HTC DROID Incredible Review

my incredible was not so incredible.  totally sucks up battery usage even with an app killer running.  and i'm not a hard core phone user  by 3 or 4pm i had to recharge.  ended up bringing in my ph because i had a text message that wouldn't open and it kept telling me i had a new message, when, in fact, i didn't.   i was told it had a "software issue".  so i get mailed a "like new" replacement, only to find out the next day that this one has a "hardware issue'.   here comes the 3rd droid in the mail.  this one won't hold a charge after being plugged in overnight.  Now I get sent another crappy "like New" droid.  (i'm starting to sense these aren't so "like new")  the "like new" droid charged, then shut off and never came back one. So now verizon is now getting me out of the HTC Droid Incredible and into a "like New" Droid X2.  Not feeling too confident. 

Before I got the Thunderbolt, I had the Incredible and it is a great phone. I really enjoyed the phone, but when I heard HTC made another phone for Verizon I just had to get it. With experience if feel confident in saying that you will never go wrong if you choose an HTC phone. My favorite feature is the DISH Remote Access app from DISH Network. Together with my Sling adapter, I can stream live and recorded TV to my phone. I actually work at DISH and the best part is that I can use it wherever I have 3G coverage or simple WiFi. These phones work great because they are super fast so I don't have to worry about any lags or buffering every 3 minutes.

i got a droid incredable for xmas and can not figure out how to see the letters i type in the text box at the top. this is only a problem when i am holding the phone in a landscape position...any help??

Does anyone have a problem with unlocking the screen when you are charging the phone??

Does anyone have a problem with unlocking the screen when you are charging the phone??

Does anyone have a problem with unlocking the screen when you are charging the phone??

Does anyone have a problem with unlocking the screen when you are charging the phone??

The Minneapolis Incredible is on it's third reviewer now. I did ask him to keep an eye on the reception for me, so I can post updates. I haven't heard back. I'm going to try and get the device back after it's been around the block. I want to write an article about "A week in the life of an Incredible" and really use it as my primary phone, but not over use it, like I was. I wish I could get it back before launch, but that's not likely.If I hear anything else, I'll try to recap it here or in a fresh post.

bumping this to see if there's anymore info on call reception..i so want to order this phone but that alone is reason enough to wait.

hmm.. I've been reading that the voice to text is not nearly as effective on the Incredible as it is on the Nexus One. Must have something to do with the dual noise-cancelling mic. Have you experienced accuracy issues with voice to text on the Incredible?

Hi, thanks for the info, I'll give this a try if I have a chance to see one of these in the store. I am pretty sure I tried this with the Eris running Android 1.5 w/o luck - but I'm not 100% sure I remember this correctly.

It's driving me crazy also in not being able to confirm PIN locking and remote wipe through Exchange is supported. Endless google searches and even contacting HTC support has yielded no confirmations. HTC support actually suggested to buy the phone, have your IT department test it, and then return it if security policies don't work. Even HTC front line support doesn't know!

thanks Breon,but that just sux they put so much attention on the screen and hardware and forgot to put a better antenna in that phone,it might have cost them another 25cents to add more antenna..these companies are losing sight of basic functions in the complexity of all the other stuff on them. I'm really bummed about this as if it only had good reception I'd jump on it as I can get it online for 149$ and could tether it...knowing Verizon there probably won't be another great phone out for months as they push one top one at a time usually..

I live on the outskirts of the metro area. My experience with the service wasn't the greatest. I spent most of the weekend at home, and had to use my WiFi.I just sent a DM to the guy I turned the Incredible over to. he mentioned that he's also having issues where he lives.My suggestion is that you keep reading reviews and maybe find a Verizon store outside of town to see how the service is there.

I've read in a couple of reviews that the phone reception isn't that good. It bounces from 2 to 4 bars standing in the same spot and sometimes you can't hear.. any info on this most basic of functions would really be appreciated as I'm in a marginal area and besides all the great bells and whistles this phone seems to have,its still supposed to be a phone..I'm 7 miles from the closest tower,my LG Dare works fine,but being at the end of a dirt road I have sat internet which sux..if i could have good phone connection and tether this to my puter I would order it today..

Does the Droid Incredible allow you to access Flash based games?

Hi Breon, What material is the screen made of, glass or plastic? since its a capacitive touch screen i would assume it would be glass. some of the other reviews mention of the feeling really plastic.

Thanks! If we listen to some of the posts about the updated sensors, the panle should be able to handle more than two touch points at the same time. How was two touch points at same time? We need at least that, or Incredible will be no good for emulators. Response time fast enough for control pad function?

Thanks for your feedback. I tend to rely on the spellchecker on my Mac, as I'm sure most folks do these days. I check every squiggly, red underlined word to see if it's misspelled or a technical/cultural/industry word that's not in my dictionary.I do agree that this is an editorial piece. There's no reason that a product review can't be based on opinion. Anyone can read a spec sheet or the leaked manual. There's something to be said about reading another's experience with a product.Thanks again.

The Incredible has a proximity sensor. During a call, ever time I put it up to my face, the screen would go dark. I thought the Moto Droid has this feature too.

My Motorola Droid hangs up on people when I'm talking to them. The screen doesn't black out and my cheek hits the hang up button. is the Incredible Droid HTC like that also? Is the phone calling part different then the droid?

Wow, I'd have to say this seems more like an editorial than a review but I guess you have to make it about you these days to stand out ie Noah from phone dog. So let's jump right in shall we? First, when you press the home screen you do go to a thumb nail layout, however you can also pinch the screen using multitouch capabilities to bring you back to said thumb nail layout. Did you not do your research? Had you simply watched the video on HTC's website describing the new Sense UI you would have seen this. Also, the desk clock app, which you stated was gray and hard to read, has two settings. One setting for night time, the other for day. The day setting gives you a link to weather the night is to save battery and to be less bright so it doesn't keep you awake. Again just watching a video or two would have shown this to you, but I guess you were too busy letting us know what you want in your opinion, which you abbreviate with IMO. How can you be paid as a writer and use such paltry English? Not to mention who proof reads your articles? My goodness what a bunch of errors. Over all not impressed as a review goes, and as an article I give it a B- for spelling and grammar. I recommend watching Taylor Mali's The The Impotence of Proof Reading.

It has 8GB of internal storage but yet cannot install apps on it? This is really ridiculously stupid for Android OS!

The product video says that it supports 19 Exchange policies. However, I couldn't find anything listing those policies, nor did I find anything specifically about PIN lock and remote wipe.

I had to pass my device along to another reviewer, so I can't answer this question specifically. Have you tried Handcent SMS or chompSMS? I know Handcent for sure has a better timestamp.

The product video says that it supports 19 Exchange policies. However, I couldn't find anything listing those policies, nor did I find anything specifically about PIN lock and remote wipe.

I had to pass my device along to another reviewer, so I can't answer this question specifically. Have you tried Handcent SMS or chompSMS? I know Handcent for sure has a better timestamp.

One more question please. On the Droid Eris with its native text messaging app, it would not display time stamps for messages received yesterday or before. I.e., if you received 10 messages April 19, on April 20th you would not be able to see *what time* they were sent/received. I found this lack of time stamps in some other apps too (phone log perhaps?). The system keeps this information, so it was very frustrating not to be able to tell when an SMS arrived. Does the current/newer version of Sense UI show time stamps for text messages sent for previous days? Thanks.

Cool .. that's good news, thanks for the info.

If you've had comparable experience, how does the speaker compare with the Nexus One? I've heard that the N1 is very tinny/trebley and not very loud. Pretty bad for speakerphone or media (music/video). Has this been remedied with Inc? Also, can you turn off the Sense UI and get the Google Experience?

Does the Exchange ActiveSync support include PIN locking & remote wipe?

Ah, yes! I forgot about the pinch zoom option for the Home screen. This did make it to the final version.From any Home screen, you can pinch 'in' to bring up the seven thumbnails. Then just tap the one you want.I think I overlooked this, because I'm just used to hitting Home and swiping back and forth a couple of times on my Hero.The whole pinch-to-zoom thing still seems a bit clunky to me...on ANY phone. I generally use the phone one-handed to navigate around or for quick typing. If I'm typing a sentence or two, I use the two thumb approach. I rarely hold the phone with one hand and navigate with the other (like in an iPhone commercial).

I found out actually if you are on any home screen you can pinch to zoom and it will go to the 7 thumbnails of each home screen and you can pinch to zoom on any of the home screens while they're in the thumbnails to get to that specific home screen. Or at least I can on my HTC Eris that is running on 2.1 sense.

Nesoid seems to work pretty well. I'll try to capture some video. I wish manufacturers would start using the Synaptics ClearPad 3000 instead of the 1000. The 3000 supports 10 simultaneous touch points.

Nesoid seems to work pretty well. I'll try to capture some video. I wish manufacturers would start using the Synaptics ClearPad 3000 instead of the 1000. The 3000 supports 10 simultaneous touch points.

My friend, Outlook and exchange integration? Can you provide any insight here? If this thing can integrate w/ Outlook as tight as my BlackBerry I will switch immediately. This is a huge requirement for many of us corporate users so please lets us know if you can.

Key game apps to test would be Nesoid and Snesoid emulators, since a lot of games require button and d-pad emulation- The ultimate test for a good multi-touch device.I am a little confused since on the G1 and Droid, the available free storage (not SD) is what is available for apps. I have seen two screenshots of the storage and it showed 748mb free. Thanks!

It is indeed glass. I'm pretty sure most (if not all) modern capacitive touchscreen are glass.

Breon, is the screen plastic? Like an HTC Touch Pro 2? Or some form of Tempered glass like an iPhone? Thanks! Great review!

Synchronizing with a Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync accountYou can only add one Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync account on your phone. You can sync with Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 Service Pack 2 (SP2) or later.Press HOME > MENU, and then tap Settings > Accounts & sync.Tap Add account > Exchange ActiveSync.Enter the Exchange ActiveSync account details, and then tap Next.Your corporate Exchange Server must support auto-detect for the phone to automatically set up the Exchange ActiveSync account. If your corporate Exchange Server does not support auto-detect, you will need to enter your Exchange Server settings after you tap Next. Ask your Exchange Server administrator for details.Select the types of information you want to synchronize, and then tap Finish setup.

I've updated the section about tethering. Mobile Broadband Connect will not be available for the Incredible for Mac users.

1) I don't have a Moto Droid on hand, so I can't say for sure. But what I do know is that I have horrible service in my house. According to the Verizon map, I'm in solid red coverage. I'll try to compare my bars to Droid user betwee now and Tuesday. I do have a DEVOUR next to me and the 'bars' are about the same as the Incredible.2) As stated in the post, I'm not an expert at which system resources are doing what, but here's some info from the System Monitor app from the Market. Make of it what you will.Memory UsageAvailable: 404MBMemory Used: 353MB (87%)StorageSystem: 1540MBUsed 317MB (20%)3) The multitouch seems to be ok. Give me an example of a game that uses it and I'll test it out.4) I've been using the phone pretty heavily. The battery isn't lasting a full day. If I were to use it more casually, like I do my Hero, I'm sure the battery would be acceptable. I'm sure we'll see more complaints/praise as people start getting these in their hands.

BackUp Assistant is a free service from Verizon Wireless that backs up your contact list on your device.

Does the calendar now have a weekly view? On the Droid Eris this was missing!

Thanks for the review. I think this phone is what I've been waiting for. A Motorola Droid/Droid Eris combination with Android and Sense 2.1. That makes me very happy.

Hello Kitty - that's Classic nice Breon. You did not I see link to your favorite Hello Kitty

Nice review. Here are some concerns that I would lile your insight (please);1. Most reviews report about "2 bars' less reception than Droid- especially in weaker areas2. Some reviews state that apps are constained to the rom. How is this possible, since over 700mb show free in storage. If 512mb rom, only about 220mb would be free (OS and preinstalled apps take up space)3. How is the multi-touch? Game emulators have shot at being playable?4. Initial tests by other reviews support your battery issue and rank it a distant third form Droid and less than Nexus.As far as the app storage issue, my guess is some of the flash is allocated as hard storage memory (hence the 748mb free) and this causes problems for the remaining memory as well. Looks like the rom may only be used for the OS, or the actual memory space is not accurate at all (fw problem).Thanks!

Thanks, very nice informative review :D. I will be picking this up as I return my Eris