Oh, Play.com. What would we do without your release date information and almost always dead-on mobile phone pricing?

Whilst many had pegged the HTC Hero for an early July release, Play stood alone, pledging a 29th July date and a price of £399.99.

We’re inclined to believe them as all of the other retailers are now changing their date to match this later timeframe.

We are looking forward to seeing what a fully featured Android phone can do to an already fractured mobile market, and it seems that we have very little to wait to find out!

Apparently a gorgeous pink HTC Hero came out for a minute on the Carphone Warehouse website, putting paid to rumours the UK would only get the gunmetal model on Orange and a white T-Mobile G1Touch rebrand.

However, now it is nowhere to be seen… Perhaps the Carphone Warehouse got an exclusive? Pocket Lint pledges to find out!