HTC unveiled its latest mobile phone HTC Hero today. All of us have been waiting for this news and hope this brings relief to some as the device will be available in all stores next week. SRP is S$898. Maybe we can expect Telco operators to offers this anywhere from S$600 to S$800 with a 2-year contract.

I awaiting for the release and am convinced to get this phone.

Hardwarezone has a short review on it with video. Read the press release below:

HTC SENSE™ DEBUTS ON NEW HTC HERO™

HTC Hero is the world’s first Android-based phone with a
customized user interface

HTC Sense to be integrated across a portfolio of
phones beginning with HTC Hero

SINGAPORE – 4^th September 2009 – HTC Corporation, a global leader in mobile phone innovation and design, today debuted HTC Sense™, an intuitive and seamless experience that will be introduced across a portfolio of phones beginning with the new HTC Hero™. With its distinct design and powerful capabilities fully integrated with HTC Sense, Hero introduces a unique blend of form and function that takes Android to new heights.

HTC Sense is focused on putting people at the centre by making your phone work in a more simple and natural way. This experience revolves around three fundamental principles that were designed by quietly listening and observing how people live and communicate.

“HTC Hero introduces a more natural way for reaching out to the people and accessing your important information, not by following the status quo of today’s phones, but by following how you communicate and live your life. HTC Sense is a distinct experience created to make HTC phones simpler for people to use, leaving them saying, it just makes sense,” said Peter Chou, Chief Executive Officer, HTC Corporation.

HTC Hero
HTC Hero continues HTC’s leadership in cutting-edge design that focuses on introducing a variety of distinct devices to represent your own individuality. Boasting bevelled edges and an angled bottom, the HTC Hero is contoured to fit comfortably in your hand and against your face while you’re on a call.  The HTC Hero is built to last, beginning with an anti-fingerprint screen coating for improved smudge resistance and a longer lasting, clearer display. The white HTC Hero includes an industry-first, Teflon® coating, resulting in an improved, durable white surface that looks great*.

With its 3.2-inch HVGA display, the HTC Hero is optimized for Web, multimedia and other content while maintaining a small size and weight that fits comfortably in your hand. It also boasts a broad variety of hardware features including a GPS, digital compass, gravity-sensor, 3.5mm stereo headset jack, a 5 mega-pixel autofocus camera and expandable microSD™ memory. HTC Hero also includes a dedicated Search button that goes beyond basic search, providing you with a more natural, contextual search experience that enables you to search through Twitter, locate people in your contact list, find emails in your inbox or search in any other area in Hero.

HTC Sense
Built on a culture of innovation and a passion to enhance people’s lives, HTC shapes the mobile experience around the individual. Debuting on the HTC Hero and available on all new HTC devices moving forward, Sense delivers on three basic principles: Make it Mine, Stay Close and Discover the Unexpected.

Make It Mine
Make It Mine, is about feeling your HTC phone – created for you and by you.  To do this, HTC encourages you to dictate and organize how you want to access the people and content in your life in a way that fits best for you. For some, this means adding glance view widgets that push content like twitter feeds, weather and other content to the surface while others may want quick access to business-focused information like email, calendar and world-times.  HTC is also introducing a new profile feature called Scenes that enables you to create different customized content profiles around specific functions or times in your life.

Stay Close
Today, staying in touch with the people in your life means managing a variety of communication channels and applications ranging from phone calls, emails, texts, photos, status updates and more.  HTC Sense takes a different approach by integrating these communication channels and applications into one single view enabling you to stay closer to your important people.  With HTC Sense, friends’ Facebook status updates and photos along with their Flickr photos are included along side their text messages, emails and call history in a single view.

Discover the Unexpected
Many of the most memorable moments in your life are experienced, not explained. HTC Sense is focused on providing a variety of these simple yet innovative experiences on your HTC phone that will sometimes bring you moments of joy and delight. It can be something as basic as turning the phone over to silence a ring or as simple as improving the smart dialer for making calls quicker.  HTC Sense also includes Perspectives, a new way for viewing your content such as emails, photos, Twitter, music and more in different ways.

Pricing & Availability:

The new HTC Hero will be available in Absolute white and Urban brown from mid September 2009 at all authorized resellers at a suggested retail price of S$898**. Standard retail HTC Hero package will come with a 2GB microSD™ card.

Making Sense to Magic

HTC Magic users can soon experience HTC Sense on their Magic when a free upgrade is made available in November 2009. With the upgrade to HTC Sense, users will enjoy a more holistic mobile experience made available by HTC. Be sure to sign up as a HTC e-Club member to stay informed of the availability of the upgrade and be the one of the first to experience the new Sense.

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