OK, I'm a bit pissed off at HTC today for producing/selling and not fixing the poor battery drain and texting problem on their Sprint HTC Hero, and pissed off at myself for forgetting to kill the apps that may be causing the drain (I don't even really know if that’s the cause of the drain - but many people in the forums seem to think that its the fix to the problem). My bad right?
I think HTC knows they have a problem phone and is hoping all the Hero owners will eventually upgrade out of their Heros and their problems are over - so they aren't so hot to fix the problem. Well not so fast HTC. I think HTC owes all of us Hero owners a new Hero or some other new phone if they can't fix the problem.
I charge my phone daily. Don't use it all that much for calls during the day. I'm not a heavy web surfer either, and @ 50-something not a texter either. I think texting is a waste of time. I'm not patient enough to text. I'm one of those who would rather call and talk to the person instead of texting them. Don't get me wrong, texting has its usefulness though, but I'd still rather talk than text. This afternoon when I reached for my Hero, it was D-E-A-D. This is after I fully charged it the night before. I was PISSED.
I was one of those eager, anxious, proud early adopters of the Hero (yes I stood in line). I got my Sprint HTC Hero on launch day. After using it for a while, I did notice poor battery consumption, I kept it anyway. I chalked it off to the large (at the time) screen. Months went by and I changed banks. What does that have to do with anything? Well, I thought I'd make full use of my new banks online banking services including mobile banking. Well, that required texting my bank for balances, transfers etc. Low and behold, that’s when I found out my HTC Hero couldn't receive text messages from my bank!!!
I then studied the problem. I scoured the forums and learned that most of the information seems to indicate the HTC poor battery problem is related to its inability to send and/or receive text messages. Somehow or another its CPU and/or radio is stuck and awake, never goes to sleep thus rapidly draining the battery. Then you have to kill the internal SMS App but it somehow awakes/restarts and drains the battery. Users are left to find makeshift remedies like App Killers etc. which seems to help. But if you FORGET, you're SOL.
When Sprint/HTC/Google released Android 2.1 I was thrilled, hoping that it might fix the battery/SMS problem. But it didn't. I have 2.1 loaded but my battery performance still sucks. I have all the other battery saving measures in place such as WiFi, Bluetooth, Notifications all OFF. Some people claim resetting the phone helps too. Memory full. Been there done that. I still have to Kill my apps manually, otherwise poor battery. Killing apps seems to help some, but not much, so I do it anyways. It could be psychological. Because when you kill some apps, it makes you think you eradicated the problem. NOT.
I’m sorry, but I think HTC is too busy designing new smartphones, or working on getting 2.1 updates for other 1.6 devices and they put the HTC Hero problem on the back burner. When we all bought our Heros with a 2 year commitment to Sprint, we all bought with the intention of a fully functional phone, not a crippled one. HTC is fully aware of the problem. Sprint could put a little more fire on HTC to fix the problem, but I don’t think they are.
With the Hero in this condition, I can’t pass it down to my kids because they are heavy texters. The phone is useless as a texting phone. Its OK as a regular phone and occasional web surfing phone. I’m gonna have to sell it (and loose money) instead of being able to let my kids have it (and save money). If I give my phone to my kids or anyone for that matter, I shouldn't have to WARN them not to forget to kill the apps or else the battery will drain too fast. I mean WTF???
I swear, my next phone is NOT going to be a HTC product unless they fix this problem or give us all a replacement phone. We shouldn’t have to band aid fix this phone with App Killers, limit our WiFi, BT, notifications and such. There’s way too much monkeying around required for the Hero. It shouldn't have to be if it were made right.
I don’t know, maybe there should be a Class Action lawsuit against the responsible parties so we all can get what we paid for.
Non Hero users won't understand this problem. I don’t know how many of you agree with me. Some of you may not have a problem at all. Consider yourself the lucky ones. My Hero use to be my hero, but its not anymore. It’s a pain in the butt.
I think HTC knows they have a problem phone and is hoping all the Hero owners will eventually upgrade out of their Heros and their problems are over - so they aren't so hot to fix the problem. Well not so fast HTC. I think HTC owes all of us Hero owners a new Hero or some other new phone if they can't fix the problem.
I charge my phone daily. Don't use it all that much for calls during the day. I'm not a heavy web surfer either, and @ 50-something not a texter either. I think texting is a waste of time. I'm not patient enough to text. I'm one of those who would rather call and talk to the person instead of texting them. Don't get me wrong, texting has its usefulness though, but I'd still rather talk than text. This afternoon when I reached for my Hero, it was D-E-A-D. This is after I fully charged it the night before. I was PISSED.
I was one of those eager, anxious, proud early adopters of the Hero (yes I stood in line). I got my Sprint HTC Hero on launch day. After using it for a while, I did notice poor battery consumption, I kept it anyway. I chalked it off to the large (at the time) screen. Months went by and I changed banks. What does that have to do with anything? Well, I thought I'd make full use of my new banks online banking services including mobile banking. Well, that required texting my bank for balances, transfers etc. Low and behold, that’s when I found out my HTC Hero couldn't receive text messages from my bank!!!
I then studied the problem. I scoured the forums and learned that most of the information seems to indicate the HTC poor battery problem is related to its inability to send and/or receive text messages. Somehow or another its CPU and/or radio is stuck and awake, never goes to sleep thus rapidly draining the battery. Then you have to kill the internal SMS App but it somehow awakes/restarts and drains the battery. Users are left to find makeshift remedies like App Killers etc. which seems to help. But if you FORGET, you're SOL.
When Sprint/HTC/Google released Android 2.1 I was thrilled, hoping that it might fix the battery/SMS problem. But it didn't. I have 2.1 loaded but my battery performance still sucks. I have all the other battery saving measures in place such as WiFi, Bluetooth, Notifications all OFF. Some people claim resetting the phone helps too. Memory full. Been there done that. I still have to Kill my apps manually, otherwise poor battery. Killing apps seems to help some, but not much, so I do it anyways. It could be psychological. Because when you kill some apps, it makes you think you eradicated the problem. NOT.
I’m sorry, but I think HTC is too busy designing new smartphones, or working on getting 2.1 updates for other 1.6 devices and they put the HTC Hero problem on the back burner. When we all bought our Heros with a 2 year commitment to Sprint, we all bought with the intention of a fully functional phone, not a crippled one. HTC is fully aware of the problem. Sprint could put a little more fire on HTC to fix the problem, but I don’t think they are.
With the Hero in this condition, I can’t pass it down to my kids because they are heavy texters. The phone is useless as a texting phone. Its OK as a regular phone and occasional web surfing phone. I’m gonna have to sell it (and loose money) instead of being able to let my kids have it (and save money). If I give my phone to my kids or anyone for that matter, I shouldn't have to WARN them not to forget to kill the apps or else the battery will drain too fast. I mean WTF???
I swear, my next phone is NOT going to be a HTC product unless they fix this problem or give us all a replacement phone. We shouldn’t have to band aid fix this phone with App Killers, limit our WiFi, BT, notifications and such. There’s way too much monkeying around required for the Hero. It shouldn't have to be if it were made right.
I don’t know, maybe there should be a Class Action lawsuit against the responsible parties so we all can get what we paid for.
Non Hero users won't understand this problem. I don’t know how many of you agree with me. Some of you may not have a problem at all. Consider yourself the lucky ones. My Hero use to be my hero, but its not anymore. It’s a pain in the butt.
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