HTC Droid Incredible – Better than Nexus One

Sum and Substance:

Thumbs Up:

Incredibly fast, has Android 2.1, 8 MP camera, Wi-Fi, 8 GB internal memory, Bluetooth, 3G and GPS.

Thumbs Down:

Data and voice cannot be used at the same time. Multimedia experience is still behind competition.

The Whiz Kid Speaks:

HTC Droid Incredible is a dual band CDMA phone which supports 1900/800 MHz bands. The weighs 4.60 oz. The screen is 3.7 inches big and has resolution of 480 x 800 pixels. The 8 MP camera has features like Geo tagging, Auto focus, Dual LED and Flash. Supported video formats are 3G2, 3GP, WMV and MPEG4. Supported audio formats are MIDI, OGG, AMR, M4A, WAV, WMA, AAC and MP3.

The internal memory is 8192 MB. The OS is Android 2.1 has 1000 Mhz Snapdragon processor. Supported protocols for email are SMTP/POP3/IMAP. The phone is powered by 1300 mAH lithium ion battery. Rated talk time is 5.21 hours and standby time is 146 hours.

Razzle Dazzle:

HTC Droid Incredible has roughly the same dimensions as Nexus One, it is 4.63 inches tall, 0.47 inches thick, 2.3 inches wide and weighs 4.59 ounces. As compared to the Nexus One, it is a bit plasticky but that is the only drawback regarding the design of this phone.

Inside Dope:

When you have something like ‘Incredible’ attached to the model name, we expect it to live up to the tag. We get lots of products in our labs which don’t live up to such suffixes but this one is a rare exception. The smartphone is based on Android 2.1 and it may not have any out of the box features but it performs much better than its rivals like Nexus One and Motorola Droid. This phone is our new favorite now and it is due to its power, sleek design and better software. This phone is available from April 29 from Verizon Wireless and costs $199.99 with a 2 year contract and after $100 mail in rebate. The design and shape of this handset is nothing new compared to other smartphones in the market but it is the internal features that make the difference. We will recommend this smartphone as an alternative to Motorola Droid which is another master piece from Verizon. The display is high resolution and the power Snapdragon processor keep the phone working relentlessly.

Display

HTC Droid Incredible has a capactive display which is 3.7 inches big and has a resolution of 480×800 pixels. The specifications are same as Nexus One but Incredible’s display is more vibrant and smoother than the Google’s product. We noticed the responsiveness of the display immediately, it registered our touches quickly and scrolling on it was a smooth experience. There is a built in accelerometer which automatically changes the orientation of the screen from portrait to landscape when you tilt the phone. The proximity sensor is also there. The only complaint we have here is that the screen is glossy and attracts a lot of fingerprints.

Keyboard and other phone buttons

The HTC Droid Incredible doesn’t have a physical keyboard and you have to use the virtual onscreen keyboard for putting in text. The buttons are bigger which makes it easy to type and mishits are minimized. As compared to Nexus One, our typing was faster on this keyboard. Below the display, there are four touch sensitive buttons – search, back, menu and home. At the bottom, there is a joystick. It is just like a laptop’s trackpad, you move your thumb in the direction and then tap on it for clicking. It delivers on its promises but the buttons are smaller in size and it will take some acclimation. We used it only for scrolling and selecting smaller items on Web sites, for everything else, we used the touch screen.

Design

On the left of HTC Droid Incredible, there is the mini-USB port and volume rocker and on the top, there is the 3.5 mm headphone jack and power button. Just like most phones, the camera is located on the back and it comes with dual LED flash. The battery compartment has ridges and doors and phone’s insides are colored in red. We found all this unusual but didn’t have major issues with it. Maybe HTC wanted to brag about its engineering.

Multimedia

Supported formats for the HTC Droid Incredible are 3GP, MP4, WMV, OGG, AAC, WMA, WAV, and MP3. There is also a FM tuner but you need a headset with built in antenna for it. This is sold separately.

Camera

We saw an 8 MP tag on the HTC Droid Incredible’s camera and were looking forward to testing it. It has dual LED flash and photos looked excellent both outdoors and indoors. Pictures had sharp definition and good color but we did see a bit of shutter lag. Pictures taken in low light environments looked dull and gray but this is not unexpected in a camera phone. The camera can shoot videos too at WVGA resolution. Clips looked grainy but the quality is still acceptable.

Call quality

We tested the HTC Droid Incredible for call quality and didn’t have any complaints here. Conversations with friends were clear and there was a little voice distortion or background noise. The volume was loud enough at the highest level and we could talk easily even in high noise environments. On the other side, friends said that they could hear us quite well and didn’t have any dropped calls. Speakerphone quality was good but nothing spectacular.

Nitty Gritty:

This is our new favorite and we will certainly recommend it to you owing to the fast performance and excellent user interface.