Here it is, the HTC HD2 dissection. You knew someone was going to do it. After all, it is the hotest Winmo phone ever constructed. Click through for about 7.5 seconds of enjoyment as you skim the rest of the pics.
Another day, another Android phone. I believe we will soon come to a day when Android phones will be looked at with the same jaundiced eye as, say, the latest LG Chocolate, but since that day hasn’t come, I’ll share a few observations with Verizon’s new $99 Hero-alike, the Eris.
The Eris is basically a mini Hero. It’s slightly thinner and clad in all black and but the Sense UI is in place and all of the things that made the Hero great – responsive OS, apps, and social networking connectivity – are here. One thing lacking, however, is the “latest” version of Android with its superior navigation application and multi-touch.
We’ve seen a few different Android devices that seem to be VZW-bound over the last few weeks, but Verizon hasn’t said anything about the handsets or platform until now. The company has a webcast scheduled for later today but released a preemptive press release that outlines the basics.
Verizon and Google have formed a strategic partnership that will “leverage the Verizon Wireless network and the best of the Android open platform to deliver leading-edge mobile applications, services and devices.” Apparently the new dream team has plans that involve co-developing several Android-based devices that will come pre-loaded with innovative applications from not only Verizon, but also 3rd-party developers.
Aaaand the rumor mill nails it again. Confirming rumors from a few weeks back, Verizon has just announced that their big, beautiful Windows Mobile 6.5 handset, the HTC Imagio, will be launching on the same day as 6.5 itself: October 6th.
It was written that a great Hero would rise from the East. He would be clothed in the sun and his unique user-interface would redefine the user experience for countless fans of social networking and his majesty would reign over all over Android phones forever. That Hero is here, and he’s on Sprint.
I love the Hero, even in the form that the phone took in Sprint’s able hands. While the comparisons to another Sprint phone will be rampant, I’m here to tell you that this isn’t the Palm Pre and that this phone is my favorite phone, other than the phone that starts with “i” and rhymes with iPhone. The Hero, in this incarnation, is a perfect mix of form and function.
First, for an earlier look at the Hero drop over here for my original review.
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HTC’s naming conventions are kind of funny. I was almost hoping that after the Hero they’d call this the HTC Ninjastar or the HTC Hobo, but sadly it ended up being the Tattoo. The Tattoo runs the Sense UI, which is great++ and it has a 3.2 megapixel camera, 3.5mm headset jack, and MicroSD memory slot.
The phone will be available in Europe in October and, as we all well know, may or may not come to our shores in some form or the other in the next few weeks. Full PR after the jump.
When Sprint announced plans to carry the HTC Hero this morning, they had a bit of a surprise (albeit one that had already been rumored) in store: it looked totally different than the Hero we’d come to know and love.
The once square edges have been rounded out, and the jutting chin that has been a signature across HTC’s Android lineup thus far has been dropped entirely. Some loved the new look; others responded as if the new HTC Hero had insulted their family and razed their house to the ground. So lets settle this once and for all (as scientifically as is possible in a blog post on the Internet): it’s poll time.
Which HTC Hero do you prefer: the original, Chintastic Hero, or Sprint’s shaved down edition?
Today, HTC officially announced the Touch2 with Windows Mobile 6.5 that includes My Phone and Windows Marketplace for Mobile. HTC was skimp on specs, but we do know that the Touch2 will have TouchFLO and a slew of Google products pre-installed. And the new IE Mobile supports Flash. If you’re into that sort of thing, which we suspect you are. The Touch2 launches on October 6 with availability spreading to the rest of Europe and Asia in Q4.
The HTC Hero is undoubtedly the best looking Android device. Don’t even try to argue with that fact. But the CDMA-variant of the Hero might be radically different. So much, that I’m not sure if I dig it. Right now the Internet is aflutter with ohs and ahs about the redesigned phone, but I think it looks like a cheap, Chinese redesign. Who knows, maybe it will grow on me. There doesn’t seem to be solid proof that this version of the phone will be available on Sprint or Verizon though and could be headed to a different market. IDK, maybe I do like it. [080.net via EngMobile]
I do believe this is a first: not only has someone at Vietnamese mobile site Tinh Té managed to get their hands on an HTC Click before it’s even official, but it looks like they’ve had it for long enough to laser etch a bunch of crazy crap onto the back. Fortunately for us, they’re not just sitting around basking in the exclusive warmth of their unreleased phone. Instead, they were nice enough to give the Click a 5-minute video rundown.
Last time we saw the HTC Hero grace the labs of the FCC with its presence, it was swimming chin deep in GSM 850/1900Mhz territory – otherwise known as AT&T’s turf. Things got interesting when, just a few weeks later, a product page for a Sprint-branded HTC Hero popped up. Sprint and AT&T use two totally different radio technologies; where was this one’s FCC entry?
We’ve heard real good things about the HTC Touch Pro 2. The 3.6-inch WVGA screen is good, the slide-out keyboard is apparently awesome and HTC once again shipped a great skin for Winmo 6.1. It’s just too bad that at $349, it’s the most expensive handset available at T-Mobile just like we feared.
What do we have here? The new hotness? mhmm. The HTC Touch Pro 2 is still a while away from being launched but somehow it was placed in front of a camera lens. Overall, it looks great with a clever eatching of the world on the backplate, a 3.5mm jack on the bottom, and a sleek design when it’s closed. Hopefully the keyboard works as well as it looks. According to the tipster, Verizon will probably have the phone sometime in early September. Check the video after the jump.
Huzzah! Verizon knows what’s up. The prices of its smartphones have been slashed, cut, and discounted down to iPhone 3G levels. Every single smartphone – expect for the new BlackBerry Tour and Samsung Saga – can be had for $99 or less on-contract. This means that the HTC Touch Diamond, HTC Touch Pro, and Samsung Omnia are now only $99 straight up. It’s like Verizon is talking right to those feed up with AT&T’s shenanigans.
We know that there are going to be dozens of Android handsets out there within a year, so why shouldn’t they start popping up all over the place? Unfortunately, it’s unlikely that many of these phones will be as exciting as the Hero or Rachel, as this rumored HTC handset shows. It was natural with the G1, myTouch, and others that Android should start in the high end and work its way down — we early adopters were the guinea pigs, as usual.
Now that Android’s first growing pains are over, people can start stuffing it into less-than-stellar handsets and selling it to the unwashed masses.
The short version: A solid, compact WinMo smartphone that’s capable of a lot, but can’t really compete with the others on the market.
The Dash 3g is the successor to the Dash (obviously), which was a good phone back in the day, though limited by Windows Mobile as many phones are. The Dash 3G has its strengths, and shares some of its predecessor’s weaknesses, but more importantly, it doesn’t seem to offer any value compared with a Blackberry or G1 if you’re on T-Mobile — to say nothing of an iPhone or Pre.
There is a fairly standard montage in the canon of bad 80s movies. It involves the protagonist(s) working hard to build/do/invent something to beat the stuck up and dismissive antagonists. See, for example, Summer Rental, a John Candy vehicle in which Candy and crew convert a seafood restaurant that was originally a boat back into a boat in order to win a big, rich boat race against snobs. I don’t quite recall why they needed to win the race, but that’s immaterial. In the end [SPOILER ALERT] they thumb their noses, triumphantly, at the crews of the other, more richly appointed boat. It’s the tale of the underdog – an important tale to be told in that dark decade – and it is applicable here.
This brings us to the HTC Hero, HTC’s first Android phone using their new Sense UI.
In one sense the Hero is “just another Android phone”; in another sense, it’s an entirely new direction for HTC and the platform.
The Hero is a great phone. It is on par – and ultimately better – than the Palm Pre and, some would say, the iPhone on many points. It also turns those lumbering Windows Mobile and Symbian into something that you will fondly remember from your youth, a set of dinosaur technologies now extinct.
Furthermore, we can easily extend the metaphor above to say that the Hero is John Candy lacquering the deck while Apple and Palm are the rich, stuck-up yacht club members laughing at the upstart. I’m here to tell you that these yacht club members should ignore this upstart at their peril.
There’s no doubt about it: T-Mobile isn’t getting the HTC Hero. At least, not in the US. In the UK, it’s a whole different story.
