Available from early July across all Orange retail channels, the HTC Hero will be available for free on select price plans and will be exclusive to Orange in graphite colour. Brightpoint is now taking pre-orders on this device and expects stock early July.
Offering a rich, intuitive browsing touch interface and premium design, the 3G+ enabled Hero features Google’s Android operating system, the world’s first open source operating system for mobile devices.
Android allows users unrestricted access to thousands of tools and applications which can be downloaded straight to the handset, helping enhance the device’s capabilities.
Created for those wanting an optimised mobile customer experience, with easy access to Google’s most popular services, the Hero also provides users with a choice of seven specially designed unique user interface options. The handset also comes with an integrated five megapixel, auto-focus camera featuring camcorder capability, a gravity sensor, AGPS and 512 MB of memory with space for a 16Gb MicroSD card. The 3.2 inch HVGA display features anti-fingerprint screen coating for improved smudge resistance and a longer lasting, clearer display.
Orange is offering the HTC Hero for free to customers who take out a £39.15 per month, 24 month contract. The package includes 1200 any network call minutes, unlimited texts, as well as inclusive anytime internet browsing so users can make the most out of their mobile experience.
Francois Mahieu, director of devices at Orange UK said: “We’re really pleased to be launching our first Android handset in conjunction with HTC. The first of several Android devices you can expect from us this year, we believe the Hero is a great all round device which will allow consumers to get to grips with all the things they love about the internet, whilst on the move. We expect it to be extremely popular when it hits shelves this summer.”