Numerous emails and comments have today confirmed that Orange/HTC have now pushed out the second part of the Android 2.1 update for the Orange-branded Hero. The Android upgrade dream is happening on Orange phones across the country AS WE TYPE.
As ever, if you don’t yet have your update notification message, set your phone’s clock forward a few weeks, months or years – as that’ll force the OS to perform a new update check.
The saga is nearly at an end.
And so our guns take aim on Three, the only UK network yet to upgrade its HTC Hero from the shamefully out of date (but still perfectly functional, to be fair) Android 1.5. We’ve been told it’s very near, though, if you’re a Three user.
HTC’s 4.3″ dual-core Android model, powered by Qualcomm’s all-new S4 processor. It’s smaller than the enormous One X, but is it as nice as its bigger brother? (SPOILER: Yes it is).
HTC is very much B-A-C-K at the top of the Android world with this, its quad-core flagship for 2012. Great camera, huge 4.7″ display and Android 4.0 running beautifully well.
Sony returns with an all-new mobile design for 2012, pairing a dual-core processor with a 720p display. It’s a lovely phone, but is it enough to end our Samsung and HTC obsession?
LG’s updated Prada phone comes with an absolutely crazy black & white theme, but is it just for fashionable suit wearers who want to make themselves look a bit more interesting?
MarkG
/ July 28, 2010So what do people think of their HTC Hero running 2.1?
OK a couple of 2.1 features fell by the wayside (3D Gallery and Live Wallpapers, neither of which were in 1.5 anyway so nothing lost), on the whole I am extremely happy, the phone feels faster, the battery life is about the same, I have the full set of Marketplace apps and my phone is bang upto date with the latest HTC Desire and Legend, which may run slightly smoother, the Hero didn’t cost me an arm and a leg ona contract (my Hero came free on a T-Mobile £10 a month unlimited Internet, 100txt 100minute plan).
Lets hope everyone bashing HTC will now give respect where it’s due. It may have taken it’s time to arrive, but it did eventually arrive. They didn’t actually have to do anything, their mistake was promising it in the first place and putting a timescale on it that was unrealistic.
shawa2
/ July 28, 2010downloading now! Unbelievably happy!
MarkG:there’s not 3D gallery and Live wallpapers??… that can’t be right…
cokey
/ July 28, 2010That’s right no livewallpapers the Orange bas@$ds
shawa2
/ July 28, 2010can’t believe it! still happy with improvements though!…
shawa2
/ July 28, 2010i can’t see any Friend Stream either… am i missing it? that would be a big mistake to leave out!
MarkG
/ July 28, 2010@shawa2
Friendstream is another one.
From what I can tell:
LiveWallpapers and 3D Gallery were omitted due to the Hero not being able to run it to an acceptible speed.
Friendstream was left out, as it’s a product differentiator between the new models.
The real important stuff, all the bug fixes in 2.1, Bluetooth Filetransfer (finally), the better Market app, the full selection of Market Apps, the better display depth (not full colour depth, it was restricted in 1.5), and a tonne of other stuff is not to be sniffed at in any way.
cokey
/ July 28, 2010so was all this stuff left off unbranded 2.1 update? still fairley happy just looking forward to live wallpapers to show phone off a bit but it wasnt to be enjoying everything else :)
james
/ July 29, 2010Yeah it was left out of the GSM release as well.
i have been running the new update for a while on a custom rom and it had live wallpapers but that was hack the rest wasnt part of it.
i wasnt a big fan of friend stream anyway. twitter and facebook dont make the same status’s a tweet looks funny as a status.
Adi
/ July 29, 2010Will the 2.1 update be available to other netwrks in UK?