Love and cellphones are fickle things.

After an initial wave of excitement, I am quickly becoming annoyed and disinterested in this HTC Hero from Sprint. The ease of use is “aiight” but as others who have compared Android and iPhone before have noted… the fit and finish just isn’t there. You can customize the hell out of it, sure, but wouldn’t you just prefer to have a phone OS that works and does a lot of really cool stuff? Maybe I’ve been a Mac user too long? At any rate, things are not looking up for my continuing relationship with the Android/HTC Hero.

Photo taken from Blackberry Curve

Photo taken by HTC Hero

Some of the problems I have with the phone:

  • It’s extremely laggy… I have to wait 5-10 seconds for the mail app to appear. It is clearly underpowered for the OS.
  • It’s been prone to crashes… in 5 days with the device, I’d say I’ve experienced 7-8 phone crashes.
  • The camera blows… for a 5MP camera the resolution is awful. My crappy, work-issued Blackberry does just as well.
  • Battery life has been sub-par. You really have to “manage” this phone from a data perspective or you won’t make it through the day. I’ve changed my “auto-updates” several times but I’m still searching for a sweet spot. I guess I’m just not the type to person who like to constantly be tweaking those things. (+1 for iPhone)
  • Handset is just a bit too small for me. I like that it fits comfortably in my pocket but virtual keypad is frustrating. Probably would be the right size for my wife though.

The positives:

  • Interface is pretty nifty. Once I updated to Android 2.1, I really enjoyed the navigation and additional options that HTC builds into their SenseUI.
  • Sprint service has been fairly good. A couple of bad spots aside, calls have been clear and data pretty consistent here in Charlotte & when traveling to Raleigh.
  • Sprint TV is a nice bonus. I wouldn’t pay for this but I can see myself accessing the live ESPN feed to catch some news or watch some of the game. My 3 yer old thinks it’s a device for exclusively watching Handy Manny on.

As it stands today, I will probably take this phone back to Best Buy in the next week or so… well before my 30-day window is up. Here are my updated “grades”:

  • Android: B-
  • HTC Hero Handset: C
  • Sprint Service: B+
  • Combined package: C- (proof that the whole is not always equal to the sum of it’s parts)

More to come…