iPhone versus Droid Incredible
Yup, here it is, another Droid versus iPhone comparison. If you read my last post on this topic you’ll know that I already played with the Motorola Droid about six months ago. The fact is AT&T coverage in Charleston sucks. It is by far the worst network in the area. While all my friends & coworkers are able to make & receive calls I am stuck in a zero-bar-zone-of-hell. It’s not just me and my phone either. Anyone else that visits with their iPhone in tow has similar connectivity problems. In fact someone just told me last week that they saw a comedian on stage held up his iPhone and said “they should just call it the ‘I’” to which he received a hearty round of applause and cheers. Guess it’s not just a problem in Charleston.
Anyway, I digress. The point is I need to use my ‘I’ as a business tool. It does me no good to have cool apps sitting on my desk next to my full fledged computer with 24″ widescreen HD monitor. What I need is a PHONE, not a 320×240 computer with cool touch screen apps. Since I get ZERO bars at our new office location it is time to revisit the iPhone versus ‘something’ debate once more.
Lucky for me, less than a month after relocating our office to yet another AT&T dead zone, the HTC Droid Incredible hit the market. Even luckier was the fact that I found LetsTalk.com had the phone in stock while every other store including ALL the area Verizon stores as well as Best Buy were on backorder for 3 weeks. Even better, LetsTalk.com had the phone for $50 less than Best Buy and $100 less than Verizon. Plus it came with a FREE 2GB microSD card. Can’t beat that!
First Impressions
Packaging
The first thing I noticed was the packaging. Small, neat, and very cleanly designed. Very much on par with the quality packaging Apple provides. The manuals are well written, not some obvious Chinese-English-Chinese Censors-English translation. Everything was well packed and in it’s hermetically sealed plastic bag. No cheap used bread bag twisty-ties either, the USB based power adapter had a nice neat black rubber band. Yeah, I know, piddly little details nobody really cares about, but it is obvious from the start that HTC put some thought into the packaging.
The same attention to detail was obvious when cracking open the case to install the battery. The entire inside of the case is a bright red with very clean lines and an easy-in/easy-out battery setup. The micro-sd slot is easily accessible on the side of the unit so no pulling out batteries to upgrade the SD card like some other phones. Again, details people don’t really care about, but still made for a good first impression.
Power On
After a brief charging session, to ensure I had plenty of juice to play with my new toy, it was time to power up. The very first thing I notices was the quality tactile experience with the buttons and the rubberized backing on the phone. While I wasn’t sure I’d like that rubberized feel, it actually makes it much easier to work with this phone. Unlike the iPhone which I always felt I needed to be extra careful with so it didn’t shoot out of my hands and across the room, smashing the $500 screen – the Droid Incredible feels firmly planted thanks to that backing. And the backing doesn’t feel cheap, in fact much to my surprise it feels surprisingly high quality.
Power button in… phone on. That fast. Yeah, this phone is WAAAAAYYYY faster than my iPhone. The iPhone takes about 1-2 seconds to just show the Apple logo, then another 15-20 seconds, on a good day… sometimes much more on a bad one, to fully boot. This Droid Incredible instantly shows signs of life & is ready for action within a few seconds.
The Screen
And when it comes to life you know it. That screen is bright, at least as bright as the iPhone. While I read some early reviews complaining about screen brightness, I didn’t notice. Maybe because it was evening, but side-by-side with my iPhone the Droid Incredible screen stands out. Not only is it bright, but the screen is exceptionally clear. The higher resolution stands out as do the bright vibrant colors.
Not only is the screen bright, has great resolution, and good color representation, it also has a very responsive touch screen. This screen is the first touch screen on a phone that is on par, or possibly even MORE responsive than the iPhone. HTC has really nailed this. While the on screen keyboard appears smaller for some reason, it is easier to type on. I find I type much faster on the HTC on screen keyboard than either the Motorola Droid slide out keyboard or the iPhone on screen keyboard.
The Apps
Wow this Incredible has a lot of cool features right out of the box. One of my favorites is the “HTC Scenes”. These are pre-set layouts for 3 or 4 of the 6 home screens that come on the phone. Each has different layouts of what apps or widgets appear where. It is not just a background changer, but an interface changer. While you can setup the interface to use any combination of full screen widgets, apps, and other utilities on your own – for people like me that don’t want to spend hours playing with those things… at least not yet… the half dozen options for “Scenes” that HTC gives you is perfect. A big full screen calendar on one page, a full screen message center on another, and a myriad of icon apps on a third… perfect for what I need right now.
That’s another thing I really like about this interface. You can take various widgets and plop them on a home page in full screen mode. When you flick between the screens, one of them will have that widget up and running in full screen mode – ready to go. You can’t do it with every program (at least not that I’ve found yet), but the built in widgets like the full screen calendar and message center are a great start. This saves at least one “click” compared to the iPhone when accessing oft-used applications.
Can I Use It As… gasp… A Phone?
The quick answer, HELL YEAH. I was actually able to make calls from my house and not drop the line after 2 minutes or less. That feat was absolutely impossible on my AT&T based iPhone. Next challenge… this morning at our new office. If nothing else, AT&T was consistent. As in AT&T NEVER had coverage here. This morning, 2 text messages and 2 calls on the Droid Incredible. No drops, no missed calls. Perfect. A phone that works as a phone! As I sit here looking at my iPhone with “no service” in the top left corner I can’t help but think “when is my docking station for the Incredible going to arrive… it will look so cool sitting there with it’s 3 bars”.
iPhone versus Droid Incredible
| Droid Incredible | iPhone (1st Gen) |
|---|---|
| Pros | |
|
|
| Cons | |
|
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Comparison : Head-To-Head
| Feature | Motorola Droid | iPhone 1st Gen |
|---|---|---|
| Application Quality |  |
|
| Application Selection | tie | tie Apple has more, but both have what I need. |
| Home Interface | |
|
| Photo Quality | |
|
| MP3 Sound Quality | |
|
| Network Coverage | |
|
| Screen Resolution | |
|
| Text/Media Messaging | |
|
| Touchscreen | tie | tie |
| Video Recording | |
|
| Visual Voicemail | tie | tie |
Summary
I’ve only had my hands on the Droid Incredible for 24 hours now, but I am almost certain that my AT&T service is not going to make it until June. The fact is I NEED a phone and WANT cool mobile apps. The Droid Incredible is the first device to deliver both. Whether I was in the market for my first touch screen phone or looking for some way to get off the AT&T network without sacraficing all those cool features I’ve come to love on the iPhone… I think this is it.
My prediction: Verizon and the Droid Incredible are going to be eating one big chunk of AT&T and Apple’s pie this year. Good thing AT&T sat on their laurels when it came to customer service & network coverage… and Apple opted for a slice of the greed pie that AT&T served them the past 3 years. What’s better than some good solid market competition to give us, the customer, better choices.
HTC Droids offered by Lets Talk
I purchased my latest cell phone (a Droid Incredible by HTC ) from Lets Talk. Everyone else was sold out, yet they claimed they had plenty in stock. While I was a bit skeptical at first, my phone arrived in perfect condition in just 3 days for $50-$100 LESS than any other retailer I could find. Sweet!
Multimedia Station for Droid/Droid 2
Take advantage of all of your DROID's amazing features and turn your DROID by Motorola into your own personal multimedia station. This Multimedia Charger Dock not only charges your DROID but enables you to check the weather view photos and play your Mp3's and movies. You'll no longer need your old clock the station enables your cell phone to display the time date and doubles as an alarm clock. Multimedia Station for Droid/Droid 2 also includes:Turns your DROID into a multimedia station Displays photos time date and weather Plays Mp3's and Videos Doubles as an alarm clock with a light dimmer Included in Box:USB cable Charger User Manual
USD $29.99
Multimedia Station for Droid/Droid 2
Take advantage of all of your DROID's amazing features and turn your DROID by Motorola into your own personal multimedia station. This Multimedia Charger Dock not only charges your DROID but enables you to check the weather view photos and play your Mp3's and movies. You'll no longer need your old clock the station enables your cell phone to display the time date and doubles as an alarm clock. Multimedia Station for Droid/Droid 2 also includes:Turns your DROID into a multimedia station Displays photos time date and weather Plays Mp3's and Videos Doubles as an alarm clock with a light dimmer Included in Box:USB cable Charger User Manual
USD $29.99
DROID by Motorola Swivel Holster
Carry your phone at the convenience of a holster. Built to firmly hold your phone in place your Droid is safe and protected from damaging elements. With a swivel belt clip you'll never second guess taking your Droid everywhere you go. DROID by Motorola Swivel Holster also includes:Soft black inside lining Spring loaded swivel Belt clip
USD $10.99
DROID by Motorola Swivel Holster
Carry your phone at the convenience of a holster. Built to firmly hold your phone in place your Droid is safe and protected from damaging elements. With a swivel belt clip you'll never second guess taking your Droid everywhere you go. DROID by Motorola Swivel Holster also includes:Soft black inside lining Spring loaded swivel Belt clip
USD $10.99
DROID 2 by Motorola (Verizon Wireless)
The Droid 2 by Motorola for Verizon Wireless is everything you loved about the original Droid but upgraded with the latest in wireless technology. A combination of the newest version of Google's Android 2.2 with Adobe Flash 10.1 support and a 1GHz OMAP processor gives you access to the fastest Android experience possible. For example web pages load 40% faster than on the original DROID by Motorola. The Droid 2 features both a larger Slide-out QWERTY keyboard for a better physical typing experience and a Virtual QWERTY keyboard complete with the Swype method of text input. A 5MP camera with dual LED flash spacious 3.7 inch 854 x 480 resolution screen and a pre-installed 8GB removable microSD card complete the package. *DROID is a trademark of Lucasfilm Ltd. and its related companies. Used under license. DROID 2 by Motorola (Verizon Wireless) also includes:Google's Android 2.2 Operating System Adobe Flash 10.1 support Speedy 1GHz OMAP processor Enhanced Slide-out & Virtual QWERTY keyboards 5MP camera with dual LED flash Included Accessories:Motorola Device 8GB Pre-Installed microSD Card Standard 1400 mAh lithium ion battery USB data cable Wall charger User manual
USD $0.01
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0 Comment | Posted in Gadgets,blog
by lcleveland on May 11, 2010
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