HTC DROID Incredible 2 review

By on May 27, 2011 at 3:00 PM
mobile May 27, 2011

The DROID Incredible 2 recently landed on Verizon Wireless, and it has some tough shoes to fill. When the original launched, it was BGR’s favorite Android phone to date despite stiff competition from the Motorola DROID, which launched at the same time. The DROID Incredible 2 packs some decent hardware, like a 1GHz processor, an 8-megapixel camera capable of recording 720p video, and more, but its specs — and data speeds — don’t match those of phones at the higher end of Verizon’s portfolio. Is the DROID Incredible 2 a worthy successor to the original or does it fall short? Read on to find out!

Hardware / Display

I remember reviewing the original Incredible and feeling a sense of loss the day I had to send it back. It had a unique race-car inspired design and HTC even had interchangeable red and white covers for the back panel that you could buy separately. The whole idea was that HTC was totally tweaking the industrial design of the phone to really get consumers turned on to the sexy designs possible with a mobile device. There’s less shock value with the Incredible 2. The red battery compartment is gone, the contours aren’t unique anymore, and the whole device feels too similar to the original to be exciting.

The phone feels excellent in the hand, though, and the soft-touch black finish provides good grip. The volume keys are in easy reach on the top left hand side, there’s a 3.5mm headphone jack on the top across from a power button, and the back is home to an 8-megapixel camera and a dual-LED flash. I love that the menu, home, search, and return buttons automatically rotate so that they’re displayed correctly in both landscape and portrait view. HTC should definitely carry that feature into other phones.

The most noticeable difference on the Incredible 2 is its larger 4-inch 800 x 480 resolution display. I like that it’s bigger than the original 3.7-inch screen on the first Incredible, which was a hair too small, but I’m disappointed that HTC ditched the AMOLED display panel. Text looks decent on the screen, but the colors don’t pop in the way they did on the original Incredible. The trade off is that the current display is much easier to view under direct sunlight, however.

I’ll discuss the rest of the hardware in various parts of this review, but here’s a quick rundown of the raw specs: the DROID Incredible is powered by a 1GHz processor — that’s the same clock speed as the original — and it has an 8-megapixel with a dual-LED flash, a 1,450 mAh battery, a 1.3-megapixel forward-facing camera for video chat, and a 16GB microSD card pre-installed.

Software

The Incredible 2 is powered by Android 2.2.1 (Froyo) with HTC’s custom Sense user interface running on top, and its 1GHz powered through it all just fine. Unfortunately, the phone is not loaded with HTC’s new revamped version of Sense, which will make its debut on the T-Mobile HTC Sensation 4G any week now. I’ve always been a big fan of Sense. It’s one of my favorite Android user interfaces, but it’s hard to recommend software that’s already being replaced. The DROID Incredible 2 also runs Android 2.2 (Froyo), too, instead of the newer Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) OS.

Thankfully, there’s relatively little bloatware installed, save for V Cast Apps, V CAST Media, V CAST Music, V CAST Tones, and V CAST Videos. Verizon has pre-installed some other software, including 3G Mobile Hotspot, Blockbuster, Amazon Kindle, Lets Golf 2, NFS Shift, Skype Mobile, NFL Mobile, Slacker, and more, but those applications are often very popular Android apps, too, and I’m a big fan of many of them. The 3G Hotpsot application will allow you to share your 3G connection with other Wi-Fi enabled devices, and I used the Incredible 2 hotspot during an entire workday without any connection drops.

Calling / Data

Calls on the DROID Incredible 2 were solid, as is typically the case on Verizon’s phones in New York City. During a test call, the other party said I sounded “clear” while walking on the streets of New York City, and she said she couldn’t make out the background traffic. The speakerphone was a bit watery but the volume was sufficient. As far as data, the Incredible 2′s data speeds were just OK. I averaged 1.2Mbps on the downlink and 1Mbps up, which is good enough for a 3G phone but a far cry from Verizon’s brand new 4G LTE network which offers download speeds that are nearly 20 times that.

Camera

The Incredible 2 packs an 8-megapixel camera, just like the original, and can shoot 720p HD video. I was satisfied with the images I snapped — they look great on the phone itself and just as solid blown up on a computer screen. Unlike some newer phones, the Incredible 2 isn’t capable of auto-focusing while shooting video, though, which was a bit of a disappointment. Similarly, it lacks an HDMI-out port, so you won’t be able to show videos or photos on your bigscreen TV, another feature that’s supported by many other high-end devices.

Battery Life

During my few days of testing I didn’t have any problem getting through a full day of moderate use before the 1,450mAh battery ran out on the Incredible 2. Verizon rates it for 6.5 hours of usage, though, so you’ll want to bring a charger along if you’re planning to watch movies during a long plane ride or car trip.

Wrap-up

The DROID Incredible 2 is a good phone — there’s nothing inherently wrong with it — but I don’t think it brings the Incredible brand forward at all. In fact, there really isn’t anything “incredible” about it. The phone is very similar to the original, save for a larger screen and some small tweaks like a forward-facing camera, but at $199.99 it costs just as much as dual-core smartphones like the DROID X2, and it’s $50 shy of Verizon’s 4G LTE smartphones that offer much, much, faster data speeds. Is it a solid follow-up to the original? No. In fact, I like the original better.

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  • Anonymous

    as a former verizon person, i can only wonder if they have improved the battery life on this device,, the first model looked great, but the battery lasted about 3 hours,, even with an extened battery that basically hooked a brick to the back,, you only got 7 hours if that,,, just a big,,, I WONDER?

    • Beller

      it’s great, don’t wonder.

  • Mattyfromma

    Its kinda sad that verizon’s last years favorite and big selling phones, just have very minor updates a year later. This is basically what RIM does, and they are gonna be out of business soon.

  • beller

    why don’t they mention it has more RAM than just about anything out there and a badass gpu. this ain’t the same damn snapdragon processor fro the N1, it’s been updated twice and is a bad mammajamma. I’ll take the pepsi challenge with this screen against any other, even the “retina” display. it holds it’s own against anythign out there. Engadget says this is “the best 3g android phone on the market”, and they’re right. It’s better than any “fauxG” AT&T or t-mobile phone too…

  • LaAsia Stith

    Ive had the Incredible II for about 3 weeks now, and already I’ve had problems with it shutting off randomly while working applications in the phone, it won’t let me stream Pandora, sometimes when trying to reply to a text, email, or post to facebook, the phone won’t respond to the keyboard and i have to take out the battery and restart.

  • Letomd

    Global phone, 4 inches display, much improved battery life, aluminum case … nothing new ???

  • Pelepus

    mmmmmmmmmmdddddrrrrrrrrrrrrooooooooooid. more like mmmmmmmmmmmmmmgggggggggggaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyy. mmmkay?

  • Aneesh Deoras

    I thought I would just add some two cents for anyone who searches for this review in the hopes of buying this phone – I have been using it for three weeks now and think I have a pretty good sense (hah) of how well this review correlates to the phone:

    It is certainly not the best phone on the market today.  It does not have 4G LTE, a dual-core processor or a Super AMOLED Plus display (it has a Super LCD).  These parts are undeniable.  It is rather annoying knowing the new Sense 3.0 will require a dual-core processor similar to that on the Sensation and that Sense may be hampered in future updates on this phone.  Once you put all of those out of the way, compared to what else is on sale today this phone is actually a fantastic deal.  Adders:

    - Extremely solid build quality.  The phone sports a unibody aluminum construction (feel the soft touch black parts around the bezel).  It feels very solid in your hand, particularly with the rubberized grip all over the device.  Rounded corners everywhere mean that even with the aluminum you never feel the phone slip or be uncomfortable to hold.  The screen is made of Gorilla Glass (along with the rest of HTC’s newer lineup) and seems very resistant.

    - Upgraded Snapdragon and 768 MB RAM.  The phone, even without a dual-core, is lightning quick and responsive.  A friend who owns a G2x actually commented on how fast the phone felt. 

    - World phone.  55% reason why I purchased this phone.  I’m currently studying abroad in France and was easily able to pop in an Orange SIM (after contacting Verizon) and never had to switch phones.  Awesome feature that is otherwise filled by the aging Droid 2 Global and Blackberry Bold/Tour. 

    - Battery life.  Honestly the best I’ve seen, dating back to the first dumbphone I ever owned.  Whereas most smartphones seem to need nightly charging, this one has lasted though entire weekends of Google Nav, email, texting, calling (at college student levels) and Market downloads on a single charge.  The new Snapdragon along with HTC’s programming means this one just gets the job done well.

    - Overall improvement.  Everything just seems refined over the original Droid Incredible.  Things seem somewhat muted and more normal.  Power has been bumped.  Battery has been bumped.  Screen has been bumped.  Fit and finish has been bumped.  Camera has been bumped.  Basic features have been bumped. 

    If you looked at my first paragraph and said no to any of those things, do not buy this phone because you will be severely disappointed.  If you made it through, go for this phone.  You won’t regret it. 

  • Suazomelvin09

    i like the incredible 2 better…just in general its perfect for size and other things rather than the original incredible so dont say its not incredible…if you were to say that than your saying all of the iphones are the same because the real big difference is the physical appereance nothing more. nothing less. i rest my case.

  • Bad Bad Phone

    The Incredible 2 sucks. It shuts down automatically and doesn’t power back up. Many times it does it overnight, so if you count on a phone for an alarm you shouldn’t get this phone because it won’t wake you up. Also, it would be great if you could send MMS messages without rendering the phone useless until you reboot it. Text messaging gets hung up really bad if you continue to use a stream where you sent an image. A screen that rotates is a great feature…if it works. You can flip and turn this phone as much as you want, with any different amount of force, but you will be damned to get the screen to turn in under 5 seconds…if at all. Half the time it flips the wrong way. And battery life- forget it. This phone, if in use will not last you more than 4.5 hours. Better than the Thunderbolt, but still crappy especially if you are used to a phone that will get you 10+ hours.  Overall, this phone sucks. I really wish I had gone for the iPhone. I have had this hunk of junk for less than 4 months now. It is going to be hard to deal with this crap for another 20 months. 

  • Anonymous

    Most reviewers bash the data capabilities of this phone.  At the Verizon store, the sales-people advertise it correctly as an alternative for folks who don’t live in 4G equipped areas.  If someone really wanted 4G, they wouldn’t get this phone.

  • W Gunning

    I had a DX2 with gingerbread and it was the worst phone experience of my life! The way they designed the file system on gingerbread was ridiculous. They named the internal storage file “sd” and they named the externa storage file “sd-ext”. Now when you have an app optimized for the 2.2.1 operating system and you tell it to go to the “sd card” where do you think it’s going to go? That’s right the “sd” file which also explains the media skipping. That’s just the worst of the problems, there’s much more.

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