Rating:

I was happily surprised when Verizon finally broke the silence and announced the availability of the Incredible. And though I was only halfway through my New Every Two plan, upon my request Verizon graciously offered me the phone at the promotional $149 and then simply restarted my New Every Two the moment I activated this phone. THAT’S good customer service.

I’ve had the phone for over a week and I absolutely love it. Yes there are grumblings about the lean battery life. I won’t lie, you do need to be prepared to charge it daily, especially for the first few days. But you have to keep in mind it’s a small computer that does REAL multitasking. This is nothing new for those who have owned smartphones previously and does take a little getting used to by the basic voice / text phone crowd (my old voice / text phone went 8-9 days between charging).

The battery is a tad undersized for the power of the phone but then again we consumers want a small, thin form factor. Already there’s a 1750 mAh battery available (exact same dimensions as the one it ships with) and rumors of an upcoming 2100+ mAh. And remember, something you can do with this and most every non-Apple mobile device – easily carry a spare & swap / upgrade batteries.

Following the advice on the Android forums, for the first few days I put my phone through full charge / discharge (till completely dead) cycles and have noticed a good 50% gain on battery life.

The screen is gorgeous. Because the phone does true multitasking you have a selection of animated backgrounds including a really cool swirling galaxy, blades of grass waving in the breeze, etc. Touch sensitivity is great albeit a little too sensitive at times (a screen protector really helps in this area). The multi-touch is great and while surfing the web, with most sites you can “drag zoom” (opposite of a pinch) text and pictures and then pan around – especially for those sites that prefer to use annoyingly small microfiche fonts.

Voice quality is excellent – both what you hear and what your caller hears

The speaker is decent for a phone but plug in a decent pair of headphones (uses a standard jack) and you have sound quality rivaling an iPod. Plus the cord on the headphones acts as an antenna for the built-in FM radio.

wifi setup is a breeze though with Verizon’s unlimited data plan the biggest benefit to wifi connectivity is speed. I find the range with my home network is as good as my laptop and the phone will automatically switch between known / configured wifi networks and the regular 3G network, with a preference for wifi over 3G. When using the YouTube app, if you’re connected on wifi it will automatically always try to get the highest quality version of the video. If you’re only on the 3G network then you have to tell the player to use higher quality (since it can take longer to load and possibly not stream as smoothly on 3G).

I’ve been using the free Pandora app to stream internet radio and have quickly gotten addicted to always-on Internet connectivity. Sound quality doesn’t change between wifi and 3G and I can’t even tell when the phone switches as I get out of range of my configured wifi hotspots. There is something to be said for the Verizon 3G network coverage. I live in Phoenix and haven’t had any connectivity issues.

I do need to mention there’s a current issue in the app that shows you 3G signal strength in the phone status bar. It doesn’t seem to show true signal strength. That is at times it has shown zero signal strength and I’ve made calls, surfed, listened to Internet radio with no quality issues. Once again, this is a new phone and nothing an update (they download via the 3G / wifi network, by the way – you don’t have to plug it into your computer or take it to the Verizon store) won’t correct.

Voice recognition is pretty flawless (actually performed by the Verizon server farm, I believe) and can be used pretty much anywhere you can use the onscreen keyboard.

Integration with Gmail email, contacts & calendar is seamless. In fact if you have a Gmail account you’ll see there’s no longer any need to keep contacts on your phone. You can assign ringtones, notes, etc to your Gmail contacts exactly as you can to contacts stored locally on the phone so why bother backing up with Backup Assistant, etc? Every time the phone syncs with your Gmail account any changes are “backed up”. You do have the option to sync with other email providers but I haven’t explored that feature since I only use Gmail.

I’ve had hit and miss success with Flash video on sites like [...]. But at least the Android OS is committed to supporting Flash so I have full confidence that this will be corrected in an upcoming update.

All this chatter about the Apple store having hundreds of thousands of apps vs Google store only having twenty thousand or so seems rather irrelevant to me. That is, I’m finding PLENTY of apps available and a surprising quantity of great quality FREE apps. And as the Android OS gets more and more popular, and as Apple gets more and more unfriendly toward their “loyal” developers, there are going to be more and more apps available for the Android OS.

Finally, at least in my case Verizon only shipped the anemic printed “Quick Start” guide which did little more than tell you to charge it fully first and gave a quick overview of the phone and setting up Gmail, Facebook, etc. If you do a Google search for “Droid Incredible Users Guide” you’ll find a great 206 page PDF of the full users guide. I’m not sure why Verizon isn’t shipping it (printed OR CD) though it has their logo on it. If you’re new to smartphones and/or the Android OS (like I was) this guide is a must and can help you make the most out of this incredible (ha!) little device.

If you’re still a fence sitter like I was, yes, there will always be a better phone “coming”. But if you’re ready to finally join the smartphone crowd I think the Droid Incredible is an excellent phone to make the leap with.

Rating:

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 – [...] application for tracking 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: 480×800 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!

Rating:

Pros:

Android OS and Sense

Customizable

Beautiful Screen

Android Market

8MP camera (shoots well in low light don’t let anyone tell you different)

super fast processor

7 home screens that you can view by pinching. You don’t have to swipe through all 7. Makes my friends jealous.

the browser is smooth and fast. Auto aligns text when you zoom. uses multi-touch to pinch and zoom. Smooth scrolling and fast, fast load times.

Cons

hard to sync any e-mail other than a gmail account

facebook app sucks, but i just made a bookmark to the full site, since the internet is super fast

optical trackpad is glitchy but i only use it for the camera

battery life…but Seidio is coming out with an extended battery so thats not going to be a problem soon

Bottom Line:

Honestly, I have been waiting for a phone like this every since the iPhone. I don’t have AT&T and to be honest I just don’t like Apple as a company. They make cool stuff, but they rip their customers off. This phone is an iPhone killer. Compare them on all levels of performance, looks, functionality, customization, and speed and you’ll find that the Droid Incredible is the same if not better. Also, Verizon’s coverage is fantastic, so don’t be fooled by 4G. I’m sure its great if you live somewhere where you get service.

EDIT: (4/30) This phone eats RAM like crazy. I installed “Advanced Task Killer” but I was still down to only 42M after a few days. I would suggest downloading either “Task Manager” or “TaskPanel” (I have Task Manager and my boyfriend has TaskPanel on his Moto Droid and both work quite well). I also suggest restarting the phone every few days just like you would a real computer.

Other than that still no complaints

Rating:

The Incredible is fast – almost too fast as it responds quickly to short flicks of my thumb. The optical joystick option for navigation works nicely, especially to avoid extra smudges to the touch screen. The seven page HTC Sense display is unique and has unlimited options for customization – the ability to have functional “widgets” vs. just application launch icons vs. the iPhone make this stand out – as well as the several default configurations to help guide you towards customizing your own configuration. The display itself is bright, sharp, and the higher resolution (compared to the 3G) makes everything pop out, making you “wow” when you first look at it. Customization options are abundant, further allowing you to customize to your heart’s content. The seamless integration with Google mail/calendar, Facebook and Twitter, and well as the ability to sync Outlook Calendar and contacts provides a novel method of linking various contacts together for streamlined management of your contacts – for example, if I had you in my Outlook contacts, and also as a friend in Facebook, and followed you in Twitter, the HTC allows me to link those together, so your contact info on the phone allows me to interact with you without having to actually go to those various applications. I even like the fit of the phone in my hands – an iPhone (without a case) always feels like it’s going to slip right out of my grasp, but the case of the Incredible seems to “stick” to my fingers, and I never feel like it’s going to slip through.

The camera is worlds better than that of the iPhone 3G. Photos are clear, and colors are true to life. The led flashes work well. The only drawback is pushing the optical joystick to take a picture – same problem as with the iPhone. A button on the side of the phone would be preferable.

If you are worried about apps, there’s no need to. Just about every app I had on the iPhone has a version in the Android Marketplace, or at least another app that is of equal quality/function. The Marketplace is more cumbersome to use as it’s only available through the phone interface – a store to browse and shop via the web on my computer, similar to how the iTunes apps store functions, would be a great addition and make finding apps much easier. The phone interface is quite functional, but trying to compare and select between similar apps would work better on the computer. **Update** Thanks to a comment, I’ve found Appbrain, which looks like a good solution for this!

If you are tired of AT&T’s network and/or the iPhone, the Incredible on VZW is certainly a prospect to investigate. I give it a hearty thumbs up! 4 stars for the Incredible itself, as it can use some software improvements, especially to the Marketplace, and 5 stars for the VZW voice and data network (but 1 star for VZW’s continual poor documentation of the phones they provide).

Pros:

Fast processor

beautiful display

great camera quality

wealth of applications through Marketplace

fit and feel

VZW Network quality

highly customizable interface

integration of contact data

Cons:

Marketplace apps only through phone interface*(see update above)

Not many accessories available yet

touch screen smudges quickly, and smudges are quite noticeable

Poorly documented by VZW

Rating:

HTC Incredible advantages over iPhone ——————

Verizon – I got rid of my iPhone simply because AT&T is terrible here in New York. My sister and her husband in Washington DC got an iPhone over Christmas and they complain about the crappy service there too. Verizon is blazing fast, the best service in NYC.

Widgets – Surprisingly the iPhone doesn’t have widgets. The Incredible has some really cool widgets you can use. Widgets are like icons you can add to home screens, but instead of opening a program, the icon itself will give you info or have some other type of functionality like a a list of contacts or booksmarks you can access directly without opening a program first.

Transfer files without iTunes – Whether you like iTunes or not, you are hamstrung using it with the iPhone. With the Incredible, transfer is simple. You connect the phone to your computer and you can copy over files to it.

Connect it to as many computers as you want – I can connect to my computer both at home and at work, something you can’t do with the iPhone. Apple annoyingly limits you to one computer to update your iPhone.

Access the file system – Unlike the iPhone, you can copy, paste and delete files from the internal hard drive. You can also copy files from the hard drive to your computer–or any computer for that matter.

Email – E-mail capabilities on the Incredible are better than the iPhone. In addition to global search, you can sort by conversation, sender, date, etc.

8 megapixel Camera with flash – The 8 megapixel camera takes beautiful detailed shots, even better than the iPhone’s camera, which actually takes really nice photos as long as it’s not dark. The iPhone doesn’t have a flash. The camera on the Incredible did crash a few times, a but I’m hoping they will work out in later versions. The Incredible camera is also really fast loading.

Physical Camera button – The Incredible has a physical camera and video record button that works very well. With the iPhone you need to push a button on the touch screen, kind of annoying sometimes.

Faster – The Incredible is blazing fast. There is rarely any lag in switching or loading programs. Very snappy.

Mp3 player access without unlocking screen – When you’re listening to music and you click the button to turn on the screen, you don’t need to unlock the screen to see what music is playing. The iPhone has that as well. But unlike the iPhone, it also has usable back, pause and forward buttons on the locked screen.

Editable dictionary – You can see and edit the keyboard dictionary yourself and choose what words you want in it.

Send caller to voice mail – If you edit a user’s contact, you have an option to always send that user to voice mail if you want. Minor, but kinda cool.

Weather on calendar – When you flip through upcoming days on your calendar, it also displays the weather for that day. Pretty sweet.

Google maps with layers – Android allows you to add `layers’ to your map. For example, you can overlay the NYC MTA subway maps and see the actual subway lines. iPhone can’t do that.

Super thin – This phone feels thinner than the iPhone, and I think it is in some ways. It certainly fits in my pocket a lot nicer than the Motorola Droid, which felt about 1/3 thicker than the incredible.

iPhone advantages over HTC Incredible ——————

Music audio quality – I loaded the same some songs on both the Incredible and the iPhone and listened carefully. The iPhone’s music audio quality, without any EQ, is slightly better than the Incredible. It’s not bad on the incredible, it just sounds slightly punchier across the audio spectrum on the iPhone. The Incredible does have better sound quality than the Motorola Droid, which I also tested.

Equalizer – The iPhone has different equalizer settings. It’s poorly implemented and easy to get low-end distortion but at least they have an EQ. No EQ on Android phones. Lame.

Alerts – I like the way alerts and text messages pop up on the iPhone better than the Android. It feels like you need to dig too much to access new messages on the Incredible.

Apps – Of course, the iPhone’s app store is far more extensive than the Android’s. 95% of the functionality I can still get on the Android, but apps for the Android are almost always made second to iPhone apps if at all.