3 gets first Android phone: HTC Hero with free Spotify Premium

By Rich Trenholm on 19 October 2009, 12:25pm

3 is launching its first Android phone. The HTC Hero will be available on 3 in November, and comes with a free Spotify Premium account.

The Hero will cost £100 up front, followed by a contract worth £35 a month for 24 months. The package includes 750 free minutes, unlimited texts, unlimited Web browsing, and unlimited calls to other 3 mobiles.

The deal also includes free Skype and Spotify, as we reported earlier. It's worth noting you can get Spotify on any Android phone with the mobile app, but this is the first time Spotify Premium has been bundled into a phone deal, as hinted by Daniel Ek last month. Over the two years you'll save £240 on music streaming and offline caching.

It's certainly a better deal than O2's cheapest iPhone deal, which costs £90 for the phone, then £35 per month for fewer minutes and texts -- plus your £10 Spotify subscription on top. But we're getting tired of these two-year contracts -- how are we going to keep on top of our craving for new gadgets if we have to keep the same phone for two long years? Let us know in the comments if this deal has you tempted.

Update: We asked 3 to clarify just how unlimited those unlimited offers are, and of course they're not unlimited at all. Unlimited Internet is limited to 1GB, unlimited 3-to-3 calls are limited to 2,000 minutes, and unlimited texts are limited to 3,000 text messages per month.