Tuesday, May 11, 2010

The Dawn of an INCREDIBLE Era

I thought I had an iPhone killer with my Omnia i910, and while it was a device I loved, it definitely wasn’t for everybody.  There were a lot of “behind the scenes” adjustments that had to be made to get it to teh awesome that put it head and shoulders above the iPhone.  (stellar battery life once your power settings were adjusted, copy/paste, tabbed browsing, video, 5MP camera with features that put most point ‘n’ shoots to shame, acting as a wi-fi hub before anyone other device was doing that, external storage, s-video out, etc., etc.)  However, there were other things: it doesn’t have a headphone jack (are you freaking kidding me? you have to use an adapter just to plug in headphones?!), it doesn’t have pinch to zoom, etc.

htc-incredible-h4-web[1] Enter the DROID Incredible.  Seriously.  The iPhone is dead.  This thing blows the doors off the entire game.  I mean, a processor that’s faster and more powerful than whatever you’ve got in your netbook?  An 8MP camera (that actually opens and shoots pics relatively quickly)?  All running on Android 2.1 (which finally puts non-Apple smart phones into the same arena with the iPhone for non-“power” users).

 

I’ll likely keep adding to this post for a while, so keep checking back for the ongoing saga of my new Droid Incredible.

Things I like:

  • The form factor.  I can’t stand the “roundiness” of the Palm Pre and the Nexus One.  I LOVED the shape and size of my Omnia, and the Incredible is pretty similar.  Simple.  Thin.  Good size.  Feels great in your hand.
  • The screen is beautiful and unbelievably responsive.
  • The sound is stellar (both headphones and speaker)
  • The messaging/contact aggregation is wonderful.  I can actually view all my communication with a single person in one place… e-mail, texts, even voice mails.
  • Internet browsing is fast and actually works.  And finally having pinch-to-zoom is great.
  • Voice search everything: people, businesses, locations, etc.
  • Guilty pleasure: I secretly love being able to “speak to text.”  I looked at the Motorola Droid before I go the incredible, because I was really interested in the dedicated keyboard.  While I actually did like it (I don’t know what everyone is complaining about), it wasn’t enough to push me over the top.  And though I’m not wild about a virtual keyboard, the Incredible’s word recognition is stellar, and like I said… I can actually just speak and the voice recognition software will translate my words to text.  I love it!

DROID Incredible short-comings (most of which can be solved with software):

  • [updated 5-17-10]  There is no back up or sync service (I can’t believe this; shame on you Android/HTC).  There’s a program called The Missing Sync, but support for Moto Droid is still in beta and it doesn’t seem to support the Incredible yet.
  • [updated 5-17-10]  When you plug the device in to your computer, it will mount the SD card, but rarely automatically mounts the phone memory.  In order to mount both directories, you have to select “let me choose every time” for the phone’s default settings for when you plug the phone into your computer.
  • Can’t directly sync with Windows Live contacts (you have to export a CSV file and import it to your Google contacts)
  • Doesn’t read .asx or .xml (WMP and iTunes) media playlists; you have to convert your playlists to .m3u
  • Even after adjusting settings, the battery performance isn’t anywhere near what my Omnia could do (with regular use the Incredible might last the day, my Omnia could go a couple of days with regular use)
  • For some reason, my Droid isn’t linking to my Facebook contacts.  The Facebook widget is working and I’m logged in, but when I try and select a Facebook contact photo, the phone tells me that my friends don’t exist. (Are they really just in my head?  This could be a bigger problem than I first thought.)
  • Taking a photo isn’t as comfy as it should be.  The placement of the volume rocker (right where your thumb would squeeze to grip when using the camera) and the fact that the camera button is the joystick (difficult to push a button on the face without moving the camera enough to cause blur) can make taking a photo really tricky.  I really hope they at least add a “soft” camera shutter button in new software updates.***

    ***Upon further use, I find that taking a photo one-handed is nearly impossible.  I don’t think anyone tried to actually use the camera when this phone was in R&D.  It’s great on paper, but the usability is seriously lacking.

2 comments:

Parker S said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Parker S said...

I went from the Samsung I910 to a Droid incredible too haha love the Droid. Was getting really technical w Samsung n its WiFi tether plus it burning a hole in my pocket. Droid had all of it user friendly in apps. Also went from windows to Apple (before sum one stole it and my ipod touch) so much better. Droid4life