Worthy of the Incredible name?

[Noble.Four]

Well HTC's announcements came and went, and among them was the Incredible S. Now, I know there was no US info given, but so far the assumption is that it will come to the US with the same specs. Given that is true, do you guys think this is really a worthy successor to the original Dinc? I don't. Let's look at the "improvements":

4" screen--up from 3.7. Some would argue this is not an improvement, but it is a key difference, so I'll leave it here.

Newest Sense--kind of a given, considering it is a new HTC device.

FFC--nice to have, solid improvement.

768 RAM--up from 512, definitely an improvement.

Newer Snapdragon processor--they are capable of a lot, so it is nice.

Promise of Gingerbread "immediately after launch"--I'll take it with a grain of salt, but it should get the newest OS if it is the newest device.

Rotating capacitive buttons--pretty cool feature, sees off the static buttons we know on the Incredible in favor of a totally buttonless device.

Okay, well, that's it for improvements, I would say. If I missed anything, sound off in the comments. Now, here are my issues with the phone. The Incredible is a year old, and this phone probably won't be seen until summer in the US. So a year and a half from the release of the original...these specs are very, very, very underwhelming. Bigger screen, but no new screen tech. Newer processor, but not really very sweet of an improvement considering time from the original.

The best improvement I can see here is the RAM, and FFC. Honestly, even if this phone were out right now in the US, I would not buy it to replace my Inc. There are not enough features to justify the money. It would be like buying a new computer with almost identical specs when you just bought a computer last year. At the rate technology changes, if you invest your money in something, you want to be sure it has the hardware to stand up for a while. The Thunderbolt will likely be out next week, and it is arguably better than this device, which we have no idea when we will see.

All around, as an Incredible enthusiast, I am very disappointed with this. I know it is better than the current Incredible, but the changes are really marginal to me. I am hoping for something more impressive by the end of the year. I know screen and processor aren't everything, but in a year where other companies are pulling out all the stops to have the latest and greatest all around, HTC will fall behind fast if they don't have more to offer than this.

 

[adjangs]

I agree this is a little underwhelming BUT we still don't know what processor it'll have. It could easily have a ~50% increase in performance along with some added features like FFC. Battery life may have been improved. There's still a lot we don't know, but I'd say it's definitely a worthy successor.

You missed a feature: rotating capacitive buttons.

 

[thebizz]

As long as it has the second gen snapdragon it will be a nice upgrade much better than the move from d1-d2

 

[Noble.Four]

I agree this is a little underwhelming BUT we still don't know what processor it'll have. It could easily have a ~50% increase in performance along with some added features like FFC. Battery life may have been improved. There's still a lot we don't know, but I'd say it's definitely a worthy successor.

You missed a feature: rotating capacitive buttons.

Updated OP, thanks. Yeah, I agree that the processor could be really nice, but we already saw what Qualcomm has coming as far as new processors, and the earliest of which will be a dual core, with better single core and even a quad core next year.

Yes, there is added performance, and more battery life would be a welcome change. But honestly, my battery on my Dinc works like a charm for me (probably because I am rooted), and the performance upgrades don't seem like a year and a half of improvements.

But, I am an HTC fanboy, and I have faith that they will have something totally awesome by the end of the year. Something worthy of me selling my Thunderbolt because I must have it.

 

[zero neck]

I think coming from an incredible this isn't much of a step up, but if you're new to android and on verizon, outside of lte, when this drops it would be a cool phone to grab.
Living in NYC, with an incredible already, i'll probably opt for the tbolt.

 

[MikeS2923]

I would have to agree that, while it certainly improves upon the original, it is still very underwhelming which is a shame. The original DInc was a flagship device for Verizon and has really lived up to it's name for me personally. But these minor enhancements over the original aren't enough to tempt me to upgrade from my original. Even if the dual core Qualcomm's weren't ready I would have hoped for higher than a 1GHz (even if it is newer generation) chip and something to set it apart from the rest of the newer phones coming out. This just places it squarely in the middle of the pack. Disappointing.

 

[Noble.Four]

Definitely well said, Mike. It's not entry level, obviously. But the fact that it barely competes with the.Thunderbolt... sad panda.

Sent from my ADR6300 using Tapatalk

 

[terryzx]

It seems to be kinna nice in comparison to the 1st gen....but I'm holding out for that 1.5 Snapdragon and more RAM. Aside from a slightly larger screen and a dual camera which I will seldom use, it just doesn?t sound like much of a PERFORMANCE boost even with a 2nd Gen Snapdragon. By this summer they will have most all with 1.5 Snapdragons and 4.3 screen. I saw where their Windoz phone is 4.3 and 1.5. But I hate Windoz so as soon as they sell to the people who want them, they will add to the other phones. I'm thinking that early 3rd quarter will see some GREAT specs that I can wait for since my 1st gen Dinc is still running great.

 

[XXXdc5]

The problem with this device is that It's not upgrading its just acquiring hardware that is already out across the board. There's nothing Incredible about this it should just be called the Mashup or the Redundancy.

To have this name, HTC should have incorporated something more ground breaking and next gen rather than a just throwing a bunch of stuff we've already seen into a bag, shaking it up, emptying it into a mold, and coming out with this.

completely underwhelmed by what HTC has chosen to release lately.

 

[Noble.Four]

In my opinion, a worthy, competitive successor to the Incredible includes the following:

Screen--Time for some new screen tech, HTC, WVGA is getting so old I can't even express it. Something like qHD would be nice. Some people say you can't tell the difference between something like Retina and WVGA. I say those people are blind.

Processor--I am not a dual core snob, but Qualcomm has some sexy chips not too far off, the nearest being dual core, so the Inc 2 should have a dual core Qualcomm processor at least. Size, I would say four is actually the sweet spot.

RAM--Something the TBolt and IncS seem to be doing okay with. At least 768MB, but why not 1GB, if I am talking about my dream phone?

OS--Well, Gingerbread almost seems like a thing of the past without even hitting any phones officially, aside from the Nexus S. So whatever 2.4 is, I want that on my dream Inc.

Battery--It doesn't need to be ridiculous, but something bigger than 1500mAh probably would be nice.

Storage--At least 8GB on board, with a 32GB card preinstalled (yes, the TBolt has me spoiled)

Carrier--Verizon, obviously, and preferably LTE enabled.

For now, that is all I can think of for dream specs. The biggest things I want are screen tech and processor. I know that sounds really menial to some people, but HTC needs to get competitive. Moto may have lock bootloaders and all the nastiness of Blur, but on paper, and to the less informed customers, their phones blow all of the recently announced HTC phones to hell. HTC needs to realize that. And wow everyone like they did with the original Inc and the EVO.

 

[zero neck]

In my opinion, a worthy, competitive successor to the Incredible includes the following:

Screen--Time for some new screen tech, HTC, WVGA is getting so old I can't even express it. Something like qHD would be nice. Some people say you can't tell the difference between something like Retina and WVGA. I say those people are blind.

Processor--I am not a dual core snob, but Qualcomm has some sexy chips not too far off, the nearest being dual core, so the Inc 2 should have a dual core Qualcomm processor at least. Size, I would say four is actually the sweet spot.

RAM--Something the TBolt and IncS seem to be doing okay with. At least 768MB, but why not 1GB, if I am talking about my dream phone?

OS--Well, Gingerbread almost seems like a thing of the past without even hitting any phones officially, aside from the Nexus S. So whatever 2.4 is, I want that on my dream Inc.

Battery--It doesn't need to be ridiculous, but something bigger than 1500mAh probably would be nice.

Storage--At least 8GB on board, with a 32GB card preinstalled (yes, the TBolt has me spoiled)

Carrier--Verizon, obviously, and preferably LTE enabled.

For now, that is all I can think of for dream specs. The biggest things I want are screen tech and processor. I know that sounds really menial to some people, but HTC needs to get competitive. Moto may have lock bootloaders and all the nastiness of Blur, but on paper, and to the less informed customers, their phones blow all of the recently announced HTC phones to hell. HTC needs to realize that. And wow everyone like they did with the original Inc and the EVO.

I would get with that. And put it in a metal unibody frame.

 

[TaeKwonDonkey]

Personally, I think from this point, any phone that wishes to be worthy of the DROID name needs to have 4G. That should be a minimum requirement.