HTC is one of the few manufacturers that have decided to team-up with Google to have the Android OS on a number of their mobile phones. In fact, it was in the HTC Dream back in October of 2008 where we first caught a glimpse of a device that was powered by this exceptional mobile operating system. HTC have stuck it out with Google and it looks like their partnership has been a success. And now, here comes the new HTC Hero which is equipped with the latest version of the Android OS.

Google’s Android OS

In their newest Smartphone, HTC has taken all the best features of the Android OS and gave it a major makeover to make it more customized for their device. Much like they did with Windows Mobile a few years back, they also HTC-ified Google’s OS to make it more amenable to the Hero’s design. They’ve also integrated their updated Sense UI to improve the overall user experience on the HTC Hero.

If you weren’t told that the HTC Hero was running on an Android OS then you probably wouldn’t notice it at all. HTC has definitely done some major tweaks on the Google OS by changing almost every aspect. It looks like it worked wonders for them as we are presented with an awesome OS + UI combo on the highly impressive HTC Hero.

HTC Makeover

Whatever changes or tweaks made on the Android OS were mostly cosmetic. They’ve changed a lot of the buttons and skins on the HTC Hero’s customized OS, but you could still see shades of the Google OS all over. For one, the speed and responsiveness that has made the Android so well-liked is still present and can still be felt on the HTC Hero. HTC was definitely successful in customizing the OS to their liking while still remaining true to its essence. Kudos, HTC!

HTC Hero Links:

• HTC Hero Deals
• HTC Hero on 3 Mobile
• HTC Hero on Orange

There’s touchscreens, then there’s touchscreens. If you know what we mean. You don’t? Hmm. Okay, so there’s some touchscreens that have been added to phone’s in a kind of last minute way. A bit like when someone realises at the last minute that the party they’re going to is a fancy dress party. You know the type. They’re looking sheepish in the corner, trying to explain to someone that the piece of foil stapled to their shirt and paper-clipped to their ear lobes is because they’re from outer space. The point being, some touchscreens just have FAIL written across them from the very first caress.

The HTC Hero, however, has a screen that screams WIN from a distance. From a very small distance, as it goes, but it screams it very loudly indeed. Why is that? How does three reasons sound to you? First, it’s been designed from scratch, with the user in mind, not transported from the same software used to run a now discarded physical keyboard. That means it just plain works, just plain makes sense, and that’s good enough for us. Second, it’s a capacitive screen, meaning that it’s about as sensitive, responsive and downright right as a touchscreen gets (capacitive screens work by sensing the electrical currents in your fingers, meaning that you don’t even need to touch it – just get very very close – and that the more/less you touch it, the more/less it responds. Third, and this is our favourite: the keyboard presses back when you press the keys. So, as your typing, the keys – somewhat like real keys – seem to be offering resistance. How cool is that?! So there we have it, the HTC Hero features a touchscreen made 100% of win.

Oh, and, well, yes, I guess there’s lots of other things going on with the phone… 5mp camera… yadda-yadda… some kind of new interface… blah blah… Teflon… Teflon?! Oh dear… you should probably read this official product overview or even this HTC Hero review for some less touchscreen fetish thoughts. Or just have a looksy at this video.