Is Hero the best android phone on sprint?

[ETjumps]

It looks like the Hero is the best android os on sprint. IF the Nexus one goes sprint, what are advantages of it over the hero? Are the red and green buttons on Hero worth passing on Nexus one? How about the supersonic even if only using at 3g, does it look be better than both?

Thanks,
ET

 

[voghan]

I'd read some of the other posts on the site regarding the Hero and Nexus One. Sprint is getting a nexus one plus another android phone this summer. I'm 90% sure I'm going to upgrade my hero to a nexus one. Hero is a great phone for most people but I want to play 3d games on my phone. Plus I think the nexus one is just a better hero. I'd like to see if the android 2.1 upgrade solves a lot of the little issues that bug me about the hero. If do ill wait to upgrade my phone. It seems a better one is always around the corner.

 

[ElAguila]

For now I would say yes as the only other android phone is the moment. Once the Nexus is released I think it will be a superior phone to the hero.

 

[Spork1673]

hero and moment are pretty damn good

 

[techsamaritan]

Moment has no lag compared to hero. Faster processor. To me the n1 won't be that much better than the Moment because of no physical keyboard.

 

[Darkshneider]

I played with the Moment and I found it about the same speed as the Hero, even knowing that the Hero has a slower CPU.

 

[Jerry Hildenbrand]

Depends on what you're looking for.

I want an Android phone so I can play around with the OS.
I had a specific need for Flash lite (CF programmer used flash/shockwave for a website login for work).
I want a phone that I carry around to be small enough to slip in a shirt pocket while I'm out of the office working.

Before the Hero I was always switching between a Pre and a TP2, while keeping an old BB 8830 in my briefcase for email. Now I have the Pre, the TP2 and the curve in the box with all the other old phones in my bottom desk drawer.

The Hero covers all three. I'll order a N1 the day it becomes available so I can play with it, but until the Legend comes out (no chin on US version please), the Hero will be what I use for a phone.

 

[Jerry Hildenbrand]

I played with the Moment and I found it about the same speed as the Hero, even knowing that the Hero has a slower CPU.

Or faster Samsung screwed the pooch using old slow tech everywhere except the processor. If they had left their legacy mindset behind, they easily could have had the fastest Android device on the market.

The speed issues on the Hero can be fixed. Samsung's poor bus speed can't, and it's incredibly stupid on their part. They have the best display on the market, hands down. They have a very fast processor. Then they bottleneck it all down like idiots.

EDIT*
One thing to add - actual hardware defects are pretty damn low on the Moment as well. Add great quality to the list of what they ruined by not stepping up their game with a better designed mainboard and using 1990's file system architecture.

 

[Quis89]

Or faster Samsung screwed the pooch using old slow tech everywhere except the processor. If they had left their legacy mindset behind, they easily could have had the fastest Android device on the market.

The speed issues on the Hero can be fixed. Samsung's poor bus speed can't, and it's incredibly stupid on their part. They have the best display on the market, hands down. They have a very fast processor. Then they bottleneck it all down like idiots.

EDIT*
One thing to add - actual hardware defects are pretty damn low on the Moment as well. Add great quality to the list of what they ruined by not stepping up their game with a better designed mainboard and using 1990's file system architecture.

Would you care to elaborate on the "the speed issues on the Hero can be fixed" part?

Please...

 

[gamy2121]

Would you care to elaborate on the "the speed issues on the Hero can be fixed" part?

Please...

I think he just means that with an os update alot of these little lags and issues can be taken care of.

 

[Jerry Hildenbrand]

Would you care to elaborate on the "the speed issues on the Hero can be fixed" part?

Please...

I think he just means that with an os update alot of these little lags and issues can be taken care of.

HTC has a leg up. They know exactly what specs Google wants in their development phones, because they make them. For the most part, they use the same type of hardware in their phones. Things like GPU's with their own clock (droid) slow archaic file systems (Samsung), or any "deviation" from standard means the manufacturer is going to have to modify the Android source code to work correctly with their system. Not making these kinds of changes on the device means that all the R&D and testing done by Google also applies to the device you're making.

One very silly thing that HTC does with the Dream/Magic/Hero/MT3g/Eris is build and enable their own cpu performance governor in the kernel. I am guessing they do it to increase battery life, but that's just my guess. What this does is run the processor at less than it's maximum speed unless the use is at 100%. While you're using the Hero, it's probably running the cpu at 480 mhz instead of 528.

Another silly thing that all handset makers do is use the kernel memory management that was written in 2008 for devices with smaller amounts of RAM and slower processors. This is open source, and it's not that hard to change.

Making these two changes and implementing them will make you think you're using a different phone.

 

[Dark Guitar Lord]

I've got a Hero and I love it but I must admit that the Nexus One was the phone that I originally wanted except that Tmobile is terrible where I live. Now that Sprint is getting the phone I'll probably buy it (if my wife doesn't kill me...) before the end of the year.

 

[ETjumps]

Before the Hero I was always switching between a Pre and a TP2, while keeping an old BB 8830 in my briefcase for email. Now I have the Pre, the TP2 and the curve in the box with all the other old phones in my bottom desk drawer.

The Hero covers all three. I'll order a N1 the day it becomes available so I can play with it, but until the Legend comes out (no chin on US version please), the Hero will be what I use for a phone.


I'm not sure I got what your saying, you dumped your pre and tp2 for the hero?

 

[Jerry Hildenbrand]

Before the Hero I was always switching between a Pre and a TP2, while keeping an old BB 8830 in my briefcase for email. Now I have the Pre, the TP2 and the curve in the box with all the other old phones in my bottom desk drawer.

The Hero covers all three. I'll order a N1 the day it becomes available so I can play with it, but until the Legend comes out (no chin on US version please), the Hero will be what I use for a phone.


I'm not sure I got what your saying, you dumped your pre and tp2 for the hero?

I dumped the Pre, the TP2 AND the BB 8830 for the Hero. I can use it to cover the things I needed from the other phones by itself.

The Pre was great for keeping in touch with my family and friends, playing on my downtime, using the web, things like that. The Hero does all of this better IMO.

The TP2 does Exchange mail like nothing else can. The Hero does a good enough job there. Could be better, but since I decide how the Exchange server was set up I made it work how I needed it.

The BB8830 took care of emergency emails. Anything that had to be taken care of instantly was sent to my @blackberry.net email. When getting paid for data storage, I think it's important to be available 24/7 when a customer has any issues or problems. Now it goes to my gmail account and I get it instantly on my Hero. As an added bonus I can even read the emails if they have an attachment or inline server log, instead of always seeing the miserable truncated message from BB.

I am now down to one phone line and couldn't be happier. The only situation I can see where I may need something else would be outside the US, and one of the old 8830's could handle that when/if it comes up.

 

[dwaynewilliams#WN]

I think that the Hero is the best device on Sprint, that's why I currently own one. But it will be short lived as always. No device is the best for long.

 

[E.2da.D]

How do we do this please

HTC has a leg up. They know exactly what specs Google wants in their development phones, because they make them. For the most part, they use the same type of hardware in their phones. Things like GPU's with their own clock (droid) slow archaic file systems (Samsung), or any "deviation" from standard means the manufacturer is going to have to modify the Android source code to work correctly with their system. Not making these kinds of changes on the device means that all the R&D and testing done by Google also applies to the device you're making.

One very silly thing that HTC does with the Dream/Magic/Hero/MT3g/Eris is build and enable their own cpu performance governor in the kernel. I am guessing they do it to increase battery life, but that's just my guess. What this does is run the processor at less than it's maximum speed unless the use is at 100%. While you're using the Hero, it's probably running the cpu at 480 mhz instead of 528.

Another silly thing that all handset makers do is use the kernel memory management that was written in 2008 for devices with smaller amounts of RAM and slower processors. This is open source, and it's not that hard to change.

Making these two changes and implementing them will make you think you're using a different phone.

Just wondering if they is a step by step to do this, for a noobs... PLease and Thank You

 

[Jerry Hildenbrand]

Just wondering if they is a step by step to do this, for a noobs... PLease and Thank You

First you have to root your phone.
http://forum.androidcentral.com/htc...-sprint-hero-condensed-easy-read-version.html

Then you need to install a custom ROM. To get the complete revamp you need to use a custom 1.5 ROM, as that's the only one we have the kernel source code for. The Damage Control 2.1 ROM has as much done to it as possible without the kernel source, so that's a good candidate if you want to bump up to 2.1

Read through the threads in the Hero hacking forum and get a bit of familiarity with the process(es) involved. Anytime you have a question, ask - lots of great people here.

When you think you've decided on the direction you want to go (1.5, 1.6 or 2.1) and which ROM you would like to try give me a holler via PM. Unfortunately I haven't been able to spend as much time on the forums as I'd like, so I might miss it if you don't PM me. I'll help walk you through the process.

I'm assuming you're relatively new to Android. If not, I apologize If you were asking how to do this yourself -

Download kernel source from HERE.

It's already patched with all the community tweaks, including the RAM polling interval tweak to maximize memory management. In that thread you'll find instructions how to strip out HTC's performance lock. Build the kernel and required modules.

In the boot image, pull the old kernel and replace with your newly compiled build. Edit the init.rc to call a service at boot time and write a bash script to set your new lowmemorykiller parameters. Examples of this are HERE.

Again, if you go this route feel free to contact me. I live for this stuff lol.

 

[JayCudi]

Currently, I would say the Hero is the best android phone on Sprint

But with the Nexus One and HTC Evo 4G around the corner, I'll say it'll be the third best (ahead of the Moment and Motorola i1)

 

[dwaynewilliams#WN]

Currently, I would say the Hero is the best android phone on Sprint

But with the Nexus One and HTC Evo 4G around the corner, I'll say it'll be the third best (ahead of the Moment and Motorola i1)

That is what I said. Android devices don't stay current for long. However, I believe the EVO will be the best device on Sprint for a while.