Sprint HTC Hero Available Now, Did You Get Yours ?

Ya i picked mine up yesetday at bestbuy loving it so far.

got mine yesterday afternoon at a Sprint retail store. just walked in, trying to get my Touch Pro repaired, and started talking with a rep. he went back to confirm the launch date and instead walked out with the phone. I'm VERY pleased with it!! :D

I got mine at a Sprint store, simply said I was on my way to BB to pick it up but thought I would try there first. He said not till sunday, showed him the BB flier that they already were selling it. Guy said hold on a min, went in back, and brought me one out. I love it.

I got mine, and I like it, and it has a lot of promise, but ya know, ... I still think there's a lot to be said for a stylus.

yeah it will take a while to not be using a stylus. just like switching from the treo 750 to the pro and the stylus being in a different location. took about 10 days to stop reaching for the topr instead oh the bottom

It is not labled 'with Google'. Probably because it has the HTC Sense UI. I think the Samsung Moment will be marked 'with Google' since it is a strait Android device.

Is it labeled "With Google" on the back?

You have several stylus'... they're built into your hands! :-P Seriously though... you'll get used to the Android and the capacitive touchscreen soon enough. It's very intuitive, and you'll forget all about your old stylus.

Sadly, the best buys here in Spokane, WA don't carry Sprint phones and all the Sprint stores know it so the coupon (even this article) did nothing to speed up the process. One store went as far as saying "no reservations, first come, first serve".

By the way... for those that bought this. Why did you choose this over the upcoming (in 2-3 weeks) Samsung Moment? It doesn't have Sense UI, but has a processor that's 300mhz faster, an amoled screen, and a hardware keyboard.

I can't speak for everybody but I dislike hardware keyboards...a well-implemented touch screen keyboard just seems to fit me better and my style (I don't even turn it sideways). That is one of the main reasons...the second reason is that I am pretty impressed with HTC's efforts in the UI space (on both the WiMo devices and their Sense UI).

I got the Hero yesterday. I spoke with the techs at my Sprint store and they feel the HTC device is better built than the Samsung. The keyboard adds complexity you may not need. But if you need a physical keyboard the Moment is the phone. Also they said the HTC Sense UI makes a big difference. It is really nice. Plus if you get the Hero and don't like it, the Moment will be out Nov 1, so you could exchange it.

I also spoke to them about the processors. The main processor in the Samsung is faster, but the Hero has an OMAP processor so it has a seperate GPU for graphics. So it is able to use 2 processors.

When the Hero gets Adobe flash 10.1, it will utilize the GPU as opposed to the CPU, thus cutting down on battery consumption.

Already posted this in another thread, but the info's helpful so here it is again: Got mine at BB yesterday. A couple of bonuses were a free Madden NFL 2010 for XBOX because I was new to a two year contract (offer good through today) and the Sprint rep was there and told me that if I dialed #REF (within 2 weeks of activation, but before the end of the month) and entered the number of an existing Sprint customer, they would receive a $50 gift card and I would get one for $25. That's a couple of great deals. $179-$50-$25-$50=$54 for my new Hero! Golly I'm happy. The more I think about the gift card part, I should have waited for the guy beside me who was also getting his Hero and we could have done this for each other and gotten a quick $75 each. Heck I could've just asked people walking out of BB with their new phones and made even more money.

Not my sprint store, only had a sticky note showing where it was going to be tomorrow! I did presale at BB, should be getting mine tomorrow. Can't wait!

Went by the local Sprint store yesterday. Didn't see any customers. It's been that way for months. Maybe Android can bring back customers but I think it's going to take more than a new phone. The Palm Pre was said to be the most successful launch in Sprint's history, and yet they still lost customers and money last quarter. For those signing up to a new 2-year contract worth a couple thousand dollars, you may be their last hope.

Got mine Tuesday. usman - I passed on the Samsung, because it is a Samsung. It will probably fall apart and im sure the batter wont last more than 8 hours.

I went to Sprint no dice.. went to Best Buy across the street... and boom 179 with the regular reward zone. Very nice phone. Didn't realize how much I actually used the multiple cards on the Pre tho :(

I had the Pre for 3 weeks. I know what you mean. The Pre is really nice, especailly if you don't want to spend the time and effort to set up your phone. But so far I am impressed with the Hero. After some time downloading apps and setting up my menus. I like the screen better than the Pre (sharper, bigger and more touch sensitive). It also feels more solid. Many more apps for Hero than Pre

Work for said carrier, we are selling them NOW, NOW, NOW!!!!!! Get em while you can.

By the way... for those that bought this. Why did you choose this over the upcoming (in 2-3 weeks) Samsung Moment? It doesn't have Sense UI, but has a processor that's 300mhz faster, an amoled screen, and a hardware keyboard. In 3 weeks, I may return it. Depends entirely on the keyboard. I waited with the Treo to get a smartphone with a keyboard. Got the Pre but returned it because the keyboard was terrible. In the meantime, I tried out an iPhone at the Apple store. So ironically, Palm convinced me that maybe I didn't need a physical keyboard if the virtual one was good. I think what I would prefer is a hardware keyboard in one dimension, and a virtual keyboard in the other dimension -- is anyone selling anything like that? Right now on the HTC, I find myself wishing for an easy/automatic way to pop up the keyboard without having to tap in the field. I also find myself pushing up on the phone to slide out the Pre keyboard though I only had the Pre for a few weeks and that was back in June. The programs I've used or downloaded so far are ALL far worse than what's currently on my Treo, however, the device hasn't rebooted at all, and no "white screen of death" as the device switches programs. So maybe I will get the Samsung if the keyboard here doesn't retrain my brain, however, my tween who has a horizontal slider phone tells me that only girls, women, and teenaged boys can buy a horizontal slider phone. I told her she was a sexist. I also have to say so far, I do like the Palm Pre's "card based" multitasking UI better than Android's, but that could just be ignorance on my part. For me, the real competition is
1) HTC Hero
2) Mythical Android with 800x400ish screen on TMobile
3) iPhone 3Gs

hold the menu button down for about 2 seconds and the keyboard pops up!

Why do some Hero's have Rev-A and others have Rev-O? The Hero is supposedly a Rev-A device, there are folks over on sprintusers commenting about this, mine says Rev-O!

Picked mine up at the Salt Lake City Sprint store in Sugerhouse. All looks fine so far but MP3s (bundled samples and ones I uploaded) are playing through my ear buds in mono, not stereo. Anyone else noticed this? Can find a setting that changes this.

We got 2 on Friday afternoon from our local Sprint Store when they got them in... :-) We are in love, only question ours came with 1.5 not 1.6???

All of sprint's heros are 1.5 with backports of some features from 1.6 (like CDMA). HTC is still working on pushing everything to 1.6 and sprint is trying to figure out a way to push them OTA (since there seems to be some limitations on the current system they use for that). If you google around for info on any of those topics, it should explain it in more detail. :)

i saw an article where someone was claiming Sprints network only allows up to 10MB OTA, that's not true. My Palm Pre just did a 79MB update OTA, I think someone is just passing BS!

That's because it was sent by Palm not Sprint. Sorry to inform you but the 10MB limitation is true.

"That's because it was sent by Palm not Sprint." Duh! Via Sprints network! 1.6 is being sent by HTC, via Sprints network.

got mine friday morning 9am at BB ......... still cant put it down im in love

Good luck everyone! Sprints sucks! Somethings going to happen with your phone and you'll get pished aside for the new customer signing 2 years of their life away. Yeah the hero is nice, but those stupid touch buttons on the front, no chin and the fact that its a sprint phone is too much to make me change from the mt3g.

u heard about tmobile and the sidekicks. atleast sprint dont store all ur info to a server!! mayb ur credit sucks and u had to get flex pay!!!

Is that the all you can come back with? Pathetic. The only thing sprint cares about is sighning the next sucker up. Btw, good luck with no ota updates. Hows 1.5 treating you? Buy the phone, sign the contract and dont expect any updates soon.

whos the sucker? i pay $70 a month and get a 25% discount on top of that to have the best data service in the country, need i remind you that tmo doesnt have a nationwide 3g network yet. and many websites back up the fact that sprints data is the best do some research. ota updates isnt a big deal ive been updating my bbs through dm for over 4 years. and sense ui is amazing, if it wasnt for bbm i would ditch my tour in a heartbeat. stop being jealous that your overpaying for sub par service on your mytouch and that salesreps in the store didnt want to waste thier time with you.

Thant weird, I have faster 3g in my area than sprint (tested and proven with a coworkers palm pre). The phones UI isn't the argument here, you just cant find anything else to defend the fact that sprints customer service and sales reps have been proven to be the worst in the country for 5+ years. Do the research on that! Stick to the topic.

sorry to burst your bubble chief, but att has the worst cust service according to jd power and associates. sprint has the shortest wait times according to another survey by consumer reports, in the past 2 years nobody has made such huge strides in cust care than sprint. and the fastest 3g according to gizmodo, cnet, boygenius report. everytime i have called cust support they have answered my questions and resolved my issues within a reasonable amount of time, i could care less about the sales reps because when i go into the store i know what i am buying and troubleshoot all issues myself. i had tmo years ago spent crazy $ on the best phone at the time and it didnt work anywhere for me. cdma is the best technology for phones and vzw is way overpriced and overhyped, you couldnt give me . maybe if you werent like brett favre when you try to buy a phone you wouldnt complain about the sales reps.

I agree, the graph says it all on page 3.

You are one naive stupid person. Nice brett favre comment that has nothing to do with anything! You sir, are an idiot!

Let us all remember that this is based on personal experience. Btw, before you go off quoting a reputable company like JD Power & Associates, you should do your research. Am I missing something? http://www.jdpower.com/corporate/news/releases/pdf/2009015.pdf

Also consistent with Consumer Reports' much larger customer survey that placed Sprint last in 20 out of 22 major cities.

I just picked one up - but I'm wondering...is it still true that you should fully charge your new phone before first use to obtain maximum capacity?

Despite what some people say, these batteries do not need to be conditioned. That is part of what the "ready now" campaign is referring to, your Sprint device is ready to use the moment you walk out of the Sprint store.

anyone experiencing lag in the sense UI? with all of the extra "non-google android" stuff does the phone seem crowded?

I haven't seen any lag, personally, but this is my first smartphone so I'm not sure my perception is accurate. A (1st-gen) iPhone user told me it seemed "zippy" though, FWIW.

typing this on my pre, tried the hero but I was simply dissatisfied with the browser, frankly it was a mess. Other than that I had other problems such as lack of web os, sluggish, and well frankly the whole widgets idea seems kinda pointless, the email widget is clunky if frankly worthless, like the other widgets. The only useful widget is probly twitter.
hate to be a naysayer, but the pre justfits my needs better.
still wouldn't mind a virtual keyboard and video, but I've got homebrew for that.

typing this on my pre, tried the hero but I was simply dissatisfied with the browser, frankly it was a mess. Other than that I had other problems such as lack of web os, sluggish, and well frankly the whole widgets idea seems kinda pointless, the email widget is clunky if frankly worthless, like the other widgets. The only useful widget is probly twitter.
hate to be a naysayer, but the pre justfits my needs better.
still wouldn't mind a virtual keyboard and video, but I've got homebrew for that.

heyyy did anybody got the htc hero at bestbuy...with a new contract how much would be at all with taxes fees..at all???

For me (in San Francisco, CA) the total came out to around $230 for the phone with a new contract. That's a good deal more than I was expecting, apparently the phone is taxed based on the retail price. Still seems worth it to me.

197.00 with tax

I brought mine it was 179.99 plus sales tax for your state

I saved my apps so sd, i would like to import them to the hero, can this be done and how?

probably not right now since this is the first CDMA Android Phone it has yet to be rooted, and if the phone you used the apps with originally uses Donut 1.6 you will more than likely get an error because this phone has Cupcake 1.5 because Google was not ready with the Donut update in time for Sprint since they pushed the phone out pretty fast to compete against (insert other carriers feature phones)

Got mine a couple days ago. The thing is fantastic. I WAS gonna hold out for the iphone but I'm glad I didnt. Only thing is I wish it would sync with my MAC. But other than that, I'm effin stoked with this phone. I wish I ha more thumbs.. so I could give it 4 thumbs UP!

Getting mine finally on 10/30 worth waiting i guess getting for 129.99 after MIR