[Hero, G2 Touch General] derrickonline:
Let's talk Pre, Sprint Hero, Sprint Samsung Moment

I had/have a Palm Pre. I love it. It's basically an iPhone with a full QWERTY keyboard and great WebOS interface. The problem is it's lack of apps. There isn't one great app. They're all your basic typical apps and I got tired of waiting.

Having tried a MyTouch 3G to see what I can expect when the Sprint Hero arrives I realized I love Android. I just hated that MyTouch talk about slow and laggy. I can't imagine it was any app I had on there as I loaded up my Sprint Hero with what I had on the MyTouch. I was scared of the Sprint Hero after trying out the MyTouch. Even with a taskkiller and less apps running in the background that thing was nearly unusable.

To my amazement, the Sprint Hero has given me NO lag at all. I think once it slowed for a sec because I just started opening apps like crazy. But quickly regained it's memory and continued to work smoothly.

The web browser is sloooow when compared to an iPhone or Palm Pre. But I've found that's a function of Android and not the hardware. The web browser on the Sprint Hero was just as slow as the MyTouch though the issue seemed to be producing the data on the screen and not so much 3G or download speed. I say that because the web browser remains blank (just a green bar showing the page is loading) but then you get the entire webpage. It's like it doesn't show you the page as it loads. The browser is my biggest complaint it's slow. But flash support is a great feature/function.

My other minor complaint is that BS they call multitouch. It's totally inaccurate. It's jerky, and never seems to zoom in where you want it when you pinch and pull. It's almost pointless. It helps but it's nothing like iPhone or Palm Pre WebOS.

The battery life SH1TS on the Palm Pre. Which is ridiculous seeing as how I have widgets, bluetooth, wifi, GPS, location-based services everything is pretty much enabled. I probably do about 20 mins of talk time per day (not a whole lot) but plenty of browsing, emailing, texting and still get a full day out of it. And that's really all I ask for, 1 full day of battery and I'm happy. With the Palm Pre I get SOOOOO PISSED that I can't even make it through the whole day and that's when I'm barely using the phone. God forbid I actually make some phone calls. LoL. With the Pre a charger and spare battery are mandatory. My wife has a Pre and my best friend we all have a car charger and spare battery, and we all complain about battery life. It seems like when you actually want to use the phone to call someone you're not watching minutes but rather watching your battery life since it's probably more than half gone and it barely did anything that's my BIGGEST grip with the Pre. Well that an the lack of apps (and quality apps at that).

Back to the Hero...I'm very impressed with the Sprint Hero. I had and have every intention on replacing it (during my 30 day trial) for the Samsung Moment however.

Why? The keyboard is the main reason. It's not like the Sprint Hero is super thin anyway. The Samsung Moment actually isn't much thicker (just a little) and has a full slide-out keyboard. WOOT!

The AMOLED screen isn't something I care about. I'm of the mindset that you don't miss something you never had. Never having seen an AMOLED screen I'm not really basing my purchase decision on that. Though

800Mhz processor. I think RAM is going to be critical but since it's not running sense UI or TouchWiz is 256 vs 288 going to make much difference? I'm not sure. But a faster processor I suspect will at the very least keep it running smoothly like the Sprint Hero.

The absolute deal-breaker will be bluetooth handsfree with my car. My Palm Pre did bluetooth handsfree with my Pioneer AVIC-D3 w/ CD-BTB200 bluetooth unit perfectly. Unfortunately it won't do bluetooth streaming audio (wasn't a deal breaker) but handsfree was critical. I didn't pay for my BT kit to integrate into my headunit for nothing.

The Sprint Hero pairs flawlessly with my headunit for both handsfree and bluetooth audio (oh how I love streaming from Google's Listen app in the Android market place, and Shoutcast). Buuuut though it pairs fine, every time I exit and re-enter the car I'm forced to go to bluetooth and hit CONNECT on the Sprint Hero. That's pretty annoying. It would be better to reconnect automatically so I never have to pull my phone out of my holster.

I just hope the Samsung Moment will sync perfectly with my bluetooth headunit without me having to reconnect, not sure if that's a function of the Android bluetooth stack or if each hardware manufacturer has something different. I thought bluetooth 2.0 was just that, bluetooth 2.0. Apparently not. I feel like these phone manufacturers are misleading us.

None of the phones mentioned Pre, or Hero did a phonebook transfer. Not the end of the world as I program my frequently called numbers into my headunit. That will suffice.