, play around with it and list goes on and on!

But Open source comes with price: really damn rocky beggining, that signal loss issue, camare being crap( thought no need at all), browser being really laggy comparing it too iphone, prepalm. And it goes on and on...

Just before spending all this money, i whant really to know is it worth it... do i get iphone ( god i really dont whgant to be a anather "i" slave), get htc and hope it will get better ( somewhere heard that OS is upgradable..), or wait vor HTC hero ver2...

The OS is upgradable. I havent heard anything about hero 2, unless youre referring to Android 2, which is the new version of the OS due out soon. And yes, HTC are working on it to upgrade their sense UI to slot into Android 2.0, should be great.

I see your comparing it to an iPhone. I ported from a 3GS on o2 Bill pay, and I must say I love the Hero. Fair play to meteor for getting a savage phone and not bringing out stupid stupid hero-only tarriffs.

Yes the browser is a little slower but there are plenty of upsides. Lots more control over the phone and just generally, em, well, lovely.

I used an iphone 3g for a week before getting the Hero. I use apple products every day (ipod touch / macbook) but I preferred the hero over the iphone as a phone.

I find the soft keyboard is more accurate and has some nifty and intuitive auto correction. The camera is fine for taking pictures outside but the lack of a flash means that it is almost useless in the dark. You can play around with the ISO settings in the camera app to make it more responsive though.

I'm looking forward to trying firefox when it is released although I don't think that the built in browser is really *that* slow.

I've seen most of the problems in this and whilst they may be annoying there is often a workaround available. Android 2 should solve some of these issues but in reality there are only two issues that really bug me and they are:

1) Lack of voice dialling (Coming in 2.0)
2) Lack of per SSID WiFi proxy settings

lukbeat

I bought HTC Hero PAYG in meteor today /Liffey Valley Shopping Centre/ I can confirm that the HTC Hero is unlocked, I can use my Vodafone simcard in it !

dloob

Dman001 wrote: »

Thanks mate. Did you have to get a Data package with your Hero as some were saying a few weeks back that Meteor were enforcing customers to take a Data package when Purchasing a Hero.

Well I don't know if you have to get one, but I got the 250Mb data package.

ShadowHearth

long_b wrote: »

It's a tough one. Thinking about one myself - Meteor's offer seems great value. (I kind of regret not going for their N95 8GB offer there last year).

Maybe have a poke around on www.gsmarena.com and see what's coming out in Android handsets.

Worst case: you buy one, hate it and sell it on www.adverts.ie or swap for something else ?

Maybe you could chat a Meteor store personage into letting you have a play with one ?

Would love to play around with one, to see it IRL...

One of lads at works has iphone 3Gs, so i asked him to give me a spin in it... So ill check it out tommorow.

Hero does look alot beeter in allmoust everyway, just htc is not so polished... I think best would be to to wait untill they will upgrade it abit. Ofc i have no patient

ShadowHearth

Yenwod wrote: »

I think it's hard to properly judge a phone on a thread such as this. It's the nature of people to complain and not compliment and so on a thread like this, most people are coming on looking for solutions to their problems. I think the majority on here are really happy with their Hero though.

Personally yes, I think the camera is shocking bad. However I've never had problems with the signal dropping and I find the browser very good to use!

There's a good youtube review of the hero vs iPhone, it comes in 3 parts, think it's called dogfight or something? Anyway his conclusion is, as it stands, the iPhone is marginally better but the hero has FAR more potential!

Yeah i sow that review, its briliant. And i still donw know what to do, becouse bouth of them have really good stuff.

One more thing why iphone really apeals to me, it has really nice games *goes all red*

sherdydan

I'm planning on getting myself one of these phones, though i have just a quick question, what is the GPS functionality like? and also, is there a way to use the GPS as a standalone so that i dont have to pay crazy roaming charges for data if im abroad?

Yenwod

ShadowHearth wrote: »

Yeah i sow that review, its briliant. And i still donw know what to do, becouse bouth of them have really good stuff.

One more thing why iphone really apeals to me, it has really nice games *goes all red*

Can you believe, since posting my reply, my hero has randomly asked for my Sim code three times now? I wonder is it something wrong with the latest HTC Rom because that never happened before I upgraded?

I feel your pain, I was caught between the iPhone and the hero and while I still think the iPhone looks like a great phone, it just seems more limited...and regards games, how much are they on the iPhone, you could end up spending a small fortune on them, lol

Shzm

Anyone bought one of these off the meteor store (online)?

I ordered one earlier, but as yet havent recieved a dispatch email.
I want my new toy damnit!

IH77

dloob wrote: »

Well I don't know if you have to get one, but I got the 250Mb data package.

How are you getting on with the 250mb data package? I am sure I will use more than 250mb a month by the sounds of it.

Is it possible to set the phone to use wifi when in a wifi area (so to save the 250mb for other times?).

Shane O' Malley

IH77 wrote: »

How are you getting on with the 250mb data package? I am sure I will use more than 250mb a month by the sounds of it.

Is it possible to set the phone to use wifi when in a wifi area (so to save the 250mb for other times?).

It will automatically use WiFi if available.

aurelio

breeno wrote: »

Quick one guys. I've seen people talking about using class 6 sd cards. I'm running the standard os, do I need that card or is it only for those who have rooted the phone?

Also, has anyone else noticed their phone dropping signal completely every now and then? Have to restart phone to get going again.

I use the class 6 card on an unrooted phone, and it has made a big difference to the speed/performance of the phone (a positive difference!)

Haven't had any problems with dropped signals.

ShadowHearth

Yenwod wrote: »

Can you believe, since posting my reply, my hero has randomly asked for my Sim code three times now? I wonder is it something wrong with the latest HTC Rom because that never happened before I upgraded?

I feel your pain, I was caught between the iPhone and the hero and while I still think the iPhone looks like a great phone, it just seems more limited...and regards games, how much are they on the iPhone, you could end up spending a small fortune on them, lol

Well i actually spended allready a fortune on games for pc and consoles . Not the first time, but this time i iwll have to hide it from misses or she will hang me with phone in mine palm

Htc hero does not have a big libary of games, and iphone has alot of stunning games! But on the ather hand, the whole android OS is just so above iphone....

I am actually so confused

ptashek

sherdydan wrote: »

I'm planning on getting myself one of these phones, though i have just a quick question, what is the GPS functionality like? and also, is there a way to use the GPS as a standalone so that i dont have to pay crazy roaming charges for data if im abroad?

GPS is "industry standard" in the Hero. Quick to fix, accurate and pretty much hassle free. You get aGPS (assisted GPS), separate on/off soft-button etc. Oh and it works in "airplane" mode as well. Power wise you should get away with 2-3 hours constant use easily.

This GPS can be used standalone, but for the moment there's very few apps you can use for (pseudo) navigating with it while offline.

There's some news of Navigon coming to Android soon: http://tinyurl.com/ylmaumz

rizzee

Still no Heros in shops

Dr. Loon

Slipshaney wrote: »

anyone have a car holder for their hero?

I just got this http://www.expansys.ie/d.aspx?i=184426 delivered today. The cradle is adjustable, so it should do the trick for ya.

baz8080 wrote:

1) Lack of voice dialling (Coming in 2.0)

Eh, I have voice dialling working on mine! Downloaded it from one of the numerous forums out there. Can't remember which one. Note - I'm rooted and running modaco rom. Shouldn't make a difference though.

chrislad

rizzee wrote: »

Still no Heros in shops

Should be in either Saturday or Monday hopefully.

strecker

rizzee wrote: »

Still no Heros in shops

Kilkelly's Meteor Shp in Castlebar have some, BUT: refused to sell me one on prepay, claiming they are for billpay only as 'there aren't enough' ...

sinkingfish

Anyone else having trouble where service drops, and the phone wont rejoin network ? I have to turn it on/off or enter and leave airplane mode. I had the sim cad replaced but that doesn't seem to have worked. I wonder is it a network issue ?

strecker

sinkingfish wrote: »

Anyone else having trouble where service drops, and the phone wont rejoin network ? I have to turn it on/off or enter and leave airplane mode. I had the sim cad replaced but that doesn't seem to have worked. I wonder is it a network issue ?

Could be...but LOL...you know what you didn't mention, right? :P

-maccer-

Bit of a weird question really! Was just looking at my data usage on the meteor website and there seems to be a big chunk of data transferring most mornings on my phone, here is the last 4 days for example.

TimeUsage23-Nov-0908:285115 KBOn way to work24-Nov-0908:194074 KBOn way to work25-Nov-0907:327527 KBAt home26-Nov-0908:285186 KBOn way to work

I am baffled as to what is using so much data. Especially on the 25th I was at home at that time and should have been on the wifi network. I am not running my tracks or anything like that on the way to work! Any ideas what could be using this?

Could it be that while my phone is asleep it is on the data network and this is the accumulation of the transfers during the night? I have just changed my wifi sleep policy to never so will see if this helps. Does this drain more battery though? Thanks