Nokia N97

[Ch3tan]

Yeah but there is poor, and then there is poor. The cameras with a flash on the latest LG, Sony and Samsung camera orientated phones are comparable with your average compact camera. The hero camera may as well be a basic webcam.

 

[nath]

Yeah but there is poor, and then there is poor. The cameras with a flash on the latest LG, Sony and Samsung camera orientated phones are comparable with your average compact camera. The hero camera may as well be a basic webcam.

You say that, but I've seen some reasonable outside shots that actually look fairly good. The camera is capable of taking a decent pic, just in specific conditions.

Also you can actually get the Hero to behave like the Galaxy by closing the HTC UI, it just reverts to stock Android and behaves like the Galaxy. However, as has been said the Galaxy has better hardware and the built-in 8gb is going to be handy for installing apps where the Hero has only 512mb, though apps appear to be usually about 200k ish.

 

[Bodhi]

N97 - I wouldn;t go near one. nSeries phones are enough of a ballache to use with buttons, with a touchscreen they're a joke. Orange have decided not to offer it, due to all the problems with it. Even my brother in law, who is the world's biggest N Series fan, has had one and is distinctly non-plussed.

Hero - Hmmm not sure on this one. O.S looks nice, but I'm really not sure about all this multi-touch phone fondling. It always struck me as the reserve of iPhone users who like their phones a little too much. Me? If I want to get to the next screen I'd rather just push a button, which my Xperia lets me do.

Other than that the Hero seems to have the same issues as the Jesus Phone - poor camera, rubbish bluetooth support, onscreen keyboard, dodgy multitasking. I'll pass on this one I think.

 

[nath]

The rubbish bluetooth support extends to all Android phones so hopefully will be fixed soon. The on screen keyboard is absolutely aces - honestly, and the dodgy multitasking hopefully will be fixed in the update due in a week or two. Camera is indeed pretty duff though, but in my opinion all phone cameras are.

 

[soze]

The Chefs over at XDA are hoping to be offering Hero OS for the Touch Diamond 2 as the hardware is the same, better resolution but only single touch screen is the only difference. Will be awesome if the offer dual boot over both WinMo and Android.

 

[nath]

Heh, they've already got the Sense UI app available to run on top of the HTC Touch Dual. No faffing, you just copy the files to the MicroSD and execute, it then runs on top of your current session.

That said, it freezes up for me but it got close and others have been more successful.

 

[Bodhi]

The rubbish bluetooth support extends to all Android phones so hopefully will be fixed soon. The on screen keyboard is absolutely aces - honestly, and the dodgy multitasking hopefully will be fixed in the update due in a week or two. Camera is indeed pretty duff though, but in my opinion all phone cameras are.

I'm afraid the possibility of any on screen keyboard being anything other than polio ridden is unpossible!

 

[nath]

I'd usually agree, and when I tried the iphone keyboard I thought it was fiddly and annoying. When I tried the Hero keyboard in a t-mobile store, I was touch typing from the get go, and it was very accurate indeed. Infact I probably make as many typos on a hardware mini keyboard, i.e. not many at all.

 

[Ch3tan]

I have had it all day and it is just soo damned sexy. Fantastic phone.

Now I have an o2 question. I have free internet bolt on with o2, does this give me data usage or will they get grumpy if I use mail etc from my phone?

 

[nath]

Mail is fine, they say in the terms and conditions (and the lass on the phone also said this to me) that audio/video streaming is no go. So apparently no youtube/skype and the lass I spoke to suggested that I'd actually even be charged for that as an out of bundle expense.

This is why I'm thinking of sticking with T-Mobile sim only. Same price, same minutes/texts essentially but 1gb anything you like policy.

 

[old.user4556]

I have the o2 web bolt on, I use email every day and the web quite frequently (usually Facebook checking). Have done for 18 months, never had a grumble from them.

 

[nath]

What about Video/Audio streaming? Plus is your bolt on based on the iphone deal or just a separate thing?

Oh and check out this custom ROM from Modaco based on the leaked update from HTC:

YouTube - Low Quality - HTC Hero Modaco Custom ROM 1.5


Smooooooooooooooooooth.

 

[Ch3tan]

I have the o2 web bolt on, I use email every day and the web quite frequently (usually Facebook checking). Have done for 18 months, never had a grumble from them.

Ta, that is all I will be using it for anyway, I can download apps at home or work via wifi, won't be using streaming outside of wifi coverage.

 

[Marc]

\o/

You make me poor nath. I blame you.

For that price, why not just get a contract where the phone is free??

 

[old.user4556]

For that price, why not just get a contract where the phone is free??

That did occur to me too.

 

[Ch3tan]

As I'm in month 4 of an 18 month contract. I get bored of phones quickly, selling my Lg for around £120, I will probably only keep the hero for around 5 or 6 months max.

 

[nath]

The reason I'm not keen on getting it on contract is that I'm expecting quite a few software updates to be released for this phone. If other HTC devices are anything to go by, I expect Orange will have to vet every update before release. As a result I expect, like a lot of the other HTC devices, most of the updates will be omitted.

 

[soze]

HTC Tattoo for people who like Android but want a cheaper Device.

HTC Tattoo (aka, Click) brings Android, Sense UI to all

 

[Dark Orb Choir]

has anyone used the spotify service on the iphone or hero, that seems a killer app but you have to subscribe (£9.99 a month)

 

[Ch3tan]

Buy a B-Stock HTC Hero (EU, White, Wi-Fi, GPS, MPL), #B-STOCK - eXpansys UK < grade b HTC hero, one dead pixel. £290 with the discount code listed in the description.

 

[nath]

Wonder if you could do a warranty replacement of it through HTC .

 

[Ch3tan]

BBC NEWS | Technology | 'Open internet' rules criticised

If only we had similar in the UK. Loads of phones that use the net heavily, and still old fashioned restrictions in place by the network.

 

[Chilly]

flip side to net neutrality is that without ISPs being able to sort side deals out, the overall experience and performance will be worse. Stuff like the beeb sticking multicast distributors into exchanges couldnt happen - even though it will take a vast burden off the national network due to iplayer + bbc news being thousands of times more efficient.

 

[old.user4556]

Got the Hero, had to get it on Orange unless I bought it sim free, seemed the best deal. Free phone, 1200 minutes, unlimited texts, unlimited data (fair usage etc.), magic number for £35 a month.

So far, it's fucking awesome, what a brilliant phone.

 

[nath]

Got the Hero, had to get it on Orange unless I bought it sim free, seemed the best deal. Free phone, 1200 minutes, unlimited texts, unlimited data (fair usage etc.), magic number for £35 a month.

So far, it's fucking awesome, what a brilliant phone.

Question. Are you sure it's actually unlimited data with fair usage? I've never found a deal that says that - with orange it always seems to be 500mb full stop. I've heard loads of people claim that it's unlimited with a fair use policy only for it to turn out that it's a hard cap of 500mb. To me, that's quite different as if you go to 501mbs you're paying for that 1mb.

Oh also, 18month contract?

 

[Ch3tan]

G, you will regret that, Orange are an awful awful network. Sim free on o2, and you could have haggled a mighty good contract out of o2 for going sim only.

The phone you will love though, although they really need to fix the bluetooth support.

 

[nath]

Hey Chet have you updated to the latest official firmware or the Modaco firmware? If so have you noticed an improvement?

 

[Ch3tan]

Latest official firmware, see no need to root my phone and use the modded stuff. It is a massive improvement in speed, but it still needs work to be perfect.

Also the music player on the phone is a bit shite, if you put it on shuffle, it shuffles the tracks after each song, so you quite often hear the same song a few times.

 

[old.user4556]

Question. Are you sure it's actually unlimited data with fair usage? I've never found a deal that says that - with orange it always seems to be 500mb full stop. I've heard loads of people claim that it's unlimited with a fair use policy only for it to turn out that it's a hard cap of 500mb. To me, that's quite different as if you go to 501mbs you're paying for that 1mb.

Oh also, 18month contract?

Oh yes, I was going to put "fair usage policy" in quotes, but Orange reckon 500 MB is fair usage (lol) - so strictly speaking it's "500 MB a month data limit". Now, that may sound shite on paper, for my personal purposes it'll be more than I will ever need - I just like having access to email now and again, plus google maps for sat nav so my data use is pretty light.

G, you will regret that, Orange are an awful awful network. Sim free on o2

Chet, it was a gamble I was going to have to take, been on Orange before and their coverage is indeed ropey; totally agree. That said, it's finally good to have rapid data use - the past three to four months O2's 3G service has been down right shite. My mate and I are (were...) on O2 and we live on the same street and were having no end with time outs, slow speeds and sometimes 3G being totally unavailable. I spoke to him about it and he was having the same problems; he said to check the web because it was well documented (e.g. see here). Been on Orange a few days and the data speeds have been way better than O2 ever was.

I'll see how it goes - O2's coverage is the best I've ever had on any network (been with them all), but Orange's data and 3G coverage where I am is just so much better so far.

Fingers crossed.

 

[old.user4556]

Also found these:

O2 network crashes across UK - Telegraph

O2 to lose iPhone deal as its network crashes - Telegraph