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Today, I received the HTC Hero made for Sprint. This will be Sprint’s 1st Android device. This one is the chinless Hero that has the HTC Sense UI on it. If you don’t know what that means, in a nutshell, it’s a beautiful UI that sits on top of the Android OS similar to how Touch Flo 3D sits on top of Windows Mobile. The Sense UI and Touch Flo 3D share some graphical similarities as well.

The Sprint HTC Hero with Sense UI on the left and the HTC Touch Pro 2 with Touch Flo on the right.

I have used the phone for about an hour tonight and I was very impressed with both the speed of the device and the ease of use. The UI HTC Slapped on their makes it easier to get around, but Android is not that tough to get the hang of. The device flowed through the menus and widget screens super fast.

On the hardware, one word. Awesome. The build quality is superb, it feels very solid but very light in your hand. It feels secure with the soft touch finish (rubbery finish). The only issue I am going to have is the same issue I bring up over and over again… NO PHYSICAL KEYBOARD. That’s not a bad thing though, there are plenty of people that prefer on screen text input.

The navigation is performed using multi-touch screen taps and slides or the nifty, Blackberry-like trackball in the center of the navigation area. The beautiful thing about this version of the HTC Hero is the fact that there is no chin as the EU GSM version has. Boy oh boy, I hated the G1’s chin.

Now here is something some of you will love… A standard 3.5mm audio jack. Use the Hero as your media player if you want. Don’t cry to me when your battery is dead by quitting time though. :)

The touch screen is super vibrant and simply beautiful. My photos don’t do it justice at all.

Under the back cover, you have the battery and the MicroSD card slot. You can throw a big daddy 32GB card in the thing. This one came with a 2GB card already installed. The retail box indicates that it comes with a card already, so no need to buy one right out of the gates.

So far, I am loving it. I will give it a test for the next week or so and share my thoughts here. I have an unboxing and hardware 1st look uploading now. I will post it when it’s available.

If you want to get your hands on one of these, they will hit the streets on the Sprint network on October 11th, 2009. After rebates and instant savings you can grab it for $179.99, that is with a 2 year contract of course.

I am really impressed with Sprint this last quarter. They have the hottest Windows Mobile phone, the HTC Touch Pro 2, the hottest (and only) WebOS phone in the Palm Pre, and now one of the sexiest Android phones. Their smartphone lineup is looking impressive!

Check out : Sprint HTC Hero Video 1st Look