Friday, August 20, 2010

Comparison of new/old HTC Hero on Sprint

UPDATE: Last week Sprint introduced the Sanyo Zio and LG Optimus phones, instead of the HTC Legend (as anticipated below...)
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I was one of the first people to get the HTC Hero on Sprint last year. Now, a year later, the phone is starting to look a little 'long in the tooth'. The update from Android 1.5 to 2.1 really caused a big slowdown in the phone's performance, and the bluetooth feature causes the other radio (Mobile/Internet via Sprint) to lock-up.

So I was very excited to read about the new HTC Legend and the rumor that Sprint was going to start carrying it as "the Hero2". Come this October I'll be eligible for the discounted upgrade pricing so hopefully it'll be available by then?

The following is a quick review of the improvements I see listed on the HTC web-site:
  • Slightly faster (600 MHz vs 528)
  • More RAM (384 MB vs 288)
  • Slightly lighter (128g vs 135)
  • Better screen (AMOLED vs TFT) – same size, 3.2”
  • Proximity sensor (allows ring to quiet-down when you pickup phone, auto-screensaver when you talk)
  • Micro-USB plug instead of Mini-USB
  • Single ‘big’ call button instead of two little buttons
  • FM radio tuner
  • Fancy metal case! oooh...
  • Definitely going to get a (HTC supported!) Android 2.2 upgrade
Note - this is a relatively entry-level phone, not comparable to the Sprint EVO 4G or anything fast (1+ GHz processor) like that.

Here are the respective product pages from HTC, where I did the comparison:
old Hero, www.htc.com/www/product/hero/
new "Hero2", www.htc.com/www/product/legend/
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