Not
this hero,
this Hero!
Couldn't help myself. One of my workmates bought it so I had the chance to see it in real action. After that, couldn't help myself.
I spent some time crunching numbers about what should I do. Buy it unlocked or get a deal with a carrier? If so, contract or pay as you go? Which company? I think for the first time in my LIFE I created a spreadsheet. Put nice rows detailing contracts, pay as you go, companies, initial payment, minutes, texts, internet... Very boring indeed.
I finally decided to buy it unlocked from HTC (well, a
distributor, 390 quid, sent in 2 days) and get a "Solo 30 days" contract with T-Mobile. Basically for 20 pounds a month I have more minutes and texts that I can ever use plus 1GB of internet on the phone, which was the important bit. Also this is not a long contract, I can go somewhere else only after 30 days.
It finally came on Friday and I've been playing with it since. Overall impression is that it's REALLY good. Interface is second to none. Is fast, slick, responsive... integration with Google services is almost flawless (little bit scary privacy-wise, to be honest), GPS on Google Maps is really good, you can customize whatever you want, etc.
The things I don't like so much are: proprietary mini-USB connector. As
opposed to the Magic, this one has a standard 3.5mm jack but still the USB connector is HTC only. This is so bloody annoying and I hope the
EU law to force a standard charger kicks in once and for all (NOTE: the USB port and charger is the same). I also don't find very useful the button that opens a search box and takes you to Google straight away. I find difficult to believe that Google has forced HTC to put it there, but who knows. Whatever the reason, to me is a
hardware button that I don't need and I can't remove.
An interesting spin from the Hero is it turns out Linux IS very ready and capable for the GUI/desktop space. So why don't we see an interface as polished as the Hero's on Linux desktops? Well, when you design for
one and only one device it's so much easier to get it right. Your testing efforts, UI design, drivers... all of them target and focus a single piece of hardware. And if you get 80-90% of the job done from Google already, you "only" need to put the cherry on top.
Android is lowering A LOT the the threshold to become a mobile manufacturer, you only need to put the hardware and testing instead of having to
also build the underlying OS. I could be pretty wrong, but I think Android is going to be the base for a ton of devices in the near-ish future.
--
To wrap up, who said
websites should not offer a "watered down" version for mobile devices? Fuck that! I'm loving the mobile version of these sites:
They are the non-fatty versions of their big brothers, load very fast and most of them don't even have ads, so you get what you are looking for
quickly. And when you are out and about on a not-so-fast mobile connection you really appreciate
succinctness. I'm all up for adding the extra value mobiles could bring to those sites (GPS location, for example, but there're privacy issues as well), but please keep the mobile versions, thanks.
PS: Yes, it comes with a Flash Player installed. Which one? I don't know. The beta of the Flash player 10 for mobile devices is supposed to come out late this year, and I don't think this one plays AVM2 swfs. It
does play Flash fullscreen (including YouTube), but I haven't run any tests just yet. Will keep you posted if/when I do.