Over the weekend, a leaked ROM made its way to the internet. We’ve seen out fair share of ROM leaks, but this time it looks as if we have the official Android 2.1 ROM update for the Sprint HTC Hero. One of our Twitter followers, @Pro_Media_FL took the risk and devided to flash the update to his Sprint Hero.
When I first found the leaked version on the web I thought it was going to be hard but in fact it was really easy. No rooting was required and it seemed like it was an official Sprint/HTC version. Only thing that annoyed me a little was that it was for PC only (I have a mac) but I assume the official release will be as well. It took about 10 minutes and had no problems, and it also erased everything off the phone. There also was a new bootscreen for HTC, android, and Sprint. I have yet to find anything wrong or have any problems so this is probably close to or is the final copy which most likely will be released soon. Definitely better battery life, however I found it a little strange that instead of the low battery notification showing 15 and 10 percent it showed 14 and 9 which was a little weird. Integration with Facebook is much easier and it looks a lot better with updated Icons and how smooth it runs. I noticed it has a tethering feature built in however it was blocked assuming by sprint, PDAnet still works though. I noticed while flipping through the settings, HTC added their own update button in addition to the “check for updates” by Google, it says “check for htc updates”. Again, no problems so far and it seems its actually running better so I’ll update you if I find any problems.
A few hours later, @Pro_Media_FL send me a second note with a few additional details
I did find something, though I’m not sure its a problem or not, but it is a little weird. I have to press the end button twice to end a call,. This may be a bug or might be apart of 2.1 (maybe something to prevent accidentally ending calls?). So far today it has lasted about 4-5 hours longer than it did before, and its not dead yet
From the sound of it, the leaked ROM is moat likely the final version which they are expected to release within the next few weeks. If you’re willing to give it a try, we have posted the link below. Be warned though, that HTC Source takes no responsibility is the ROM does not work property on your Sprint HTC Hero. This is a PC based update, so make sure you have the latest version of HTC Sync installed on your computer as well.
I dont know about hitting the end button twice. i did the update and pressing it once for me is all i have to do. now i did notice when starting a call, it will vibrate when i hit dial and vibrate again when the phone starts ringing, which is pretty cool.
Has anyone tried this ROM with European HERO (GSM Version)?
DO NOT try this for the GSM Hero. The firmware will not work and most likely will brick a GSM Hero
I’ve been using this for a while and it works very well and smooth. Little upset that there is no speech to text on the keyboard and Friend Stream was not included with Sense. Overall, the best 2.1 ROM I’ve used.
I loaded this ROM & LOVE IT. I have noticed a significant performance improvement.