The HTC Droid Incredible

I ordered my new smartphone at my local Verizon Wireless kiosk on May 9th. It arrived on May 25th, a little over two weeks later. Considering that the phone had only recently been released (and was therefore a hot item), was backordered, and was shipping out of Memphis, TN (currently underwater), I’d say that two weeks was not a bad wait at all. A hard wait, oh, yes, but nothing to complain about (I still did).

It this phone incredible? Well, comparing it to the LG Voyager Titanium (my previous phone), yes. Yes, it is. According to other users, it lives up to its name when compared to competing top-of-the-line smartphones, as well.

I cannot post a lengthy or comprehensive review as of yet, because the only thing I’ve really gotten good at on this phone is playing WordUp (like Boggle). However, I am pretty impressed with the speed and dexterity. The touch screen capabilities are nothing to shake a stick at. The battery life is about what you’d expect from any of the newer smartphones. Per the advice of several Motorola Droid users, one of the first apps. I downloaded was the Advanced Task Killer for Android, by ReChild. It’s kind of like a Task Manager for the phone, allowing you to see what apps. are running in the background and “kill” them to help preserve battery life.

The quick and easy web access is also a plus. While I could do this with my Voyager, it was extremely sluggish and unreliable. I’m still getting used to the fact that I can pull out my phone and bring up a web site or search results almost as fast as I can on my PC.

I’m still getting used to the touch screen keyboard. Unlike its Android-based predecessor from Verizon, the Motorola Droid, the HTC Droid Incredible is not a slider, and does not have a QWERTY keyboard. While this initially caused some hesitation, I told myself I could get used to using a touch screen. To speed this process along, I did a little exercise that I’ve taken to doing whenever I get a new phone: I manually transferred all of my contacts.

The (wonderful) Verizon rep. who helped me with my phone setup was a little surprised when I requested she refrain from doing the transfer for me. If you’re the sort of person who has dozens, or even hundreds of numbers stored on your mobile device, I can see how a manual transfer might be out of the question. However, I feel that the exercise is beneficial because it helps me begin to learn the layout of the new phone, and (especially in this case) get used to any new input methods. I had 42 contacts to enter. It took me roughly an hour and a half, and I was able to weed out a bunch of numbers that I no longer needed.

I’ve also been enjoying the 8MP camera. Like some have noted, the quality is approaching that of a compact point-and-shoot camera. There are a lot of options to tweak lighting, contrast, resolution, white balance, etc. A noteworthy flash capability also makes it possible to take decent nighttime pictures. I feel I should note that the camera function is the only time I’ve ever used the main “joystick” button at the front/bottom of the phone. Other than acting as the camera’s shutter button, I’m not really sure what it’s good for. (I did download the 206 page manual, and plan to find out more about this mysterious feature.)

So, I’m less than a week in, and I’ve barely scratched the surface. I sincerely doubt that I’ll have learned everything there is to know about the HTC Droid Incredible by the time my next 2-year upgrade rolls around. All in all, and as I told a Verizon Wireless rep. who inquired how I liked my new device: “It’s a little overwhelming.” But it’s also incredibly fun.

 
[ Booyeah. ]