HTC Droid Incredible 2 Review

The HTC Droid Incredible 2 is HTC's update to the original Incredible. There are several things that make it an even better phone than the first iteration. It is available now for $199.99 with a new 2 year contract.



Here's a quick rundown of the Droid Incredible's 2 features

• Android 2.2 with HTC Sense
• 1GHZ Qualcomm Snapdragon processor
• 768mb of RAM
• Global ready (CDMA and GSM capability)
• 16gb of internal storage & 16gb microSD card included
• 4 inch 480x800 LCD screen
• FM radio
• GPS, proximity sensor, light sensor, and compass
• 3.5mm headphone jack
• 8mp camera with dual LED flash
• 1.3mp front camera

Unboxing
The box for the Incredible 2 carries on the Droid branding, picturing the phone with a red eye. In the box is the standard quick start guide and usb cable/charger.

Cosmetic
Just like the original, the Incredible 2 is a great looking phone. The style on the back is slightly toned down with one less 'level', but maintains the rubberized grip. Overall you'll see that the phone has a very clean look.



The external speaker on the back is in the same spot, but they moved the 2 LED's for the flash horizontal instead of vertical.

In comparison, the Incredible 2 is only a tiny bit larger and a tenth of a millimeter thicker than the original. It is 0.17 oz heavier at 4.77 oz as well.

On the left side we have the uncovered microUSB port, and volume controls. On the right side there is nothing - no dedicated camera button here! (same as the original). The bottom has nothing besides the microphone. The power/lock button is on the top along with the 3.5mm headphone jack.


Under the back cover you'll find the battery and slot for the microSD card on the bottom left. They did away with the red back and made it a semi-translucent plastic:


Under the battery is the SIM card:



Screen
HTC decided to do away with the optical joystick ion the original Incredible in favor of a slightly larger screen on the Incredible 2. The 4 inch screen, which maintains the same 480x800 resolution, is also LCD and no longer AMOLED. It's hard to say whether this matters. I am a fan of the haptic feedback on HTC phones. It goes well with keyboard strokes and is just the right amount without being too much.



Keyboard
I found the keyboard very easy to type on just like the original. The keyboard is exactly the same between the two phones since they both use HTC Sense. I really like how you can hold down a key to get the 'shift' row. I also like how they fit a comma and return key in place of a dedicated smiley face button.



Battery
The 1450mAh batter is an upgrade from the original's 1300mAh. With this you get 6.5 vs 5.21 hours of talk time and 361 vs 125 hours of stand-by time. While not the best numbers on the market, it is certainly an improvement over the original. I had no problem using the phone all day before needing a charge.

Performance
Although the 1GHz speed of the Snapdragon MSM8655 processor is the same as the original, it is actually a new chip. The original used the QSD8650, the first one available for a Verizon phone. The MSM8655 is actually the same chip used in the HTC ThunderBolt.

The Incredible 2 also boasts an increase in RAM from 512mb to 768mb.

The tests in quadrant are quite impressive, beating both the Nexus One and Droid X with Android 2.2.


Software
Just like with the original, the Incredible 2 comes with Sense UI. The layout is exactly the same since the two phones use the same software.

Here's a couple things to note about the Sense UI:

• It works great with the phones hardware - no pauses, and scrolling is easy and quick
• There are seven home screens
• You can pinch the home screen to view "cards" of all the home screens at once
• HTC Widgets are included in addition to the Google ones (like bookmarks, footprints, clocks, friend system, weather, etc.)
• Music, video, and photo browsing programs are all improved
• Flickr is included and can be synced with your album on the phone (replaced Picasa?)
• More friendly calendar layout complete with home screen widget
• Improved keyboard
• Copy/paste improved
• Improved messaging screens - Visual voicemail is part of messaging
• Integrated Twitter app

I honestly do not like the HTC sense gallery software. I like the option to easily load up Picasa pictures. On the other hand, the stock Android gallery does not let you view Flickr images. I'm sure this can easily be solved with a quick download of some 3rd party software from the Market.



Browser
I found the browser to be wonderful to use and fast to render pages. I saw no jerkiness when scrolling or zooming. I really like how easy everything is to use. You can pinch-zoom in as far as you want (literally, really really far - HTC calls this "text flow"). You get a nice screen shot of bookmarked pages. Changing windows is easy via the menu. Pages can be viewed in landscape or vertical configurations. Besides the speed at which the page was downloaded, due to the lack of 4g, everything works great.



Camera
Besides the addition of the 1.3mp front facing camera, the primary camera is exactly the same as the original. It seems to function the same as well, taking good quality photos.

I really appreciate how easily you can zoom and turn off the flash with the dedicated on-screen icons. I also really like the options available for adjusting pics, like brightness, contrast, saturation, sharpness, different color effects, and wide variety of different settings like white balance and ISO. At the highest resolution pics are 3264x1952.

You can also take 720p HD video with the Incredible 2, the same as the original as well.

I should note of a bug that I found with sending a photo to Picasa. This is actually the second phone I experienced this bug on, the first one being the HTC Thunderbolt, thinking it was a fluke at the time. Anyway, when uploading to Picasa, photos finish uploading, but somehow get the lower portion cut off. They come out looking like this:


The same photo uploaded to Facebook however, comes out correctly:




Conclusion
The HTC Droid Incredible 2 is a fantastic update to the original, although it would've been nice to see 4g data and maybe even a faster processor (didn't expect dual core).

Here is rundown of the differences between the Incredible and the Incredible 2:



Things that are the same between the Incredible and the Incredible 2:

• 8mp camera w/ dual LED flash
• 1GHz processor (although slightly different)
• 3g data
• Mobile hotspot

Why buy the Droid Incredible 2:
You:

• need a phone that has a GSM antenna / SIM card
• don't need 4g data
• need more internal storage space than the original Incredible
• want a slightly smaller phone that doesn't have a massive 4.3" screen

Reasons to not buy the Droid Incredible 2 are the opposite of the above. If you still want a phone that has a smaller size, is fast, and is going to be cheaper, get the original Incredible.

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