When I decided to switch from T-Mobile to Verizon for my mobile wireless provider, I purchased the Droid Incredible 2 by HTC. There were a bunch of great new Android models to choose from, including:
- Samsung Droid Charge (4G)
- HTC Thunderbolt (4G)
- LG Revolution (4G)
- HTC Incredible 2
- Motorola Droid X2
- Samsung Fascinate
- Motorola Droid 2
- Sony Ericsson Xperia Play
After doing some research and assessing the pros and cons, it seemed like the Incredible 2 (Dinc2) was the best choice based on these strong points:
- Free with 2 year contract (0.01 actually)
- Above average battery life
- Successor to the Incredible 1 which was highly rated
- Good custom ROM support (prediction for future)
I was able to ignore these weak points:
- No 4G LTE
- No physical camera button
- Single core CPU
Quick Specs:
- 1 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon MSM8255 CPU
- Adreno 205 GPU
- 768 MB RAM
- 1.1 GB Internal Storage
- 16 GB MicroSD card (14.5 GB usable)
- 1450 mAh battery
- 4″ S-LCD Screen (480×800)
- 8/1.3 MP Back/Front camera
- Android 2.2
After using it for a few days I am very pleased. Coming from a Nexus One which was limited to 192 MB internal storage for apps, I’m now free to explore and use more apps and games with the 1.1 GB storage. This is actually still lower than many other current generation phones, but plenty when you consider that many, if not all, apps can be moved to the expandable SD card. For that, the Dinc2 comes with a 16 GB microSD.
The battery life has been amazing after an initial full drain/full charge break in period. Yesterday I had the phone running unplugged for 25 hours from 100% down to about 5%. Today it’s been 13 hours with heavier usage and is still at 25%.
The 1 GHz modern day snapdragon CPU combined with the 768 MB RAM means you won’t have any slow down running the latest applications or navigating the system and web, although this has not really been a problem since the early days of Android phones.
A sleek physical feature is the “rubberized” back side, which provides just the right amount of friction to safely handle while refraining from clinging to your pocket.
While not a fully ‘stock’ Android OS configuration, the extra crap apps that Verizon puts on the phone (game trials, v-cast stuff) don’t get in your way as long as you never launch them. And being HTC you get the Sense UI which comes in handy sometimes, but if you install a custom ROM like Cyanogenmod (not available yet) you might not miss it that much.
If you’re looking for a great everyday phone with above average battery life, a beautiful form factor, and don’t need 4G, let this be the phone for you. At time of writing it can be had for $0.01 with a 2-year contract at Amazon Wireless.
July 8, 2011 Update I’ve been using the phone for over a week now and I am still very pleased with it. I don’t think there is a better phone out there, especially if you can get this one for $0.00. And with custom ROMs just around the corner, we’ll be customizing to our hearts desires!
