The Name Is Perfect For This Smartphone

I have tried a number of different smartphones and was actually planning on holding out for an Android 2.1 phone with a large screen, fast processor, and a qwerty keyboard. But when I tried this phone out at the Verizon store, I was sold. I have used the iPhone onscreen keyboard and I actually feel that the Incredible keyboard works better. I can actually type about 20wpm using the Incredible onscreen keyboard. I do not know if it is just the way I type, but I get more typos when I try to type at the same speed using the iPhone keyboard.

I thought the topography style back plate would be weird, but I actually like it a lot. It not only gives you a better grip when holding the phone, but it is actually well implemented. The build quality is excellent, with no loose parts or squeaky components. The display is bright and crisp, and I have not yet seen the phone stutter because of lack of processing power.

Apps are plentiful. It is true that Android Market currently has 50k apps versus the iPhone App Store's 190k apps, but I believe it is more like 30k versus 60k, as many, many apps are completely useless, redundant, or both. It has all of the apps I need along with some amazing Google apps. Android Market is also growing exponentially with the widespread adoption of Android. The Incredible also has widgets which the iPhone does not have. A calendar widget allows you to see what is on your agenda on the home screen with having to launch any calendar app. The built in FM tuner is nice.

This smartphone is also highly customizable. You can change widget placement, widget sizes, app placement, active wallpapers, and your Incredible can look different from other Incredibles. However, because of its customizability, it is a little more complicated than the iPhone. More options and features necessarily entails slightly more complexity, but the Incredible is still amazingly intuitive. I have not yet needed to reference the instruction manual a single time, and I have used the smartphone extensively for about a week.

I have separate mailboxes for Gmail, Exchange, and Yahoo Mail. The contacts and calendar synched from my Google and Facebook accounts surprisingly perfectly. They helped me set mine up in store and installed the free 2GB memory card. I actually purchased mine the afternoon of the release date. The store had 45 at the beginning of the day, and they had 2 left when I got mine. The store manager said that the first three people waiting in line for the Incredible when the store opened were iPhone users who decided to switch.

The Incredible allows Flash, giving you the option of viewing Flash content if you like. The iPhone does not even give you the option of using Flash because Steve Jobs does not like Adobe and Flash. The Incredible also allows you to download apps from Android market or other sources. Not only does Apple restrict you to downloading apps only from Apple's app store, Apple censors the apps in the app store based on some opaque and whimsical criteria. Apple recently censored an app from a journalist who was critical of Steve Jobs. In my opinion, Steve Jobs is becoming too powerful and is showing his inner Big Brother. Sure the iPhone is double plus good, but this Droid is Incredible.