Sprint's Latest and Greatest

UPDATE

engadget has a nice little review of this new device.

Here's another review, this one has more details and for the first time ever Gizmodo gives a Sprint device high praise.

Sprint and HTC today officially announce the Hero! This will be my next phone. I was really intrigued by the Palm Pre but decided to wait for the Hero. Here are more details about this new smart phone.

• Access to Outlook email with Microsoft Direct Push Technology
• Ability to easily view Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and PDF documents
• Google Search, Google Maps, Google Calendar, Google Talk
• WiFi
• Sprint Navigation
• Multi-touch screen
• 5 MP camera/camcorder
• Expandable Memory
• 3.2 inch HVGA TFT screen
• Visual Voicemail

These are a couple of other unique featurea that I can't wait to try out.

"HTC Hero users can easily create and switch between Scenes to reflect different moments or roles in their lives, such as work, social, travel and play. For example, a work Scene can be easily set up to include stock updates, work email and calendar, a play Scene could have music, weather, and a Twitter feed or a travel Scene could offer instant access to the local time, weather and maps.

HTC Hero is the first U.S. device to feature HTC Sense, an intuitive experience that was built with a guiding philosophy to put people at the center and allows the device to be completely customized to the wants and needs of the user. The device’s seven-panel wide home screen can be populated with customizable widgets that bring information to the surface."

Excerpt from the Sprint/HTC press release.

Check out the Competitive and Value Matrix

Here are a couple more pictures.