2010年7月16日星期五

Buy the HTC Droid Incredible!


I've had this phone since April 28th and I'm actually rewriting my original review using my HTC Incredible as my laptop's internet connection via EasyTether Lite (free). I must say I'm really impressed with this phone. It's super fast, good looking, and customizable. It's a treat to finally have a great phone paired with a great network!

Update: If you are looking at this phone and aren't yet locked in with Verizon, you might be comparing it to the HTC Evo 4G. The Evo 4G is for Sprint, and has some pros and some cons compared with the Incredible. I'll let others compare to the Iphone 4 / 3GS in detail (Honestly, I think either of these HTC phones are superior at the very least by hardware with the exception of the Iphone 4 screen's resolution which is a bit better, 640x960 vs 480x800)
Incredible lacks compared to Evo 4G: 4G Speeds (In Select Areas), HDMI Output (720p max), Kickstand, Larger Screen (4.3 inch compared to 3.7 inch - same resolution), Front Facing Camera (Incredible does not have a front facing camera, a bathroom mirror can fix this problem though), Sprint TV included to watch live tv and old episodes (Verizon VCast is $10/month for similar service)
Incredible is better than the Evo 4G: Form factor (In my opinion the Evo 4g is too big for my liking), Battery Life (Incredible is nothing spectacular, but better than Evo 4G), Internal Storage (8 GB Incredible, Nothing Extra for Evo 4G), $10/month 4G fee no matter what for area for Evo (nothing like this for Incredible)

I would choose the Incredible over the Evo 4G if I had to make the decision again.

Note: I was trying to find a way to watch the World Cup, and the best way seemed to be using the Skyfire browser, and going to the Univision website to find the live feed. The picture has been clear for me, and while it did take some time to load, it is Free (commentary in Spanish)!

It's got 7 screens, which can be viewed individually or all at once. I've got mine setup like this:
1. Home/Main Screen - Weather and Top Used Apps (Pandora, Skyfire, Gmail, Market, Battery, Mint, Flixster, Camera)
2. Agenda
3. Text Widget from HTC Sense
4. Stock Widget from HTC Sense
5. Favorite Contacts
6. Power Widget and Empty Space
7. FriendStream - HTC Sense seemlessly integrated Facebook/Twitter/Flickr

I don't intend for this review to be the end-all of reviews, so I'll try not to cover things other people did already.


Something others have mentioned and I've noticed as well is that battery life could be better. This is the one thing I would change if I could, and I might just do that. It comes stock with the 1300 mAh battery as you can see in the specs below, which just barely cuts it for me. I'm strongly considering upgrading the the Seidio 1750 mAh slim battery which fits in the same space, and should yield about 30% more charge for somewhere around 40 bucks here on Amazon.

I didn't notice you can drag your finger from the top of your screen to see ongoing applications, and current notifications. Hopefully this helps someone else figure this out too! Someone showed me this a couple days in, and it's very nice. Basically this is a quick link to what's just happened on your phone.

One thing you might not notice right away is that the Android Market actually varies from other phones. Specifically, it has some apps that other Android 2.1 phones don't have (ie 'Shake Them All' - a live wallpaper), while it's missing apps that other Android 2.1 phones have (Google Earth). Both of the examples I noticed when comparing to the Motorola Droid, and I'm sure there are other differences. This is a little irritating but one can get around this by downloading the .apk files and installing the programs manually. I did this for Google Earth, and it runs flawlessly! It's annoying that Google doesn't make it nice and easy. You could also do something similar via Astro File Manager if both you and your friend use Astro, they could backup their app on microSD, give you the microSD, and you could install from there.

Another thing I didn't see in my brief look through reviews is a list of free apps to get you started with brief descriptions:
Advanced Task Killer Free - Kill any application running
Astro File Manager - Manage Files, Backup Applications, Install Applications from Backup
BatteryTime Lite - Keep track of Battery Left, Battery Temperature
EasyTether Lite - Tethering App, free version does not access https sites, pay version does
Engadget - Tech Review Site Application
Flashlight - Simple help when you need it
Fring - Skype, Google Talk, AIM, Yahoo, Twitter, ICQ, SIP, and MSN Live Client (works on Wi-fi too unlike Skype's basic app)
Google Goggles - Cool app for image based google searches
Google Sky Map - Star Gazer App, based on phone location and phone orientation, shows what stars and planets are out there
Layar - Imagine Google Sky Map for restaurants, bars, etc.
MaplePaint - Painting App
Mint - A great application for tracking personal finances
Movies/Flixster - Great movie app (theater and dvd) integrated with Netflix/Rotten Tomato, able to watch trailers instantly
My Verizon - Helpful for tracking phone usage
Pandora - Streaming Music
Scanner Radio - Police Scanner
Shazam - Figures out what song is playing
Skyfire - Slick web browser (or maybe you prefer Opera)
ShopSavvy - Barcode Scanner, Web and local price-checker
The Weather Channel - A good alternative to the Sense Weather Widgets

Games I like (I'm a simple minded phone gamer, all free as well, no descriptions):
Action Potato
Jewels
Labyrinth Lite
The 'Papi' Series - PapiCatch, PapiJump, PapiMissile, PapiPole, PapiRiver
Super Tetris
Texas Holdem - Red Poker Club
Toss It


Nerdy Details:
Size/Weight: 4.63 x 2.30 x 0.47 inches / 4.6 ounces
Screen: 480x800 3.7 inch AMOLED
Processor: 1 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon (QSD8650) CDMA version of Nexus One Processor (QSD8250)
Wi-fi: 802.11 b/g/n (I've clocked my phone on speed tests over 6 Mbps when connected to Comcast)
microSD: 2 GB included / up to 32 GB supported
Radio: FM using headphone cable as antenna
Operating System: Android 2.1 (Eclair) with HTC Sense
Camera: 8 Megapixels with Dual LED Flash
Bluetooth: 2.1 with A2DP Stereo and EDR
GPS: A-GPS (Assisted GPS, can be used for locating you during a 911 call, or more commonly navigation)
Keyboard: Virtual Only
Speech to Text: Basically can dictate texts, web addresses, and almost anywhere you can type
Text to Speech: Google Navigation can speak directions
Network: Verizon!
RAM: 512 MB
ROM: 768 MB / 512 MB for user
Internal Storage: 8 GB moviNand
Battery: 1300 mAh Lithium Ion (checkout Seidio 1750 mAh slim which fits in same space, if you need more power)
Physical Buttons: Volume Control (up/down), Power/Lock (share same button), Optical Joystick (with click)
Additional Sensors: Multi-touch capacitive touchscreen, Ambient Light Sensor, 3-axis accelerometer, Digital Compass, Proximity Sensor
Audio Out: 3.5 mm stereo audio jack
USB: micro-USB (charging and data)
Audio file types supported: AAC, AMR0, OGG, M4A, MID, MP3, WAV, WMA
Video file types supported: 3GP, 3G2, MP4, WMV

I'm excited to see this phone get rooted someday (soon?)! Please rate my review up or down as you see fit! Thank you!
Update: Rooted! As of June 10, 2010. Flash 10.1 also works (gotta do a little searching/work to get this running)! It's a bit of a hack now, but when Froyo (Android 2.2) comes out for all, it should be very solid.

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