Owners of the HTC Hero in Taiwan were treated to an over-the-air update to Android 2.1 earlier this month. Now owners in Indonesia, Malaysia, The Philippines, Thailand, Singapore and Vietnam are getting the same or can expect to very soon.
The phone will be making the jump to 2.1 straight from 1.5 and will still include the controversial Sense interface. The Hero was the first HTC phone to have Sense and, in a way, it made sense (sorry) on the earlier version OS by compensating for some of the features it lacked – but 2.1 is a different beast all together and one has to wonder how much use this extra layer of software will be, not to mention its affect on the battery. Still I suppose they know what they’re doing.
The OTA update in these countries is rolling out in two parts. First, the user must install a new version of the firmware and then the update to 2.1
All in all, the Hero is a good phone, I always thought the Teflon cover (white version) was a great touch and the difference between Cupcake and ‰clair (1.5 and 2.1) is big enough to make it feel like a whole new phone.