A Faster Hero with New Update?
| by Robfactory on November 20th, 2009 |
In the last 48 hours most of our Sprint Hero readers are reporting major performance improvements in Sprint’s latest firmware update.
According to user comments from our firmware report people in general have experienced better picture quality, more function buttons during calls and a faster UI interaction.
James writes, ” I noticed there is now a speaker and mute icon on the touch screen during a call. You had to click the menu button and select the options from there before this update.”
While Pet reported, “the camera lag is shorter,” and “more ring tones.”
Overall, the update was supposed to address issues with:
- Boot caching issues.
- Broken app names.
- SMS draining the battery.
- Not Receiving SMS messages when the Inbox is full or low on memory.
- Memory leak due to connected bluetooth device.
- Stereo headphone sound quality.
- Hero dialer using too many CPU resources.
- Daylight savings time issue.
However, not everyone has enjoyed a pleasant firmware upgrade.
Brooke wrote, “I did the update, then restarted the Hero – now my pictures are constantly blurry, it looks like I’m taking them through a plastic film.”
Adding to the upgrade issues Lucas stated, “I no longer have a connection to the internet. Disabling/Enabling the internet connection does not fix.”
There are still a couple of people who have not received the update. This might be due to their network reception issues or Sprint selecting a few users to see how well the update goes.
1. NotSoSilent wrote on November 20, 2009
It’s been about the same speed for me… maybe sometimes even slower prior to the update. The added features and fixes are nice. There’s a new android logo for callers that don’t have pictures attached to their contact also.
2. Vipeezy wrote on November 20, 2009
I have had an unpleasant upgrade experience. HTC/Sprint did not fix the 100% wake time issues. Almost everyone that has updated to the new firmware is experiencing the 100% wake time issues. My battery life is the same as before – horrible!
Hopefully a fix will come soon.
3. YMMV wrote on November 20, 2009
My experience with the Hero after the update is that it now performs as I originally expected when I purchased the phone. The camera is now quite fast and picture quality has improved. Before the update I’d have to take 2-3 pictures before getting one without significant blurring.
In addition, the time it takes my Hero to go from portrait to landscape mode is probably less than 1/3 the time it took before the update.
I suspect people with issues need to do a hard reset and/or likely have some shady apps installed.
4. Barb wrote on November 20, 2009
@Vipeezy — You are not speaking the truth — actually almost nobody has a problem with the 100% awake time now. I suggest you reset your phone. I personally know three other Sprint Hero users and they and myself could not be more pleased with the results of the update. Extra battery life, improved camera, no app icon issues, etc. Great job Sprint!
5. Jimmy wrote on November 20, 2009
Many users have noted that apps they had paid for are now missing from the Market after the update.
6. MrPiltdown wrote on November 20, 2009
I have to echo the positive feedback regarding post-feedback performance. Am I making this up, or is the stock calendar app a lot more user friendly? I seem to remember each date showing a confusing list before, and now it shows a much improved space where, rather than trying to tap a miniscule little sliver of the day (indicating a particular time), you can now just tap Add Event.
7. Dreaming wrote on November 20, 2009
When do mytouch3g users get 2.0? WHEN?!?
8. Nick wrote on November 20, 2009
@Barb it’s more like “Great job HTC!” Sprint might have pushed out the update to the phone, but it’s HTC what did all the work on the back end to fix the issues. I just with Sprint would have gotten the original Hero with the chin.
9. Brad wrote on November 20, 2009
You know, I think the reason the Verizon Droid Eris was reportedly faster than the Sprint Hero, because it already had some of these updates. For instance, my Eris has always had the mute and speakerphone buttons on the screen during calls. However, it is still plagued by issues like the DST bug. The update coming for Eris owners on 12/11 will probably synchronize the OS updates between these two devices, making them equal.
10. Jonathan wrote on November 20, 2009
I havent experienced any issues with my update. It was fast and didnt break anything. I do notice things to be a little snappier but not a considerable performance increase.
I LOVE that the broken app names were fixed, that was incredibly annoying.
11. NotSoSilent wrote on November 20, 2009
@Vipeezy I’m not sure what you’re doing but my wife and I both have Sprint Heros and have seen an increase in battery life, and I sms all day. My phone has been unplugged now for more than 12 hours and the wake time is only at 20% and I have 65% of my battery left.
@Nick personally I like the larger scroll ball, does great for games
12. john wrote on November 20, 2009
I am missing all copy protected applications from the market. This is apparently not only being experienced by me. Phandroid, please report
13. Jack wrote on November 21, 2009
I too am experiencing the 100% up time. The update did not fix this issue for all users. To state that someone who has a different experience than yours as being untruthful is absurd.
I have reset my phone to see if that would help but instead I have lost all of the apps that I’ve paid for.
Will I be purchasing them again? Sure, on a different phone.
14. Jeremy wrote on November 21, 2009
Mine stayed at 100% so i did a factory reset and its stays down in the 20% -30% now. had to reinstall apps but well worth it. Thx THC
15. Jack wrote on November 21, 2009
@Jeremey Glad that the factory reset worked for you, I wish I could say the same…
16. Dwayne wrote on November 21, 2009
Wonder if the update will remove the dust from behind my screen.
17. jeremy wrote on November 21, 2009
i’ve noticed that it takes longer to charge than it did before the update. screens seem to switch faster. battery life has not improved at all. still the same. 12 hours max with moderate usage.
18. DL wrote on November 21, 2009
I just read that the phone has to be on 1.29 to get the update. If you have an earlier version of this you will need to bring it to a Sprint store to have it updated to that version before the push will happen.
19. dsiminiuk wrote on November 22, 2009
Another thing that was fixed was while using 3.5 mm headphones the audio was mono and after the update it switches to stereo automatically. you don’t need to use any other widget or app to force it to stereo! YAY!
20. thomas wrote on November 22, 2009
Previously I had no battery issues. I use handcent sms and was in the 20-40% range with battery lasting from 8 AM to 11 PM I did the firmware update and have noticed that it is slower – programs force close when they never did before – and programs do not automatially close. I need to go into task killer and cloase all – my up time is around 60-80%. I have closed rebooted 2x but it is still keeping apps open. I may factory reset and then update firmware and then reinstall apps and contatcs, etc… regardless – I LOVE THIS PHONE!!!!!!!!
21. danijel wrote on November 22, 2009
how do you get and use handcent sms?
22. Oscar wrote on November 23, 2009
The update is very good, My camera/video on my hero looks a lot better and feels faster, battery last a lot longer, the feel and speed of whole O/S got faster, thank you and good job HTC !! for all the other people that are having problems I don’t know what to tell ya, but It could be because you got some type of shady app installed that it slowing things down, also a good app I would download is “App Killer” it closes any app that is running in the back round, you will be surprised to see how many apps are still running after you already closed it…anyways very nice update to the HTC Hero
23. Mitch wrote on November 23, 2009
Does anyone have any idea why my NFL Network on Sprint Live doesnt work after the update. My friend and I both did the update and his works and mine does not. I tried to shut it off and turn it back on and it still doesnt work.
24. Eric wrote on November 23, 2009
The update went fine for me, but didn’t fix ANY of my annoyances with this phone: it is still terribly laggy, the People app duplicates my sync’d Google contacts whenever I make a call, and the Calendar app (in the Event Details screen) and small calendar widget display all “All-Day” appointments a full day early. It also introduced two new problems: my paid apps have gone missing (from my phone as well as from the market!), and my phone now reboots itself periodically. I find myself often wanting to throw this thing out the nearest window.
25. KraZe_EyE wrote on November 23, 2009
Today I needed to send an email but the address was long and complicated so what did I do? I copied the address, did a address bar search for ‘QR code generator’, pasted the address, generated the code, and read it w/ ‘Barcode Scanner’. Barcode scanner automatically recognized it as an email and opened Gmail for me. I did this in about 5 seconds. My friend was drooling with envy. I love this phone!
26. will wrote on November 23, 2009
I still haven’t recieved my update. Does anyone know when it will come to the Chicago land area?
27. doowee wrote on November 24, 2009
IF you have problem with high awake time … try to shutdown and remove the battery for couple minutes. I don’t think you need to do a factory reset… I did this as suggested by others and it works.
28. millertime3300 wrote on November 24, 2009
Don’t know if this helps anyone, but If your phone tells you your update is not available then check your phone’s software version. My Hero originally stated it have version 1.22 and wouldn’t pick up the update until after I updated to 1.29 using the RUU. After the update the new software was available and installed without issue and so far so good.
29. sad andrew wrote on November 24, 2009
I still can’t get the update…customer service told me I could get the update from a store if my phone wouldn’t do it over the air (some problems inevitably come up with the first android OTA update). so, I took it to the store and they said they would need my phone for an hour. I thought that was wierd as my wife’s update only took 5 minutes, but said ok. when I returned to pick up my phone not only was it not updated but they did a hard reset so I lost a lot of settings…they said they would order me a new phone. I called today (when they said my new phone was supposed to arrive) to see if they had it and they said it would probably be a few more days…wtf sprint??
30. kel wrote on November 24, 2009
@danijel …you can get handsent SMS via the android market. Just search for it and it will appear. Once you install it on your phone go to the stock message program>settings>uncheck notifications. Handcent SMS has an enormous amount of options. Enjoy!
31. Dee wrote on November 25, 2009
is any body experiencing constant sms from a 9103 with WVCI: and a long list of numbers.. please help
32. Jonathan wrote on November 25, 2009
I got the update, and seems to have loaded as now have the mute button on the talk screen, etc. But when I looked at firmware version, it still says 1.5 and not 1.56, anyone else with this? Just wondering if this is the case.
33. julie Avina wrote on December 2, 2009
I have received the WVCI thing to! I have no clue what it is.. I have received it twice..deleted it, none for a few days now.
I am still experiencing missing texts though!
34. Vipeezy wrote on December 8, 2009
All,
Dont ask why, but my wake time for the past 2 weeks has been between 15-25%. Not sure what exactly I did to make that change, but no longer seeing 100% wake time. I may have jumped the gun a bit, but am def happy with the changes. The only thing I did change was the screen timeout. I set it to never lock the screen. Not sure if it makes a difference, but that is the only thing I really changed.
35. Randy Botti wrote on February 13, 2010
I am so annoyed with the performance of Android 1.5 on my Hero, I uninstalled most of the app and switched the phone to a secondary number. The latest updates on the Palm Pre pushed it ahead of android 1.5. I just use the Hero as a basic phone.
What a waste.