Okay, so I’ve had the HTC Incredible since April 28th 2010. I have used it every day since and have not been able to put it down.
First a little background…
I have been with Verizon for over 10 years now. I have always upgraded my phones every year to year and a half. My last phones were the LG EnV, then the Samsung Omnia and my last phone was the LG EnV Touch. I loved the EnV. Great, small compact phone and it had a keyboard for the first time in my phone use history. Then I got the Omnia and I returned that after 2 weeks. I hated the virtual keyboard. I made too many mistakes typing so that went right back and I got the EnV touch in its place. The touch I had for about a year. I had to pay the $10.00 per month data plan. I LOVED this phone. It was a little thicker than I wanted, but everything else was perfect, or at least I thought it was…until…
The HTC Incredible…
I knew that I was paying $10 a month for a data plan for my EnV Touch basically to send text messages and use it as a music player in the gym. I figured for another few dollars I could get a smart phone and get a lot more features. I started to do some research on smart phones and I saw the Moto Droid. Great reviews and built like a tank, but I really didn’t want the physical keyboard anymore. That same day I saw that Verizon had started pre-orders for the HTC Incredible. I figured why not. I placed my pre-order and the total was around $222.00 with free overnight shipping. Now for the wait. I also needed a way to explain to the wife that I spent $222 on a phone plus $30.00 a month extra for a data plan when we are looking to redo our bathroom and our kitchen and our hardwood floors. I also need new hockey skates. Oh well, think how much better this new phone will make our lives!!
The wait is over…
The phone arrived on the 28th of April and it came with a 2GB SD card. This being the first Android phone I have ever touched, I was excited. I love getting my hands on some new tech (new for me at least). I flipped through the instruction pamphlet and starting charging the phone. The packaging was nothing special and it included a charger and USB cable as I am sure you all know. I installed the SD card and the battery. The phone itself had a decent weight and size to it and to me was very attractive. I liked it a lot better than my previous phones right off the bat.
Turn me on…
I turned the phone on and waited for the boot up and was introduced to a nice setup process. HTC walked me through setting up the activation, my email accounts, importing my contacts, setting up facebook and other such settings like Wi-Fi. It was almost a month ago, so I cannot remember all that was involved in the setup. I do remember that after I was done with setup, I was ready to go.
What to do first?...
Now that I had this seemingly foreign piece of equipment in my hand, I had to figure out what would be my first task. I set ringtones and wallpapers, checked texts and figured out how to send and receive them. I fired off a text to myself and boom; just like that my text came through. I did it. No problem. Simple. The virtual keyboard worked fine and the letters were spaced out enough in landscape mode that I was not making many mistakes. Spell check and predictive text were on, so that was something new and a welcome addition. Next, I placed a call. On the bottom of the home screen it says ‘Phone’. I hit that and the keypad comes up with my contacts in the background. I easily placed a call and used speakerphone. The call went through and sounded perfect. ALL calls since then have sounded great. My bars here on Long Island, NY range anywhere from 1 bar to full and I have never had a dropped call and voice quality is perfect.
Let’s check out the screen clarity and touch sensitivity…
I had to check out the screen quality. I brought up some preloaded pictures. They looked outstanding on the 3.7” 480x800 WVGA AMOLED Touch screen. Nice. No more small screen of the LG’s I had. Then I had to see how good the touch and swipe worked. I have to tell you, I think it works great. I have an IPod Touch and I always loved the way that scrolled. The Incredible scrolls just as nice if not better in my opinion.
So far, so good…
As you can probably tell, I was impressed with the Incredible right off the bat. No buyers remorse. The hockey skates can wait.
Did I just get an email on my phone?...
A few minutes into using , playing with and setting up my Incredible an email comes through. Wow, I thought. Email on my phone. I opened it easily and read the mail. Junk. But MY junk. Email on my phone. Nice. Now I know you blackberry and smart phone users of days before are saying “big deal”, but to me, this is exactly what I was looking for. A Verizon device that can make calls, text, send/receive email, have a good camera, have a usable web browser and I can use as a navigation tool. It had it all, baby.
Let’s try out that camera…
The phone has an 8MP camera with dual LED flashes. I haven’t taken many pictures in the first month, but the ones I have taken have come out very nice.
Going somewhere?...
As for the navigation…I was able to use the voice driven turn by turn navigation the other day to find my sister in laws friends house to borrow a tile saw. I pulled up the maps widget, hit menu and there was ‘directions’. I typed in the address and it took me right to the tile saw. The GPS signal locks right on in a matter of seconds. When I got home I put my TomTom Go720 on Ebay. Sold.
The web…
Getting on the internet is a snap a pages look great in both landscape and portrait modes. Pages load quickly and double tap to zoom work as advertised. Scrolling also seems fast I guess thanks to the 1 GHz Snapdragon processor. I don’t find myself going on the web as much as I thought I would. I have download a bunch of apps from the market that take the place of a lot of things I would do on a website. Things like weather, sports scores, you tube I access through widgets. When I do need to use the web it works great.
As for the market…
I think I have only begun to scratch the surface of the market. Each day I find something new to download, whether it be ringtones, wallpapers, games, fitness training programs, etc the market seems to have it.
VOICE your thoughts…
One cool thing I do like is the ability to use voice to text. I compose text messages and do searches this way. I really do like this and takes some getting used to. If you talk slow and clear results are good.
Let’s put this review to bed…
As I said, this is the first time I have reviewed something, so if I missed something or if you have a question, ask away.
I did buy the Seidio 1750 extended battery about 2 weeks ago and I have noticed greatly increased battery life with this new battery. If there was any knock on this phone I would have to say it the stock battery. I do realize though that I play games, listen to music surf the web, use apps, take pictures and video, send and receive emails and texts, use the maps and navigation and use it as a phone. So for such a small battery, I can’t complain.
I haven’t bought a case or screen protector for it and it still looks great for a month’s use. I have had a few short distance drops so far, but no damage has occurred.
As far as accessories are concerned. I would eventually like to get a tight fitting black silicone case, a desktop charging cradle and the car dock for when I use the navigation.
As to what I think can make this phone better…A larger screen. I do love the 3.7” and it looks great, but a 4.3” would be perfect. I think that fits the bill for usability and portability.
I will say this…I have already gotten one of my friends to get an Incredible. I have not been able to put the phone down in a month. It is one of the best pieces of tech I have ever used. It does It all and it does it well and it fits in my pocket. I use it as a music player, a stopwatch, an alarm clock and I just used it as a level to make sure my tub in my bathroom was level. Granted, I have never used an IPhone or the Moto Droid or any Blackberry, but if they are better than this Incredible phone ( lol ), I would like to try it for a few days.
I am a fanboy of none and I have no allegiance towards any particular product or company, but HTC and the Incredible have won me over. Great job!
Now I have to go order my skates.
First a little background…
I have been with Verizon for over 10 years now. I have always upgraded my phones every year to year and a half. My last phones were the LG EnV, then the Samsung Omnia and my last phone was the LG EnV Touch. I loved the EnV. Great, small compact phone and it had a keyboard for the first time in my phone use history. Then I got the Omnia and I returned that after 2 weeks. I hated the virtual keyboard. I made too many mistakes typing so that went right back and I got the EnV touch in its place. The touch I had for about a year. I had to pay the $10.00 per month data plan. I LOVED this phone. It was a little thicker than I wanted, but everything else was perfect, or at least I thought it was…until…
The HTC Incredible…
I knew that I was paying $10 a month for a data plan for my EnV Touch basically to send text messages and use it as a music player in the gym. I figured for another few dollars I could get a smart phone and get a lot more features. I started to do some research on smart phones and I saw the Moto Droid. Great reviews and built like a tank, but I really didn’t want the physical keyboard anymore. That same day I saw that Verizon had started pre-orders for the HTC Incredible. I figured why not. I placed my pre-order and the total was around $222.00 with free overnight shipping. Now for the wait. I also needed a way to explain to the wife that I spent $222 on a phone plus $30.00 a month extra for a data plan when we are looking to redo our bathroom and our kitchen and our hardwood floors. I also need new hockey skates. Oh well, think how much better this new phone will make our lives!!
The wait is over…
The phone arrived on the 28th of April and it came with a 2GB SD card. This being the first Android phone I have ever touched, I was excited. I love getting my hands on some new tech (new for me at least). I flipped through the instruction pamphlet and starting charging the phone. The packaging was nothing special and it included a charger and USB cable as I am sure you all know. I installed the SD card and the battery. The phone itself had a decent weight and size to it and to me was very attractive. I liked it a lot better than my previous phones right off the bat.
Turn me on…
I turned the phone on and waited for the boot up and was introduced to a nice setup process. HTC walked me through setting up the activation, my email accounts, importing my contacts, setting up facebook and other such settings like Wi-Fi. It was almost a month ago, so I cannot remember all that was involved in the setup. I do remember that after I was done with setup, I was ready to go.
What to do first?...
Now that I had this seemingly foreign piece of equipment in my hand, I had to figure out what would be my first task. I set ringtones and wallpapers, checked texts and figured out how to send and receive them. I fired off a text to myself and boom; just like that my text came through. I did it. No problem. Simple. The virtual keyboard worked fine and the letters were spaced out enough in landscape mode that I was not making many mistakes. Spell check and predictive text were on, so that was something new and a welcome addition. Next, I placed a call. On the bottom of the home screen it says ‘Phone’. I hit that and the keypad comes up with my contacts in the background. I easily placed a call and used speakerphone. The call went through and sounded perfect. ALL calls since then have sounded great. My bars here on Long Island, NY range anywhere from 1 bar to full and I have never had a dropped call and voice quality is perfect.
Let’s check out the screen clarity and touch sensitivity…
I had to check out the screen quality. I brought up some preloaded pictures. They looked outstanding on the 3.7” 480x800 WVGA AMOLED Touch screen. Nice. No more small screen of the LG’s I had. Then I had to see how good the touch and swipe worked. I have to tell you, I think it works great. I have an IPod Touch and I always loved the way that scrolled. The Incredible scrolls just as nice if not better in my opinion.
So far, so good…
As you can probably tell, I was impressed with the Incredible right off the bat. No buyers remorse. The hockey skates can wait.
Did I just get an email on my phone?...
A few minutes into using , playing with and setting up my Incredible an email comes through. Wow, I thought. Email on my phone. I opened it easily and read the mail. Junk. But MY junk. Email on my phone. Nice. Now I know you blackberry and smart phone users of days before are saying “big deal”, but to me, this is exactly what I was looking for. A Verizon device that can make calls, text, send/receive email, have a good camera, have a usable web browser and I can use as a navigation tool. It had it all, baby.
Let’s try out that camera…
The phone has an 8MP camera with dual LED flashes. I haven’t taken many pictures in the first month, but the ones I have taken have come out very nice.
Going somewhere?...
As for the navigation…I was able to use the voice driven turn by turn navigation the other day to find my sister in laws friends house to borrow a tile saw. I pulled up the maps widget, hit menu and there was ‘directions’. I typed in the address and it took me right to the tile saw. The GPS signal locks right on in a matter of seconds. When I got home I put my TomTom Go720 on Ebay. Sold.
The web…
Getting on the internet is a snap a pages look great in both landscape and portrait modes. Pages load quickly and double tap to zoom work as advertised. Scrolling also seems fast I guess thanks to the 1 GHz Snapdragon processor. I don’t find myself going on the web as much as I thought I would. I have download a bunch of apps from the market that take the place of a lot of things I would do on a website. Things like weather, sports scores, you tube I access through widgets. When I do need to use the web it works great.
As for the market…
I think I have only begun to scratch the surface of the market. Each day I find something new to download, whether it be ringtones, wallpapers, games, fitness training programs, etc the market seems to have it.
VOICE your thoughts…
One cool thing I do like is the ability to use voice to text. I compose text messages and do searches this way. I really do like this and takes some getting used to. If you talk slow and clear results are good.
Let’s put this review to bed…
As I said, this is the first time I have reviewed something, so if I missed something or if you have a question, ask away.
I did buy the Seidio 1750 extended battery about 2 weeks ago and I have noticed greatly increased battery life with this new battery. If there was any knock on this phone I would have to say it the stock battery. I do realize though that I play games, listen to music surf the web, use apps, take pictures and video, send and receive emails and texts, use the maps and navigation and use it as a phone. So for such a small battery, I can’t complain.
I haven’t bought a case or screen protector for it and it still looks great for a month’s use. I have had a few short distance drops so far, but no damage has occurred.
As far as accessories are concerned. I would eventually like to get a tight fitting black silicone case, a desktop charging cradle and the car dock for when I use the navigation.
As to what I think can make this phone better…A larger screen. I do love the 3.7” and it looks great, but a 4.3” would be perfect. I think that fits the bill for usability and portability.
I will say this…I have already gotten one of my friends to get an Incredible. I have not been able to put the phone down in a month. It is one of the best pieces of tech I have ever used. It does It all and it does it well and it fits in my pocket. I use it as a music player, a stopwatch, an alarm clock and I just used it as a level to make sure my tub in my bathroom was level. Granted, I have never used an IPhone or the Moto Droid or any Blackberry, but if they are better than this Incredible phone ( lol ), I would like to try it for a few days.
I am a fanboy of none and I have no allegiance towards any particular product or company, but HTC and the Incredible have won me over. Great job!
Now I have to go order my skates.
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