If you are looking for a fresh hands on report of the new HTC Hero, SlashGear is on site at the HTC press event and bringing you tons of live photos. Check out the article here! A hands on video will be available soon on the site.

In the hand, the Hero feels slimmer than the Magic, not least because of the bevelled edge. The HTC rep we talked to wasn’t sure whether the pre-production handset you see here has the Teflon back coating or not; it doesn’t feel especially different to a normal matte-finish panel.  The fingerprint-resistant screen is, as you’ll see in the shots, not particularly good at avoiding smudges in the first place, but like the iPhone 3GS it sheds them with a quick wipe.