Customer Reviews

HTC A6262 Unlocked Phone with Android OS--International Version with No Warranty (Black)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I had purchase this phone for usage on AT&T after watching a video review detailing some of the features of the HTC Hero. I had recently lost my Samsung Blackjack II, and was in need of a new smartphone.

PROS: Android operating system is fantastic, world's better than Windows Mobile is currently or may ever be. One thing that surprised me was that my contacts sync up with Facebook (and flicker if I had an account), something that only the Palm Pre is supposed to do. The new Sense feature is incredible, although I never owned an android phone before, so I really can't tell the difference. Apparantly it allows me to fully customize the screen anyway I want too, which is very nice so that the phone can be exactly how I want it, nothing more, nothing less.

Predictive keyboard. The phone's QWERTY keyboard is on screen, and sports a nice predictive keyboard that learns what you want to say, to make texting or e-mailing that much easier.

5 MP camera. The camera on this phone is the best I've seen, and working at a retail store, its equivalent to only one other phone that we carry.

WiFi turned out to be a very nice feature because of a con you will read momentarily. You can connect to any wifi (as long as you have the security code for the blocked wifi centers) and use that as your phones internet, allowing you faster speeds than any cellphone carrier's 3G service.

CONS: This phone was never slated to be available on any American phone network. While the Hero supports certain 3G bands worldwide, unfortunately it does not support the 3G band for AT&T. The phone STILL WORKS with AT&T, but you are stuck with Edge data service.

No button keyboard. This may not matter as much as I originally thought it would. I always preferred actual buttons to touch screen but the predictive keyboard is a certainly nice feature that I may get used too.

OTHER:

At the time I purchased the phone, there is a weird bug that if you do not sign in or create a google account when you are doing the first time startup wizard, the phone will not let you set up the Google account unless you do a factory reset. I am sure Google and HTC are working on a fix for that, and its only a minor annoyance, thankfully I hadn't installed anything important before I came to that realization.

OVERALL: This phone is something I would recommend to anyone willing to pay for it, as it is certainly the best phone I have ever owned.

Played around with this phone for a bit now. Its a decent phone overall but yes it is little laggy. Be very carefully and aware of the fact that this handset does not work on the 3G networks. It is 3G compatible and a world phone, but GSM US carriers like T Mobile or ATT use a different frequency for data which is the GSM 1700 mhz band I think. Whatever the Freq, its not compatible for 3G data in US. Europe and Asia it will work fine on 3G but not in the US. Otherwise overall very well equiped, but not worth [...] dollars when the iPhone with 16GB unlocked can be got for about 400-500 and 32 GB for 500-600 unlocked.
Many apps are available for the phone, great interface, very user friendly, shoots good pics and decent video, can use mp3s as ringtones which is fantastic. Visual voicemail if supported by carrier, g sensors, GPS is accurate, search engine features are great too. Finds anything in the neighborhood, coffee shops, hotels, restaurants etc.
All in all decent phone but not at [...] bucks

I received my "Hero" phone, Brown, [the unlocked international verison] about two weeks ago, and have been hard-pressed to put it down. After some conflicting information by a couple of [well-meaning] but under-knowledged tech-support staffer from T-mobile, I had the patience to hang-in-there and finally got some one who really knew how to troubleshoot. She got me up and running on the "EDGE" network in a flash [which was the only thing I had trouble configuring]. Everything else loaded flawlessly. Moreover, She was a real professional, and I could not thank her enough for her help.

The first thing I didn't noticed, or witness [what many were complaining about] was its, so-called, "noticable Lag". No "lag" here, the andriod plateform worked as promised with speeds comparable to home networks or better. The UI Sense screen [though very sensitive] can be tailored to accommodate large finger and for those not use to "touch" typing. It is light-weight and comfortable in the hand, and has a good feel when carried inside a suit jacket or pants pocket. Naviagating through the various screens and apps took some getting use too, but was fairly simple once you got the hang of it. The Andriod Market Place is filled with free Apps that are easily downloaded and installed. No radio with the Hero- not a problem, there's an App for that. Want some really good games- there's an App for that, too. Not only was the Android Market Place filled with Apps, the online store is filled with them as well. So don't be fooled by App mania, or lack-thereof.

The WiFi was a breeze to configure, whether home or away, and the 5 pixel camera takes some stunning pictures. Its style is futuristic and cleverly constructed, [chin design and flat profile] gives it that eye-catching look that people notice. "That's not, The iPhone"? Yeah, I know, will be your response with a broad grin. The sound quality is clear with very little background noise, and when the 3.5 mm, ear-buds are in, you don't need a lot of volume. Also, the Bluetooth discovery/marriage to my Car's sound system was a snap to setup. It's the knid of phone where you wouldn't want an ear-piece Bluetooth because its so hand-friendly and stylish, you'd want to hold it. Can't say that about many hand-held devices. One other cool thing, I found the phones lockout feature especially nice. Forget about trying to remember the lockout code. What we have here is basically a finger design sweep where you trace an outline on the screen to gain access. Now how clever is that. Try cracking that, hackers. There are so many good feature associated with this phone, it would take far too much time trying to list them all individually. Basically, its a dream to operate.

Yes, it is a little pricey, no doubt about it. But, if you want a superior phone on a plateform suited to today's needs, with enough umph to get the job done, then the Hero should be looked into and taken seriously. There are many phones to choose from, with some awesome capabilities, but dollar for dollar, unlocked, and without the commitments you couldn't do better. I recommend it wholdheartedly.

Although I've an iPhone 3G I bought this telephone during a recent trip to Asia. I wanted to test Android.
The experience was better than expected. First of all this phone has 2 to 3 times the battery life of my iPhone (for my type of use). I can start early in the morning and keep going all day without issues and if I stay out for dinner I still have juice left by midnight.
Second it is faster than my iPhone. Less hesitant. The user interface is snappy.
I was surprised also with the number of applications available in the store (almost all of them free). It is HUGE. I still have to find something that I've on the iPhone without an equivalent here (often the very same application)
Radio: The telephone part is excellent. Much better than the iPhone. I do live in the bay area, working on one side of the bay, living on the opposite. With the iPhone I always lose the signal crossing the bridge during the handover between the two cells on the opposite sides of the bridge. Also I live on the hills. Strong signals but too many cells and far from me. With the iPhone I can't walk around the house or I lose the signal due to the bad handover. The blackjack was even worse. This one is rock solid:

Negatives:
1) So far I didn't have any problem but it's pretty absurd to have the application loaded in the main flash memory that is indeed too small. I will soon run out of memory. This phone let you use SD cards (nice feature) but the apps must stay on the main flash limiting the # of applications installed. Hopefully it will be fixed in a SW release
2) EDGE only in the US. This is because these phones weren't built for the US. When they will be distributed by AT&T they will have it. This can be an advantage for travelers, when you go out of the country you have bigger 3G coverage since this phone is indeed an international 3G. So as a second phone for travelers it is fine
3) Coolness. It is pricey even if you consider the absence of subsidy from the phone company but it look like a cheap phone. It is not cheaply built but the iPhone looks better in my opinion. Also, I don't like the banana shape and I don't know why they didn't make a flat phone

Conclusions:
A nice phone that I suggest to the power users. If your provider offer it definitely go for it, if you are a geek , buy it. It is easy to use, well thought out and the telephone parts is the best I ever tested in a smartphone, Android is great too. A winner. Even with the minor issues I still give 5 stars

Tempted by a 5 megapixel camera, a touch screen and google operational system, I thought: that's it! here I have an iphone without the life bonds imposed by this brand, a pretty good camera for a mobile, and google-like neatness for doing complex tasks in simple ways. However, I was disappointed in all fronts.

The ergonomics of the device is overly poor - certainly well below iphone's. The main proof is its own manual of instructions which, with more than two hundred pages, is unfortunately needed for users to be able to use many basic commands that cannot be accessed intuitively. So the simplicity of use and intuitiveness that is such a great part of Google success sadly were not translated into this operational system (e.g.: I tried to switch to another gmail account in this device and for now I gave up, as I couldn't find how to do it)

Another example is the physical keys (it has several ones), which need a considerable force to be pressed (resulting for instance that the mobile is not comfortable to operate with one hand only). But in contrast to the toughness of dealing with the mechanical buttons, the interaction with the touchscreen is hyper-sensitive to the finger touch, so you often end up activating commands you don't want to - like calling to phone numbers when in fact all you wanted was to navigate in the agenda, or opening applications (or even sending then to the trash bin) when all you wanted was to browse among the screen (actually that can happen even when the mobile is left alone in your pocket)

Small details can be annoying too: the horizontal mode of the screen does not allow you to finish the task you started (so you cannot send the text you wrote without going back to the vertical mode). When you want to see your files, there is no the option of just plugging the mobile into the USB port of your computer. You have first to "mount" (process not intuitive - again you need to have read the manual) and after that, "unmount" the mobile.

And finally, the camera is sincerely bad. Forget the idea of having it as a substitute for a digital camera (as I used to do with my old mobile Nokia N95) mainly when it comes to take pictures when flash is needed, as the camera has no flash.

overall - and also taking into account the high price of the unlocked version- a bad deal.

I can't really offer a full proper review of this phone because I am using it on a substandard network (Roshan in Afghanistan). But I can say that the features that I am able to access are awesome. The touchscreen interface is really good and the menu set up is intuitive. The music player is easy to navigate and just as simple to use as an iPod. The camera/camcorder are clear. The touch keyboard is responsive and doesn't require a hard press to get the letter up. Conversation style texting is an added bonus. Audio clarity is excellent. All in all this is the best phone that I have ever owned. I will update this with a more detailed review when I get to really explore everything on the phone when I get to use it on a better network, Four Stars until then (I don't want to give it the highest mark until i get the full experience).

I took me ages reviewing both this phone and the IPhone. I'm a software engineer nad have access to quite a few IT friends and colleagues whom I can turn to when I need some advice. Quite a lot have IPhones and quite a lot of them regret buying into what they say is a designed to keep you locked into an Apple money making scheme. They also seem to have quite a lot of problems with all the models of the IPhone including the recent version which over-heats and has terrible battery life! All say they should have gone with an Android phone.

The Hero has been voted the best phone of 2009 and I would agree! It does exactly what it says it will do and more without any problems. What a fantastic piece of kit that makes my life so much easier.