Maharashtrians to pay Rs 2,500 more for new Android-based HTC Hero with Sense UI

 

The most promising Android handset so far, the HTC Hero, has debuted in India, and residents of Maharashtra are getting the short end of the stick here. The recent hike from 4% to 12.5% sales tax on mobile phones has meant that the new handset will be available in Maharashtra for Rs 34,600, while it will cost Rs 31,990 in the rest of India – a difference of a whopping Rs 2,600 approx.

 

And if you are in Maharashtra and using one of Airtel’s competitors, it would almost make you feel victimised on finding out that the HTC Hero comes with a special offer wherein Airtel customers will get free data download of 100 MB per month for six months. Airtel customers will also be able to avail many utility-based applications such as Portfolio Manager, Hello Tune Manager, Weather Channel, Mobshare, In-mobile search and City Search on the HTC Hero.

 

But enough of being the wet blanket; let’s take a peek at what the phone and the Sense UI have to offer:

 

The HTC Hero with its distinct sleek design marks the debut of HTC Sense, an intuitive and seamless device experience that will be introduced across a portfolio of phones.

 

Featuring beveled 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 and is equipped 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.

 

With its 3.2-inch HVGA display, the HTC Hero is optimised 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, gravity-sensor, 3.5mm stereo headset jack, a 5-megapixel 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.

 

The HTC Hero comes equipped with access to Android Market, where users can search and download applications to personalise and customise the phone.

 

“The Android-powered HTC Hero further underlines HTC’s commitment to push the boundaries in mobile phone innovation and design. HTC Hero introduces a more natural way for reaching out to the people and accessing important information in a much more easier and hassle-free manner. We are also very pleased to introduce a fully customized user interface called HTC Sense with the HTC Hero,” said Ajay Sharma, Country Head, HTC India. 

 

“HTC Sense is a distinct experience created to make HTC phones more engaging, immersive and intuitive and will be integrated across a portfolio of HTC’s phones in the future,” he further added.

 

HTC Sense is focused on putting people at the centre by making your phone work in a more simple and natural way. 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, is about feeling your HTC phone was created for 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.

 

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 alongside their text messages, emails and call history in a single view.

 

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 email, photos, Twitter, music and more in different ways.