Anybody else disappointed?

[KayIslandDrunk]

When I pre- ordered the original dinc back in 2010 there was nothing on Verizon that could compare to it. After all that's what made it, well, incredible.

Now, back in October I decided to take the plunge into 4G world and upgraded to a RAZR. When I heard of a new incredible I thought that maybe I would bite the bullet and upgrade again. Now, there's nothing wrong with the RAZR but it is getting close to that 9 month mark, which we all know is ancient in the smart phone world.

So imagine my surprise when, with the exception of ICS, the new dinc matches my old phone almost spec for spec! There's nothing really incredible about that!

 

[t35rk]

You're ancient and my ancient differ a little. I'm still on the original Incredible and consider it an awesome device with none of the "new" devices out on Verizon worthy of my upgrade.

I'll probably upgrade to the Incredible 4G (if it's not $299), and am looking forward to the S4 chip. I wouldn't even look the Razr's way.

 

[KayIslandDrunk]

It better not be $299. That's a lot of money for hardware that was considered top of the line almost a year ago.

 

[t35rk]

The Snapdragon S4 CPU will have no equal in the store. It's not last year's tech. That said, $149 sounds about right.

 

[jntdroid]

edit: during my lengthy essay, I see I've been somewhat ninja'd!

Man people are so misinformed - and this is nothing against you Kay - I'm seeing this all over the place...

Truth: The screen is not an upgrade - and not "HD" like the Rezound or Gnex. But it's the smallest screen to come out in awhile, so QHD should still look extremely nice. I don't know if the human eye could tell the difference between HD and qHD on a 4" screen honestly.

Truth: The phone is small - at least relative to other LTE devices. My personal opinion is... FINALLY. But others' opinions will differ.

Truth: On paper, it doesn't read any better... similar RAM, similar clock speeds, similar camera, etc. This is where people are missing one big difference... the S4 chip.

The S4 chip will run significantly better than any Tegra, OMAP, or S3 chip out there right now. First off, it's a newer, more efficient, more optimized chip in general - so 1.2 ghz on it will simply run better than similar specs on a previous chip, if not better than even "better" specs on previous chips. The camera and camera software will run better on the S4 chip, even though it's the same MP's as most phones out there now - and HTC phones already take excellent pictures, arguably the best on the market. The system itself was built with the S4 chip in mind, so ICS should run awesome on the phone.

But here's one of the biggest "perks" of the S4 - LTE. The S4 is the first chipset that will handle LTE and 3G in a relatively efficient manner - as opposed to all previous devices to date where Verizon had no choice but to use the clunky methods they were to handle 3G/4G. This should translate to better battery life (especially with the biggest battery in an HTC device to date) and a more efficient (and stronger) data connection (especially in fringe areas where lots of 3G/4G handoffs occur).

The Incredible line has never been about having the most souped up, tricked out phone, but about having a solid, sleek, efficient, and reliable device. The Inc2 is still one of my favorite 3G phones of all time. If this one follows in its footsteps, then more power to it. The Inc 4G will be the first Verizon phone with the S4 chipset, and while I understand them not marketing that to the average consumer, it's going to be a significant bump in the LTE experience overall, and bring it more in line with the reliability and stability of the 3G phones still left out there.

 

[KayIslandDrunk]

Only one gig of ram and a non-HD screen is definitely old tech. Yeah, the proc is nice but I was expecting something incredible. Especially if its going to continue to carry the Droid name.

 

[KayIslandDrunk]

I'll believe this S4 performance when I see it. Kind of reminds me of the old AMD Athalon vs Intel P4 war. Yeah, AMD blew Intel out of the water on benchmarks but in real world practice few could tell the difference.

I think screen resolution and RAM are the biggest questions. And yes, qHD will be huge when compared against 720p screens that are 9% larger. Have you ever seen a RAZR next to the rezound? The 720p rezound makes the RAZR look like an 8-bit video game.

 

[KayIslandDrunk]

Another question I had was about the single flash. That was probably the biggest thing I missed when I retired my dinc. Every other phone I've had with a single flash couldn't quite light the room like my dinc could.

 

[t35rk]

Another question I had was about the single flash. That was probably the biggest thing I missed when I retired my dinc. Every other phone I've had with a single flash couldn't quite light the room like my dinc could.

I'm tellin ya, the original Dinc is a great phone.

The stock flashlight app was a wonderful thing and was something the Rezound didn't even include.

HD screens aren't everything. It is a big let down on the Rezound imo. I prefer the LCD screen on my Inc to it, and I've compared the two plenty.

 

[jntdroid]

Have you ever seen a RAZR next to the rezound? The 720p rezound makes the RAZR look like an 8-bit video game.

True, but that's a SAMOLED+ screen with a RGBG pentile subpixel layout - big difference... this will be SLCD like the Rezound, just a lower resolution - so it shouldn't look near as different as the Razr does vs. the Rezound... and again, being a smaller screen will help that, too.

And I'm with you - I hope the S4 lives up to the hype... the tech sure seems like it should... *fingers crossed*

 

[thebeeobee]

You can't make a 4 inch HD screen! You know how small everything would be!? It would make no sense!

Take your PC monitor and turn it up to max resolution...notice how all of the icons on your desktop and text get super tiny? THAT is the reason it isn't HD. That's all that HD refers to...pixels.

You guys that are whining about not having an HD screen are falling for some marketing mumbo jumbo and not really thinking about what it means.

 

[t35rk]

You can't make a 4 inch HD screen! You know how small everything would be!? It would make no sense!

Take your PC monitor and turn it up to max resolution...notice how all of the icons on your desktop and text get super tiny? THAT is the reason it isn't HD. That's all that HD refers to...pixels.

You guys that are whining about not having an HD screen are falling for some marketing mumbo jumbo and not really thinking about what it means.

I can watch say NBA highlights on the Rezound or Spectrum and can notice an obvious difference vs a non HD screen. I would think there would also be a positive difference on a 4" HD screen. Besides watching sports on a non hd screen I doubt I care. I want a nice screen that is much better than the Rezound's when viewing outside. The LG Lucid's 4" screen fits the bill. Hope this qhd does too.

 

[KayIslandDrunk]

You can't make a 4 inch HD screen! You know how small everything would be!? It would make no sense!

Take your PC monitor and turn it up to max resolution...notice how all of the icons on your desktop and text get super tiny? THAT is the reason it isn't HD. That's all that HD refers to...pixels.

You guys that are whining about not having an HD screen are falling for some marketing mumbo jumbo and not really thinking about what it means.

I disagree, just because the resolution is higher doesn't mean your icons have to be smaller. Icons do have the ability to change size you know.

Not to mention that the iPhone has a resolution of 960 x 640 on a 3.5" screen. You're telling me that you can't get 720p on a screen that's a half inch larger? Not to mention I don't hear too many iPhone kiddies screaming about icon size.

 

[jntdroid]

I can watch say NBA highlights on the Rezound or Spectrum and can notice an obvious difference vs a non HD screen. I would think there would also be a positive difference on a 4" HD screen. Besides watching sports on a non hd screen I doubt I care. I want a nice screen that is much better than the Rezound's when viewing outside. The LG Lucid's 4" screen fits the bill. Hope this qhd does too.

I'm afraid the reason you can't see it outside is the fact that it's SLCD, not the resolution or size - so that likely won't change with the Inc 4G.

 

[t35rk]

I'm afraid the reason you can't see it outside is the fact that it's SLCD, not the resolution or size - so that likely won't change with the Inc 4G.

The screen on the Rezound also doesn't get that bright. It's a wait and see on any new screen.