The third android smartphone of HTC is the HTC Hero, the chin happy design has been out for some months in Europe, and finally the HTC Hero has come out on Sprint. The HTC Hero has gone over some cosmetic surgery for Sprint and lost it’s chin, making it a bit more classic smartphone design. As is the nature of opinions in this case they are divided as well, some prefer the chin and some prefer the smooth design. All in all the phone – chin or no chin looks great, and the build quality is sturdy and feels good in the hand. The Hero is packed with great features and because of the Sense UI allows for a lot of customization in the widget rich interface.

Compared to earlier HTC Android device releases the HTC Hero feels a lot better, the quality of the device itself and the software running it are much more polished then for instance the G1 and the T-Mobile myTouch 3G. The device measures 4.5 by 2.2 by 0.5 inches. Size itself is comparable to the myTouch 3G and quite abit smaller then the G1. Without the HTC chin the device fits great in a normal sized pocket or phone holder. The coating of the device feels great, it’s a little bit soft but not too soft, making the grip on the phone feel good.

Ofcourse a smartphone does a million things, but let’s not forget about the HTC Hero call quality, like most of the HTC devices this is great and seems crisp, though the speaker phone could be better, there is some cracking in the voice and when I called a co-worker with the Hero lying on my desk while typing on my keyboard the found these background noises really loud and distracting. All in all not a really big problem area of this smartphone.

The screen of the HTC Hero seems as vibrant and bright like the iPhone and the iPhone 3G which have the same HVGA (480×320) screen resolution. Browsing the web, updating twitter or facebook all looks great. The browser works great, but is a lot slower then for instance safari on the iPhone and slower then Opera Mobile (both 9.5 and 9.7 score a lot faster). However it’s not annoyingly slow. HTC has made the software so you can use multi touch on the device so pinching to zoom works in the browser. One of the selling points of the HTC Hero is the fact that it supports flash in the browser, but while trying to get this to work on youtube seemed like a big chore, some movies played, some did not. One thing was always the case, it is really slow and takes the fun away from the browsing experience. It seems flash is just not ready yet for usage on smartphones. Perhaps apple isn’t that foolish to not include it in the iPhone.

The phone has some standard themes which basically puts some widget on your screen, from there you can further customize the device, this feature saves quite some time and works well. One thing that also saves a lot of time is that the HTC Hero fetches all your contacts from all your e-mail and social network accounts like facebook and google mail. You will probably still get some duplicate contacts and some that need your time to manually edit, but at least the feature works, and we haven’t seen it on that many phones as of yet.

One of the other big plus points while comparing this device to other android smartphones is the exchange supports, it actually syncs e-mail, contacts and calendar items, something we have not seen before. The camera on the phone is what you would expect from HTC, sadly no flash, no optical zooming and not so great shutter time. If there is enough light the Hero makes great photo’s but as soon as there is a shortage of light like at night or in a not so well lit garage you will get grainy dark pictures that take ages to shoot.

All we would rate the phone a decent 8 out of 10, some things need more work, especially the web browsing and the camera. But the phone offers a great experience and is a joy to use. I’d say apple has to watch it’s back, when android device like this hopefully get some better hardware and faster cpu’s to backup the rich features and flash web browsing.

Small bits and pieces of information have been dripping in on the HTC Leo that soon will be released by HTC as their new flagship Windows Mobile 6.5 device. So what makes the HTC Leo so special? So many Windows Mobile devices have been released and were announced recently. Here are the strong points of the upcoming device HTC leo:

Specs
CPU: Snapdragon MSM 8250 1GHz
Display: 4,3″ 480*800 capacitive touch-screen
Memory: 512 ROM and 320 RAM
Camera: 8 mega pixel with auto focus
Radio/GSM: Wi-Fi, A-GPS Blue tooth 2.1 + EDR, support GSM/EDGE, HSDPA
Audio: 3,5mm Jack
Expansion slot: Micro SD Slot
G-Sensor, motion sensor and light sensor.

4.3 inch Capacitive Touchscreen
Let’s start by explaining the difference between a capacitive and resistive touchscreen. Up until now all Windows Mobile devices have used resistive touchscreens, these screens work with pressure points that cover the lower layer of the touchscreen surface. When you press down on one of these pressure points the device knows where you placed your finger/stylus and will react accordingly.

Capacitive touchscreens use a glass insulator layer that has been coated with a transparent conductor. The human body (your finger) is the conductor when touching the surface. This technique requires a very light touch to control your device. The big plus point of this technology is that it supports multi touch (thing of the famous Apple pinch to zoom in). Many people are getting enthusiastic about this technology coming to Windows Mobile. The HTC Leo will be running Windows Mobile 6.5 and we have never seen a Windows Mobile device with a capacitive touchscreen so we have to wait and see what it brings to Windows Mobile. I believe HTC is counting on the sheer size of the touch screen to makeup for any menus or settings Windows Mobile still has that are harder to control with your fingers.

Snapdragon CPU
The past 2 years HTC has made countless Windows Mobile phones with the same Qualcomm 528MHz CPU. In comparison to the newest hardware this CPU really has sub par speed. Comparing it to the CPU in the iPhone or the Palm Pre is like comparing a Lamborghini to a Volkswagen beetle. Yes, the difference is that big.

Windows Mobile 6.5
The HTC Leo will be amongst the first Windows Mobile 6.5 devices. Recently I made a post about Windows Mobile 6.5 and HTC devices so i encourage you to read that if you want to be informed of what Windows Mobile 6.5 will bring to the world of Smartphones.

And really, the rest of the specs speak for themselves. 8mp camera, all kinds of sensors, 3.5 jack for your convenience and plenty of memory available through SD cards. The only point that is kind of worrying is the camera, the camera of the Touch HD/Diamond/Touch Pro series have been sub-par in comparison to Nokia/Samsung and some other brands. Let’s hope HTC fixed this, and impresses us soon.

Surely I’m not the only one who has been having some problems finding fun games for a Windows Mobile device. While Android and iPhone OS both have had their app-stores up and running for some time now, there is no such thing for Windows Mobile as of yet. As I have been using the HTC Touch HD which runs on the WVGA (800×480) resolution for some time now, I thought I’d share my findings with you today in this article.

1. Tiki Towers

Tiki Towers is a game in the style of World Of Goo. If you don’t know this game check out this video on YouTube. The point of Tiki Towers is to guide monkeys over obstacles while retrieving bananas, which seems like something a monkey would want to be doing. So far for the realism in the game. The game works very smooth on a lot of different Windows Mobile smartphones I gave it a test drive on.  The best think about it is that it actually scales your viewing size depending on the resolution your phone is running on. In this case it would be 800×480(WVGA) as this is the size of the Touch HD. You have a great oversight of the monkeys playground. The game is fun and can be a challenge, the physics  engine used in the game appears to work pretty well and you can solve the levels in a lot of different ways.

2. Resco Brain Games

Reso Brain Games is a no-brainer(hilarious pun intended) on this Top 5 Windows Mobile WVGA game list. Not only are these type of game getting increasingly popular with the casual and mainstream gamers, but the game runs very smooth, is fun and addicting.

3. Xtract

Xtract racing was made for the Sony Ericsson Xperia X1, but the game also runs on the Touch HD in full WVGA resolution. The best thing about this game is that it actually is completely 3D accelerated by the Touch HD graphic chip. Something that has been lacking in a lot of games because of the lacking 3D drivers for the chipset used in this HTC device. You can find the game on FreewarePOcketPC.com.

4. PDA Poker Art – Texas Hold’em Poker for Windows Mobile

A brand new Poker game for Windows Mobile that runs on WVGA resolutions, what else can you wish for? PDA Poker Art is has rich bright graphics, works well, has fitting sound effects and is just general fun. That is if you enjoy a card game now and then. The game allows for different skill levels and seemingly dynamic AI acting/bluffing and blind-stealing.

5. Resco Bubbles

Resco bubbles, a game very suitable for the Touch HD big WVGA screen and uses the motion sensor to control a little ball. With the ball you break bubbles, dodge obstacles and pickup power-ups. It’s a great show stealer and a very easy entry level, when you gain access to the higher tier of levels they can be very frustrating (why must games always have an ice-level?). Overall it’s allot of fun and great value for your money. With 2 mentions in this top five Resco is doing quite well. Keep it up guys.