Available in Europe and Asia in July, HTC has brought out its third Android-based smart phone which will come Teflon-coated with HTC’s new concept for form and function, HTC Sense, and is optimised for Twitter usage.
Boasting bevelled edges and an angled bottom, the HTC Hero, the follow up to the HTC Magic, is contoured to fit comfortably in your hand and against your face while youre on a call.
The HTC Hero is built to last beginning with an anti-fingerprint screen coating for improved smudge resistance and a longer lasting, clearer display.
The white HTC Hero includes an industry-first, Teflon coating, resulting in an improved, durable white surface that is soft to the touch.
With its 3.2-inch HVGA display, the HTC Hero is optimised for web, multimedia and other content while maintaining a small size and weight that fits comfortably in your hand.
It also boasts a broad variety of hardware features including a GPS, digital compass, gravity-sensor, 3.5mm stereo headset jack, a 5 mega-pixel autofocus camera and expandable MicroSD memory.
HTC Hero also includes a dedicated Search button that goes beyond basic search, providing you with a more natural, contextual search experience that enables you to search through Twitter, locate people in your contact list, find emails in your inbox or search in any other area in Hero.
According to the Taiwan-based company, HTC Sense function is focused on putting people at the centre by making your phone work in a more simple and natural way. This experience, HTC says, revolves around three fundamental principles that were designed by quietly listening and observing how people live and communicate.
“HTC Hero introduces a more natural way for reaching out to the people and accessing your important information, not by following the status quo of today’s phones, but by following how you communicate and live your life,” said Peter Chou, CEO, HTC Corporation.
“HTC Sense is a distinct experience created to make HTC phones more simple for people to use, leaving them saying, it just makes sense.”
HTC says Sense delivers on three basic principles: Make it Mine, Stay Close and Discover the Unexpected.
‘Make It Mine’, is about feeling your HTC phone was created for and by you. To do this, HTC encourages you to dictate and organise how you want to access the people and content in your life in a way that fits best for you. This could mean adding glance view widgets that push content like twitter feeds, weather and other content to the surface while others may want quick access to business-focused information like email, calendar and world-times.
HTC is also introducing a new profile feature called scenes that enables you to create different customised content profiles around specific functions or times in your life.
In terms of ‘Stay Close’ HTC Sense integrates different communication channels and applications into one single view enabling you to stay closer to your important people. With HTC Sense, friends Facebook status updates and photos along with their Flickr photos are included along side their text messages, emails and call history in a single view.
And in terms of ‘Discover the Unexpected’ HTC Sense also includes perspectives, a new way for viewing your content such as email, photos, Twitter, music and more in different ways.
The HTC Hero will be available to people across Europe in July and in Asia later in the summer. A distinct North American version will be available later in 2009.
By John Kennedy
