HTC Hero S Now Available at U.S. Cellular

Two weeks after U.S. Cellular confirmed the HTC Hero S, the smartphone hit the shelves and is now available for purchase for as low as $199.99 (about 145 EUR) after $100 mail-in rebate along with two-year agreement.

However, U.S. Cellular customers on Belief Plan who are eligible for an upgrade can get the smartphone for the same $200 amount without having to sign a new agreement.

U.S. Cellular added three HTC Android devices in the last two weeks, including the HTC Flyer tablet, as well as HTC Wildfire S and HTC Hero S smartphones.

HTC Flyer goes for $399.99 (about 290 EUR) after a $100 mail-in rebate and with Tablet 5GB Data Plan, whereas the HTC Wildfire S can be obtained for free with a two-year agreement.

With HTC Hero S customers can experience the latest innovations offered by Google's Android operating system. The phone is pretty slim at 11.6mm (0.46 inch) and weighs around 130g (4.59 ounces).

The smartphone is powered by the latest Android 2.3 Gingerbread platform with HTC Sense, which provides customers with quick access to social networking, widgets and more directly on the phone's homescreen.

In addition, HTC Hero S comes with HTC Watch service, allowing users to watch their favorite TV shows and movies.

Hardware-wise, the smartphone is equipped with a 1.2 GHz Qualcomm MSM8655 processor and a brilliant 4-inch qHD Super LCD capacitive touchscreen with 16 million colors support and 960 x 540 pixels resolution.

It sports a 5-megapixel camera on the back with autofocus, as well as a secondary 1.3-megapixel front-facing camera for video calls.

HTC Hero S packs 4GB of internal memory and microSD card slot for memory expansion (up to 32GB, 8GB memory card included).

According to the manufacturer, the phone's 1520 mAh Li-Ion battery should provide up to 19 days of standby time or up to 7 hours of talk time.