HTC Hero coming to UK on 15 July for £429

HTC Hero - yours for a lot of money
HTC Hero - yours for a lot of money

HTC's new Android phone, the Hero, has been announced for pre-order by Amazon for the sprightly sum of £429.

Users will be able to get their hands on the phone that many have dubbed the 'Twitter-phone' (these aren't the most imaginative people) from 15 July, according to the site.

It might not be nailed on as a date (these things generally have a few days' slippage) but given we haven't got a due date from the likes of Orange or T-Mobile, this is the best Android news we've heard all day.

Pas de SIM

It's doubly good as the new release comes SIM free, so all those on O2 not wanting the iPhone (yes, they do exist) will have some more options, at least until the network inevitably announces it will be stocking the Palm Pre.

The HTC Hero will also bring the first experience of a skinned Android phone when the Sense UI from HTC, which takes its cues from the successful TouchFLO skin used on HTC's Windows Mobile phones.

So if you want to experience the next level of Android and have £430 kicking around (buy yourself a Coke to celebrate with the change) then head on over to Amazon.

Read: full HTC Hero review

Via Phandroid

Gareth Beavis
Formerly Global Editor in Chief

Gareth has been part of the consumer technology world in a career spanning three decades. He started life as a staff writer on the fledgling TechRadar, and has grown with the site (primarily as phones, tablets and wearables editor) until becoming Global Editor in Chief in 2018. Gareth has written over 4,000 articles for TechRadar, has contributed expert insight to a number of other publications, chaired panels on zeitgeist technologies, presented at the Gadget Show Live as well as representing the brand on TV and radio for multiple channels including Sky, BBC, ITV and Al-Jazeera. Passionate about fitness, he can bore anyone rigid about stress management, sleep tracking, heart rate variance as well as bemoaning something about the latest iPhone, Galaxy or OLED TV.