HTC Hero slowly dieing

Jano

Jano

Jano

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31 Mar 2009
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Basingstoke, UK
I have a pretty archaic (now) HTC Hero, got it as an upgrade on a Nokia 5400 which was absolutely shocking, while I was out of work. I've got about another 6 months on my contract with Orange but the phone is slowly grinding to a halt. Text messaging takes about 10 seconds before it will recognise any input on the touch screen, time/date takes even longer to update when the phone is unlocked, so it seems to me that its time for a change.

I do have the option to upgrade with Orange already, and will probably do that as they have been good so far and I dont really use the phone too much, swapping between a £15 and £20 a month contract, unlimited texts and more than enough calls. I don't use the net too much on the phone, only when im away from home for a while or dont have wifi access in an emergency.

Don't mind spending a bit on an upgrade, options it seems are -

HTC Wildfire
HTC Desire
HTC Mozart
HTC ChaCha

Samsung Galaxy Ace
Samsung Galaxy SII in white

Motorola Defy
Motorola Atrix

Sony Experia

The Galaxy SII costs £100 to upgrade to, is it worth it?
 
i think most will say the same, but if you are going with a 2 year contract you really want something like the Samsung Galaxy S2 or HTC sensation. you will see a massive boast. the 4 HTC's you mentioned are not up to much apart from the Desire, which was and is a great phone, but aging now. i think the wildfire has the same cpu as your hero and the other two are not that great. Can't comment on the Experia as not played with them. The Moto Atrix for its spec is way of the sensation & GS2 in every department and the chap next to me has one, the screen and performance is pretty poor compared to my SG2

if it was me i would wait and see hopefully a week today what the new Nexus phone is like and price plans.

failing that i would hunt hotdealsuk for a good deal on a sensation or GS2, i have the GS2 and think its good, some don't like the lite feel but for me its ok the performance is top notch.
 
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The Sensation is £200 to upgrade, so think thats a no go, seems a bit too much. Would get around £50 back for the Hero, so would be £50 to get the GS2, doesnt seem too bad really.

Nexus are the google phones right? Can't seem to find them on Orange, even as coming soon.
 
I'm assuming the phone didn't behave like that when you first got it? Have you considered formatting it, or whatever it is you call what you do with these smartphones when you put them back to factory state?
 
No it didn't. It's a relatively old phone though, I had assumed it was just showing its age and struggling a bit, it's also pretty battered!
 
I'd get the S2, but in black :p.

Nexus Prime is the next Google phone, made by Samsung, yes. I'd imagine that it would cost too much for you though :(. Although the SGS2 price may fall when it's announced/released if you're willing to wait :).
 
you can buy a sesation/GS2 for around £360 and whack your contract right down, i did that and pay £10 a month now. I understand that may not be what you want to do. My wife also has a hero, it is slow now in this day and age, but as others mentioned wiping/rooting and flashing a custom rom like i did to hers gave a new life, VillainRom i think i stuck on hers.

The google phone has not been touted yet, so it wont be on any pre order. from next wednesday info will be made public.

i really dont rate any of the listed phones apart from the S2 and Sensation, if you will be locked for 24months
 
I did try flashing a custom rom when I first got the phone but it just would not take it, might give it another go. After all this it seems Orange don't want me changing my phone yet anyway!
 
I'm currently still on a HTC Hero, not as bad but definitely not as fast as it used to be.

Can you root phones on a contract? I thought they were locked down? or is that just the network?

Don't really want to brick it though :D.

edit : will this still be exchangeable as well?
 
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oh yes you really wanna run down a contract to get the power in getting a new phone. Yes you can root any phone its not about contract, i think you are confusing network locks and sim free.
 
Search for 'Xda Dev hero' for some rooting advice. Mine runs CyanogenMod 7 (Android 2.3.7) and works better than it did new. It should do you until your contract is up.
 
Is this including the new early upgrade discount @ 33% or have you some other way of leaving your contract?
 
Jano said:
Same contract, just changing phone.
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I don't even get how this is being offered to you. You're not in the window that allows handset/contract upgrades yet (3 months) and if you just got sold a handset for £200 Orange would make a loss as you'd be out of contract in 6 months with no time to recoup the cost of the handset.

There's a 33% discount on early contract closures since this week under the early upgrade program but that seems to not be accounted for either.

Maybe this is some kind of odd offer due to something unusual but I'm honestly surprised we would throw money away like this without there being some other cost involved.
 
Myshra said:
I don't even get how this is being offered to you. You're not in the window that allows handset/contract upgrades yet (3 months) and if you just got sold a handset for £200 Orange would make a loss as you'd be out of contract in 6 months with no time to recoup the cost of the handset.

There's a 33% discount on early contract closures since this week under the early upgrade program but that seems to not be accounted for either.

Maybe this is some kind of odd offer due to something unusual but I'm honestly surprised we would throw money away like this without there being some other cost involved.
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It's not available. The option was there in my account to go through the upgrade steps, choose a phone and so on, but when I try to checkout, its telling me I can't do it, yet. I had tried to do it in the past and it extended my contract but that options no longer there.
 
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