HTC Hero is the first genuinely gorgeous piece of hardware running Android and the Sense UI is the most ambitious, polished software HTC has developed yet. It doesn’t have a carrier in the US yet, but as Android’s headline phone, it makes the just-launched myTouch 3G on T-Mobile a lame duck.

It’s a thin handset, measuring 112 x 56.2 x 14.35 mm and feels even thinner thanks to the sharp beveling of the edges. Up top there’s a welcome addition to an HTC Android device, in the shape of a 3.5mm headphones socket, while on the base there’s the company’s own ExtUSB port (which is compatible with standard mini-USB).  On the left-hand side there are surprisingly large volume controls, while on the back there’s the 5-megapixel autofocus camera (which still lacks a flash of any sort).

A 3.2-inch capacitive touchscreen running at 320 x 480 HVGA resolution, sitting above the usual six Android buttons: call, home, menu, call-end, search and back.  The trackball from the Dream and Magic is also present, and it lights up when you receive an SMS or phone call.  Above the display is the long, narrow speaker-grill, flanked on the left by an ambient light sensor and on the right by a two-color LED that flashes green to let you know a message has come in, and red when charging.  The whole handset is covered in Teflon, which HTC say will better resist scratches, fading and staining; its matte finish is a tactile and aesthetically welcome departure from glossy devices.

HTC introduce fourteen of their own, along with five “toggle” controls for connectivity options.  These range from bookmarks and calendar, through a new mail app and messages app, to contact shortcuts, a Twitter app and a new weather app.  As for the toggle switches, they cover airplane mode, Bluetooth, GPS, cellular connectivity and WiFi, and present an easy way to lock-down the Hero or simply shut off a potential battery glutton.

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