Review: HTC Droid Incredible

By Dan McNaught

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Since the HTC Droid Incredible has hit the market, Verizon has been at a loss to keep up with the orders inundating them on a daily basis.  The wait times for new Droid Incredibles now stands at over a month before shipment.  Clearly, Verizon and HTC have hit a home run here.  Without beating around the bush, the moniker of the device absolutely lives up to its name.

Hardware

At the heart of the Droid Incredible you'll find a 1GHz Snapdragon CPU (extremely powerful).  It's also packing 8GB of on-board internal storage, 512MB of ROM & 512MB of RAM, a microSD slot (with support for up to 32GB cards), an 8 megapixel camera with dual LED flash and autofocus, a 480 x 800 WVGA AMOLED capacitive touchscreen with 4 dedicated capacitive touch buttons and a trackpad, and most importantly, the Android 2.1 OS with HTC's upgraded Sense UI. To state the obvious, the hardware on the Droid Incredible is some of the most advanced on the entire smartphone market to date with all things taken into account.

Display

As mentioned above, the Droid Incredible has an absolutely gorgeous, 480x800, 3.7inch WVGA AMOLED display. Whether you're watching video, surfing the web, or simply checking your email, the user experience is an absolute visual pleasure. Photos render beautifully, video is seamless, and the real estate of the screen, while not as big as the EVO 4G (nothing is), makes web surfing a truly pleasurable experience.  Now, the news isn't all perfect.  There are reported color saturation issues with both the Nexus One and Droid Incredible, with some coloring appearing not as accurate as it should be.  In the end however, the problem is minimal at best, and truly only an issue for the most serious of the tech-savvy out there.  Your everyday user will never even notice, nor care in the end, as the color rendering is still some of the most beautiful on any device out there.

Camera

While some devices pack high megapixel sensors, when it comes to smartphones picture quality, the megapixels don't always add up to those of a standard point and shoot.  My personal rule of thumb with cellular camera sensors is to divide the megapixels in half.  That is usually the quality you end up with in the pictures you take.  The Droid Incredible is no different, but still happens to be heads above the competition.  In fact, one of the nicest features of the Droid Incredible happens to be the camera.  Packing a whopping 8 megapixel sensor with dual LED flash and video recording capability, its performance is the best of any smartphone to date.   Pictures render extremely well.  There were no real color oversaturation issues, soft/blurred corners, or spots within my test shots (below).  Daytime was particularly a pleasure, obviously rendering the best results by far, and truly beautiful images overall.  The video was acceptable, with 2 shooting modes of either 640x480 or 800x480.  HD video lacking here is certainly a drawback, but not the end of the world.  Video came out decent enough in testing.  No smartphone will replace a point and shoot camera, and the same goes for video recording.  A handheld camcorder is still king.  However, for casual shooting, the Droid Incredible was fantastic for pictures, and more than acceptable for video.

User Interface and Operating System

Here are the bread and butter of the device. Since its inception, the UI and OS of android devices have certainly had their bumps and bruises. While providing a decent intuitive experience similar to that of the iPhone in many ways, limitations were always present and very frustrating to say the least.  With the Droid Incredible however, we finally seem to see android performing at its truly intended level.  Sure, the 1GHz Snapdragon processor (twice as powerful as the iPhone 3GS and current Motorola Droid) helps quite a bit here, but HTC's Sense UI has been thoroughly polished as well, providing a seamless synergy of UI navigation and OS functionality.  The absolute simplicity of navigating the menu system combined with the aesthetically upgraded UI provides the end user with a simple, visually pleasing experience.  All clearly touch-based, it makes simple tasks a very fun and more importantly, effortless, thing to do. 

HTC has masterfully managed to clean up the kinks of the previous OS 2.0, simplify many things within the UI, and add their personal touch to the OS making the enduser experience a thousand times more enjoyable than previous android iterations.  Little things that make a huge difference have been implemented in OS 2.1.  Navigation is cleaned up (which wasn't bad to begin with) with less mistakes; multiple homescreens (7 in all) have been allocated for all of your widget/miscellaneous needs, which is more than enough; and UI navigational speed was very fast and responsive.

Call and Sound Quality

The reception of the Droid Incredible is nothing short of fantastic. Being on Verizon's huge well-spread 3G network is clearly a bonus, but the actual voice quality on the Incredible is quite simply some of the best I have tested to date.  It is so clear that many easily assume it's a landline (I know, you've heard that one before, but it's true).  The speakerphone is another pleasant surprise.  It is also very loud and clear (actually one of the nicest surprises of all), being the best speakerphone I have ever tested.  Whether on the phone or listening to music/videos, users will be full of smiles over its stunning clarity. 

So as not to gloss over the negatives however, the first batch of Droid Incredibles did have a serious issue with fluctuating signal bars on the top of the screen.  The good news is that it was s simple fix.  Within days of release Google, HTC and Verizon quickly fixed the software bug with an OTA update pushed right to all devices and all seems to be fine now.  No calls were dropped in testing, and callers said I sounded clear as a bell on their end.  So in the end, I would rank the Droid Incredible in the “excellent" category by anyone's measure of call and voice quality. 

Physical Specs

The Droid Incredible is relatively thin, on par with the width and length of the iPhone 3GS and Nexus One, with dimensions of 4.64" x 2.3" x 0.47" and a weight of 4.59 oz, but it feels much lighter and better in your hand than the others in my opinion. The carved out grooves on the back of the phone, while at first somewhat funky looking, actually make for a more ergonomic feel in your hand(s).  The grooves seem engineered for a great hold while in landscape mode for texting/emailing/gaming, as when doing so the device sits flush with how your fingers normally rest on the back of any phone.  The grooved edge on the upper corner also makes it sit nicely in your single hand while you talk as well.  The back is also made of a somewhat rubberized material in all black, which feels great in your hands.  I find it better than the plain plastic backing on some other phones.

Stock Software

GPS
The GPS on the Droid Incredible is very good, and one of and its main selling points (just like every other android device).  With Google's built-in google maps GPS software providing live updating turn-by-turn navigation added to the device free of charge (something iPhone users like myself had to pay a pretty penny for), there really isn't any negative to correct here.  It works extremely well, is vastly upgraded from previous OS versions, and has plenty of features to make it fun and versatile to use.  A great move and addition by our Google overlords.

Voice Recognition
The voice recognition software within android and the HTC Droid Incredible is another major positive.  While in many (almost all) menus, messaging screens and apps, there is the option to utilize the device's speech-to-text functionality.  As with all devices you must speak clearly, and some mistakes will still be made regardless, but it is very good overall at typing what you tell it to.  Let's try to remember, other devices do not offer a similar feature.  Another great addition to the stock software.

Virtual Keyboard
The Droid Incredible has the usual spelling correction capabilities built-in for quicker typing if mistakes are made, but the screen size presents a more-than-usual squeezed-in nature of the keys when in portrait mode.  Landscape mode is far easier and superior for typing but is still not available in all screens or for some applications, which can decrease productivity in a hurry.  Overall however, I found the keyboard to be much improved upon compared to earlier android versions, and with its higher resolution and more processor power, the Droid Incredible keyboard gets a much needed pass here.  Typing was quick, responsive and visually more pleasant.  Lastly, optional haptic feedback is also present, if you're into that sort of thing.

Web Browser
While you can certainly go with an alternate engine for your browsing needs, like the amazing Dolphin HD browser for android (available in the market), browsing on the Droid Incredible is still utterly fantastic with the stock browser.  It loads pages faster than any device I have tested to date, is visually stunning on the AMOLED high-res display, and even keeps all text reformatted when zooming (no blur afterwards), to make reading Digital Landing constantly on the device extremely enjoyable.  Equipped with flash lite (full flash to be introduced with the impending 2.2 OS release) it's already far more functional than competitor's offerings (we're looking at you Apple).  To be fair though, flash lite still has a lot to be desired as sometimes video just doesn't play, so the final verdict of “amazing" is reserved for when OS 2.2 ('Froyo') is released with its full flash brother.

Battery Life

The battery life of new devices such as the Droid Incredible is always a concern.  With more features, bigger and higher resolution screens, and a constant consumer thirst for a more rich browsing experience, the battery life seems to take more of a toll with each new device release.  The Droid Incredible however, while no power-sipping life extender by any means, performed reasonably well compared to some other devices (cough-iPhone 3GS-cough). The usage patterns of users will dictate different results accordingly, but in my testing I was able to make it through each day with some decent phone usage, and a good amount of web surfing, email checking, and video/music enjoyment.  I wasn't putting the device through the ringers of course, so heavier users will probably need a car charger handy for the end of the day.  Overall I found the battery life of the Incredible to be pretty decent.

Conclusion

So I'll make this one somewhat quick; the HTC Droid Incredible happens to not only live up to its moniker, but arguably surpass it as well.  It is my opinion that it is not only the top android device, but the top smartphone on the entire cellular market right now, on any network.  Yes, it's that good.  HTC and Verizon have hit on all cylinders with the Droid Incredible, producing an extremely fast, fully functional, workhorse of a smartphone, with a beautiful display and excellent call quality.  If you're on Verizon, or looking to be, and are in search of a new smartphone to buy or upgrade to, look no further.  By conservative standards, it safely blows all prior android devices out of the water.  I'm just scared (in a good way) to think of how much more capable and fast it will be once the new android 2.2 OS is released for it with full flash.