HTC Hero gets official

I have good news and bad news, so which you do you want first? The good news? Alright, it’s all about the HTC Hero today and for good reason. The Hero’s new Sense UI is sexy enough to make the most devoted G1 user want to upgrade. The new UI will eventually make its way to all HTC Android phones, so G1 users need not become too green with envy. Another cool feature of the Hero is the Sense is Scenes feature which allows users to switch from “work to weekend mode,” organize emails, texts, photos, call logs and social media updates. Personally, I can’t stand smudges on the exterior of my device. The Hero is coated in Teflon making it soft to the touch and smudge-free. While we’re talking about aesthetics, the Hero has the “chin” but HTC has managed to make it far less offensive on this model. The bad news is this oh-so-sexy device will make its way to Europe in July and Asia later this summer. When is it coming to America? Looks like we’re just going to have to wait and see! Of course you want specs, so here they are courtesy of the Boy Genius Report:

• Android with HTC Sense
• 112mm x 56.2mm x 14.35mm, 135g
• Qualcomm MSM7200A 528MHz processor
• Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE, dual-band 7.2Mbps HSPA/WCDMA
• 512 ROM / 288 RAM
• 3.2″ HVGA capacitive touchscreen
• 5.0 megapixel camera with auto-focus
• Gravity sensor
• Digital compass
• WiFi 802.11b/g
• GPS
• Bluetooth 2.0 with EDR + A2DP
• 3.5mm headphone jack
• microSD
• 1350 mh battery
• 420 minutes talktime / 750 hours standby (WCDMA)

**UPDATE: Apparently, licensing issues with Google have prevented the Sense UI from coming to Google branded devices such as T-Mobile’s G1/myTouch 3G and Vodafone’s Magic. An HTC representative also stated "Licensing, logistics and cost" issues could possible prevent some handsets that don’t have the “with Google” branding from receiving the update.