DroidI Impressions From Moto Droid Owners

[Mercutio]

I spent a good bit of time playing around with the Incredible today in a Verizon store, here are some of my first thoughts:

The changed soft buttons took me literally two minutes to adjust to. No problem at all. SenseUI is a nice change, but aesthetically, my Droid has been running a Sense-esque dark bar for ages now.

The Incredible screen looks very bright, though I feel like pixelation is slightly more evident on the Incredible than Droid. This may be caused solely by lower brightness settings on my Droid though. I didn't take enough time to compare this aspect.

One annoyance with the Incredible is that it doesn't lay flat. It has this wonderful coating that would keep it from sliding around on hard surfaces, but the camera lens protrudes from the top of the phone. I am quite confident that the Incredible would slide around on a car dash. In simple push tests, the Incredible slid startlingly more than the Droid.

The Incredible feels great in the hand. It is plasticky, but this didn't bother me much at all. The black paint of the Droid chips quite a bit, and I suspect that the Incredible's black plastic will be less susceptible to this.

As we all know, the Incredible is extremely fast. I was impressed, and I expected a lot. For reference, my Droid is rooted and variously clocked between 800mhz and 1.2ghz. The Incredible blows my Droid away in usability. All camera functions are completely smooth, everything is completely smooth. Bravo HTC.

Speaking of the camera, it's photos were fantastic. And quick.

I'm still debating whether or not to make the switch. I'll almost certainly end up getting it one way or the other. The biggest problem for me is the lack of free wireless tether (root), but hopefully this will be rectified in the near future.

 

[kwatch]

What are you going to do with the Droid if you switch?

 

[NeutronBomb]

Probably sell it on Craigslist for $300 like everyone else lol.

 

[cheapdroids]

I had a Droid and now have the Incredible. So far I am liking it a lot more. It is much faster. Swiping, typing, etc all seem to be much faster. Typing used to lag when I typed fast, the Incredible keeps up just fine. The keyboard is much nicer as well. I don't seem to mistype as much as I did.

 

[Mercutio]

What are you going to do with the Droid if you switch?

Give it to a family member.

I had a Droid and now have the Incredible. So far I am liking it a lot more. It is much faster. Swiping, typing, etc all seem to be much faster. Typing used to lag when I typed fast, the Incredible keeps up just fine. The keyboard is much nicer as well. I don't seem to mistype as much as I did.

It's really surprising how quick the Snapdragon flies. I'm sure that the extra RAM helps quite a bit as well.

 

[BzB]

received my inc today...for a stock phone the incredible is more polished than my rooted and customized droid. sense ui does a good job and you hardly realize it's even there, not an intrusive os overlay at all. it's fast all the time. although my droid is at 1 ghz, sometimes it seems like it would need just a split second to ramp up. the incredible is always ramped up lol. since its only been a few hours and i haven't even tried the camera yet I'm still taking it in. but here's more of my limited feedback..

things i really like so far...
- the htc keyboard. better than any virtual keyboard replacement for the droid. prediction engine is very good.
- the htc email client is more polished and more functional than the standard 2.1 email client. Just plain better all around. good enough that touchdown isn't needed on the incredible.
- screen is sharp as the droid's, but slightly more vivid. viewing in sunlight doesn't seem to be anymore of an issue than it was on my droid.
- the optical trackpad actually is useful. when typing something on the virtual keyboard and you need to navigate to a specific letter or space, the optical track pad is very convenient for those scrolling maneuvers.

things i'm keeping an eye on...
- marketplace shows most of the same apps that showed on my droid, but not all. for example google earth isn't available yet.
- signal strength meter. i'm not staring at it, but i have noticed the signal strength doesn't seem to be as strong in the same areas as my droid. Haven't noticed it causing any call or data issues though...yet.
- the touch grid on the glass is more visible than on the droid. not a huge thing, but noticeable.
- battery life. not enough use to gauge yet.


oh yeah about build quality, the phone is light but it feels sturdy. also has an ergonomic fit to the hand. with a good slim case this phone will have a very nice feel and weight to it.

More observations to come...

 

[silentbob343]

Keep'em coming. I'll probably switch when I can get screen protectors and a case.

 

[Mercutio]

- the touch grid on the glass is more visible than on the droid. not a huge thing, but noticeable.

What is then touch grid?

 

[QuePaso]

Ive had my incredible for about 36+ hours now, and i had a Moto Droid for 29 days, rooted with BB 0.9 @ 800-1ghz.

Incredible is....

MUCH faster, everything is snappier by quite a bit. I have lots of apps running, press home and fire up anything, it just comes up quick. VERY impressive.

It is also a different feel from the Moto Droid.. The moto felt more industrial, more heavy, more techy.. Im into that style more, but most people who saw my phone told me it was ugly, and i could see why.. The incredible tho, ive gotten nothing but compliments.. It is a sexy device and i like the coating in the back. Its a rubbery style coating and it feels nice and solid. It is a different feel from the droid for sure.

The touch screen is absolutely amazing on the Incredible. BLOWS AWAY the droid. Its basically as good as a iphone in touch screen quality.

The camera is simply amazing, sometimes the first pic you take ends up blurry, but just snap another one real quick and its razor sharp. Maybe its me not being steady, i dont know, but when it works right, the results are just fantastic. Droid camera is a joke in comparison.

I dont miss the physical keyboard at all. Once i got swype on my Droid i never used the keyboard again, and its the same with this Incredible. I downloaded some version of Swype made for a droid and installed it, it works fine although comes up with error messages about the resolution being wrong. Once you have swype, you have the future of keyboards already, no need for anything else, especially with such a responsive touch screen.

I dont like the HTC Sense stuff. To me, its all fluff. I like the old style of keeping things simple, although the weather widget is rather awesome, when you put the phone on from a unlocked state, the whole screen does what the weather is, like cloudy, sunny, etc. Again tho, to me its all battery draining fluff.

Battery life seems way better then the Moto droid for me. I had to charge my droid EVERY night even with just medium usage, i charged the Incredible for an few hours when i first got it and it just went to low battery about an hour ago, and this is with hours of talking on the phone, browsing, bluetooth usage and lots more. Very impressed, yet again.

Basically, when it comes down to it, the only reason to keep your Moto Droid is if you arent capable of doing a 30 day return on it. Otherwise, this is the phone to have. I know in 1-2 years, there will be phones that make this one look like it belongs in toys r us, but it responsiveness is just astounding and it works well.

It surely is Incredible.

p.s. - Want root back lol.

 

[hookbill]

Knock an Incredible off a desk on to a hard floor and how well does that plastic hold up against a metal Droid?

If you have insurance of course, this question is not pertinent.

 

[NeutronBomb]

The incredible will probably do just fine falling off a desk compared to the Droid. its very light so it won't hit with much force. the Droid is very heavy and will hit a lot harder.

 

[BzB]

- the touch grid on the glass is more visible than on the droid. not a huge thing, but noticeable.

What is then touch grid?

there is a grid of dots (sensors) embedded in the screen that detect touch points. you can only see it when the screen is not on, but on the droid it's not visible on or off.

Knock an Incredible off a desk on to a hard floor and how well does that plastic hold up against a metal Droid?

If you have insurance of course, this question is not pertinent.

in terms of whether it will fall apart or not, the incredible would fair just fine. it doesn't feel flimsy. the bezel might get dinged or scratched but the same would happen with any phone that hit the floor.

as most people have or will get a case on their phone anyway worry about damage isn't an issue.

 

[garment69]

I am very impressed with the incredible. I loved the droid but I hated the keyboard and the weight. The INC is simply blazing fast, very light and pocketable and sense it a nice bonus. this relationship could be for the long haul.

 

[jasonb]

i just picked up my HTC Incredible from my local best buy. they price matched VZW's website and did it for $529. i am coming from a rooted and 1ghz overclocked Droid. the incredible is NIIIICE! it's just as fast if not faster than my Droid, but is definitely smoother. so far i really like it.

 

[kwatch]

What are you going to do with the Droid if you switch?

Give it to a family member.

I had a Droid and now have the Incredible. So far I am liking it a lot more. It is much faster. Swiping, typing, etc all seem to be much faster. Typing used to lag when I typed fast, the Incredible keeps up just fine. The keyboard is much nicer as well. I don't seem to mistype as much as I did.

It's really surprising how quick the Snapdragon flies. I'm sure that the extra RAM helps quite a bit as well.

Did you pay full price for it?