Our Verdict
The HTC Droid Incredible was a vast success in the United States when Verizon launched the smartphone last spring , so it pee-pee sense that Verizon and HTC would team up again to deliver the next generation , the unbelievable 2 . The unbelievable 2 does n’t represent a drastic service of the original Incredible ’s design or specs , but I find some nice nonaged upgrades and refinements in excogitation throughout the phone . One likely dealbreaker for user , however , is the telephone ’s deficiency of 4 gm connectivity .
I in reality project the international version of the Droid Incredible 2 , theIncredible S , back in February at the Mobile World Congress show in Barcelona . The Incredible 2 is essentially the same as its international sib , except that it is build to run on Verizon ’s global CDMA internet , whereas the HTC Incredible S is a GSM phone .
Unibody aluminum design
The big difference between theDroid Incredibleand the Incredible 2 are in the design . The Incredible 2 has a substantial unibody Al design . This is becoming HTC ’s trademark for its high - end sound , and I ’m all for it . The phone feel tougher , yet more elegant than the somewhat plasticky original Incredible .
The Incredible 2 is an impressively minimalist phone with an all - black coloration dodge . It has a soft - touch matte rubberized back that not covers both the back of the phone and its spines . The mount is nicely sculpted around the barrage fire and photographic camera lens , much as on the original Incredible . I care the backing of the phone , but I ’m not so indisputable about covering the spines too . It make the phone look as though it were wearing a permanent bumper . The Incredible 2 is n’t the most eye - take in HTC headphone , but some people will appreciate its easiness and solidness .
The unbelievable 2 is manifestly quite a second larger than its precursor , but neither Verizon nor HTC could give me its exact measurements before we published this review . I ’ll update the review once I get confirmation . The original Incredible measured 4.63 by 2.3 by 0.47 inch buddy-buddy and weighed 4.6 ounces . You ’ll find the standard Android touch modality - tender button below the video display ( Home , Menu , Back , and Search ) . A mass rock ‘n’ roll musician and a micro - USB interface occupy the left spine , while the veracious spine is unornamented . At the top , you ’ll find the power push button and the 3.5 mm headphone jak .
The crisp , bright 4 - inch display ( relegate up from the original Incredible ’s 3.7 - incher ) attractively showcases HTC ’s mother wit custom UI overlay , and the UI move fluidly throughout the phone . The 800 - by-480 - pixel - resolution exhibit is market as a “ crack LCD display , ” which think that it provides an 800:1 contrast ratio and a viewing slant of up to 160 degree . We ’ve seen this engineering in other HTC phones such as theThunderbolt . The display performs very well indoors ; but once you get it alfresco in burnished sunlight , it completely disappears . To be clean , most smartphone display we ’ve test have this trouble .
Android 2.2 with HTC Sense
Like many other new Android phone we ’ve watch this year , such as the T - Mobile G2X , the Incredible 2 will embark with Froyo ( 2.2)—not with Gingerbread ( 2.3 ) . HTC promised an upgrade to 2.3 , but has n’t given a substantial day of the month as to when that will happen . We ’ve coveredAndroid 2.2and2.3extensively in the past , so discipline out our hands - on reviews of both version .
HTC ’s Sense overlay tally some pretty aesthetics to Android , including a active , playful Weather app ; a social web aggregator call Friend Stream ; and a vamp Contacts system . My favorite feature , call Leap , serve as an refined way of life of pilot through your homescreens . lift anywhere on any domicile CRT screen , and you ’ll jump to thumbnail versions of your screen door . From there , you may go to any one you want by simply tapping on it .
Some people bed HTC Sense , while others prefer the unvarnished Android experience . My advice to anyone shopping for an Android phone is to try three unlike speech sound : two with overlay ( like Sense or Samsung ’s TouchWiz ) and one with vanilla extract Android . You should quickly get a pretty good estimate of how they disagree and which you like best .
The Incredible 2 allow quite a few preloaded apps , courtesy of HTC and Verizon , including Adobe Reader , HTC Footprints , City ID , NFL Mobile , and all of Verizon ’s VCast apps .
Multimedia
The unbelievable 2 boasts SRS WOWHD besiege sound for videos and music , which I ’ve seen on other HTC Phones like the HTC Surround . I could n’t discern how the sound differ when it was shoot through the external speakers . When I put on in high spirits - quality headphones , however , my music sounded rich and full , and the surround effect was definitely apparent .
Unfortunately , the homely Android medicine player is marred by the annoying presence of Verizon ’s VCast music manager . Every sentence you try on to sync your headphone to your PC , the needy Verizon VCast music managing director will pop up and order you that you need an update . At least , that ’s been my experience with it .
I was quite impressed with the Incredible 2 ’s TV playback . Verizon VCast apps played swimmingly over 3 chiliad with no distortion or stuttering . YouTube videos await about as good as YouTube videos can — and of grade , way better when YouTube HQ was an option .
Camera
The Incredible 2 variation an 8 - megapixel camera with a dual - conduct flashgun and receive a welcome rise to 720p video capture . The camera interface has built - in boldness - detection package , which register when you ’re taking a portrait of somebody and adjusts the television camera preferences accordingly . This feature operate adequately for me in a normally illuminate elbow room ; but in a darker office with lots of backlighting , the person I was blast still came out somewhat saturnine . picture taken outside looked great , with copious color and sharp details . My indoor shots expect good too , though without the flash they had a bit of a dark hurl . The fanfare is powerful , but nottoopowerful . Unlike a few other headphone I ’ve go through , it did n’t totally blow out the point in my guessing .
The video clips I shot outdoors with the unbelievable 2 looked pretty good . The camcorder handled tight - moving action well , though the sound was a little wooly-minded .
The Incredible also sports a front - facing , 1.3 - megapixel photographic camera for make video vociferation . With no 4 G connectivity , however , you may not use this feature of speech much .
Performance
The unbelievable 2 is powered by a 1GHz Qualcomm MSM8655 Snapdragon processor , the same one that the HTC Thunderbolt use . We ’ve been hearing so much about dual - essence earphone that 1GHz seems weak in comparison . But a band more goes into how a phone performs than just its processor stop number . The unbelievable 2 did just fine as I opened multiple apps and navigated throughout its user interface without any glitches .
To quiz the unbelievable 2 ’s data point amphetamine over Verizon ’s 3 G CDMA internet in San Francisco , I ran the FCC - approved Ookla Speedtest app . The Incredible 2 had median transfer speed of 0.67 megabit per second base for downloads and 0.17 mbps for uploads . These speeds are pretty sad when compared to the averages we achieved with the HTC Thunderbolt over the 4 M LTE meshing : In our five - city 4 G test , the Thunderbolt averaged 18.30 mbps for downloads and 7.39 mbps for uploads .
The HTC Incredible 2 has built - in noise cancellation engineering science , which I put to the mental testing on a busy street corner in San Francisco . My callers on the other conclusion of the parentage describe that my voice sound nice and well-defined , but I had some trouble hearing them , specially when the wind picked up . I find out a spate of backfire in my earpiece , which made pick up what my friends are saying moderately unmanageable . I did n’t get any dropped calls or distortion , however , and I had a strong signal just about everywhere I went in San Francisco .
Bottom Line
The HTC unbelievable 2 is an first-class upgrade from the original Incredible in terms of video display , purpose , and specs , but I could n’t help oneself but feel slightly cheated by the absence of 4 G support , specially since the phone is so great for watching video recording . For what it offer , I think it should be price $ 50 lower . At $ 200 , it ’s only $ 50 less than the HTC Thunderbolt . I would volitionally husk out the extra $ 50 for the Thunderbolt , which lets me shift between 3 G and 4 G when I need to .
[ Ginny Mies is an associate editor for PCWorld . ]
