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Sprint Hero silver faceplate defect?

Hi everyone,
So I just received/activated/started using my new HTC Hero this week, and I really love the phone. Just today I noticed a strange new phenomenon that I hadn't seen or felt up until today. Wondering if anyone else has the issue, because I'm considering returning my phone to get a replacement - I've had it less than 5 days.
My front silver faceplate, where all the buttons are, seems to be a bit loose on the left side (by the Menu/Home/Send) key. When I press down on it ever so slightly, it makes a very quiet clicky noise - similar to a regular button press but much softer. The right side of the silver area also presses down, since it is just plastic, but makes no noise - just the left side.
This makes clicking the Menu and Home keys much less pleasureable considering it almost feels/sounds like I'm getting two "clicks." This is the type of hardware behavior I'd expect after having the phone for 6 months - not 5 days! To make matters even weirder, the problem seems to come and go, and I haven't figured out a definitive pattern to that yet. Should I return it for a new phone?
Anyone else noticing this (or any other type of physical defect) on your Sprint Hero?

I think you are just over reacting... Mine phone also does this and I have had it a month before release without any problem. I think it is just how the button is designed flush with the rest of the other buttons all in one plate.

I believe it's supposed to be that way as well. You're more to welcome to go to the retail stores and check out other Heros there to confirm.

Yes mine does this and it makes the phone feel a bit cheap. But I'll live.

I have 3 hero's in my family. One of them was creaky and drove me nutz, swapped it out at BB. New one works awesome..... I could not live with the creaky buttons. felt like my refurbed touch pro.... ewwww

Swap it out. It may be true that many DO do that but they SHOULDN'T and it represents a defect. Don't be told otherwise. My didn't/doesn't do that, my gf's did and we swapped it out for a working one. Have them open the boxes to find one you like. Sprint phone boxes are not sealed or taped shut, they just open so try till you find one (will probably be the first one you try out.)

I guess what bothers me the most is that it didn't do it when I first got it, I feel like my pressing the menu key too many times is what did it! It seems like a pretty bad design flaw... hoping they don't give me a hard time when I try to return it on Wednesday.
Thanks guys!

tduck said:
I guess what bothers me the most is that it didn't do it when I first got it, I feel like my pressing the menu key too many times is what did it! It seems like a pretty bad design flaw... hoping they don't give me a hard time when I try to return it on Wednesday.
Thanks guys!
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The Hero comes with a warranty. If it's truly a design flaw, then HTC will repair/replace the phone for the length of the warranty.
Like other people here say, all our phones do that, it's not that big a deal. I'm more concerned with the trackball. I mean, there's no way to remove it (that I've seen) to clean the mechanisms underneath. And if any of you remember when your mouse used to have a ball and not a laser pointer, those little wheels get really dirty and gunked up really fast. That's just sitting on your desk, I can only imagine how messed up the track ball will get going in and out of my pocket and being touched by filthy dirty oily thumbs all the time.

I know how bad a trackball can get I just got the Hero after having a BB Pearl 8130 for 1 1/2 years, I don't use the Hero's trackball anywhere near as much but I can see it has already picked up dirt from my fingers I just hope it doesn't turn into a problem like the trackballs on the BB Tour

that is normal, every SPrint hero i have seen does that, but like they said above, you can go to the retail store, (not a privetly owned one, they will make you go to the retail store) and see if it is a 'defect'

Mine doesn't do it. If it did I would return it.

I don't have this but my green phone button seems lower than the red one, making it a bit harder to press (especially cuase I have no nails due to biting them like crazy)

Loose volume button, who has it?

I am on my 4th replacement HD2, for a variety of reasons. Now unfortunately this one has a loose volume button, as had my second handset. So this problem seems to be fairly widespread, having affected 50% of the handsets I've seen. I'm interested in seeing who on the forum has a loose volume button. By loose I mean that I can wiggle it around (slightly) and if I tap it I hear a rattle.

mine seems alright... i can wiggle it up and down(really slightly), but..it dosent seem 'loose' to me.

Most solid volume rocker I've EVER seen on a phone. No problems at all here.

I think it's caused by the battery cover.. if it's not put on perfectly it will sit against the rocker and will make it feel more tight.. if not it will wiggle a little like it should so it can't get stuck..

bel_z_bub said:
I think it's caused by the battery cover.. if it's not put on perfectly it will sit against the rocker and will make it feel more tight.. if not it will wiggle a little like it should so it can't get stuck..
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I think the solid buttons are solid even when the battery cover is removed...

So it would appear to be a widespread fault. Slightly annoying for us with loose buttons to know that half of us have solid buttons!

sunking101 said:
I think the solid buttons are solid even when the battery cover is removed...
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Yes they are always solid... rock solid.

Well, it seems there are more perfect ones than loose ones which is good I guess...but still far too many sloppy, loose volume buttons out there. Mine rattles every time I pick up my HD2, which is kinda annoying when the rest of the handset feels so solid.

mine is loose, I had noticed that in the first use and I was woundering if all HD2 are the same but it seems more than 60% are ok and dont have this issue

You think 29 is a representative number for hundreads of thousands of HD2 users?
Stop drawing any conclusions, that's silly.
If anything, then the low interest in this thread indicates that there's not many phones with loose buttons.

freyberry said:
You think 29 is a representative number for hundreads of thousands of HD2 users?
Stop drawing any conclusions, that's silly.
If anything, then the low interest in this thread indicates that there's not many phones with loose buttons.
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Au contraire, out of those who have responded the figures are quite interesting. If "hundreds of thousands" did vote, I would expect to see a similar pattern...

This is my 2nd handset and the volume buttons are loose, but the button row below the screen is not. My first HD2 had it opposite Having said that, neither problem is worth talking about, in my opinion (yes, I know it shouldn't happen with such an expensive phone, but still it's really NOT bothering me) ...

deyanp said:
This is my 2nd handset and the volume buttons are loose, but the button row below the screen is not. My first HD2 had it opposite Having said that, neither problem is worth talking about, in my opinion (yes, I know it shouldn't happen with such an expensive phone, but still it's really NOT bothering me) ...
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You have a loose volume button....so can you vote in the poll please.

sunking101 said:
Au contraire, out of those who have responded the figures are quite interesting. If "hundreds of thousands" did vote, I would expect to see a similar pattern...
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You really should learn a bit about maths and statistics. With hundreds of thousands of HD2 owners, you can't draw ANY conclusion and not expect ANY pattern from 21 votes.
If anything, 31 votes show that there's not much interest in the topic.
But since I know you, I suspect you have created this thread solely for the purpose of damaging the HD2's reputation, cause that's what you've been doing for months now, so arguing about the significance of the numbers won't help anyway.
It just doesn't matter if those buttons are 'loose' as long as they work. Actually, they need to be 'loose', so that you can press them.

Mine is loose.

sunking101 said:
You have a loose volume button....so can you vote in the poll please.
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I did already, of course.

sunking101 said:
So it would appear to be a widespread fault. Slightly annoying for us with loose buttons to know that half of us have solid buttons!
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What fault? Does this looseness stop you setting the volume? If not then I don't see what the big deal is and it just looks like you're looking for things to complains about - once again.

It's not a fault. And don't be surprised, sunking is creating numerous threads and writing hundreds of posts just to damage the HD2's reputation.
Don't take him serious.

jakem said:
What fault? Does this looseness stop you setting the volume? If not then I don't see what the big deal is and it just looks like you're looking for things to complains about - once again.
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Some people (including myself) strive for devices to have perfection i.e. flush screens with bezels, no loose hardware such as volume keys and the buttons at the bottom. What is trivial for some is really annoying for others. Call it mild OCD or whatever but that's just the way it is! Add to that the fact that we are looking at an expensive (£400-£500) top of the range phone here, it is only natural to expect only the best quality, we aren't talking about cheap Chinese knock-offs here after all.

jakem said:
What fault? Does this looseness stop you setting the volume? If not then I don't see what the big deal is and it just looks like you're looking for things to complains about - once again.
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You should open your mind. I'm not happy that mine is loose.
If I can should between loose and firm, I will choose firm of course.
If everybody thinks like you, the quality of the next products will be lower and lower. It's not just about we can use the feature, but for all the expensive products everything should be higher than the standard.

Loose feeling buttons on the HD2 (Does your phone have this too?)

On the front of the HD2, on the panel for the buttons, the panel is well how do I say this, loose. Not to the point where its faulty, but enough to annoy me. I went today and returned my HD2 for a new one which still had this problem. Really its just a small movement but i was wondering if all devices are like this.
Waiting for your reply's,
Regards, Shatterv2.

Sorry mine are fine !

Wondering if the T-Mobile man will be mad if i go back tomorrow, after i just returned it

my buttons are 'loose' too

shak7i said:
my buttons are 'loose' too
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In a serious tone, er?

yeah mine are quite loose alo, but im tempted to throw mine at the wall soon and claim on my insurance lol

Hehe
I'm wondering if this is annoying enough to actually make me go back tomorrow.

Mine are loose too, have been since day one. Volume buttons feel flimsy too.

conantroutman said:
Mine are loose too, have been since day one. Volume buttons feel flimsy too.
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The reason why I began this thread was mainly to see If it's worth it to go back, UN-HSPL2 my phone again repack it all and return it for a new one. Seeing as others have the same problems I may not

I think its the case with a lot of phones.......
mine havent got any looser in the 7 months I've had it, its only around 1mm worth of movement, if that puts your mind at rest any.........

conantroutman said:
I think its the case with a lot of phones.......
mine havent got any looser in the 7 months I've had it, its only around 1mm worth of movement, if that puts your mind at rest any.........
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Dosent hurt . Better than my old HD2 where the panel actually squeaked on the back button. Things like this that make me envy the buttons on the EVO and the Nexus. Damn you HTC

My front panel buttons don't even budge. Same for my volume button.
Weird?

Seems like some devices were damaged during shipping or something. I guess it bugs me to have a device worth 500-600 dollars and then have a loose panel on the front. Ill give it a week and i might go back to T-Mobile and make sure i get a good one

I thought that is how the buttons were. It's one long piece of plastic inserted between the glass screen. It can't be metal cause it might scratch the sides or something. The buttons on my HD2 has a small wiggle to it, but I've never seen anything otherwise. (with those type of buttons)
The HD2 is a quality device. After checking the volume buttons and the quality of the case, it just seems to me that that's the best those buttons can be at this time period. What do you guys think?

Month and a half of use - all are very tight/firm. Do get from time to time a little sticking noise on the power button but that seems to be fading. They should have been individual buttons instead of the single strip and have mechanical keys that were made of metal. Mine is the US version TMobile. Very solid phone. No complains so far and compared to my previous phones - TYTN I / TYTN II, Fuze this one seems to be built the best. No flex - super solid. The only thing that seems to be better built is the iPhone. Their latest version 4 seems super solid although I'd never buy it.

The buttons on my device are a bit loose too. Not when you simply press it but when you actually try to move them a bit. Anyway I can't be more descriptive LoL.
Nothing very annoying, I guess it's like the other poster said, a bit of plastic inserted between the screen. I had my doubts when I first got it (given that my Rhodium's buttons couldn't been more tight), but I can live with that. Like I said, not very irritating. The volume buttons though are very tight!

[Q] Squeaky Power Button

This is going to be a weird question but I was wondering if anybody had this problem too. Whenever I press my power button I hear a squeaky plastic sound. Anybody else have this, is this normal? This has been driving me crazy.
Love the phone but hate the materials.
Thanks for any replies.

xpunksbeendeadx said:
This is going to be a weird question but I was wondering if anybody had this problem too. Whenever I press my power button I hear a squeaky plastic sound. Anybody else have this, is this normal? This has been driving me crazy.
Love the phone but hate the materials.
Thanks for any replies.
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True. My volume keys are squeaky also. I discovered that one small piece of the factory protective plastic was still in the camera button and in the power button inside the button itself

How the heck did you figure that out?

My volume keys are squeaky as well

I saw a very small piece of the plastic, like a teeth however the volume keys are still very squeaky

My volume buttons are squeaky as well...worse yet, they're starting to stick

stendec82 said:
My volume buttons are squeaky as well...worse yet, they're starting to stick
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Try this, a tip from the guys over at the Omnia 7 forum. Get a can of air and blow it onto the volume buttons trying to get any dust and crud out. It worked for my volume button.
I swear this phone is the OCD persons worst nightmare. Haha.

Here you go:

I used a piece of plastic film (was from an used screen protector) to "scratch" the borders of the buttons, much better now.

eried said:
I used a piece of plastic film (was from an used screen protector) to "scratch" the borders of the buttons, much better now.
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Thats funny but it makes me think how my next phone will definitely not be a Samsung device. Some of the cheapest build qualities ever.

My + volume button is squeaky but not my - one. No idea why, but it is sort of annoying.
I still love my Focus though. Samsung could've used better materials, but it still amazes me just how thin and utterly sleek this phone is.

Mine too, but I am suspecting it's due to the temperature of the environment. It's because it happens not often.

xpunksbeendeadx said:
Thats funny but it makes me think how my next phone will definitely not be a Samsung device. Some of the cheapest build qualities ever.
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That, and if you've happened to stumble upon anything about the US Galaxy S phones from Samsung, their software support isn't the best either. Granted, many have accused the carriers of holding up the updates, which may be true, but it's tough to gauge the situation with what little info people have. To add fuel to that fire, US customers with the Samsung Captivate (and I'd assume any Galaxy S phone in the states) who are not updating OTA were instructed to use a program called Kies Mini to update their firmware. This program is not officially supported on 64-bit operating systems (I run Windows 7 64-bit).
I have a Captivate I got last June (then switched to the Focus in Nov.) and this Kies Mini program crashed every time I plugged my phone into my computer. It was a nightmare. I had to jump through a bunch of hoops and eventually got my Captivate updated only to realize I believe that I still like WP7 more. It's still faster (even though the Captivate is now running a custom ROM, which the Dev did a fantastic job on, btw) and the battery life is infinitely better.
Sorry for the long spiel on the Samsung Captivate, haha, I was very, very dissatisfied with that phone. I'll get off my soap box on that now.
Anyway, I stuck with Samsung because I knew that Microsoft would be handling the software, not Samsung.
That aside, I would agree, build quality isn't the best. Yet, the Samsung Captivate actually has a very solid build. It would have been nice if Samsung took some of the design cues from the Captivate and used them on the Focus.
In the future, my next phone will more than likely be from HTC. I don't care all that much about SAMOLED. That and every HTC phone I've tried out in various stores lately have all felt very nice... and in the case of Android, HTC seems to be the best about keeping them updated in a relatively timely manner too.
Anyway, getting back to the original topic (wow, I'm sorry for going off, haha), some of the buttons on my Focus are kinda squeaky too, but it doesn't bother me that much.

I had my Samsung Focus since December. It was okay at first, then the power button started rubbing against the side of the case, making a squeeky sound. Now it has gotten mushy, and the phone will sometime turn off on its own be ause the power button gets stuck in the held position. I think it got misaligned from excessive usage, but I don't want to void my warranty opening it up, and am too lazy to RMA it.

Home button lost the new click feeling :(

After using my note for a little over half a month now, it's lost that new click feeling in the home button. And I didn't even use it that much. For those of you coming from the S2, how long did your buttons last. Do I have to be worried that my buttons will wear out?

I have the same problem on note and I had a SGS2 for half year, doesn't have this problem

it's almost the same as with displays: it's a lottery what you get!
as i wrote in other threads i had quite a few notes in my hands, and also concerning the buttons they were different. it depends on how the "mother pcb" is placed, or better phrased: misplaced
on some devices the power button protrudes more (pcb right), on other ones the volume buttons (pcb left)! the lesser protruding buttons tend to "go dull" after a few (hundred) times of operation!
same deviations for the home button: some are ok, some not (and will tend to "loose their original feeling")!
if it bothers you much: go for a replacement!

As I said in a post I made earlier, my button has function has significantly declined. The initial click doesn't even work anymore, I have to press further and much harder for the phone to recognize a press.

I use "virtual button bar" to emulate home button and others.
Sent from my GT-N7000 using Tapatalk

Yeah I use soft keys too. But didn't know they would get worn down this quickly

Have had my Note for a month and a half and I have had no issues with the home button. I use it often to wake up the phone and to return home lol. I guess it is all really the luck of the draw.

Less than a week and mine feels feeble.

I've had my note since launch and mine still feels as solid and manly as it ever did
Edit: Mine is german

Same here. Got my Note in the beginning of december, and my button is clicking like a mad man.

TML1504 said:
it's almost the same as with displays: it's a lottery what you get!
as i wrote in other threads i had quite a few notes in my hands, and also concerning the buttons they were different. it depends on how the "mother pcb" is placed, or better phrased: misplaced
on some devices the power button protrudes more (pcb right), on other ones the volume buttons (pcb left)! the lesser protruding buttons tend to "go dull" after a few (hundred) times of operation!
same deviations for the home button: some are ok, some not (and will tend to "loose their original feeling")!
if it bothers you much: go for a replacement!
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I would like to know why so much quality difference between SII and Note. Another production factory? New staff? Whatever it is it is not good for their image.

after almost a month of use , i noticed the same thing. But then it got better and now it seems to work fine for almost 2 months now

its a shame we didnt get the yanks version with the 4 touch buttons along the bottom