As you should know, HTC has sunk a huge amount of time into giving Android a major makeover. If you're familiar with the company's work on Windows Mobile devices, then the look and feel of the new HTC-ified Google OS should make perfect sense to you. Sense is a good word, actually, since the company calls its new UI the "Sense Experience," which is really another way of distancing itself from TouchFLO iterations of the past. This new HTC Hero smart phone has seen the potential to go head to head with the iPhone. Overall the appearance is sleek and modern -- it's like the Magic was beamed to the year 3000 for a redesign. The screen also uses a new oleophobic treatment (similar to the iPhone 3GS), and thankfully HTC has added a 3.5mm headphone jack to the top of the phone. The display on the Hero is gorgeous, no doubt. Using a similar smudge resistant material as the iPhone 3GS, it certainly seems to repel oil, though you'll still find yourself wiping it clean on a regular basis. The 3.2-inch, 480 x 320 capacitive touch screen works well. The Hero's 5 mega pixel camera is pretty darn amazing. The guts of the Hero should seem familiar to most gadget buffs -- they're essentially identical to HTC's Magic (at least the Rogers version). What does that mean for you, end user? It means you're stuck with the same Qualcomm 528MHz CPU, the same 288MB of RAM, and a paltry 512MB ROM. The onboard radios include WiFi, GPS, Bluetooth, and a quad-band HSPA cell chip. We were impressed with the Hero's staying power, though we'll reserve our final judgments till we have a device running US 3G to look at. On EDGE / WiFi, we saw impressive, full day use with a single charge. Standby didn't seem to pull much power. Overall, the Hero beats the pants off of our G1, and gives the Magic a run for its money. Battery life was favorable in comparison with the iPhone 3GS.
