HTC’s Hero is now official, features HTC Sense UI

Right on cue, HTC has announced its latest Android device in the Hero. With many of the Hero’s specs being the same as the Magic, the handset does manage to beat out the Magic with its 5 megapixel camera with auto-focus, 3.5mm headphone jack (finally!!!), improved battery life and Adobe Flash support. But what makes the Hero really exciting is the fresh new GUI overlay. Much like with TouchFLO 3D for Windows Mobile, the new HTC Sense UI gives Android a much needed injection of style and functionality by allowing users to keep the content that matter to them — such as weather, contacts, photos, Twitter, Facebook, Flickr and bookmarks — at their fingertips.


Another feature found within Sense is Scenes, which essentially allows users to switch from “work to weekend mode” (think of it as Modes on Nokia’s Eseries but sexier) and also helps organize emails, texts, photos, Facebook updates, call logs and more per contract entry much like Palm’s webOS. The Hero’s dedicated Search button features Spotlight-like search, meaning finding the contact, email, app, Tweet and more you’re looking for couldn’t be more simple. One last thing — the Hero is coated in Teflon that not only feels soft to the touch and thus easier to grip, but also protects the devices paint job from your greasy hands.

The Hero will be available next month in Europe with Asian availability coming in the later summer months (Orange UK has already announced it will be carrying the Hero in graphite for as low as £0 on contract this July). As for North Americans, well, we’re just going to have to wait for a little while longer. Hit the jump for the complete specs, some pics and a video.

* Android with HTC Sense
* 112mm x 56.2mm x 14.35mm, 135g
* Qualcomm MSM7200A 528MHz processor
* Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE, dual-band 7.2Mbps HSPA/WCDMA
* 512 ROM / 288 RAM
* 3.2″ HVGA capacitive touchscreen
* 5.0 megapixel camera with auto-focus
* Gravity sensor
* Digital compass
* WiFi 802.11b/g
* GPS
* Bluetooth 2.0 with EDR + A2DP
* 3.5mm headphone jack
* microSD
* 1350 mAh battery
* 420 minutes talktime / 750 hours standby (WCDMA)