My Hero was nagging me to update the firmware for a past few days. At first, I didn’t bother to read the message with firmware version details, so I was surprised when I finally gave up yesterday night and checked the HTC web site for firmware details – OTA (over The Air) firmware is available that will upgrade Hero from Android 1.5 to Android 2.1.
Honestly, I expected that 1.6 would be the last supported Android release for Hero. Thanks HTC!

I searched the net for reports that could indicate possible troubles related to 2.1 upgrade, other then “…upgrade will wipe out all your data and settings…“, which is false for OTA based upgrade, couldn’t find anything else.

Just in case some little green ones pop up, I backuped all my data on SD card, then I switched on WiFi connection on Hero and downloaded 80MB update from HTC (depending on your data plan download alone can cost you a small fortune — so don’t do it over 3G on a beach – especially not in Croatia;-), use some free WiFi spot. Fortunately HTC will warn you about that before you start downloading.). The hole process of downloading and installing 2.1 took approximately 30 minutes – make sure your battery is charged!

Everything went smooth with OTA upgrade, way easier then the last time when I upgraded HTC ROM from a PC.

Here are some sample screenshots taken from my Hero 2.1:

1) Firmware version after upgrade

2) New Power Widget (at the top) that I like

3) Settings with icons – I don’t like them, pure text based menu was fine

4) I like the way we can trace down battery usage…

5) Market face lift — unnecessary…

6) I do like the new quick navigation (press Home key when your are already at Home, or even better use “zoom-out” touch on any of the seven main screens)