HTC Hero Available at Best Buy with No MIR

Wireless carrier Sprint announced a few days ago that it would include the HTC Hero in its offering starting with October 11, a little more than one month from now. It also unveiled its pricing: $179.99 upon the signing of a two-year contract, with $50 instant savings and a $100 mail-in rebate. The price sounds attractive enough, yet Sprint customers can try a new offer, coming from Sprint's partner Best Buy

The reseller unveiled that it would also have the phone available for purchase for the same price of $179.99 with a two-year contract agreement, only that customers would enjoy $150 instant savings. In other words, Best Buy will support the $100 mail-in rebate from its own pocket, so that users will enjoy the Android-powered HTC Hero at the announced price right from the start.

While there have been some rumors about the pre-order availability of the phone, it seems that nothing is yet official, though it should become so next week or so. What else should be mentioned is that the Sprint HTC Hero set to hit the shelves in about a month is a new version of the original device, and that it lacks the already popular “Android chin” present with other HTC Android phones.

However, the original HTC Hero has just been launched in a series of markets in Asia, as its maker announced recently. The phone comes in two color versions, Absolute white and Urban brown, to Android phone fans in Singapore and Malaysia, and should become available for purchase in mid September 2009. All the already mentioned features of the HTC Hero will be present with the phone, including the HTC Sense.

And since we've mentioned the Sense experience the Hero delivers to its users, we should also say that HTC announced that, starting November this year, it will offer a free upgrade for all HTC Magic users out there so that they can also experience Sense on their devices. “With the upgrade to HTC Sense, users will enjoy a more holistic mobile experience made available by HTC,” the company states.