HTC Hero: $99 At Best Buy Now [Updated]

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Deal alert! Deal Alert! Boy Genius reports that several tipsters have informed them of an incredible deal on one of the best Android smartphones on the market. The HTC Hero is apparently now selling for just $99 with a 2-year Sprint contract at Best Buy.

Update: The Sprint HTC Hero is now on sale for $99.99 on the Best Buy site with contract.

There's been no official word yet from Best Buy on this, and Sprint has yet to mention any sort of a price cut or discount. It's possible that an official press release from Best Buy will hit tomorrow, and that the stores selling the Hero now just started their deals a little early. More information should be filtering out soon.

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Posted on Sun, 15 Nov 2009 20:32:25 CST | by Robert Evans

HTC Hero Gets Android 2.0, G1 Can Get It Too

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HTC is working on an Android 2.0 update for the HTC Hero according to Engadget. Hero owners can lean back and not be too disappointed when a Droid owner shows them Android 2.0. The only open question is how long Hero owners will have to wait until the Android 2.0 update is available.

Yesterday we reported that the Android 2.0 (Eclair) release could be too big for the G1. Read more

Posted on Thu, 29 Oct 2009 08:19:48 CDT | by Luigi Lugmayr

HTC Hero: Instant Rebates at Best Buy

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The HTC Hero is coming to Sprint, and it will be on sale in Sprint Stores and Best Buys across the country on October 11th. If you're looking at grabbing an HTC Hero and aren't sure where to go, I would recommend doing your shopping at a local Best Buy.

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Posted on Fri, 4 Sep 2009 12:25:00 CDT | by Robert Evans

HTC Hero: $179.99 on Sprint, Oct. 11th

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After weeks of hints, rumors, and rough guesses we finally have official confirmation. The HTC Hero will come to the Sprint network on October 11th of this year. Customers will be able to purchase the new Android smartphone via the Internet, phone sales, or at their local Best Buy.

The Hero will cost $179.99 with a 2 year plan, and after $50 of "instant savings" and a $100 mail-in rebate. According to Boy Genius the HTC Hero for Sprint is actually a slightly altered version of the smartphone. It has more rounded edges and gentler contours. All in all, I think it looks pretty sweet.

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Posted on Thu, 3 Sep 2009 09:40:00 CDT | by Robert Evans

Sprint HTC Hero Close to Pre-Order?

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The HTC Hero is one of the best smartphones on the market right now, and the only one to pack the gorgeous HTC Sense UI. We've known for a while that this Android handset was coming to the Sprint carrier and now, thanks to Boy Genius, we have a good idea as to when. They've uncovered info that could mean Hero pre-orders are just around the corner.

A leaked document from Best Buy's internal system shows a possible Hero pre-order date of September 13. The actual handset release date is not yet known, and Best Buy has been off before, but this does give us a very good picture at the likely date the Hero will come up for pre-order. If it isn't right on the 13th, it will be close to it.

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Posted on Thu, 27 Aug 2009 11:57:08 CDT | by Robert Evans

HTC Hero Confirmed For Sprint, Snap For AllTel

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My hat goes off to the folks at Engadget. Their careful sleuthing has uncovered a page on the HTC website that confirms two very juicy Android rumors. Most importantly, we now have what amounts to confirmation that a CDMA version of the HTC Hero will be coming to Sprint's network. The current rumored date is October 11th.

Engadget also found information that the budget HTC Snap handset will be coming to Alltel soon. Don't worry, Sprint and VZW members; you'll both be getting versions of the Snap as well. The more Android carriers there are the merrier.

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Posted on Wed, 5 Aug 2009 10:35:00 CDT | by Robert Evans

Sprint: HTC Hero in October, Curve 8530 in November.

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Some big news for Sprint customers has leaked out today. An anonymous poster on the xda-deveopper forums has produced a piece of paper, presumably a Sprint internal memo, that shows the names and dates of upcoming Sprint smartphones.

The paper first lists the HTC Hero as being set for a October 11 release date, right alongside another Android device called the 'Samsung Q'. I've never heard of the Q before, but Boy Genius seems to think it might be the internal Sprint name for the Galaxy. Also listed on the sheet is the 'BlackBerry Aries', which is described as an 8330 replacement. This has to be the 8530, and it's due out on November 1.

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Posted on Fri, 31 Jul 2009 12:05:00 CDT | by Robert Evans

HTC Hero Reviews complain about Performance

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The cute looking new HTC Hero gets a rather big thumbs down from new reviews as the hardware is just all-too weak for running this version of Android.
I just needed 5 minutes with the HTC Hero last week to figure this out. On the outside the HTC Hero looks sexy and the UI looks neat at first glance, but if you start using it starts to suck. Read more

Posted on Mon, 27 Jul 2009 02:00:00 CDT | by Luigi Lugmayr

HTC Hero: Not Coming To T-Mobile

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Bad news, fellow T-Mo' subscribers. The much-anticipated HTC Hero will not be coming to T-Mobile. This puts a bit of a damper on recent happy news that the myTouch 3G is available for pre-order today.

Don't get me wrong, the myTouch is a nice phone, and I'm sure it does the Android OS proud, but it doesn't have nearly the 'hot' factor of the Hero. It's also not as advanced of a smartphone, and missing out on the Sense UI is going to be quite painful for a lot of us.

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Posted on Wed, 8 Jul 2009 16:05:00 CDT | by Robert Evans

HTC Hero Round-Up

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The HTC Hero had its big launch announcement Wednesday. Since then, most talk about the Hero has centered around either its new Sense UI or the fact that it will be the first out-of-the-box Flash capable smartphone. That's not to say the Hero's hardware isn't worth geeking out over.

First off, the Hero has a 3.2” capacitive touchscreen display with an fingerprint-resistant coating similar to the iPhone 3GS. It packs an impressive 5 megapixel camera that supports geo-tagging, a 3.5mm headphone jack, a Qualcomm MSM7200A 528 Mhz processor, a gravity sensor, a digital compas, WiFi, a 1350 mAH battery, and a GPS. Probably the biggest upgrade that the Hero packs is 288 mb of RAM, which puts it leaps and bounds ahead of the G1.

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Posted on Fri, 26 Jun 2009 10:30:00 CDT | by Robert Evans

HTC Hero/Samsung Android Smarphone Coming to Sprint?

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If you're a Sprint user who laments the lack of Android love coming from your carrier, today is a very good day for you. PhoneNews.com just received information from some mysterious 'sources' that confirms the HTC Hero is currently undergoing internal testing. The new smartphone is supposedly due for release with Sprint near the end of 2009.

There's also a rumor, started again by PhoneNews.com, that Samsung is currently testing an CDMA/WiiMax smartphone that runs on Android. We know that Sprint has confirmed their plans to release a tri-mode CDMA/WiiMax smartphone by 2010. That's not quite confirmation of the rumor, but does lend it some validity.

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Posted on Thu, 25 Jun 2009 14:40:00 CDT | by Robert Evans

The HTC Hero: What's It For?

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By now, news about the launch of the HTC Hero is out all across the Internet. We've got dozens of pictures, a full spec list, a price and time for the UK release, and even a video of the Hero in action. So, now that we know just what the Hero is it's time to speculate on how well it will do. After all, this new HTC/Android lovechild is going up against both the iPhone and the Palm Pre. Does it have any hope of victory?

Yes, and no. There's no way the Hero is even going to remotely approach iPhone sales, but it's got a good shot of beating the Pre. Right now, Android is sort of a niche UI. This is due to the fact that there's only been one smartphone running it for the last year and change. Over the next few months we're going to see the launch of a whole slew of new Android phones, and the HTC Hero is going to end up leading the pack.

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Posted on Wed, 24 Jun 2009 09:30:00 CDT | by Robert Evans

HTC Hero Gets Approved: Unveiling On Wednesday?

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Android fans, it won't be long now. The HTC Hero is very close to launch now. It's just been cleared by the Global Certification Forum, who were good enough to leak out a few choice tidbits about the Hero. The GCF's report on the Hero and it's sister phone the Lancaster says that both phones will feature a TouchFlo 3D UI. It also says that the Hero will come with support for quadband GSM/GPRS/EDGE and dualband UMTS/HSDPA/HSUPA at 1800/2100 MHz.

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Posted on Mon, 22 Jun 2009 11:40:00 CDT | by Robert Evans

New HTC Hero/Android 'Donut' Preview

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Yesterday we got news that an Android dev named Haykuro managed to get a hold of a ROM of the new version of Android for the HTC Hero. Now, thanks to another developer, we've got a video of the leaked build that shows us the widget functionality we can expect out of the upcoming Hero and probably G1.2 as well.

You can find the video here. It gives us a pretty good look at how the the latest version of Android will perform, at least on the Hero. I have to say, I am highly impressed. For one thing, the new widgets look great. They're all well-designed and you can tell at a glance exactly what information they have for you.

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Posted on Tue, 19 May 2009 10:20:00 CDT | by Robert Evans

HTC Hero Picture's Leaked.

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The rumor-ridden HTC Hero has finally made a public appearance. Boy Genius brought out the first leaked pictures of the new smartphone earlier today. Thanks to these pictures, we can now confirm 100% that the Hero will be an Android OS based device.

It looks to me like HTC took several pages out of Google's book when designing their latest entry to the smartphone market. The Hero looks very similar to a GQ, sans unfolding keyboard of course. Both devices share a similar-looking screen/button layout. The Hero appears to have a somewhat larger screen, and it also appears to be thinner than the GQ. That's not surprising considering the Hero lacks a keyboard.

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Posted on Tue, 5 May 2009 12:10:00 CDT | by Robert Evans