Hero or Moment?

[brendanb]

I'm torn you guys. I'm stuck on Sprint (which isn't a bad thing tbh) and I want an Android phone. Sprint has the Hero and the Moment and there's lots I like about both phones.

The Hero has SenseUI on top of it which is straight up beautiful (I'm a GUI whore), but doesn't have a physical keyboard. The Moment has a stock build of Android (doesn't compare to Sense) but has a pretty decent physical keyboard and a faster processor.

I'm leaning much more toward the Moment since I can live without SenseUI a lot more than I can live without a physical keyboard. And that faster processor helps too. But, if the virtual keyboard on the Hero is good enough, I may go with the Hero anyway.

What do you guys think?

 

[IIJBII]

I would say it depends on what you are use to. Do you currently have a device with a physical keyboard? If so the virtual/onscreen keyboard on the Hero may take some getting use to.

I had the Hero and now have the Moment. They are both great deices but I had issues with 2 Hero's so moved to the Moment. I honestly like the interface of the Moment better then the SenseUI on the Hero. I prefer only 3 screens and (it may be because of the faster processor) but the Moment seems a lot faster to me which is important.

Either device is great but it depends on what phone fits you. Sorry wanted to make a refrence to the new HTC advertising.

If you have any specific questions please ask and hopefully we can help.

One last thing I found between the Hero and the Moment. The Moment doesn't seem to have the social media intergration like the Hero. There may be a way to set this up but I can't find it. So contacts don't pull pictures and status from say Facebook like the Hero. I thought this was a great feature on the Hero but isn't really a big deal to me.

 

[brendanb]

Well, I'm actually moving from a Pre which has the physical keyboard (albeit not a very good one) so that's what I'm used to. Before the Pre, though, I was on Verizon with an enV Touch and didn't mind the virtual keyboard. It was easy to use and I could type relatively fast on it so it wasn't a big deal to me that it wasn't physical.

I also do like the Facebook contact integration in the Pre. I thought at first it would have been kind of gimmicky, but now that I've had it for a while, I find that I am finding a lot of my contacts via Facebook and not via ones I've manually added in myself. haha

The Moment probably won't have that immediately since it ships with either 1.5 or 1.6 (I can't remember). I'm hoping Samsung allows it to be updated to 2.0, that way the overall speed improves on the device and so it gets Facebook integration. Then again, I don't want to get the Moment and just hope it gets it, so it sound like I may end up with the Hero.

 

[ERDude]

It all depends on what you're more comfortable with. I came from the Tour, it took about an hour to get used to the virtual keyboard. Once you calibrate the screen to your touch it's great.

 

[IIJBII]

I'm torn you guys. I'm stuck on Sprint (which isn't a bad thing tbh) and I want an Android phone. Sprint has the Hero and the Moment and there's lots I like about both phones.

The Hero has SenseUI on top of it which is straight up beautiful (I'm a GUI whore), but doesn't have a physical keyboard. The Moment has a stock build of Android (doesn't compare to Sense) but has a pretty decent physical keyboard and a faster processor.

I'm leaning much more toward the Moment since I can live without SenseUI a lot more than I can live without a physical keyboard. And that faster processor helps too. But, if the virtual keyboard on the Hero is good enough, I may go with the Hero anyway.

What do you guys think?

brendanb - Take a look at the thread I just started here:
http://forum.androidcentral.com/samsung-moment/1034-moment-hero-pre-review-long-post.html

Hopefully it will help address some questions you have.

 

[dannzeman]

I've been using the Hero for just short of 4 weeks and its my first device without a hardware keyboard. Before the Hero I had the Touch Pro 2 (huge keyboard) and I thought I would never own a device without one. Let me say this, the software on the Hero is so good I never looked back at a hardware keyboard. The soft kb on the Moment is really good too, but the hard kb leaves a lot to be desired. The only real way to know is just use each of them. Go to Best Buy and get one, use it for a few weeks then take it back and get the other, use it for a few weeks and make your decision.

 

[numus]

Why is there no love for the moment in the reviews.. I have tried the motorola droid, and find the physical keyboard isnt great.. The buttons on the screen suck and lack of physical end and call buttons horrible.. I really think i am going to skip the tour/essex and just go to android finally.. Just wondering why hero, eris and droid all get the most attention while the poor moment is left in the dust?

 

[ramiss]

There is no love for the Moment because most of the guys giving love are big fans of HTC. The Moment is made by Samsung.

Nothing wrong with Samsung at all (in fact I find it to be a better build of hardware). The great thing about HTC devices, and the reason they get the most attention, is that they are easy to crack and modify (add ROMs etc).

I just moved to a Moment from a ROM'd Touch Pro and I am not looking back. This phone is awesome. Just don't let the lack of attention get you down. HTC devices will always get the most love.

 

[themyst]

I own an HTC Hero, wife has a Samsung Moment. Moment has better hardware, Hero has better software. The wife dislikes the keyboard on her phone says its annoying to use due to the funky key layout and the useless arrow keys. I personally feel the same, and with spell correction type faster on the landscape virtual keyboard than the physical Moment keyboard. The Moment has capacitive menu/home/back buttons which is a big plus, as it is a huge pain to reach down for those buttons on the Hero. Optical trackpad vs trackball, trackpad wins by a mile. AMOLED is amazing. Just need SenseUI fully ported over to this thing and I'll put my Hero out to pasture.

Biggest dealbreaker? Hero rooted, Moment not.

-edit - After trying the various apps, I did notice that the Hero is superior for 3D acceleration but the Moment has far superior compatibility with applications. Meridian would play XviD files native on the Moment where the Hero would display an error. I love my SenseUI, but running all the apps without a hitch on the Moment is making me second guess my opinion.

 

[Applejackson]

If SenseUI is hanging you up, check out Pandahome from the Android Market. I made a much longer post about it here:

http://forum.androidcentral.com/sam...nt-hero-pre-review-long-post-2.html#post13489

Someone will root the Moment, I'm sure. HTCs just got that big community already built up. I think the faster processor might entice some hackers and programmers to the Moment though and you'll see some cool stuff start popping up soon.

 

[njbianco#AC]

Someone will root the Moment, I'm sure. HTCs just got that big community already built up. I think the faster processor might entice some hackers and programmers to the Moment though and you'll see some cool stuff start popping up soon.

Actually someone rooted the moment today

 

[Applejackson]

Actually someone rooted the moment today

Sweet! Links?

 

[yfan]

I have the Moment and I love it. I looked at the Hero as well, and Moment was my choice for several reason:

First, the physical keyboard. It's almost a must for me. For texting, the on screen keyboard is fine, but I use my phone for email a lot and I far prefer the physical keyboard at any rate.

Second, the superior hardware. 800 MHz processor is the processor for a low end laptop. What this means is that it has better performance for more processor intensive software.

Third, brand. Frankly, I have used Samsung phones for a while, and they have always worked out well for me. I also own a Samsung TV.

Fourth, AMOLED display. It's crisp, it's bright, it's better than my laptop's display. Need I say more?

That said, at the end of the day, it comes down to one's personal preferences.

 

[coachcurtisbusse]

Does it not matter that the HERO has no flash? or is better to have a 5.0 mp?

 

[Jerry Hildenbrand]

Does it not matter that the HERO has no flash? or is better to have a 5.0 mp?

I know very little about photography, but I do know hardware.
the ccd and lens on both units are decent quality. Nothing spectacular, but not junk either. The Hero uses software to adjust the focus and white balance, and the Moment uses an external flash. To me, both take fair pictures, once again, not amazing, but decent for a cell phone.

If taking photos is a big thing for you, I would think the Moment would be a bit more versatile simply because it has a flash and should work well under any light. I think the Moment is a great phone that was overshadowed by the fancy UI of the Hero, and the screen is simply incredible. Sprint should have spaced the releases out a little bit IMO.

 

[coachcurtisbusse]

Will you be able in the future to get a sexier UI? either upgrade or download?

 

[Jerry Hildenbrand]

Yep. You could download one of the nice Home replacements from the market like aHome or openHome right out of the box. Combined with some of the available widgets, you can make the Moment look very much like a Hero if you wanted to.

In the future, I'm fairly certain the Moment will be able to run the Hero's UI just like the Dream/G1 does now.

There's nothing about the Moment that makes it a bad choice, and once some developers get it figured out and start making custom ROM's, the Moment will look as good, provide the same function, and probably run faster than the Hero. I'm honestly surprised it has not sold better than the Hero, based on spec's alone.

 

[yfan]

Does it not matter that the HERO has no flash? or is better to have a 5.0 mp?

It depends on what you are going to use the camera for. I only use my cell phone camera on occasions where I want to take a picture of something right away and post it on a blog or facebook right away. Another reason I would use it (but thankfully have not) is if I get into a fender bender. The last purpose was something that came up a few weeks ago. I was parking at a spot no one else parked at even though cars were on both sides of that spot, but that spot contained a "No Parking" sign. The kicker was that it was an advanced notice that you could not park there the following day. I took a picture of it just in case I got a ticket, I would have the date on the picture to have the ticket dismissed.

So a lot of these occasional pictures are taken at night. Flash is handy for that. So the Moment's camera, in that way, beats the Hero's.

Nonetheless, if you take a lot of photographs or are on a trip, for chrissakes, get an actual digital camera and don't depend on a phone camera.

 

[coachcurtisbusse]

I have the moment comming this saturday...
Im on sprint so that limited me to Hero or Moment

I went with the Moment because
flash on cam
phsy KB
800mhz

i wish i cld of got the heros UI and 5MP cam but i think i mAade the right choice

 

[Jerry Hildenbrand]

I think you made a fine choice. I'm sure you'll find little issues and have questions when it shows up. Make sure to ask here...lots of nice folks to help get it just the way you like it.

As for making it look "sexy"...ask the Droid guys. They are already experts at making plain Android look amazing. They can tell you what they use and point you towards anything you might need.