HTC prepping better, stronger firmware for Hero

The Hero might not pack a 1GHz Snapdragon or anything awesome like that, but that's no excuse for it to lag its older cousins in day-to-day use. Sure, you've got Sense on there -- but HTC's got to keep things snappy, particularly in light of how well TouchFLO 3D performs on the newest batch of devices. Fortunately, we've followed up with HTC in light of a recent SlashGear report that there's fresh firmware on the way, and indeed, it's been confirmed -- details on the exact contents are sketchy at best, but we're cautiously heartened by the "performance" part of the "performance improvements and bug fixes" statement we've received. We'll see just how much better it gets.

[(Unverified) Posted Aug 18th 2009 7:41PM]

Great news, but this post really does not "say" anything :O(

[(Unverified) Posted Aug 18th 2009 8:28PM]

they really should add more ram and faster processors to go with there ui there cell phones are sooo painfully slow

[3 Phones Jugglin Posted Aug 18th 2009 8:45PM]

Think that is Sprint tellin them to boost the performance before they release here....

[mattcoz Posted Aug 18th 2009 9:30PM]

Sweet, hopefully it'll run better on my Vogue then. :p

[(Unverified) Posted Aug 18th 2009 10:44PM]

We need an Android device with a serious CPU, lots of RAM, lots of on device storage, and an OS rev that allows OS/apps on the SD card out of the box. Not sure why iPhone/Pre level hardware isn't going to be available very soon for Android. That would be the killer combination.

[tamosius Posted Aug 19th 2009 12:50AM]

amen

[Des Posted Aug 19th 2009 7:09AM]

Your preaching to the choir my man.

[TrueEddie Posted Aug 19th 2009 8:10AM]

Promises, promises, promises. HTC always says it gonna get better and they always disappoint.

I'm still waiting for the update to the Sprint Touch Diamond that improves performance. Pretty sure it isn't coming since the diamond2 is on the way.

[(Unverified) Posted Aug 19th 2009 12:15PM]

I agree, this needs to be a little faster on the draw for these applications. Seeing lag is not something I want to see, especially how long all of us Sprint peeps have been anxiously awaiting Sprint to release some Android Love.

HTC either need to drop a 1gz processor in the Hero or Get this bad boy running flawlessly before Sprint releases. They have had enough trouble with CS over the years, the last thing they will do is release a phone that is going to take them back two steps from the awesome progress they have made in the CS arena.

Sprint Samsung Instinct Q -- Pictures Spotted. http://phandroid.com/2009/08/19/samsung-instinctq-pictures-leak/

For More AWESOMENESS Visit: ClassyCribbage.com

If you play Cribbage or enjoy nice craftsmanship you really need to see these Cribbage Boards on this site: Classy Cribbage

Enjoy

[(Unverified) Posted Aug 19th 2009 12:16PM]

Great Stuff All Around!!!

[Untouchab1e Posted Aug 19th 2009 2:35PM]

Seriously, this further proves the fact that the the Qualcomm 528MHz processor is not to blame for the "lag" on the Hero, the key lies in software optimization which this firmware update may bring with to some extent.

It is NOT the hardware, it's the lack of optimization of the software and the possibly the hardware graphics acceleration drivers. Comments from actual Hero users say that a lot of the sluggish behavior was gone when they didn't use the Class 4 MicroSD card and used Class 6 instead, which indicates a problem with the IO as Android uses the memory card for its swap file. That means its not the processing time when all these apps are running concurrently after all...

So yeah, a nice Snapdragon processor would be wicked, but 528MHz is enough for now. Right now, there is a lot more work to be done in the software optimization department. Just look at how much faster the Touch Pro 2 is compared to the Touch Pro.. Both feautirng the same Qalcomm CPU..

[FurryPotato Posted Aug 20th 2009 1:28AM]

I've had a Hero for just under a week now and it's been fairly obvious that it's HTC's software thats slowing it down.
When using a task manager you can see how many new HTC background services are running to service all their improvements. Plus some of their apps are a bit slow. The SMS app feels sluggish compared to third party apps such as ChompSMS.
They now will have had a few extra weeks/months to optimize these.

Having come from 2 previous HTC WM phones, it was always essential to keep these updated with the latest versions (Mostly provided on xda-developers.com). And it could lead to a serious performance boost.

Of course, having just come from Windows Mobile phones, the Hero seems plenty fast enough for me ;)

[(Unverified) Posted Aug 21st 2009 8:06PM]

Ooooh the Windows Mobile phones.....I remember those days when I spent 'talking to' my phone.

[(Unverified) Posted Aug 21st 2009 10:24PM]

well my HTC Magic or Touch 3G to you americans its reasonably quick when there isn't so many apps running but hopefully by the time I get the hero they will have upgraded the power of it.

[techtroll Posted Sep 8th 2009 11:51PM]

Whats wrong with HTC, huh? Why cant they just dump all the 528Mhz cpus?