A Nice Piece of Hardware for Android!

I am on my 3rd Android phone: T-Mobile G1, Motorola Droid and now the HTC Incredible. The OS has progressed in usability much since it's initial 1.0 version and the current 2.1 with Sense UI add-ons makes the experience much more enjoyable.

The phone is fast and the Verizon 3G network is fast. Web browsing is great and the phone has native GMail support as well as Exchange support. It has an 8MP camera that takes decent pictures (save for the flash is over kill in low-light and up close) and comes with 8GB of memory that can be supplemented with a MicroSD card (it comes with a 2GB, but that is pretty useless- get at least a 16GB)

There are about 50,000 apps at present, but this number is growing every day. Most notable is a Google Voice application which is the only way to use voice mail. The included Google Maps has 3D Google navigation. The other Google apps are all present and work as they should on a Google OS (Earth, Shopping, Tracks, etc).

There are rumors of upcoming desktop and car docks (later for GPS) and an extended battery- but these have not appeared on Verizon's site as of yet. The 'glossy silicone' phone case from Verizon is excellent for $15- and looks pretty nice with the diamond patterns on the back.

The phone is not without issues; there are battery life issues (mostly when the phone gets into a 3G/1x EVDO area and keeps switching) and the optical trackpad can be a little wonky at times.

To get into some of the really neat features, you will need to do some 'under the hood' work. For example: If you want the alarm clock to wake to a particular MP3, you need to put the track in the SD Card under /media/audio/alarms. If you want to use an MP3 as a ringtone, same as the alarm, but the MP3 needs to go under /media/audio/ringtones.

I use both an iPhone 3GS (for work) and the HTC Incredible. The iPhone I use for playing games (Space Miner, PvZ, etc) as the game developers aren't all on board with Android yet; I use the Incredible for everything else: Phone calls, photos, music, email, web browsing, texting, facebook, webcam viewer, etc.

In closing, if you are looking for a phone to play games, buy a cheap phone and get a Nintendo DSi or a Sony PSP- or as a last resort an iPhone will work. If you are looking for a great phone that has tons of useful features that can replace 90% of what most people use a laptop for, get the HTC Incredible!